Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland [Paperback]

Carlton Mellick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2009

Novel of the Year 2009, Wonderland Book Award Winner

Road Warrior Werewolves versus McDonaldland Mutants...post-apocalyptic fiction has never been quite like this.

They call themselves the Warriors, their enemies call them the Bitches. They are a gang of man-eating, motorcycle-riding, war-hungry werewolf women, and they are the rulers of the wasteland.

A century after the fall of civilization, only one city remains standing. It is a self-contained utopian society protected by a three-hundred-foot-high steel wall. The citizens of this city live safe, peaceful lives, completely ignorant to the savagery that takes place beyond the walls. They are content and happy, blindly following the rules of the fascist fast food corporation that acts as their government. But when Daniel Togg, a four-armed bootlegger from the dark side of town, is cast out of the walled city, he soon learns why the state of the outside world has been kept secret. The wasteland is a chaotic battleground filled with giant wolves, mutant men, and an army of furry biker women who are slowly transforming into animals. Trapped on the wrong side of a war zone, Daniel Togg makes new friends and new enemies, while uncovering the mysteries of the people living in the wasteland and how they came to be there.

Including 45 illustrations by the author, Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland is an epic bizarro tale of dehumanization, gender separation, consumption, and violent sexual awakenings. A fast-paced post-apocalyptic adventure in the vein of The Road Warrior, featuring a very unique werewolf mythology.

"Carlton Mellick III gets better with every book. Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland is his best one yet."

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"Easily the craziest, weirdest, strangest, funniest, most obscene writer in America."
- GOTHIC MAGAZINE

"Carlton Mellick III has the craziest book titles... and the kinkiest fans!"
- CHRISTOPHER MOORE, author of The Stupidest Angel

"If you haven't read Mellick you're not nearly perverse enough for the twenty first century."
- JACK KETCHUM, author of The Woman and The Girl Next Door

"Carlton Mellick III is one of bizarro fiction's most talented practitioners, a virtuoso of the surreal, science fictional tale."
- CORY DOCTOROW, author of Little Brother

"Bizarre, twisted, and emotionally raw--Carlton Mellick's fiction is the literary equivalent of putting your brain in a blender."
- BRIAN KEENE, author of The Rising and Dead Sea

"Carlton Mellick III exemplifies the intelligence and wit that lurks between its lurid covers. In a genre where crude titles are an art in themselves, Mellick is a true artist."
- THE GUARDIAN

"Just as Pop had Andy Warhol and Dada Tristan Tzara, the Bizarro movement has its very own P. T. Barnum-type practitioner. He's the mutton-chopped author of such books as Electric Jesus Corpse and The Menstruating Mall, the illustrator, editor, and instructor of all things Bizarro, and his name is Carlton Mellick III."
- DETAILS MAGAZINE

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Eraserhead Press (October 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933929928
• ISBN-13: 978-1933929927
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.6 x 5.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #456,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Like a real world Kilgore Trout, cult author CARLTON MELLICK III has been pumping out some of the weirdest, trashiest, most imaginative books that you'll never want to admit you secretly love.

His books are released on a quarterly basis (every January, April, July, and October).

Best known as one of the leading authors of the bizarro fiction movement in literature, he is also one of the most prolific authors of his generation with over 40 books in print since 2001. He won the Wonderland Book Award for his novel "Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland" and has had short stories make it into The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade.

Although many of his earliest works are on the surreal and experimental side, his current style is to take the most ridiculous concepts imaginable and approach them with complete sincerity, as if they are not intended to be ridiculous at all. Always full of tongue-in-cheek humor, social satire, and told in a simplistic straightforward prose style similar to that of children's literature or early pulp fiction, Carlton Mellick III's work is one of a kind, to say the least.

He lives in Portland, OR, the bizarro mecca.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a three hour bizarro summer blockbuster November 8, 2009

By Spock

Format:Paperback

Carlton Mellick III's longest novel in about ten years, The Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland is also one of Mellick's best. It features a diverse cast of characters, my favorites being Mayor McCheese, a samurai Hamburglar, Daniel Togg (the four-armed protagonist), and a complex society of wolf women who live by their own warrior code in the wasteland beyond the Blessed McDonaldland City. There are even forty-five illustrations of the characters interspersed throughout the book.

Despite all the crazy action, it's actually the characters and their relationships that made the book so compelling and fun to read. Daniel Togg is one of Mellick's most fully realized protagonists. Whether he's caught in an awkward social situation with his brother Guy (a Fry Guy, McDonaldland's equivalent of policemen) and Guy's spiteful half-wolf wife, giving instructions on making alcohol out of various McDonald's products, or caught in a power play of love between two wolf women, the reader feels right there with Daniel Togg. He's the perfect guide through this strange and unforgettable world.

Highly recommended for fans of bizarro fiction and also those just reading Mellick for the first time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars a howling good read! April 7, 2010

By D. Gorman "Crystalline Structure Moon"

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

mellick is an adept voice for the new counterculture. i'm becoming a fan! i was a bit hesitant with this book...i'm usually not big on post-apocalyptic fiction because it's reaching the 'been-there-done-that' stage in fiction. but mellick treats the subject with just the right sense of humor. he tells a good 'alternative werewolf' tale with a certain serious, respectable story, but still injects humor about the world in which we live. it's filled with war, violence, carnage, biker wolf babes, sex and love...all the things that make life worth living. it's about the only book i can name that is written in the first person by a character who spends an entire chapter inside a wolf's stomach (after being eaten), that is still an easy book to digest. mellick can tell a serious tale...yet he has a good sense of humor about our so-called civilization. mellick is intelligent, at times irreverent...sometimes pleasant...sometimes sick and gruesome. i wasn't sure how i was going to like this book, but i was really impressed. i like sick and gross as long as it is well-written, and mellick can deliver the goods. i'm becoming a mellick fan. if you like stories that are filled with war, violence, women who turn into wolves, carnage, sex and love...(and did i mention women who turn into wolves?)...then wolf this baby down. you'll be glad you did.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Apocalyptic Battle of the Sexes December 2, 2009

By David W Barbee

Format:Paperback

Carlton Mellick has made his writing career as one of the pillars of the bizarro community. To some, he's already a legend. But with his newest book, it's easy to see that Mellick is still evolving as a storyteller. It seems he's no longer content to put on a weird spectacle, so he's pushing himself into new territories. Warrior Wolf Women is one of his longest books, and strangely enough, it's not very genre-heavy. The post-apocalyptic "Road Warrior" theme isn't so prevalent in Warrior Wolf Women. This isn't a simple adventure of barbarism in a blighted future. In fact, almost half of the story takes place in McDonaldland, a mega-city walled off from the wastelands (similar to the world of Judge Dredd). The landscape of McDonaldland could've been its own book, but Mellick has different intentions for this story.

The main character, Daniel Togg, is exiled from the city to (presumably) die in the apocalyptic wild. Like I said earlier, what unfolds isn't your typical post-apocalyptic story. Warrior Wolf Women becomes a tale of a fierce battle of the sexes. In this world, women slowly evolve into gigantic wolves while the men tend to sprout extra limbs. Both are considered freaks in civilized society, and are thrown out of the city and into the wild. In the wastelands, the Wolf Women enslave the men, and the men have rallied to defend themselves. The two factions are at war with one another, and Mellick uses this setting to tell a romance between Daniel Togg and his childhood friend, November. The two are separated by the weird gender roles society has thrust upon them. They are trapped in a cycle, as the women kill the men to survive, and vice versa.

Some characters manage to break out of the prescribed roles of this world.... The characters of Krall and Slayer seem to have some sort of loving relationship, founded on the fact that they aren't your typical man or woman. They're society's exceptions to the rules, the ones who fall through the cracks. Because of this, they manage to create a real relationship when everyone else seems totally trapped by society's gender roles. And as Mellick peels back the layers of this social structure, we see just how weird and depraved this gender separation can be. When Daniel discovers the secret schemes of the war between male and female, it's absolutely stomach-churning.

Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland is a pretty good tale, and it might go down as one of Mellick's most thoughtful bizarro books. It was exciting, strange, violent, and sexual, but don't expect a simple action story in the vein of "Mad Max." There are plenty of crazy battles, but these scenes only serve a greater theme in the story. Despite the grittiness, this story has a lot of heart. Besides the theme of abusive gender roles, I thought Warrior Wolf Women was similar to "The Island of Dr. Moreau," a meditation on the animalism of humanity and the sort of atrocities we commit against one another. There's a lot going on for this book, and strangely enough, I haven't really spoiled anything for you. Make sure you read this one. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Warrior Women of Action! December 12, 2011

By Terrence Patrick Rooney

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland

Carlton Mellick

Just looking at the title of this book makes me want to read it, then when you add in the fantastic cover art it makes you very curious about how Carlton is going to pull this off with his usual style and vulgar hyper-violence. Well after reading this book you will have no doubts about his ability to do so.

This is one of those books where you look at it and you think all right I already know what is going to happen just looking at it.

You are wrong.

This book was in fact about a post-apoc world where McDonalds has taken over and everyone in the huge city of McDonaldLand works for them. That was odd enough right off the bat for you to seriously wonder how this was going to tie into the Warrior Wolf Women in question... trust me it does.

Very much so.

Daniel Togg, has a problem he works at McDonalds like everyone else but he has mutated, which is frowned upon to say the least. He is the main character of our story and he is truly well intentioned and honestly does what he believes, not what he believes others want him to do. Which if you are honest with yourself not alot of people can brag about at all.

Daniel has an older brother, Guy... Guy is a Fry Guy, the police of McDonaldland, he is also a complete dick. Well at first anyhow. He grows a bit as the story goes along and he realizes that his utterly black and white world is truly filled with the grey mists of obscurity and after a while he turns it around a tiny bit and almost redeems himself. At first however you truly wonder how long Carlton is going to let him live and you make bets with yourself as the book moves along about when he is going to die....

I liked this character very much, every book needs someone who you at first feel strongly opposed to but whom after a bit you grow to understand a bit better and realize he is honestly just a victim of his environment and of his own ego and isnt what he seemed at all.

Krall however is almost exactly what he seems, he is an agent for the research dept of McDonaldland and he has stumbled across the embarrassing truths that McDonalds doesnt want people to know about. So when his mutations are discovered he is booted out into the wasteland. This guy is a very cool character and his arc is odd to say the least. I did not expect a guy like this after alot of the other things that had happened leading up to this part but this just once more proves the old fact that you can try to guess where a story is going to go but with Carlton Mellick, you will be wrong.

I was wrong.

This character ended up so much different than I thought at first and I am very glad that he was in there because he explained a few things that I was wondering about as we went along as well.

Ah, Pippi...

One of the most selfish, vain, stupid, bigoted, awful people you will likely ever read about. Honestly from about ten seconds after we first meet this girl I wondered when she was going to die. I hoped she would die soon. But... she kept on living... I wanted her to die eventually so much that I got mad at her continued survival. In my mind you see she was clearly painted with the too-over-the-top-to-live brush... and yet she persistently kept on not dying. Also once more in the end you begin to understand that she isn't as over the top as you thought and you begin to understand that you were simply not thinking big enough, she is so much worse than you ever thought and yet finally at the very end you find out that without her this book would never ever have worked. Seriously I really liked this character, well at first I loved to hate her but right at the end she pulls off something that I would never have accepted until then that made me like her just enough for me to not be eternally pissed that she didnt die any of the 175,000 times I wished her dead throughout this book.

Then there is Nova. Nova is very misunderstood right from the beginning and you truly hope a few things will work out with her but Carlton sticks to his guns on this one and you eventually realize that he was right she has to be this way for this story to work. She is at first the love interest that Daniel has been pining for since he was a young man. However like most things in life it doesn't work out quite the way our hero thinks or even hopes it will. In the end I am sure that like me you will appreciate where he takes this character but there is a little bit in there where you wonder how this woman can be so cruel and distant yet have obvious regrets about it herself.

This book was an adventure and a very well wrought story it truly makes me want to sit down and write a huge story based on this world that popped into my head while reading it but sadly I don't know Carlton well enough to ever get the balls up to ask him. However someday I do hope to meet him so I can simply shake his hand and thank him for his many wonderful books and most especially this one.

Thank you Carlton, I loved it.

T. Patrick Rooney, Author of Bakemono...

[...] Read more ›