DEATHLANDS - Dark Carnival

DEATHLANDS - Dark Carnival

When my brother and I go through used book stores, one of the more exciting aspects of it is digging through the "bargain bin". These assorted fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and other random books are usually priced below P50 for some reason or other: there's some water damage, or maybe the covers are faded. We always go through the 'trash books' because you never know what you'll find. Some of the books are as cheap as P15 or even P10!!

Now.. DEATHLANDS. DEATHLANDS is one of those 'trash' novels that always seem to show up in the bargain bin and they're almost always priced at P15. It's the type of book where you look at it, you read the premise and you think.. What is P15 anyway?

And surely, everything about these books absolutely scream bargain bin. It's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting about a team of rogues travelling through a nuked-out American wasteland... at first glance.. it's cheesy as fuck and if I'm being completely honest, not something that I thought would really appeal to me.

These books are so dirt cheap that we actually started picking them up just for fun. Every time a DEATHLANDS novel reared its head in the bargain bins of BookSale, we bought it. Since the time we decided to start ironically buying DEATHLANDS novels, we already collected 10 of them.. and well admittedly, they do have some pretty nice covers, their spines have a nice variation of colors that looks nice when they're all aligned together on a shelf. And I do like the clean blocky font of the title.

Now, I'd just come off of reading the Sovereign Stone trilogy and I gotta tell you.. that shit is DARK as hell. I mean, I really enjoy Fantasy Epics and stories that take themselves seriously, but after a while it gets really draining. I read Wheel of Time 1, 4 of the Death Gate Cycle, AND the Sovereign Stone trilogy back to back, and I was fucking EXHAUSTED and I felt like I needed a break from all of that...

so.. I... turned to DEATHLANDS???

What could be the furthest from Serious Epic Fantasy than Post-Apocalyptic gun-toting action extravaganza? And you know what???? I actually kind of enjoyed it?

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DEATHLANDS is set in the wastelands of post-apocalyptic America. 100 years after the bombs dropped. Our hero Ryan Cawdor and his mercenary team of rogues travel to different locations using a transportation system that whisks them around the country. They battle mutated animals, bandits, slavers, and powerful barons who rule the lands.

Now if this sounds similar to the Fallout video game series, it pretty much is that. Except without the whole retro-future aesthetic. It's just straight up post-apocalyptic action carnage violence and bloody killing... and it's actually pretty damn fun.

The book I read, Dark Carnival is the 14th novel in the series, but most of the books can be read as standalone novels. The "episodic" structure is really clean and each novel is its own self-contained adventure, but with storylines and references that tie the books together.

Dark Carnival is about how Ryan Cawdor and his band stumble upon an amusement park run by a technological genius, and how they try to escape before getting killed.

When I started reading it, I was a bit apprehensive and it took me a long while before I really got into the groove of it. A part of my difficulty with starting the book was the HEAVY use of post-apocalyptic slang. Characters talking about muties and blasters, chilling swampies and slinging jack. I was double-confused when I started the book, but near the end I was getting on easy following the talking.

The violence and graphic scenes were triple-gratuitous. Characters were thrown off of rollercoasters, lots of drug-use happening in the story too. It was really intense and I was caught off guard by how suspenseful it got by the end.

I think the climax of the story was great. The main man, Ryan Cawdor, really got his chance to shine when he pretty much slaughtered 7 people in less than a minute, outnumbered and outgunned, in the dark. The ending was pretty satisfying and the cliff-hanger wasn't too bad hahaha. Made me wanna read more.

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Overall, fun read! The pace was REALLY fast and so when I got into the groove of it, I was able to pretty much consume the entire thing in a few days. It gave me really intense Fallout vibes, but in a good way. I kinda enjoyed the focus on strategy and maneuvers, and survivalism.

Would I recommend? Sure. It's an easy to pick up and read book / series?? I suppose. Haha It's just really low-investment high-octane action and quite an enjoyable read.

349 pages

12 days