Golgotha Run

I loved this series when Games Workshop first published them in the late 80s. I'm very happy to see the old books updated and back in print and thrilled that new books are being written. Long live Dark Future! Also, to the person who asked if he need to play a video game to understand the story... No, you just need to be able to pay attention to the novel as you're reading it.

One of the things that Dave Stone does best is throw ideas at you, as fast as he can - one minute you're watching the activities of the newly sexless, immortal residents of Des Moines, the next you're watching some truly wonderful bizarre imagery of a Cthulhuesque dream. One problem, though, is that if you've read either The Medusa Seed or Wetworks, you've already read chunks of this book - there's a lot of sections in this book directly cut-and-pasted from those earlier works, which is disappointing. Stone also seems to have trouble creating an interesting plot to go with all of the "mad ideas" that he throws into these stories; the characters tend to be one-dimensional, the narratives are frequently fragmented, and you get the impression that Stone's more interested in showing you all of these neat ideas than in creating a story. At one point, he even has a character in the story describe the plot of Gologtha Run as a book he's reading, which is a bit of metafiction that's already been done by the Illuminati trilogy. It's not a bad book by any means, but it doesn't live up to the potential that I was hoping for. -Darren MacLennan

Having read and enjoyed the Dark Future novels the original time round (when they were published in the early 90s) I approached this new offering to the relaunched range with trepidation - would it be any good? Could it possibly hope to match the quality of Kim Newman/Jack Yeovil's writings? Thankfully any concerns I may have had were unfounded - Dave Stone is on top form, this is a fantastic book and excellent addition to the series! There's some really twisted imagery and ideas here - this is a definitely a Dark Future - but they're close enough to reality for disturbing parallels and analogies to be made. The storyline and characters were engaging and interesting and there are a number of hilarious moments if you like your black humour. Highly recommended! - 9/10

Eddie Kalish is just a country boy who left his life of working in a junkyard so he could see what else the world had to offer. His major problems begin when Eddie comes across a GenTech Corp road-train that has been hit by a gangcult. Looks like easy pickings until he finds what appears to be a nurse with a fatal gut wound. Even so, the nurse is worried about her "patient". Helping her changes Eddie life ... and not for the better. **** You have to pay attention with this Dark Future tale. If you like to have two or three books going at once, chances are good that you will find yourself wondering what is going on. You will become lost and need to reorient yourself with the story line. So put all other books on hold before opening this one. **** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.