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Deadlands #1
Ghostwalkers
The first of three media tie-in novels based on the hit RPG franchise Deadlands
From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.
Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called "ghost rock" fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.
In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction . . . and an army of the living dead!
Deadlands is one of the most popular RPGs in history, with over a million Deadlands gaming books sold.
From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.
Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called "ghost rock" fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.
In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction . . . and an army of the living dead!
Deadlands is one of the most popular RPGs in history, with over a million Deadlands gaming books sold.
476 pages, Paperback
First published September 22, 2015
86 people are currently reading
1118 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Maberry
519 books7,785 followersJONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
September 28, 2017
For all you folks out there waking up and suddenly getting a craving for an Undead Raptor Jesus, this is your lucky day!
What? What?
Or I should say, the Weird West is out in full colors with this novel, an adaptation of the Deadlands paper-based RPG game that's full of great storytelling elements from a WoDish dark Wild West with screaming rocks, undead soldiers, mad scientists, and Hell beginning to encroach upon the Earth. This is the Weird West, full of high-tech gadgets, magic, and a hell of a lot of wild action as only an over-the-top western can make it.
I could argue that any such setting and possibility deserves five stars, of course, but I won't.
This book hops along wonderfully with some great characters and story. A certain Thomas Looks Away kinda stole the show, but I had no problems at all with the development of the tortured gunslinger Grey or the firecracker gunslinger girl Jenne. There's a lot of stock stuff here, sure, but it's how it's dealt with in the Weird West that makes it awesome.
And then there are the undead raptors. Hell, all the dinosaurs and flying machines and aetheric missiles and the Cthulhu-like mythos running wild, too. It's enough to make me have a nerdgasm. So yeah, while it does have a flavor of steampunk, it's really very American, so don't let that turn you off. I got kinda tired of the whole steampunk thing, too, but this is just plain fun. :)
What? What?
Or I should say, the Weird West is out in full colors with this novel, an adaptation of the Deadlands paper-based RPG game that's full of great storytelling elements from a WoDish dark Wild West with screaming rocks, undead soldiers, mad scientists, and Hell beginning to encroach upon the Earth. This is the Weird West, full of high-tech gadgets, magic, and a hell of a lot of wild action as only an over-the-top western can make it.
I could argue that any such setting and possibility deserves five stars, of course, but I won't.
This book hops along wonderfully with some great characters and story. A certain Thomas Looks Away kinda stole the show, but I had no problems at all with the development of the tortured gunslinger Grey or the firecracker gunslinger girl Jenne. There's a lot of stock stuff here, sure, but it's how it's dealt with in the Weird West that makes it awesome.
And then there are the undead raptors. Hell, all the dinosaurs and flying machines and aetheric missiles and the Cthulhu-like mythos running wild, too. It's enough to make me have a nerdgasm. So yeah, while it does have a flavor of steampunk, it's really very American, so don't let that turn you off. I got kinda tired of the whole steampunk thing, too, but this is just plain fun. :)
September 22, 2015
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers is a lot of things. It’s an alternate history western with a whole lot of action and adventure, mixed together with some undead here and there, and a splash of steampunk tossed in to add a little color. What it is, is a book paradise for someone like me.
Often, I find that when a book tries to do too much, it fails; kind of a jack of all trades, master of none kind of scenario. But Jonathan Maberry has pieced all of these parts together to create a masterfully presented story. Deadlands: Ghostwalkers had everything I could want in a story, as well as things I didn’t even think I needed. It was a perfect combination of action, horror and comedy, complete with a cast of characters that made me want to get back to Paradise Falls.
I won’t get into the plot, you can get that from the synopsis. The characters, they are what I loved the most. Grey Torrance is what I want for a hero, his is strong and capable, but he has a haunted past. He has his own personal demons that he needs to overcome in order to truly succeed. Jenne Pearl is a fabulous heroine. Not only is she able to take care of herself, she is also able to put our hero in his place when necessary. Then there is our faithful sidekick, Thomas Looks Away. What a name! What a character! This guy ratchets the story up tenfold.
This is one of those books that hits all of the marks. I don’t do this very often, but this one goes above and beyond.
*7 Stars
* I received a copy of the book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.
Often, I find that when a book tries to do too much, it fails; kind of a jack of all trades, master of none kind of scenario. But Jonathan Maberry has pieced all of these parts together to create a masterfully presented story. Deadlands: Ghostwalkers had everything I could want in a story, as well as things I didn’t even think I needed. It was a perfect combination of action, horror and comedy, complete with a cast of characters that made me want to get back to Paradise Falls.
I won’t get into the plot, you can get that from the synopsis. The characters, they are what I loved the most. Grey Torrance is what I want for a hero, his is strong and capable, but he has a haunted past. He has his own personal demons that he needs to overcome in order to truly succeed. Jenne Pearl is a fabulous heroine. Not only is she able to take care of herself, she is also able to put our hero in his place when necessary. Then there is our faithful sidekick, Thomas Looks Away. What a name! What a character! This guy ratchets the story up tenfold.
This is one of those books that hits all of the marks. I don’t do this very often, but this one goes above and beyond.
*7 Stars
* I received a copy of the book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.
April 7, 2023
At first glance the wild west and steampunk doesn't seem to be a good mix and mash of story cultures. But I must admit Mr Mayberry does an excellent job of making it work. Very fun and fast paced read. Very recommended
September 19, 2015
Review copy
Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author. Probably best known for his Joe Ledger novels and for his award-winning YA Rot & Ruin series. He currently resides in Del Mar, California and you can find him online at jonathanmaberry.com.
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers is the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.
Jonathan Maberry can spin a yarn with the best of them. This tale starts with "One man on foot trying to escape six on horseback in a country that was made for dying." This is where Grey Torrance makes the acquaintance of Thomas Looks Away, a member of the Sioux nation who spent a good number of years in England making for an interesting amalgamation of what you see and what you hear.
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers features mad scientists as well as dark, unnatural forces. The Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns and has lead to the discovery of a mysterious substance called "ghost rock" which fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as well as a new breed of super weapons. By the way, a side affect of exploding "ghost rock" is having the recently dead become "undead."
There are more surprises in Deadlands: Ghostwalkers and I'll leave them for the reader to discover.
There were a few times where the story did drag just a bit, but overall, the key word for this book is FUN. A pure, unadulterated good time.
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers will be published on September 22, 2015 in paperback, e-book and audible formats.
Definitely recommended.
Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author. Probably best known for his Joe Ledger novels and for his award-winning YA Rot & Ruin series. He currently resides in Del Mar, California and you can find him online at jonathanmaberry.com.
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers is the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.
Jonathan Maberry can spin a yarn with the best of them. This tale starts with "One man on foot trying to escape six on horseback in a country that was made for dying." This is where Grey Torrance makes the acquaintance of Thomas Looks Away, a member of the Sioux nation who spent a good number of years in England making for an interesting amalgamation of what you see and what you hear.
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers features mad scientists as well as dark, unnatural forces. The Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns and has lead to the discovery of a mysterious substance called "ghost rock" which fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as well as a new breed of super weapons. By the way, a side affect of exploding "ghost rock" is having the recently dead become "undead."
There are more surprises in Deadlands: Ghostwalkers and I'll leave them for the reader to discover.
There were a few times where the story did drag just a bit, but overall, the key word for this book is FUN. A pure, unadulterated good time.
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers will be published on September 22, 2015 in paperback, e-book and audible formats.
Definitely recommended.
Want to read
January 3, 2016Just imagine the love child of Lone Ranger and The Walking Dead. Shut the fuck up and take my money.
November 25, 2015
[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]
I used to play the Deadlands RPG when I was in high school. That was, well, long ago. Long enough for the game to be in its original iteration, no LCG or anything. Back when we used poker chips that could act as jokers, but we greedily kept them because the unused ones would turn into experience points at the end of the game. Yeah, that was quite a few years ago.
So I wanted to try and see what a novel set in the Deadlands universe was like.
Though I admit my recollections of the game are far and few between, I'm not sure the book exactly related. Some elements fitted, and had the "Weird West" feeling I tend to associate with that world, but they seemed to be thrown in more as add-ons than as true parts. (Dinosaurs, zombies, steampunk weapons, etc.) It was fun, sure, yet it also looked as too much being crammed in it... and at the same time, the novel felt too long for the story it had to tell.
It worked well enough as a "strange western"-like story in the beginning, in that the action started fast, and the tropes I was looking for were there: gunslingers, little town under the tyranny of a couple of rich white guys with their own militia of sorts, inhabitants trying to resist but being outnumbered... However, after a while, I began to lose interest, likely because of the repetitiveness of said action, and because the characters didn't have much depths, all things considered. Grey had a troubled past... but there isn't much more to him once this past is uncovered (he did work as a character thrown in that mess without much knowledge of what happened, as other people explaining things allowed the reader to discover them as well). Jenny was the mandatory brave female character with a shotgun, and her courage was commendable, yet out of this and her relationship with Grey, there wasn't too much to her either. The monk was forgettable, and the villain was... gloating?
A definitely problematic character was Looks Away, the Sioux guy who happened to be part of a circus in Europe, got an education there, and now throwns in "British" slang all the time. Making him a Sioux felt more like ye olde mandatory POC than like a real person, as basically he could have been a British scholar just as well, and it wouldn't have changed the plot in any way. (Granted, had the author gone overboard the other way, by making him a Native American cliché, it'd have been just as bad. But I believe in middle grounds.)
A good deal of the novel was also both boring and too over the top to fully belong. Characters discover awful weapon and enemies, fight them, manage to escape at the last moment, bit of deus ex machina here, rinse and repeat. (A corset stopping a bullet... Uh... Not sure about that, and if the explanation is what I think it was, it wasn't made very clear in the end.) As for the enemies, I could do with zombies (in the Deadlandsverse? Sure!), but the vampire-witches mqde me wonder what they were doing here, and dinosaurs was too far-fetched, seemingly added to the mix just because at some point, someone must've said "hey, why not put dinosaurs in there, too, they're cool." Odd.
Writing style: long descriptions (of which I quickly get bored), and a tendency to veer into very short sentences/3-word long paragraphs that worked sometimes, and were jarring at others.
Conclusion: Some interesting ideas, but the characters need to be fleshed out, and the novel to be trimmed down when it comes to descriptions.
I used to play the Deadlands RPG when I was in high school. That was, well, long ago. Long enough for the game to be in its original iteration, no LCG or anything. Back when we used poker chips that could act as jokers, but we greedily kept them because the unused ones would turn into experience points at the end of the game. Yeah, that was quite a few years ago.
So I wanted to try and see what a novel set in the Deadlands universe was like.
Though I admit my recollections of the game are far and few between, I'm not sure the book exactly related. Some elements fitted, and had the "Weird West" feeling I tend to associate with that world, but they seemed to be thrown in more as add-ons than as true parts. (Dinosaurs, zombies, steampunk weapons, etc.) It was fun, sure, yet it also looked as too much being crammed in it... and at the same time, the novel felt too long for the story it had to tell.
It worked well enough as a "strange western"-like story in the beginning, in that the action started fast, and the tropes I was looking for were there: gunslingers, little town under the tyranny of a couple of rich white guys with their own militia of sorts, inhabitants trying to resist but being outnumbered... However, after a while, I began to lose interest, likely because of the repetitiveness of said action, and because the characters didn't have much depths, all things considered. Grey had a troubled past... but there isn't much more to him once this past is uncovered (he did work as a character thrown in that mess without much knowledge of what happened, as other people explaining things allowed the reader to discover them as well). Jenny was the mandatory brave female character with a shotgun, and her courage was commendable, yet out of this and her relationship with Grey, there wasn't too much to her either. The monk was forgettable, and the villain was... gloating?
A definitely problematic character was Looks Away, the Sioux guy who happened to be part of a circus in Europe, got an education there, and now throwns in "British" slang all the time. Making him a Sioux felt more like ye olde mandatory POC than like a real person, as basically he could have been a British scholar just as well, and it wouldn't have changed the plot in any way. (Granted, had the author gone overboard the other way, by making him a Native American cliché, it'd have been just as bad. But I believe in middle grounds.)
A good deal of the novel was also both boring and too over the top to fully belong. Characters discover awful weapon and enemies, fight them, manage to escape at the last moment, bit of deus ex machina here, rinse and repeat. (A corset stopping a bullet... Uh... Not sure about that, and if the explanation is what I think it was, it wasn't made very clear in the end.) As for the enemies, I could do with zombies (in the Deadlandsverse? Sure!), but the vampire-witches mqde me wonder what they were doing here, and dinosaurs was too far-fetched, seemingly added to the mix just because at some point, someone must've said "hey, why not put dinosaurs in there, too, they're cool." Odd.
Writing style: long descriptions (of which I quickly get bored), and a tendency to veer into very short sentences/3-word long paragraphs that worked sometimes, and were jarring at others.
Conclusion: Some interesting ideas, but the characters need to be fleshed out, and the novel to be trimmed down when it comes to descriptions.
April 7, 2017
4.5 Stars
Im a huge fan of the Weird Western genre, and Maberry is one of my favorite authors. So I had a feeling going into this one I would like it, and I wasn't disappointed.
This novel is based on the "Deadlands" role playing game. I've never played it, nor any other role playing games, but I have always loved the world building that goes into them. The games automatically weave a rich tapestry full of stories just waiting to be told. That's basically what a role playing game is anyway, another way to tell a story.
This book was almost as much steampunk as weird western. I'm not as into steampunk, but it fit in well here. You had a great post apocalyptic setting with plenty of monsters. Mix in the evil land baron crossed with an evil sorcerer and you have a great villain. At its heart this was definitely a western, but there was plenty of weirdness thrown in as well.
The only reason I didn't this one a solid 5 stars is because the ending threw me.
So overall, if you are into Weird Westerns and/or Steampunk be sure to check this one out. I'll definitely be reading the next in the series.
Im a huge fan of the Weird Western genre, and Maberry is one of my favorite authors. So I had a feeling going into this one I would like it, and I wasn't disappointed.
This novel is based on the "Deadlands" role playing game. I've never played it, nor any other role playing games, but I have always loved the world building that goes into them. The games automatically weave a rich tapestry full of stories just waiting to be told. That's basically what a role playing game is anyway, another way to tell a story.
This book was almost as much steampunk as weird western. I'm not as into steampunk, but it fit in well here. You had a great post apocalyptic setting with plenty of monsters. Mix in the evil land baron crossed with an evil sorcerer and you have a great villain. At its heart this was definitely a western, but there was plenty of weirdness thrown in as well.
The only reason I didn't this one a solid 5 stars is because the ending threw me.
So overall, if you are into Weird Westerns and/or Steampunk be sure to check this one out. I'll definitely be reading the next in the series.
December 7, 2015
As a huge fan of the Deadlands roleplaying game, I was super excited for the first of three announced novels set in the Weird West. Having written adventures in this fantastic setting I don't envy the task of having to write the first Deadlands novel. Like making your first roleplaying adventure, part of you wants to use everything in the setting. Peppering your tale with every cool monster and bit of lore. Sadly this is exactly the trap that Maberry falls into with this novel. There is a great story in here, and he can write some great action and enjoyable pulpy characters, but a lot of it gets lost along the way. Clocking in at just under 500 pages, there is really less than 300 pages of plot here, then the remaining chapters filled with everything the author could think of from the Marshall's Handbook. Throwing the pacing completely off, by the time we finally run into the major antagonist, it is hard to really care. The final battle is over rather quickly, after a bit too much dialogue during the heat of battle, and the final climax and resolution seem a bit of a cop out. I really wanted to like this book, no, I really wanted to love this book. I found a lot to enjoy in it, but there was just too much wrong with it. I can handle the pulp-inspired characters that come off a bit flat. And as a fan of all the cool monsters in rpg's that often get underused in novels, I enjoyed the attempt. But the overall book just left me feeling kind of...meh. It was also hard for me to get past a number of historical inaccuracies, despite the ridiculous alt-history setting. I hate that I disliked the use of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs should be in everything! But when your book takes place before 1880, and your characters know about flying reptiles only discovered a decade earlier, or the name of a species that would only be found in Asia, and not discovered or named until the 1920s, there might be a problem.
I didn't hate this book. I enjoyed the writing style of the author, I liked what he tried to do. And I still support Pinnacle in putting out these novels. In fact, I will still buy the next book. This is a genre I want more of, even if it is somewhat lackluster.
I didn't hate this book. I enjoyed the writing style of the author, I liked what he tried to do. And I still support Pinnacle in putting out these novels. In fact, I will still buy the next book. This is a genre I want more of, even if it is somewhat lackluster.
July 31, 2017
A lot of fun. I look forward to reading the other books in this series.
September 7, 2019
The Wild West, the walking dead, dinosaurs, Steampunk, love.... It can create a bizarre melting pot which shouldn't work when all thrown together. But in the hands of an accomplished writer like Jonathan Maberry DEADLANDS: GHOSTWALKERS not only makes all those ingredients work together but ends up creating a rip-roaring fun read which never takes itself too seriously.
The novel is based, apparently, on a roleplaying game. I had no knowledge of the game and went into this book blind, not sure if experience with the game would change one's perspective, but I loved every page.
The story focuses on Grey Torrence, a soldier and gunslinger who befriends a Sioux scientist, Thomas Looks Away in a land which is the old west, but with a lot of twists to history. The pair end up in the California town of Paradise Falls, a speck on a dusty map which has been ravaged by a mad necromancer hell bent on taking over the world with an army of the undead. Shoot outs, dinosaurs, flying ships, metallic monsters.... again, it sounds like too much to cram into nearly 500 pages but Maberry does it perfectly.
Those who like their west weird will love this tale.
The novel is based, apparently, on a roleplaying game. I had no knowledge of the game and went into this book blind, not sure if experience with the game would change one's perspective, but I loved every page.
The story focuses on Grey Torrence, a soldier and gunslinger who befriends a Sioux scientist, Thomas Looks Away in a land which is the old west, but with a lot of twists to history. The pair end up in the California town of Paradise Falls, a speck on a dusty map which has been ravaged by a mad necromancer hell bent on taking over the world with an army of the undead. Shoot outs, dinosaurs, flying ships, metallic monsters.... again, it sounds like too much to cram into nearly 500 pages but Maberry does it perfectly.
Those who like their west weird will love this tale.
July 18, 2015
https://koeur.wordpress.com/2015/07/1...
Publisher: Tor/Forge
Publishing Date: September 2015
ISBN: 9780765375261
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 2.6/5
Publisher Description: Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called “ghost rock” fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.
Review: This is my first foray into this prolific author’s world(s). The cover as well as the content are reminiscent of the Pulp Fiction genre only with a fantastical twist. The plot chugs along with constant action, not too deft repartee between the Grey Torrance and his sidekick, Tonto…..er, Looks Away. As they move through the story line there is a constant running dialogue on the who’s, why’s and how’s of Ghost Rock.
The characters were fairly one dimensional, what with all the crazy fight scenes and creatures running about who has the time to develop any depth? Looks Away has a high English accent because he left for Europe when he was 20, which would never impart an accent unless you’re Madonna. Jenny is all spit and vinegar but hotter than a half-fugged fox in a February forest fire. Grey bangs her, of course, but its a sweet banging.
I enjoyed the frivolousness of it and yet despised the constant Deus ex machina in almost every scene. Just when you think they are all done for, there is some miraculous event that saves them all. Grey is really into constantly bullying Looks Away and all the bad people are white, the good people are Spanish, Black or Indian and guns are bad etc.
Read this at your wife’s sisters engagement party…..in a dark corner…with a cigar… and a Crown & Coke.
Publisher: Tor/Forge
Publishing Date: September 2015
ISBN: 9780765375261
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 2.6/5
Publisher Description: Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called “ghost rock” fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.
Review: This is my first foray into this prolific author’s world(s). The cover as well as the content are reminiscent of the Pulp Fiction genre only with a fantastical twist. The plot chugs along with constant action, not too deft repartee between the Grey Torrance and his sidekick, Tonto…..er, Looks Away. As they move through the story line there is a constant running dialogue on the who’s, why’s and how’s of Ghost Rock.
The characters were fairly one dimensional, what with all the crazy fight scenes and creatures running about who has the time to develop any depth? Looks Away has a high English accent because he left for Europe when he was 20, which would never impart an accent unless you’re Madonna. Jenny is all spit and vinegar but hotter than a half-fugged fox in a February forest fire. Grey bangs her, of course, but its a sweet banging.
I enjoyed the frivolousness of it and yet despised the constant Deus ex machina in almost every scene. Just when you think they are all done for, there is some miraculous event that saves them all. Grey is really into constantly bullying Looks Away and all the bad people are white, the good people are Spanish, Black or Indian and guns are bad etc.
Read this at your wife’s sisters engagement party…..in a dark corner…with a cigar… and a Crown & Coke.
October 12, 2015
I read Deadlands: Ghostwalkers because I enjoy the LCG from AEG Games, and I thought I'd see how this connected, if at all. It doesn't, really, other than the silly "ghost rock" present here and in the card game. That's fine, I can still read it for what it is.
What it is is a Weird Western, with zombies thrown in because everything has to have zombies now. It was a fast, thrilling adventure with everything you'd expect from the genre.
But it fell short in two ways--one of which is major. First, the book is 480 pages long--which is just too long. Some stories can carry the weight of that many pages, but this isn't one of them. It's a by-the-numbers madman-tries-to-take-over-the-world book, and it could have used ~200 fewer pages.
The big problem is that one of the two main characters is a Native American named Looks Away, who joined a traveling show when he was 20, and spent many years studying in England and Europe. He uses all of the cliched phrases you'd expect from an Englishman: bloody, bollocks, jolly. He also has amazingly coincidental experience with practically everything they encounter. I won't spoil the story by telling you some of the incredible things he knows, but trust me that it's far-fetched.
So what's the problem? I don't understand why Maberry even made Looks Away a Native American. He creates a Native American character, and then promptly strips away everything that makes him Native American--other than his name and skin tone--and makes him an English scientist. So it feels like he ticked the "Multicultural" check-box and then made sure he didn't have to deal with the nuances and complexity of an actual Native American character. It was a safe and boring choice, and makes Looks Away a joke, rather than a complex and realistic character.
If you really like weird westerns, this is an okay book. But there are better choices out there.
What it is is a Weird Western, with zombies thrown in because everything has to have zombies now. It was a fast, thrilling adventure with everything you'd expect from the genre.
But it fell short in two ways--one of which is major. First, the book is 480 pages long--which is just too long. Some stories can carry the weight of that many pages, but this isn't one of them. It's a by-the-numbers madman-tries-to-take-over-the-world book, and it could have used ~200 fewer pages.
The big problem is that one of the two main characters is a Native American named Looks Away, who joined a traveling show when he was 20, and spent many years studying in England and Europe. He uses all of the cliched phrases you'd expect from an Englishman: bloody, bollocks, jolly. He also has amazingly coincidental experience with practically everything they encounter. I won't spoil the story by telling you some of the incredible things he knows, but trust me that it's far-fetched.
So what's the problem? I don't understand why Maberry even made Looks Away a Native American. He creates a Native American character, and then promptly strips away everything that makes him Native American--other than his name and skin tone--and makes him an English scientist. So it feels like he ticked the "Multicultural" check-box and then made sure he didn't have to deal with the nuances and complexity of an actual Native American character. It was a safe and boring choice, and makes Looks Away a joke, rather than a complex and realistic character.
If you really like weird westerns, this is an okay book. But there are better choices out there.
October 1, 2015
I was sorely disappointed in this book.
I love the 'weird' Wild West setting of Deadlands and Maberry does a great job of setting it up. The introduction to the characters and the world they live in drew me in...and then everything drifted away like a tumbleweed through a desolate ghost town.
The characters are barely cardboard tokens moving where the plot tells them to go. Their motivations for even following the plot is questionable at best.
The western setting of the book, which is why I picked it up in the first place, quickly devolves into a 'dungeon crawl', in the second half of the book. This became more and more uninteresting until the inevitable showdown.
I would love to read another story set in the Deadlands world. But it would help if it had compelling characters deeper than a boot print on a rocky Mesa.
I love the 'weird' Wild West setting of Deadlands and Maberry does a great job of setting it up. The introduction to the characters and the world they live in drew me in...and then everything drifted away like a tumbleweed through a desolate ghost town.
The characters are barely cardboard tokens moving where the plot tells them to go. Their motivations for even following the plot is questionable at best.
The western setting of the book, which is why I picked it up in the first place, quickly devolves into a 'dungeon crawl', in the second half of the book. This became more and more uninteresting until the inevitable showdown.
I would love to read another story set in the Deadlands world. But it would help if it had compelling characters deeper than a boot print on a rocky Mesa.
September 27, 2016
5 Stars
Review to follow!
Review to follow!
February 19, 2016
My wife picked this up for me at our local library—I know, right?—because she knows how much I love the role-playing game (RPG) this book is (loosely) based on. This world, the setting, means a lot to me; naturally, I have some problems with how it was treated in this novel.
Let's start by discussing the RPG this novel is set in, Deadlands. When the game was first published, in 1996, the setting was the American West in the year 1876, 13 years after the Battle of Gettysburg, after The Reckoning. In real-world history, General Robert E. Lee's defeat and failure to invade the Union tipped the scales in favor of the United States of America. But Deadlands is set in an alternate history. On July 3rd, 1863—the final day of the battle—the Earth shook, the skies trembled, and the dead littering the battlefield decided being dead was too damn boring and stood back up. The armies ran. Neither side took the advantage, and the war raged on. Rumors of the battle spread, and were dismissed as the mad ramblings of overstressed soldiers. All the same, fear spread on both sides of the Mason-Dixon. And fear is what it's really about.
What happened at Gettysburg, across the nation and, most likely, the rest of the world, was no accident. A pugnacious, young Native American warrior-turned-shaman named Raven and his followers rent the veil twixt the corporeal world and the Hunting Grounds—the spirit world. Why? Well, if you have a public education, you're probably well aware these United States of America weren't always as white-washed as they are today. You may also be aware this nation only got so white after the red was bathed in crimson. Raven didn't ken to that, watched his own family slaughtered by white folks. It's sad, but that's actual history, folks. His ploy to rid the nation of white men gave beings of immense power—and incredible evil—a gateway into the mortal realm.
These beings, these spirits, they feed on fear. Human fear. The Civil War had already wracked the nation with it: fear of oppression, fear of subjugation, fear of facing your kin on the battlefield, fear that everything the forefathers fought and died for would wither. It was already palpable, and the Reckoners—those are the spirits I've been yammering on about—feasted when Raven opened the door and invited them to dinner, but it wasn't enough. They were still hungry. The problem was it wasn't opened wide enough for them to get through completely; they could leak some power out, so they did. They spread fear using their influence, cultivating it, tending it like a garden. Real farm to table stuff, organic, non-GMO. The good shit. Often, their hench-spirits, Manitous, serve as their middlemen, granting life to beasts of legend: ghosts, vampires, the undead, chupacabras, you name it. If people believe in it, even just a little, they can make it real and make it eat you. But killing folk isn't the point; it's simply fertilizer for the garden of fear.
For a time, the fear the war spread, and the fear the Reckoners spread with ghosts and spooks was enough for them, but the war waned. Frontline skirmishes receded. Both sides came to a kind of understanding. The food source dwindled. Aphids in the garden. What do you do when your garden starts dying? You wipe it of pests, you replant, and you fertilize again. And that's what the Reckoners did. In 1868, the territory of California buckled, rattled, and shook. Huge chunks of land slipped loose, swallowed by the Pacific. Millions perished. Small land masses, islands leftover from the quake, dotted the territory, running from Oregon down to Baja. In the aftermath, veins of copper, silver, coal, and, yes, sometimes gold were found along the islands, deep withing the Earth. And another ore was found, a new one that looked like coal. It looked like it, but it burned hotter and longer and with more power than coal. When it burned, it wailed, and so people took to calling it Ghost Rock. It fueled new engines of war because, as we all know, war has always necessitated invention. People are always looking for new ways to kill each other.
As you can see, I can talk about this world at great length. I love it. It's been a part of my life for almost twenty years—I got my copy of the core book in 1998. It's rich with real world history and characters. Ulysses Grant is the president of the USA, Jefferson Davis in the CSA (until the continuity of the game entered 1877 with the second edition, and Robert E. Lee was elected president). Abraham Lincoln did die, but nothing stays dead in the Weird West; he poses as the enigmatic head of the Western division of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Ghost.
Now, Jonathan Maberry's novel isn't the worst thing I've read, but, as a Deadlands story, it's pretty bad. Things start off being simply weird but never become frightening, not even for the protagonists. What weirdness there is quickly devolves into banality, becoming mundane, almost common. There are undead, far too many to cultivate any real fear, and even the heroes begin speaking about them as if they're as common as saddle sores. By the time we meet our first undead (I guess) velociraptor, you begin to think, "Well, it can't get any sillier than this," but you'd be wrong. You haven't seen the giant worm yet or the part where Cthulhu (again, I guess) heals our necromancer/scientist/fashionista antagonist, the enigmatic (not really) Aleksander Deray.
There's no fear here, nothing for the Reckoners to eat. They'd starve to death. I don't want to give too much away as far as the plot goes, but know this: some of the Deadlands lore is there—the NPCs are mentioned, events are talked about, and Ghost Rock is everywhere—but it isn't Deadlands, not really. It reads like a High School kid's first game. He got the world but not the point.
That being said, it's still fun, and Maberry has done something I haven't—wrote a whole story. It's not a great Deadlands story, but it is still complete. If over-the-top action, deus ex machina conflict resolution, and wondering why in the Hunting Grounds a Sioux is a geologist with a British accent are your thing, you'll love this.
Let's start by discussing the RPG this novel is set in, Deadlands. When the game was first published, in 1996, the setting was the American West in the year 1876, 13 years after the Battle of Gettysburg, after The Reckoning. In real-world history, General Robert E. Lee's defeat and failure to invade the Union tipped the scales in favor of the United States of America. But Deadlands is set in an alternate history. On July 3rd, 1863—the final day of the battle—the Earth shook, the skies trembled, and the dead littering the battlefield decided being dead was too damn boring and stood back up. The armies ran. Neither side took the advantage, and the war raged on. Rumors of the battle spread, and were dismissed as the mad ramblings of overstressed soldiers. All the same, fear spread on both sides of the Mason-Dixon. And fear is what it's really about.
What happened at Gettysburg, across the nation and, most likely, the rest of the world, was no accident. A pugnacious, young Native American warrior-turned-shaman named Raven and his followers rent the veil twixt the corporeal world and the Hunting Grounds—the spirit world. Why? Well, if you have a public education, you're probably well aware these United States of America weren't always as white-washed as they are today. You may also be aware this nation only got so white after the red was bathed in crimson. Raven didn't ken to that, watched his own family slaughtered by white folks. It's sad, but that's actual history, folks. His ploy to rid the nation of white men gave beings of immense power—and incredible evil—a gateway into the mortal realm.
These beings, these spirits, they feed on fear. Human fear. The Civil War had already wracked the nation with it: fear of oppression, fear of subjugation, fear of facing your kin on the battlefield, fear that everything the forefathers fought and died for would wither. It was already palpable, and the Reckoners—those are the spirits I've been yammering on about—feasted when Raven opened the door and invited them to dinner, but it wasn't enough. They were still hungry. The problem was it wasn't opened wide enough for them to get through completely; they could leak some power out, so they did. They spread fear using their influence, cultivating it, tending it like a garden. Real farm to table stuff, organic, non-GMO. The good shit. Often, their hench-spirits, Manitous, serve as their middlemen, granting life to beasts of legend: ghosts, vampires, the undead, chupacabras, you name it. If people believe in it, even just a little, they can make it real and make it eat you. But killing folk isn't the point; it's simply fertilizer for the garden of fear.
For a time, the fear the war spread, and the fear the Reckoners spread with ghosts and spooks was enough for them, but the war waned. Frontline skirmishes receded. Both sides came to a kind of understanding. The food source dwindled. Aphids in the garden. What do you do when your garden starts dying? You wipe it of pests, you replant, and you fertilize again. And that's what the Reckoners did. In 1868, the territory of California buckled, rattled, and shook. Huge chunks of land slipped loose, swallowed by the Pacific. Millions perished. Small land masses, islands leftover from the quake, dotted the territory, running from Oregon down to Baja. In the aftermath, veins of copper, silver, coal, and, yes, sometimes gold were found along the islands, deep withing the Earth. And another ore was found, a new one that looked like coal. It looked like it, but it burned hotter and longer and with more power than coal. When it burned, it wailed, and so people took to calling it Ghost Rock. It fueled new engines of war because, as we all know, war has always necessitated invention. People are always looking for new ways to kill each other.
As you can see, I can talk about this world at great length. I love it. It's been a part of my life for almost twenty years—I got my copy of the core book in 1998. It's rich with real world history and characters. Ulysses Grant is the president of the USA, Jefferson Davis in the CSA (until the continuity of the game entered 1877 with the second edition, and Robert E. Lee was elected president). Abraham Lincoln did die, but nothing stays dead in the Weird West; he poses as the enigmatic head of the Western division of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Ghost.
Now, Jonathan Maberry's novel isn't the worst thing I've read, but, as a Deadlands story, it's pretty bad. Things start off being simply weird but never become frightening, not even for the protagonists. What weirdness there is quickly devolves into banality, becoming mundane, almost common. There are undead, far too many to cultivate any real fear, and even the heroes begin speaking about them as if they're as common as saddle sores. By the time we meet our first undead (I guess) velociraptor, you begin to think, "Well, it can't get any sillier than this," but you'd be wrong. You haven't seen the giant worm yet or the part where Cthulhu (again, I guess) heals our necromancer/scientist/fashionista antagonist, the enigmatic (not really) Aleksander Deray.
There's no fear here, nothing for the Reckoners to eat. They'd starve to death. I don't want to give too much away as far as the plot goes, but know this: some of the Deadlands lore is there—the NPCs are mentioned, events are talked about, and Ghost Rock is everywhere—but it isn't Deadlands, not really. It reads like a High School kid's first game. He got the world but not the point.
That being said, it's still fun, and Maberry has done something I haven't—wrote a whole story. It's not a great Deadlands story, but it is still complete. If over-the-top action, deus ex machina conflict resolution, and wondering why in the Hunting Grounds a Sioux is a geologist with a British accent are your thing, you'll love this.
November 26, 2021
This was an interesting read which gave off some nice horror-western vibes early and more sci-fi and fantasy vibes as the story progressed. What kept this back from being a 4 or 5 star read was the fact I kept thinking there was something missing - I never felt like I was viewing the full picture and had to look deeper into the series to make sure this was the first one (it is), and whilst elements of the backstory are spattered throughout, I don't feel like it was enough to truly say I felt satisfied. On a positive note, I really enjoyed the characters and the world building, which for me, felt like a near perfect blend of Stephen King's Darktower series and Brian Keene's Lost Level series.
September 18, 2015
https://lynnsbooks.wordpress.com/2015...
Just finished reading Deadlands by Jonathan Maberry. This is one super strange read! It’s a fantasy smorgasbord. Set in the weird wild west with a larger than life gun toting bad boy cowboy gun for hire who, with his almost Tonto-but-not sidekick, is about to come to the rescue of a sleepy backwater town where the inhabitants are being driven out by a greedy rail magnet type. I actually enjoyed this. It’s larger than life, totally hammed up and full of every trope imaginable but it felt like a cheeky read and I would definitely continue with this series.
The setting, clearly the Wild West, California, or what remains of it, following the great quake of 1868. This place is weird to say the least. If you’ve read Journey to the Centre of the Earth for example, now imagine the earth’s crust has split open and revealed all these caverns beneath – and all the unimaginable creatures that lurk therein. On top of this the quakes have revealed ‘ghost rock’ – forget about panning for gold, everybody wants ghost rock and unfortunately it’s in fairly short supply. Basically ghost rock is a strange substance that can create great power, curiously, when it’s burned it emits a screaming noise that sounds like the minions of hell writhing in a fiery pit! The discovery of this strange fuel is a game changer. The US has found steampunk and is now filled with dirigibles and other creations. On top of this, we have a strange alchemist who has come up with a diabolical use for this new fuel and now, with dreams of world dominion is about to unleash utter chaos upon the an unsuspecting population.
The main characters are Grey Torrance. Torrance is a tough, weathered character and a dab hand with a gun. When he says he’s running away from ghosts he’s not talking about memories that trouble his thoughts – he’s talking about actual ghosts that are following him to presumably seek their revenge. Thomas Looks Away is a sioux scientist, classically educated in the UK and consequently with a strange stiff upper lipped vocabulary. The two of them are something of a comical pair and have a strange friendship that oftentimes borders on irritation. There are plenty of other characters. Not least a young former ranch woman and a disgraced man of the church. And, of course, the crazy, mad eyed alchemist who has delusions of grandeur.
There is such a lot going on here that it practically boggles the mind. Necromancy, zombies, manitou, harrowed, disappearing ghost-like/vampire(ish) towns. I’m just going to stop there because if you can imagine it – it’s probably in this book. So, yes, it’s kind of crazy and almost a little bit overpowering. Did I mention that there’s a lot of death? People lose their heads and much more. Blood and viscera fairly liberally paint the landscape – not in an overly graphic way but just thought I should mention it for good measure.
I did have a few criticisms. Fairly minor to be honest. There’s a little bit of an info dump feel to the way Looks Away provides information about the mines and the rocks, etc. There was also at the beginning of the story a bit of a disjointed feel. I don’t know how else to phrase it other than it felt as though we were going to jump from one adventure to the next. Fortunately that didn’t turn out to be the case. The only other thing that did bring me up short was a tendency to either repeat certain phrases or, as the action stepped up to use word repetition such as ‘Fired. Fired. Fired’. To one extent I understand the use of it – it almost comes across like the use of ‘wham’ and ‘kerpow’ in comic books.
I understand that this is based on a RPG – I confess, I have absolutely no idea how this compares so I’m not going to go there. What I can say is that if you like weird, wild and whacky pulp horror fiction then you might enjoy this.
I received a copy of this from the publishers through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Just finished reading Deadlands by Jonathan Maberry. This is one super strange read! It’s a fantasy smorgasbord. Set in the weird wild west with a larger than life gun toting bad boy cowboy gun for hire who, with his almost Tonto-but-not sidekick, is about to come to the rescue of a sleepy backwater town where the inhabitants are being driven out by a greedy rail magnet type. I actually enjoyed this. It’s larger than life, totally hammed up and full of every trope imaginable but it felt like a cheeky read and I would definitely continue with this series.
The setting, clearly the Wild West, California, or what remains of it, following the great quake of 1868. This place is weird to say the least. If you’ve read Journey to the Centre of the Earth for example, now imagine the earth’s crust has split open and revealed all these caverns beneath – and all the unimaginable creatures that lurk therein. On top of this the quakes have revealed ‘ghost rock’ – forget about panning for gold, everybody wants ghost rock and unfortunately it’s in fairly short supply. Basically ghost rock is a strange substance that can create great power, curiously, when it’s burned it emits a screaming noise that sounds like the minions of hell writhing in a fiery pit! The discovery of this strange fuel is a game changer. The US has found steampunk and is now filled with dirigibles and other creations. On top of this, we have a strange alchemist who has come up with a diabolical use for this new fuel and now, with dreams of world dominion is about to unleash utter chaos upon the an unsuspecting population.
The main characters are Grey Torrance. Torrance is a tough, weathered character and a dab hand with a gun. When he says he’s running away from ghosts he’s not talking about memories that trouble his thoughts – he’s talking about actual ghosts that are following him to presumably seek their revenge. Thomas Looks Away is a sioux scientist, classically educated in the UK and consequently with a strange stiff upper lipped vocabulary. The two of them are something of a comical pair and have a strange friendship that oftentimes borders on irritation. There are plenty of other characters. Not least a young former ranch woman and a disgraced man of the church. And, of course, the crazy, mad eyed alchemist who has delusions of grandeur.
There is such a lot going on here that it practically boggles the mind. Necromancy, zombies, manitou, harrowed, disappearing ghost-like/vampire(ish) towns. I’m just going to stop there because if you can imagine it – it’s probably in this book. So, yes, it’s kind of crazy and almost a little bit overpowering. Did I mention that there’s a lot of death? People lose their heads and much more. Blood and viscera fairly liberally paint the landscape – not in an overly graphic way but just thought I should mention it for good measure.
I did have a few criticisms. Fairly minor to be honest. There’s a little bit of an info dump feel to the way Looks Away provides information about the mines and the rocks, etc. There was also at the beginning of the story a bit of a disjointed feel. I don’t know how else to phrase it other than it felt as though we were going to jump from one adventure to the next. Fortunately that didn’t turn out to be the case. The only other thing that did bring me up short was a tendency to either repeat certain phrases or, as the action stepped up to use word repetition such as ‘Fired. Fired. Fired’. To one extent I understand the use of it – it almost comes across like the use of ‘wham’ and ‘kerpow’ in comic books.
I understand that this is based on a RPG – I confess, I have absolutely no idea how this compares so I’m not going to go there. What I can say is that if you like weird, wild and whacky pulp horror fiction then you might enjoy this.
I received a copy of this from the publishers through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
December 2, 2015
Confessions, I haven’t played the Deadlands RPG before nor did I have any clue as to what the game is about. So was a greenhorn thrust headlong into this fantastic world – a weird western landscape where the discovery of “ghost-rock” has accelerated technological innovations and at the same time, thinned the veil between worlds to allow for other-worldly ‘souls’ to invade the human realm. And man, did I love this pulpy adventure or what.
This unlikely juxtaposition of two to three different genres makes for a crackling hotbed of stories and ideas ripe for more. And Jonathan Maberry, the best-selling author of the Joe Ledger series, digs right in and comes up with pure gold in this opener to this franchise-based novels.
A highly entertaining story that is a mix of action, horror and comedy. This is not any high-brow literature but an all-out over-the-top mix of tropes done right, served as a heady concoction of blazing gun fights, zombies, necromancers, the untamed weird wild west at the turn of the nineteenth century mixed up with lovecraftian horrors – When I look back, this book has so many things crammed in to it that I cannot imagine how Jonathan pulled it all together. But he pulls it off and he does it in full elan – forcing us to love and cheer for these larger-than-life characters: The gunslinger with a haunted past, the red-indian sidekick who speaks too much for his own good and the distraught lady in town who attracts danger like blood in the water draws sharks and of course the indomitable villain who wants to conquer the world. It all somehow fits in.
The small desert town of Paradise Falls forms the center point of an epic conflict when Grey Torrance, a mercenary gun-hand unwittingly finds himself drawn into a fight for saving this town. Looks Away, a Sioux whose life Grey saves, is determined to ‘protect’ his friends in this town from the predatory dogs – Capitalists in search of ‘ghost-rock’ who want to wipe out the population there. This also happens to be where he last interacted with his ‘boss’, an eminent scientist named Percival Saint also prospecting for traces of ghost-rock in this town. Grey – a free radical with a haunted past, is also drawn to Jenny, the sassy strong willed girl who is determined not to give up her father’s dream, that is her hometown. The fight snowballs into something way beyond epic when Grey realized his adversaries are not simple merchants out to buy some real-estate – but vile necromancers capable of reviving not just dead bodies/corpses and subjugating them to his will but also command demon-souls from other worlds to do his bidding.
The guns never stop shooting, the zombies keep coming – and Jonathan throws in his own flavor of the lovecraftian horror mix that will have you flinching and gasping - to keep things on the boil and he never takes his foot off the pedal. Every chapter ends on a tense note, drawing us headlong into this pulpy adventure as we race towards a cataclysmic ending.
I loved it. The perfect book to spend your grey rainy afternoons imagining the purplish lightning and the bright blue explosions as the world goes to hell. I am kicking myself for not having read any more Jonathan Maberry books. It’s a treat for newcomers but am sure all the fans of the Deadlands are loving it, in equal measure – as Jonathan does full justice to the potential of this vast and highly innovative franchise.
This unlikely juxtaposition of two to three different genres makes for a crackling hotbed of stories and ideas ripe for more. And Jonathan Maberry, the best-selling author of the Joe Ledger series, digs right in and comes up with pure gold in this opener to this franchise-based novels.
A highly entertaining story that is a mix of action, horror and comedy. This is not any high-brow literature but an all-out over-the-top mix of tropes done right, served as a heady concoction of blazing gun fights, zombies, necromancers, the untamed weird wild west at the turn of the nineteenth century mixed up with lovecraftian horrors – When I look back, this book has so many things crammed in to it that I cannot imagine how Jonathan pulled it all together. But he pulls it off and he does it in full elan – forcing us to love and cheer for these larger-than-life characters: The gunslinger with a haunted past, the red-indian sidekick who speaks too much for his own good and the distraught lady in town who attracts danger like blood in the water draws sharks and of course the indomitable villain who wants to conquer the world. It all somehow fits in.
The small desert town of Paradise Falls forms the center point of an epic conflict when Grey Torrance, a mercenary gun-hand unwittingly finds himself drawn into a fight for saving this town. Looks Away, a Sioux whose life Grey saves, is determined to ‘protect’ his friends in this town from the predatory dogs – Capitalists in search of ‘ghost-rock’ who want to wipe out the population there. This also happens to be where he last interacted with his ‘boss’, an eminent scientist named Percival Saint also prospecting for traces of ghost-rock in this town. Grey – a free radical with a haunted past, is also drawn to Jenny, the sassy strong willed girl who is determined not to give up her father’s dream, that is her hometown. The fight snowballs into something way beyond epic when Grey realized his adversaries are not simple merchants out to buy some real-estate – but vile necromancers capable of reviving not just dead bodies/corpses and subjugating them to his will but also command demon-souls from other worlds to do his bidding.
The guns never stop shooting, the zombies keep coming – and Jonathan throws in his own flavor of the lovecraftian horror mix that will have you flinching and gasping - to keep things on the boil and he never takes his foot off the pedal. Every chapter ends on a tense note, drawing us headlong into this pulpy adventure as we race towards a cataclysmic ending.
I loved it. The perfect book to spend your grey rainy afternoons imagining the purplish lightning and the bright blue explosions as the world goes to hell. I am kicking myself for not having read any more Jonathan Maberry books. It’s a treat for newcomers but am sure all the fans of the Deadlands are loving it, in equal measure – as Jonathan does full justice to the potential of this vast and highly innovative franchise.
July 1, 2017
A wandering gunslinger, haunted by his own past, joins forces with a Sioux scientist in protecting a small town form a diabolical madman bent on conquering the territory with his army of undead soldiers.
Truthfully, I don't expect much from novels based on games anymore. I have been burned by too many in the past. They tend to either read like a game session thinly turned into a story or a story that follows logic that only works in a video game. The worst is the stories that do neither the game or the story itself, any justice. Thankfully, this story rises above these complaints. It is a well crafted story mixing the old west, horror, steampunk, and alternative history that will keep the reader turning pages. At the same time, it nicely showcases different aspects of the role playing game without reading like a game journal.
Truthfully, I don't expect much from novels based on games anymore. I have been burned by too many in the past. They tend to either read like a game session thinly turned into a story or a story that follows logic that only works in a video game. The worst is the stories that do neither the game or the story itself, any justice. Thankfully, this story rises above these complaints. It is a well crafted story mixing the old west, horror, steampunk, and alternative history that will keep the reader turning pages. At the same time, it nicely showcases different aspects of the role playing game without reading like a game journal.
October 22, 2018
I picked this book up because I love weird westerns, and I have always had a fascination of the Deadlands RPG. I had read a number of the Deadlands novellas before this, as well as a few other weird westerns, so I was ready to dive into another weird western. Unfortunately, I should have noticed the author before picking this up, and by the time I realized it was a Maberry work, I was half way through the novel.
Maberry is an amazing action scene writer. His combats, be they melee or ranged, are fantastic. They flow from one element to the next, capturing just the right amount of description to keep things interesting. And thankfully this novel contains a lot of those kinds of scenes, turning each into a fast paced, page turning adventure.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book suffers from Maberry's main writing flaw.
Pacing.
When not locked in combat, Maberry slows the pace to a snail's crawl with loads of exposition, overdrawn character development (where the characters don't really evolve), and more brooding than Batman. This means the reader is being taken through a story that reads like a bad driver learning stick. And with the novel being 400+ pages long, this is a lot of start-stop pacing to work through and the main reason I would have not picked up this book had I seen Maberry's name on it.
Now don't get me wrong, Maberry's a good writer with everything else, and has a number of high profile series under his name. But his pacing issue exists in a majority of his work. (and is the reason I didn't get past the first chapter of The Dragon Factory) Now part of the problem could be that he, or the publisher, decided he should cram as much of the Deadlands into this book as possible. Dinosaurs, steampunk war machines, undead everything, and so on. This book has it all and then some, which easily could have been left out to streamline the story line and help with the pacing.
The characters are also handled well, with some of the side characters becoming as interesting as Grey was. They behaved believably, and each had enough agency to come across as strong people in charge of their own destiny. Looks Away seemed to be the only one who felt a little out of place, with his upbringing and mannerisms being more the idea of what the American and Canadian governments wanted to happen to the Native peoples than him being an actual Native character himself. (assimilation and such)
In the end, just shy of two years after starting this book, I am glad it is done. It took forever to read, and in the end the climax of the story did pay out big, it took far too long to get to and felt far less rewarding than it should have.
Still, I gave this book three stars. Why? As I mentioned, the writing of the action scenes and characters was pretty good. The setting was handled well, and even though they were crammed in there, the Deadlands elements were most certainly there and handled well enough for the first book in a series. I can say this is not the best Deadlands book out there, but if you have the time and can work past Maberry's start-stop writing, you may enjoy this novel. (as other reviews can attest) It was just not for me.
Maberry is an amazing action scene writer. His combats, be they melee or ranged, are fantastic. They flow from one element to the next, capturing just the right amount of description to keep things interesting. And thankfully this novel contains a lot of those kinds of scenes, turning each into a fast paced, page turning adventure.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book suffers from Maberry's main writing flaw.
Pacing.
When not locked in combat, Maberry slows the pace to a snail's crawl with loads of exposition, overdrawn character development (where the characters don't really evolve), and more brooding than Batman. This means the reader is being taken through a story that reads like a bad driver learning stick. And with the novel being 400+ pages long, this is a lot of start-stop pacing to work through and the main reason I would have not picked up this book had I seen Maberry's name on it.
Now don't get me wrong, Maberry's a good writer with everything else, and has a number of high profile series under his name. But his pacing issue exists in a majority of his work. (and is the reason I didn't get past the first chapter of The Dragon Factory) Now part of the problem could be that he, or the publisher, decided he should cram as much of the Deadlands into this book as possible. Dinosaurs, steampunk war machines, undead everything, and so on. This book has it all and then some, which easily could have been left out to streamline the story line and help with the pacing.
The characters are also handled well, with some of the side characters becoming as interesting as Grey was. They behaved believably, and each had enough agency to come across as strong people in charge of their own destiny. Looks Away seemed to be the only one who felt a little out of place, with his upbringing and mannerisms being more the idea of what the American and Canadian governments wanted to happen to the Native peoples than him being an actual Native character himself. (assimilation and such)
In the end, just shy of two years after starting this book, I am glad it is done. It took forever to read, and in the end the climax of the story did pay out big, it took far too long to get to and felt far less rewarding than it should have.
Still, I gave this book three stars. Why? As I mentioned, the writing of the action scenes and characters was pretty good. The setting was handled well, and even though they were crammed in there, the Deadlands elements were most certainly there and handled well enough for the first book in a series. I can say this is not the best Deadlands book out there, but if you have the time and can work past Maberry's start-stop writing, you may enjoy this novel. (as other reviews can attest) It was just not for me.
May 18, 2020
Deadlands was a unique RPG, set in a very different America. It was the story of the Weird West, not the Wild West, with everything changing from the Civil War forward as strange creatures emerged, dark powers from fairy tales proved to be real, and scientists came up with impossible gadgets.
Grey Torrance, warrior and man seeking redemption, meets Looks Away, a Lakota (more on that later) who has a very unusual story to him. Together, the two journey to Paradise Falls in what used to be California but is now known as the Maze after the land was wracked by a monstrous earthquake.
Grey finds a fascinating woman in Jennie Pearl, daughter of Lucky Bob Pearl, hero of the town who has been missing for far too long. Jennie, Grey, and Looks Away probe into the strange dealings of the madman Deray and the local crooked rich man Nolan Chesterfield.
What they find is more horrible than they expected, even in a world of real monsters. Can they save the town, stem the tide of evil, and deal with the chaos from ever-progressing Weird Science?
It's a fun story based on a game I loved to play. The only drawbacks were, I think, mandated by the company, not the author. There were a few more modern terms than felt right for the period. The Lakota prefer to be called their own name, not the "Sioux" label hung on them by the French. And there were a few tiny bits of repetition that were a bit odd, like rifles, when dropped, always spinning through air and landing barrel-down in mud.
It's a fun read, whether or not you've played the game. And now I want to play again.
Grey Torrance, warrior and man seeking redemption, meets Looks Away, a Lakota (more on that later) who has a very unusual story to him. Together, the two journey to Paradise Falls in what used to be California but is now known as the Maze after the land was wracked by a monstrous earthquake.
Grey finds a fascinating woman in Jennie Pearl, daughter of Lucky Bob Pearl, hero of the town who has been missing for far too long. Jennie, Grey, and Looks Away probe into the strange dealings of the madman Deray and the local crooked rich man Nolan Chesterfield.
What they find is more horrible than they expected, even in a world of real monsters. Can they save the town, stem the tide of evil, and deal with the chaos from ever-progressing Weird Science?
It's a fun story based on a game I loved to play. The only drawbacks were, I think, mandated by the company, not the author. There were a few more modern terms than felt right for the period. The Lakota prefer to be called their own name, not the "Sioux" label hung on them by the French. And there were a few tiny bits of repetition that were a bit odd, like rifles, when dropped, always spinning through air and landing barrel-down in mud.
It's a fun read, whether or not you've played the game. And now I want to play again.
July 8, 2021
I was introduced the the RPG game Deadlands about a year & a half ago & loved playing the game. So I wanted to read this as a way to get to know the world the Sheriff (Game Master/Dungeon Master is this game is called) was trying to create. Now I wish the Sheriff I had was 1/3 as competent of a storyteller as Jonathan Maberry is. There wasn't a character is this book I didn't like & I so enjoy characters that are looking for a path to redemption & Grey Tolerance is such a character. The story does include some very unusual zombies, to include a undead saber-tooth tiger & velociraptor. Those alone would've got me to read this book. Ray Porter's narration of this book superb, as I've listened to several other audiobooks he has narrated.
January 21, 2019
Leide war es nicht meins. Die Sprache, die Figuren und deren Handlungen habe mir nicht so zugesagt. Mir wurde schnell langweilig und ich gestehe ich habe vieles nur überflogen.
September 18, 2015
This book was very kindly provided by Tor through Net Galley in return for an honest review.
_________
Let's get this out of the way first -- I love Deadlands.
For those who aren't familiar with it, Deadlands is a tabletop RPG combining the Old West setting with the mad science of pulp novels and the creepy horror notes of Lovecraftian and zombie tales. In addition to its own system, has also been converted to a number of more common tabletops over the years. I personally have the original books and the sourcebooks for both GURPS and Savage Worlds. They're generally the only source books I will take down and thumb through just for fun. Deadlands was one of my favorite games to play, one of the first ones I ever GMed and retains a spot in my heart as my favorite tabletop setting ever.
So when I heard Tor was putting out a series of books based on the setting, I'm pretty sure I couldn't have been more excited. So, if that matters to you, keep it in mind - I'm a fan, who thinks this is a spectacular setting for storytelling.
So, how about "Ghostwalkers" - is it good?
Yes. Yes, it's good. If you know Deadlands, it has most of what you want it to have. If you don't know Deadlands but think the idea of Cthulu showing up in a spaghetti Western would make for a heavenly bit of reading, you'll probably like it as well. It's an entertaining adventure with a cast of colorful characters, a bestiary of incredible creatures and a hero on a rough and rocky journey toward redemption.
Our main character is Grey Torrance, a man on the run from his past who can't quite stop himself from doing the right thing. When he comes upon a posse chasing after a Native American, the odds of six against one strike him as a bit off, so he involves himself. In doing so, he meets Looks Away, a Sioux scientist searching for a colleague, and gets set on a path toward a bigger destiny than he ever wanted.
As is almost required, Grey is a gunslinger - the sort old Roland of Gilead would probably say remembers the face of his father, even if he won't admit it. He finds himself tied up in the danger to a town called Paradise Falls, in the Great Maze of California, and from the moment that starts, the book is a pretty relentless runaway train, action piling into action until it reaches the wild final conflict where guns and philosophies cross.
If there's a definable weakness to this book, it's the beginning. The scenes are all interesting, xploring these new characters and the world around them, but there's something a little bit... I don't want to say episodic, not really. Disjointed maybe? The narrative smooths out quite a bit once they reach California and from that point the brakes are off. Also, this isn't a book you're going to read for the language, but it does sometimes manage to get quite evocative, bringing the oddities of this Old West to life. Still, there are some issues with the writing that you might notice - phrases that get returned to again and again, and a focus on certain types of description. If you're sensitive to that sort of thing, be warned.
Grey and Looks Away are both interesting characters, friends and at odds with one another in the same paragraph. Their interactions were my favorite part of this whole story. I'd honestly enjoy reading the continuing adventures of Grey and Looks Away. :) You will find they're not the most complicated and deeply developed characters in the world, but they're not really meant to be for the type of story this is trying to be.
The rest of the world is likewise filled with the sort of wonderful, colorful and broad characters you expect from a weird and violent western. There's corrupt lawmen, sharp-shooting rancherwomen, greedy rail barons, priests and honest cowboys and evil men trying to drive good folks off their homesteads.
And for those who want to know how it stacks up as a Deadlands story, they have you covered there too. There's weird and deadly mad-science devices, undead and Harrowed and Manitou, creatures that have no business in the modern-for-this-book United States, ghosts, the Great Maze and, of course, ghost ore to drive it all. The book explains it all for the benefit of people who aren't familiar with these terms and concepts, but I never found that the explanations took away from the book for me. I could have done with a huckster or some shamanistic magic, but there's two more books and I can be patient. :)
So if you want an adventure and love an old west setting with a twist, I really recommend this. It captures the mix of grit and romanticism of the old west, adds in a relentless villain who hangs like a shadow over the whole thing, and keeps the action piling ahead like a stampede. It's pretty much exactly what I wanted from this book.
_________
Let's get this out of the way first -- I love Deadlands.
For those who aren't familiar with it, Deadlands is a tabletop RPG combining the Old West setting with the mad science of pulp novels and the creepy horror notes of Lovecraftian and zombie tales. In addition to its own system, has also been converted to a number of more common tabletops over the years. I personally have the original books and the sourcebooks for both GURPS and Savage Worlds. They're generally the only source books I will take down and thumb through just for fun. Deadlands was one of my favorite games to play, one of the first ones I ever GMed and retains a spot in my heart as my favorite tabletop setting ever.
So when I heard Tor was putting out a series of books based on the setting, I'm pretty sure I couldn't have been more excited. So, if that matters to you, keep it in mind - I'm a fan, who thinks this is a spectacular setting for storytelling.
So, how about "Ghostwalkers" - is it good?
Yes. Yes, it's good. If you know Deadlands, it has most of what you want it to have. If you don't know Deadlands but think the idea of Cthulu showing up in a spaghetti Western would make for a heavenly bit of reading, you'll probably like it as well. It's an entertaining adventure with a cast of colorful characters, a bestiary of incredible creatures and a hero on a rough and rocky journey toward redemption.
Our main character is Grey Torrance, a man on the run from his past who can't quite stop himself from doing the right thing. When he comes upon a posse chasing after a Native American, the odds of six against one strike him as a bit off, so he involves himself. In doing so, he meets Looks Away, a Sioux scientist searching for a colleague, and gets set on a path toward a bigger destiny than he ever wanted.
As is almost required, Grey is a gunslinger - the sort old Roland of Gilead would probably say remembers the face of his father, even if he won't admit it. He finds himself tied up in the danger to a town called Paradise Falls, in the Great Maze of California, and from the moment that starts, the book is a pretty relentless runaway train, action piling into action until it reaches the wild final conflict where guns and philosophies cross.
If there's a definable weakness to this book, it's the beginning. The scenes are all interesting, xploring these new characters and the world around them, but there's something a little bit... I don't want to say episodic, not really. Disjointed maybe? The narrative smooths out quite a bit once they reach California and from that point the brakes are off. Also, this isn't a book you're going to read for the language, but it does sometimes manage to get quite evocative, bringing the oddities of this Old West to life. Still, there are some issues with the writing that you might notice - phrases that get returned to again and again, and a focus on certain types of description. If you're sensitive to that sort of thing, be warned.
Grey and Looks Away are both interesting characters, friends and at odds with one another in the same paragraph. Their interactions were my favorite part of this whole story. I'd honestly enjoy reading the continuing adventures of Grey and Looks Away. :) You will find they're not the most complicated and deeply developed characters in the world, but they're not really meant to be for the type of story this is trying to be.
The rest of the world is likewise filled with the sort of wonderful, colorful and broad characters you expect from a weird and violent western. There's corrupt lawmen, sharp-shooting rancherwomen, greedy rail barons, priests and honest cowboys and evil men trying to drive good folks off their homesteads.
And for those who want to know how it stacks up as a Deadlands story, they have you covered there too. There's weird and deadly mad-science devices, undead and Harrowed and Manitou, creatures that have no business in the modern-for-this-book United States, ghosts, the Great Maze and, of course, ghost ore to drive it all. The book explains it all for the benefit of people who aren't familiar with these terms and concepts, but I never found that the explanations took away from the book for me. I could have done with a huckster or some shamanistic magic, but there's two more books and I can be patient. :)
So if you want an adventure and love an old west setting with a twist, I really recommend this. It captures the mix of grit and romanticism of the old west, adds in a relentless villain who hangs like a shadow over the whole thing, and keeps the action piling ahead like a stampede. It's pretty much exactly what I wanted from this book.
September 25, 2015
I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is in no way reflected in my opinion of this book.
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers was my first foray into the Deadlands universe, but if this book is an example of the stories I'll find there I'll be going back soon and often! A combination of weird western and steampunk horror with a definite Lovecraftian feel, this novel had me hooked from the very beginning. The descriptions and action were so well written I felt like I was fighting along side the people of Paradise Falls. The characters were believable and easy to care about, feeling like friends by the end of the story. I loved Thomas Looks Away, Grey Torrance, and Jenny most although there were several other characters that were a lot of fun as well. The plot has a few twists that I didn't see coming that made the story even better and touching in places. Jonathan Maberry has once again captured my imagination and left me wanting more, proving why he is one of my favorite authors. A fast paced and fabulous 5 star thrill ride that fans of the weird west, steampunk and horror will love to be on.
May 22, 2018
Don't let the fact that this book is based on an RPG game discourage you from reading it. If you do, you will only be denying yourself an epic read.
While it is a bit of a long read, this book is NOT boring in any way, shape or form. There is plenty adventure, great dialog, and character development within the pages to keep you going until the very last page. I developed a deep fondness for the two main characters (Grey and Looks Away). They are strong characters, and can totally stand on their own two feet, but together, they are a dynamic duo with the best freaking conversations.
This book was lively, exciting, and so enjoyable to me, that I am bitter it had to end. It deserves all the five stars I'm giving it. I will make a spot for this on my bookshelf.
Everyone should read this superb tale.
While it is a bit of a long read, this book is NOT boring in any way, shape or form. There is plenty adventure, great dialog, and character development within the pages to keep you going until the very last page. I developed a deep fondness for the two main characters (Grey and Looks Away). They are strong characters, and can totally stand on their own two feet, but together, they are a dynamic duo with the best freaking conversations.
This book was lively, exciting, and so enjoyable to me, that I am bitter it had to end. It deserves all the five stars I'm giving it. I will make a spot for this on my bookshelf.
Everyone should read this superb tale.
April 3, 2024
Joyously pulpy, equally packed with knowingly tropey fun and an earnest loving poetry, Maberry (who I have now come to find is enormously prolific) packs the story with a wholesellers stock of Fantasy Western concepts that really sells the endless possibilities of any number of table games of the Deadlands TTRPG. I especially want to mention the audiobook narrator Ray Porter who's excellent voicework really shines in this performance, really brought the characters to life and awed me in just the range of acting.
June 7, 2017
I really like Mabberry's style. This is a Deadlands story so it's western horror but we find the author adding way more character background than one usually finds in such. You really care about the townsfolk good and bad. Evil is still evil but they once were human.
December 28, 2015
enjoyed it I always liked the idea of the Deadlands looking forward to the next ones
September 20, 2015
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A Copy of this Book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for a Honest Review.
The Official Book Blurb:
“From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.
Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called “ghost rock” fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.
In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction . . . and an army of the living dead!”
Let me say right here, right now, there will be spoilers. I have quite a bit to talk about with this particular book and I cannot fully express my thoughts without spoiling some things. So be aware of that.
I will however save some time and put a sort of “Too Long Didn’t Read” review right here: Deadlands: Ghostwalkers does a whole lot wrong, but there is the potential for a decent story here. If you are not a fan of the Deadlands universe I would avoid this book simply on the fact that its plodding, overly descriptive, and long-winded If you are a fan, its worth a read just to possibly get ideas for your own game, or to expand the world of Deadlands.
Now, for those who want my full thoughts, well, hold on to your butts as they say because its time to get down to business.
Overall, I did not enjoy my time with this book. Its plodding overly descriptive nature marred what could have been a wild ride. I give it a 3/5. If you are a fan of epic westerns and don’t mind the pacing issues, give this a try. Deadlands fan’s should enjoy it quite a bit. I will admit my mind was changed at the end simply because of how everything came together, but I still wouldn't read it again.
A Copy of this Book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for a Honest Review.
The Official Book Blurb:
“From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.
Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called “ghost rock” fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.
In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction . . . and an army of the living dead!”
Let me say right here, right now, there will be spoilers. I have quite a bit to talk about with this particular book and I cannot fully express my thoughts without spoiling some things. So be aware of that.
I will however save some time and put a sort of “Too Long Didn’t Read” review right here: Deadlands: Ghostwalkers does a whole lot wrong, but there is the potential for a decent story here. If you are not a fan of the Deadlands universe I would avoid this book simply on the fact that its plodding, overly descriptive, and long-winded If you are a fan, its worth a read just to possibly get ideas for your own game, or to expand the world of Deadlands.
Now, for those who want my full thoughts, well, hold on to your butts as they say because its time to get down to business.
Overall, I did not enjoy my time with this book. Its plodding overly descriptive nature marred what could have been a wild ride. I give it a 3/5. If you are a fan of epic westerns and don’t mind the pacing issues, give this a try. Deadlands fan’s should enjoy it quite a bit. I will admit my mind was changed at the end simply because of how everything came together, but I still wouldn't read it again.
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