Labyrinth

DESCRIPTION: IN THE ANCIENT CANYONS OF NEW MEXICO, THE CITIZENS OF LITTLE PUEBLO PREPARE TO SACRIFICE RYAN AND HIS COMPANIONS TO DEMONS LOCKED INSIDE A 20TH CCCENTURY DAM PROJECT. BUT IN A WORLD WHERE NUKE-SPAWNED PREDATORS FEED UPON WEAK AND STRONG ALIKE, RYAN KNOWS AVENGING ETERNAL SPIRITS AREN'T PART OF THE GAME. ESPECIALLY WHEN THESE FREAKS SPIT YELLOW ACID-AND THEIR CREATORS ARE THE WHITECOAT MASTERMINDS OF GENETIC RECOMBINATION, DESROYED BY THEIR MUTANT OFFSPRING BORN OF SIN AND SCIENCE GONE HORRIBLY WRONG....

Alan Philipson nails the old school DL ambiance one more time. We're talking ironic, sick, twisted, with a major dose of bleek. This is not your put on a smiley face kind of adventure book. Everything looks bad, gets worse, and somehow, someway the heroes escape with their lives and all their fingers and toes. I heard from a friend in publishing supposedly there's going to be a website for this author soon. OfficialAlanPhilipson. It's supposed to give away free newsletters with q and a from readers, and inside dope on his books and the writing business. Apparently, this guy published more than 120 books under a bunch of psuedonyms. When he was doing the SOBs series, Warren Murphy, author of the Destroyer series, said he was "simply the best and gutsiest action writer around today." Rumor in the industry is he ain't with us no more. Apparently he got shot dead while working graveyard shift in a convenience store in Nevada. Maybe GE is publishing DL books he already wrote posthumorously? BW

I very selectively read Deathlands, usually when I'm stuck in an airport or on a long plane flight. Nothing pumps one up for a meeting like a a good DL. I just finished reading "Labyrinth." It was a great read, and no one makes the in-bred characters in DL come alive and complete like Mr. Philipson. I loved the human engineered monsters which are far more believable than the host of genetic retards that inhabit DL. It's the difference between believing in the Loch Ness monster; even though science has shown that the fish population in Loch Ness is so low that for dinosaur Nessie to survive she must be on battery power, so many morons still believe the BS. I really liked the two "Dr. Strangelove" scientists who created these mutations. I wished that these two S & M geniuses had somehow escaped the facility, frozen themselves, or else had set up a bootleg body part renewal shop just so a future book would see them meet a more definite and unpleasant end. It's too bad that Mr. Philipson doesn't have a series of his own where there is control over the action and plot lines. When Mr. P writes everything clicks: characters, guns, science and action. I won't even bother buying a non-Philipson book. I have never used a barf bag on an airplane yet and I won't risk my record after having run acroos the scribblings of the hacks that also write for this series.

This entry into the Deathlands saga far surpasses the indigestible tripe served up by Andy Boot. This is by far and away the best DL novel in years. This book picks up the original, 1950's and 60's scifi themes of the series -- whatever evil that people can imagine, they will bring to life, and what can go wrong is bound to go wrong. There is solid characterization of the main players, interesting cannon fodder, a tension-filled plot, plenty of blood and guts, and a unique DL setting. Someone out there correct me, but isn't the Deathlands series all about the companions fighting monsters of both the norm and mutie varieties? Predator came from some other dimension, I think. Alien came from outer space. The critter in LABYRINTH is from predark earth, a human-built mutie. The only thing it has in common with Predator or Alien is it's big and scary. Is the point of the other reviewers that DL writers shouldn't be allowed to use big, scary monsters? Are "mushroom people" or "water beetle people" more politically correct? This book rates a solid 4.5 stars. Remembering the "quality" of the DL products that came before it, I'm rounding that up to a 5. If you don't think that's fair, sic the broccoli people on me.

I looked up the author of this book, Al Phillipson, on the MackBolan website. He's been writing action pulps for GE for 24 years. He's one of three current writers who've been there almost since the start of the company. From the SOBs to Executioners to DL, his series books always kick butt, some are true genre-elevating classics, and here's the sad part (boo-hoo)...more often than not, they scoot right over the heads of certain readers, you know the ones I mean. LABYRINTH is no exception. No way is any part of this book boring. It's 180 degrees opposite that. A well-crafted page turner. You know what's coming is going to be godawful, and you can't figure how the companions are going to get away. Maybe that isn't everyone's cup of tea, after all some folks need a gunfight every three pages or they lose interest, but "weak battle scenes"? Get real. This guy knows more about quality action writing, and has published more of it than almost everybody. Going by LABYRINTH, his game is still razor sharp.