Deathlands · #17

Fury's Pilgrims

by Laurence James · January 1993

8.0 / 10 average from 2 rated reviews

A bad jump from a near-space Gateway leaves Ryan Cawdor and his band of warrior survivalists in the devastated heart of the American Midwest. Moving through the ruins in the safety of an abandoned war wag, they discover a small community that was once the sprawling metropolis of Chicago. The town seems devoid of life, until the first night, when Krysty Wroth vanishes without a trace. Then the group is attacked, leaving Doc Tanner gravely wounded. Ryan realises that someone, or something, wants them gone - or dead. He captures an attacker and learns that the town is run by a tribe of nocturnal female mutants. But not even torture yields any word of Krysty. Ryan fears for her life, especially since she's a woman. In the Deathlands, life is a contest where the only victor is death.

Reviews (2)

Gunslinger 7/10 October 3, 2011

This is one of those mini-milestone books in the series where all the talk of "chron-jumping" in past installments comes to a head. The gang successfully trawls a person forward from the past, although with disappointing results. Doc gets the revelation of his life and nearly goes off the deep end of his sanity. Then the gang is in nuked-out Chicago where Mutie women kidnap Krysty. The battles with them were graphic, then they have to make their way back to the gateway to stop Doc from the ultimate act of insanity. Good stuff all the way around.

The Phantom 9/10 January 14, 2004

I think this is the best book in the series since the first one. Not only is it crammed with the action and adventure I expect from the series, but it also has a lot of other good things going for it. Early in the story contains a little more of a sci-fi direction, I liked the jump to the space station, some exploring there (I'm assuming this is Parallax Red?), and eventualy Ryan's group makes a jump to the Chicago redoubt. Here they discover a chron jump chamber. This is cool and they experiment with it, thanks to Doc Tanner's knowledge, are able to mess with it and trawl some people from the past. This leads to another member joining the gang, Michael Brother. Not too exiting of a character, but interesting. This also sparks Doc's interest in his long lost family, now he realizes a possability to use the chron jump to go back in time again. This novel deals partly with Doc finally going over the edge, he really gets fused out, kind of funny, I loved his part in this book. I liked the war wag they find and after a journey with that they find themselves in underground Chicago, good scenes with Dean and the captured Krysty, lots of firefights and finally a race to keep Doc from trawling himself to the past. James did a great job with this story, a major turnaround from the disappointing Moon Fate. Good book, I'm giving it 9 stars out of 10.