There's little to remember about life before the Big Nuke, but there's plenty to scavenge in the tainted wreckage of the post-apocalyptic frontier. The barbaric code of survival of the fittest, meanest or dirtiest makes for hard living and easy death. But Ryan Cawdor and his friends have stayed alive by holding on to their humanity -- playing fair... and chilling only when they've got no choice.
A civil war raging in the Des Moines River valley forces Ryan and his companions to take sides, or die. Because somewhere int he middle of the generations-old conflict is a lost redoubt. But Snake Eye, the deadliest gunslinger in Deathlands, stands between them and the way out. And the mutie contract chiller won't step aside until he has Ryan's head.
Victor Milan's 3rd book in a row in this series is the weakest, I'm afraid.
Now, this is coming from a fan who has followed his work since the 80's. With all due respect, Mr. Milan, I could not get into this one. After just a few chapter, I just felt that this type of storyline has been done to death. The land Baron vs Baron has been done ad naseum, I personally think.
However, I do applaud Mr. Milan for trying to pen a character-driven DL book, but the numerous characters on both sides were too many and just not interesting enough for me personally.
The parts with the gunslinger, Snake Eye, was pretty good. I liked his colorful character, and that he had a lot of knowledge of Ryan and his companions. I wished we read much more of this type of story. With all the years Ry and and J.B. rode with the infamous Trader, there would be a lot more people who have either heard of them or have run across them.
Now we have another Milan book coming in two months: Nemesis, which sounds a lot like Hell Road Warriors, as well as another storyline that has been done numerous times already.
But Mr. Rogers has proven that even tried and done storylines can still be fresh and totally exciting if written well. Plus, Rogers took us to a new place that the DL books have never taken us. More of that please!