Pilgrimage To Hell

What can I say about Deathlands? While possibly the greatest example of literal pulp fiction, it does kind of grow on you after a while, and if you've not made the effort to (shock horror) listen to a few versions from the Graphic Audio range, then you've missed a treat.

I don't think the collection of authors writing under the James Axler house-name are ever expecting any type of awards, if you like your fiction to be something you can read around the pool (and not mind if it gets wet), or to listen to in the car or on a plane, then its for you.

It is even quite well thought out on occasion, though this depends on the particular author, and even given the multi-author writing, and often mini-series style publications, everything generally ties together and I've only ever had the odd WTF moment, ie ‘how the heck did they get there?' between adjoining titles.

Perhaps the most endearing quality is the almost secret language which has grown up around the series, for example ‘chill' instead of kill, and guns are ALWAYS ‘blasters' irrespective of the make - and while there is occasionally an excessive (Ahern-esque) fascination with the merits of different weapons - this is quite rare.

Better still - Deathlands it self spawned a spin-off series set yet another 100 years in the future, and somehow they've (just) managed to maintain continuity between the series.

If you want to take your mind off the hook occasionally - you can't go wrong in the Deathlands