Customer Reviews

Pantheon Of Vengeance (Outlanders)

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The new writer of this series has brought a fresh voice and renewed energy to an already well loved cast of characters.
Secondary characters were as well developed and interesting as the established ones and the story was fast paced and thought provoking.
I hope we see more of the pilots of New Olympus in future books.

A new and 4th author pens the latest Outlanders novel here, and we have mixed emotions about it.

The good part is that it is a fast-paced typical Outlanders adventure, chock-full of action and adventure that one expects in a novel. The adventure storyline here is somewhat bigger than usual, and has a somewhat different feeling to it, due in part to new Transformer-like robots and all the Greek mythology based names, place, monsters, and characters. The new author did a pretty good job at characterization, albeit staying within the strict confines that Ellis unfortunately sticks with.

Doug is obviously a Mark Ellis, so he sticks to the primary character sketches that Mark created,(which are from the blueprints of Deathlands characters.) Unlike the fantastic writings of Mel Odom and Victor Milan, who had taken the characters to new heights in developing their characters and their relationships, unfortunately Doug Wojtowitz sticks to the same old script there. The only thing now is that Kane and Brigid hold hands, and she gets jealous over Hera's come-on to Kane. But why is she jealous? Brigid hasn't even been given an Outlander decoder ring by Kane, even after 10 years worth of books! The stagnation of the characters continues.

The overall storyline was a good idea, but had some incredible leaps of faith for believability's sake at times. We had some issues with some of the broad action sequences. From the overwhelming numbers to the god-like powers of Hera, it seemed at times that Kane, Grant, Brigid, and Domi could have been a helluva lot more scared and nervous at being confronted by creatures with unlimited powers. Instead, the new author had them cracking lame jokes and such, thus making the threat less threatening to the reader. Big mistake.

But we have to hand it to this new author to Outlanders. He proved that we don't need mark Ellis penning the Outlanders novels. He is replacable. We prefer Mel odom and Victor Milan's action writing and their renditions of kane not turning down every hot babe, whetehr Good or Evil, that comes his way. (And why is it always Kane?) That's what we liked about Odom and Milan's work. Odom had Kane and Brigid finally showing their sexual feelings toward each other, and Milan's Kane actually took up a beautiful woman's offers. Wow, what a realistic concept! Also, insofar as action sequences go, Mel odom and Victor Milan were better at this.

Although this new author showed much promise, perhaps some action sequences were so big, due in part of the Transformer-type robots, it was hard to imagine what they looked like. Would probably come off much better on film. And the cartoonish, and somewhat crappy cover art doesn't give you a good rendition of what these metal bots and Hera look like. The new Outlanders cover artist just cannot fully capture the thing and character correctly since Satan's Seed.

We have to say that this new author at least did a solid job at the New Olypiad's characters. They were pretty interesting. Especially Hera. Her changing character was pretty slick, but she could have easily slayed the Cerberus warriors with all her immense powers that grew and grew. But his rendition of Marduk was way off. He didn't seem like he acted as he did in the past. It was his dialogue. Didn't sound like one of the snake-faced overlords. Too human. (And he would have given Grant a much harder time in a mano-a-mano battle.)

But, overall, for a first-timer to this series, this new author has proven that he can do the job. If he comes out with another, we hope he has the writing cojones to enhance and furhter the stagnating characters of Kane and Brigid. And where's Shizuka? The Cerberus warriors have an entire army and nation of New Edo to call upon, but they go to war in Greece where there are unlimited vat-grown Nephilim, an overlord and powerful skimmers, and other varmints are waiting for them in overwhelming numbers. Yeah, right.

Not a bad book. But with room for improvement.