Customer Reviews

Eden's Twilight (Deathlands)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been catching up on my james axler series as of late, and this one had some great stuff in it. After reading the outlanders shadow box book, this was way better than that one, but not nearly as great as the last 2 Deathlands books. It will be hard to beat the last 2 books of deathlands. Those were da bomb!

Although there was some really creative parts here the untouched ville just didnt jive with me at all. And at times the characters were not as consistent as they were in the last 2 books. Good, but not great. I dig the war wag stuff!

I'm a Gold Eagle, Mack Bolan fan, so I decided to give Deathlands a try with "Eden's Twilight".
This book was written by series author Nick Pollotta.

The first 250 pages are worth close to a 5 star review. They were paced well, entertaining, and the characters were engaging - especially Jak and Doc. There was some humor - or self-directed satire - but either way it was funny in parts. The descriptive writing was evocative enough, and the dialog was full of post-apocalyptic lingo that actually made the story more enjoyable for me. Best of all, he dribbles out pre-history, and slides in bits of explanation, so any newcomer to the series is not left in the dark. So Pollotta is capable of good action book writing.
Unfortunately, the last 60 pages are a complete mess. Too many characters, too many targets, sloppy overlapping storylines, unbelievable and confusing combats. Worst of all is the way the author handles the mysteries of Cascade, the last remaining predark town. Let's just say it's all very anti-climactic, and leave it at that.
3 stars, and that's probably a little too generous.

All of the Deathland books are great and a fun adventure junping from one desaster to another the team of seven all have something to offer and no matter what they save the day in this 100 years sfter the end of civilations.

The latest installment of Deathlands is penned by long-timer Nick Polatta.

From the lackluster few he's penned, Eden's Twilight is a step up, due to his returning to not only the war wag scenario that old-timer fans have been clamoring for, but also his past characters from his last great DL duology of Devil Riders and Bloodfire.

The the cover artwork is beautifully rendered with nice colors and a decent drawing of Krysty Wroth, but much too skinny. Original artist, Michael Herring drew her beautiful face and muscular body to perfection in Book #5. But seeing a full-shot of any character is a breath of fresh air, and this artist is much closer to Herring's great works.

But after the last 4 Deathlands novels being so very far superior in both storylines and deeper characterizations, and still keeping with the blazing action that fans expect, even it's sister series, Outlanders, is looking lacksadaisal in comparison.

And the last two Deathlands novels were so awesome, that fans' expectations of the next writer's work coming out better be something special. It's not.

Is it better than what Polatta's been doing in his last two books? Yes. Eden's Twilight is a definate return to what made Deathlands pretty popular back in the day - war wag wars the likes of Road Warrior!

Something that both writers Polatta and Alan Philipson have done extremely well in the past. Fans have been wanting to see a return of the Trader and the War wag Years for a long time now...and they sorta get it here.

Essentially, this story is about the last surviving town from skydark. This, along with its citizens, are the weak parts of the story. The main town characters are flat, and the idea of this town surviving aboveground from nukes and nuclear winter just didn't work for us. Also, the entire novel is not the same as the others, both in font usage and binding. We didn't like this new type of paper and font that Gold Eagle used here.

And since we already have the next book - Desolation Crossing - it is back to the original font and binding - thank God!

Overall, Polatta does a pretty good job, but the war wag battles near the end get redundant after a while, and there are way too many characters to keep up with, and most of them are not memorable, and belong to when the series went away from this years ago. Now it seems too late and overdone.

And from the looks and feel of the next book, Desolation Crossing, it seems like more wag wars are in the offing. Hopefully this one will be done with more panache.

This one reminds me of early Deathlands.It gives a glimpse of what it was like to ride with the Trader thru the Deathlands. I always put myself in the story when I read it that way I can see everything .Deathlands is a very bizarre place.

I've been purchaseing the DEathland, Outlanders & Star Trek Books for future reading. I have a large library of books to read. I'm currently reading a new Star Wars book.