Customer Reviews

Back from Hell (Car Warriors)

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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...And if you are one of those who do "get" Mick Farren, then this is a terrific quick fix for you. Stylistically, it has a lot more in common with his early hard scifi than with his more recent stuff--akin to his early punk rock music, rather than more recent spoken word work. It's all great, in it's uniquely Farren-esque way, but if you're not a fan, don't bother. It's a lot like a transcription of a video game. Cool.

A fun book especially if one is into the Car Wars gaming environment. A fun book anyhow, written for anyone interested in cars or wargaming, but not neccessarily so.

Sure, he only wrote it for the money, but it's vintage Farren nonetheless. In fact, this book does to America what The Texts Of Festival did to England right at the outset of Mick's career; except with far better technology.  It's 2041 AD, and America is just staggering back to its feet after a period of bloody anarchy in which all but the major city-states such as LA and Las Vegas were overrun by the violent rule of outlaw gangs. Now on the wane, the outlaws hole up in desert towns to lick their wounds and engage in internecine strife, while the burger-brained masses inside the walled compounds are reintroduced to the joys of civilization by the new televisual bloodsport: Autoduel, motorised jousting with live ammo and no mercy shown. Except that Autoduel is getting too easy: the New York Times critic is outraged that, in the interests of preserving the lives of major Autoduel stars such as Val Paladin, the networks have toned down the violence and even started introducing sub-lethal munitions into the arena. Not bloody enough, deem the executives of Skynet, who seek to achieve the ultimate ratings coup by covertly arming to the hilt one of the few remaining outlaw gangs and inviting them to a showdown with the cossetted stars of Autoduel, to be televised live, of course. A done-while-the-author was-broke tie-in with the successful Car Wars role-playing game, it's no surprise that Back From Hell sometimes reads like a cross between Mad Max and Rollerball. Neither, however, should it be a surprise that this book contains plenty of dark satire on the media industry, a generalized if tacit discourse on the real versus the fake in art/life/entertainment, and a cast-list lifted from CBGB's circa 1977. Mick Farren couldn't write a straight cash-in if you put a gun to his head.

Mick's at it again - 'it' being the post-apocalypse scenario he is so fond of (the irrepressible, Byronesque anarchist in him?). An obviously commissioned novelization job (there is no better way to describe this - err, job) for the Car Wars role playing series, looks like Mick wrote this one purely to earn a wage. But nonetheless, a pleasing patishe, full of Mick-references (spot the names! Spot the characters which had previously peopled his other older works! Esp ''Text of Festival'' and parts of the DNA Cowboys' Quadrology involving raids on villages). Good clean (well, maybe not so clean!) fun at US$5. Read it and pass it onto your other Mick-loving friends. B-)
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