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Strontium Swamp

A new warrior breed blazes a trail to an uncertain future

Author:
Andy Boot

First Edition

Release Date:
June, 2006

Cover Price:
$6.50

ISBN-10:
0-373-62584-7


Graphic Audio MP3 CD

Release Date:
August, 2006

Cover Price:
$19.99

ISBN-13:
978-1-599-50131-4


Graphic Audio MP3 Download

Release Date:
August, 2006

Cover Price:
$12.99


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Teaser:

In the bayous of what was once Louisiana, the eerie, lifeless silence of the swamps warn of trouble ahead. But nothing can prepare Ryan and his team for Dr. Jean, a madman who has harnessed pre-Dark tech to create an army of crazed zombies marching toward his own twisted vision of Deathlands domination.

Back Cover:

Eternal Fire

In their darkest moments, few citizens of the twentieth century could have envisioned the firestorm that plunged the world into the chaos of a nuke-altered reality. Twenty-second-century America may not be much worth fighting for, but Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists push on, clinging to the deep wellspring of human hope that somewhere in the raw, violent frontier of a rad-blasted tomorrow is someplace they can call home.

Shadow Monsters

Weary, sick and hungry, the group barely survives a trek through the torturous deserts of the Southwest which leads into the bayous of what was once Louisiana, a place one of their own first called home. The eerie, lifeless silence of the swamps warns of trouble ahead. But nothing can prepare them for Dr. Jean, a madman who has harnessed pre-Dark tech to create an army of crazed zombies marching toward his own twisted vision of Deathlands domination.

Welcome to the Deathlands, a place that welcomes no one.

Reviews:

1
Sigh.. Another stinker..
by Jodes

After a solid story in Labrynth, Andy Boot gives us another piece o sludge with the Deathlands name on it.

It starts of horribly and continues throughout.

Where to begin.. oh yes, let's start with Jubilee, the pregnant teenage girl at the end of Labyrinth. Now mind you, Ryan does say that she will join them until they can find a good family and leave her there, so i was expecting that to maybe take place in the next book.

No, nada, nothing. NO MENTION what so ever. She's not even WITH them when they awake from the jump at the beginning of the book! How about a wee bit of back story would that be to much to ask?

Strike 1.

The next sticking point I have is when they are fighting the swampies. How can Mildred get hit by a knock out dart, then less then a page later get up and try and take out the bad guys, when later on the &quot;leader&quot; tells them that the darts have a THREE HOUR knock out period? EDITING! Judas H Priest!

Strike 2.


The rest of the story just seems to plod along and a seems thrown together, like the author put it together with say 20 minutes left until the deadline. It's really hard to have it flow from beginning to end when it seems like you're pulling it out of your arse!

Some other observations..

Since when does Ryan say &quot;Frosty?&quot;

The &quot;baron&quot; supposedly knows Jak, but Jak doesn't know him.

There's a traitor in the &quot;resistance&quot;.

The Baron's &quot;Old Tech&quot; is a TV studio! ooooh scary!

The baron is a drug lord with a powerful hypnotic -yay.

The &quot;zombies&quot; under Jean's control go into withdrawals and go crazy - yawn.

Jak feels guilty about &quot;leaving&quot; his &quot;people&quot; again so he decides to stay. No worries though, after it's all said and done, he supposedly says that it really isn't his home and he's got to leave again. GROAN.

Strike 3.


There were a few things (and I'm really thinking hard here of what I liked)

At least the author remembered that the redoubt by West Llowellton was a desert. Of course he doesn't mention what happened to cause it to become a desert, but it's not totally catastrophic, it did devastate some of the swamps, but not all.

The story revolved around Jak, which hasn't happened for a while and he sort of gets the girl.

There was even a mention of Dean!

Seriously, I would rather re-read Black Harvest or the ramblings of what is Ritual Chill then this one!

I need a drink, and maybe sit down and plan out a Deathlands story that doesn't suck as much as this did!

 
1
Worst Piece of garbage in DL history.
by UrbanSavage
Unfortunatly thereis no .666 as a rating. I had to vent on this piece of trash Strontium Swamp. I have every book in DL and OL and this is by far the worst book ever in the history of both series. I consider myself a die hard fan and I'm telling you the only reason this book stays in my collection is for the sake of keeping it complete. Where to begin? Killer Dolphins!? Shocked At least I got a freakin laugh out of that one. What happened to Jubalee? I was hoping for a hook up with Dean later? Could that still be in the works when a more continuity conscious author takes the ball? Mildred getting darted twice and the author totally forgetting about doc? These people are smart enough and good enough trackers to corner Ryan et al AND dart them, but get wasted on a boat? Isn't that supposed to be their element? Neutral

The positives were ruined by what seemed like total lack of interest in developing the first part of the book....the mutie sharks....how cool is that? But the description in the book sure doesn't match the artwork on the cover worth crud. On the cover they look like Makos but in the book they're described as Whale Shark like with teeth.
I could go on but I've wasted enough print and time on this mess. I hope the editors read this forum cause like I've said, I have every book but they sure hell won't build many readers like me with this garbage. I'm unfortunately hooked and have a commitment to the collection but this pile of goo will NOT attract more collectors I'm sure. Unless its all a sick joke? But I'm not laughing.
 
1
Gold Eagle Take Note
by Spook
What happened to Continuity ????

At the end of the Labyrinth the team jumped with Ryan's new wife to a lush green area possibly Canada or Montana .

At the start of Strontium Swamp there is no mention of Ryan's new wife and the green lush landscape has been replaced by a flat desert.

If you're going to use a group of authors to write these books they should at least read the books being produced by the other authors.

Another annoyance is the repeated use of statements within the same paragraph i.e the purpose of the redoubt , was mentioned in two successive sentences.

All this from the first 18 pages .

It does not get any better.

At the end of the book their journey goes nowhere, they don't move on any where and they don't find a Redoubt, but in the next book their first appearance is in a Redoubt .

Please get some co-ordination between books and authors.

What a disappointment.
 
1
They're going to need new boots soon
by Agent_Thrush
Like the characters in the book, this book pretty much wandered around aimlessly for a good chunk of the time. I realize they have to walk places to get anywhere, but they seemed to spend a heckuva lot of time trudging around the swamp trying to get out. And it seemed like all they did was go one way, then another, miss them swampies, then keep going. Got boring quick.

And the spelling and grammar in this book was also atrocious. I counted at least 7 misspellings. The biggest one, and one that is really unforgiveable, was they spelled Krysty's name wrong. Kirsty, no less. If you can't even spell a character's name right, what's the point anymore in going on with this drival? THat's what it's starting to turn into.
 
1
One of the worst in the series
by RickSinanju
I don’t know who penned this load of rad-blasted tripe, but it had more plot inconsistencies, timeline errors, character blunders, and just downright idiotic mistakes than any other book I have read in years – and that is a lot of books.

Newbie writing mistakes (Conscious, unconscious – used six times in three sentences for chrissakes?!? – on, and it’s Subconscious you idiot) and more.

When the group is captured with ease by less skilled individuals, Mildred is captured two times within 5 minutes (and three pages) and drugged unconscious for hours both times. Huh?!? Putting knives away as soon as they were drawn, over half an hour later? What? It’s “quickly” or “rapidly” or “stealthily” or “with acumen” – not “as soon”! Moron.


Jack is suddenly a math major? JB is a coward?


Plus the cover bugs the hell out of me. What’s with the photo-realistic inaccurate crap? Ryan looks like an escapee from a death-camp with an idiot’s grin.
Any more like this and the series will lose a long time reader.

I've forced myself to the half way point, and things are just getting worse. Who would have thought? Ryan is an indecisive dolt, Doc is basically AWOL. Jack is running the show.
 
1
Official Confirmation...
by klausekilski
All Deathlands titles penned by M.Andy Boot are of inferior quality and will disappoint even the most loyal fans of this series...not that it matters but, am I alone in suspecting a pseudonym here, perhaps even a gender pseudonym...
 
2
Not the Worst, but...
by migca

I admit that unlike the rest of reviewers, I didn't find Strontium Swamp to be a total stinker, or the worst in the series. Maybe my expectations regarding the newer Deathlands titles have just shriveled over the last couple years? Although that's a damn depressing thought, at least it might explain some things--like maybe why I bothered to finish this book--which isn't the case with 2 or 3 other recent titles in the series. Was it just me, or did anyone else feel like they were reading parts of 3 or 4 older titles that had been randomly cut &amp; pasted together?
Other reviewers have done a fine job pointing out the numerous annoying and inexcusable flaws within this book. So I'll limit myself to just one large problem that is starting to fatally haunt this series, and really bug the hell out of me. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! If this was the first Deathlands I ever read, it would also be the last. There was not a single character in this novel i found the least bit interesting, that I will remember anything about next week, or that I could bring myself to give a rat's ass about.
And I have to include the usual crew, which should be impossible at this point in the series. Hell, there's been thousands of pages written about these people. Any author has all the raw background material they could possibly need to recreate six compelling main characters. Yet this group all acted like badly-cloned, listless replicas of the usual crew. They barely seemed capable of gathering the energy to take out the Baron (whose name I've already forgotten) or even rescue Jak. And for all Krysty or Mildred contributed to this tale, they might as well have taken a vacation week.
No one who buys a Deathlands title is expecting Shakespeare, and a few pages of background material along with some tedious repetition is unavoidable, but the publishers are killing off this series with crap like Strontium Swamp.