Death Watch

The Survivalist #27

by Jerry Ahern

In the years following World War III, the Nazis prepare for a final attack on the Trans-Global Alliance, and ex-CIA cover operations officer John Thomas Rourke is determined to stop the Nazis. Original.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Jerry Ahern (born Jerome Morrell Ahern) was a science fiction and action novel author best known for his post apocalyptic survivalist series The Survivalist. The books in this series are heavy with descriptions of the weapons the protagonists use to survive and prosecute a seemingly never-ending war amongst the remnants of the superpowers from pre-apocalypse times.

Ahern was also a firearms writer, who published numerous articles in magazines such as Guns & Ammo, Handguns and Gun World.

Jerry Ahern passed away on July 24, 2012 after a long struggle with cancer.

Ahern also released books under pseudonym Axel Kilgore.

Reviews

[Craig]

Death Watch is the twenty-ninth book in The Survivalist series, and the last of the Zebra paperbacks. It does wrap up the series, not necessarily the way you would like or tying up every loose end, but it makes sense and has a hopeful if bittersweet conclusion. After well over eight thousand pages of a family soap opera the characters were quite real, and no long-time reader could have been completely happy with the end. John and the gang deserved some time to rest and enjoy life at last. The Survivalist is John Thomas Rourke, a doctor and ex-CIA agent and weapons expert. The story was very sequential, and by now there was a whole heaping lot of backstory in what was the longest and most successful series in Zebra's "Men's Adventure" line of the 1980s and early '90s. The first ten books detailed a Soviet nuclear strike, told how Rourke survived Armageddon, searched for his family, fought the invading KGB, fought the surviving U.S. citizenry who had gone feral, helped set up a new U.S. government, fell platonically in love with a beautiful Russian double-agent, had amazing adventures with his new buddy Paul, and then, just when he'd been re-united with his wife Sarah and their two kids, Michael and Annie, he learned that the world was going to end, for real this time, or so he believed at the time. So, always the survivor, he put Paul and Natalia and his family into cryogenic suspension chambers and woke up to a whole new world, five hundred years later. Then, several books later, he has to do it again for another time jump/reset, but just for a bit over a century this time. Standard disclaimer: JTR catalogues his weapons collection quite frequently, which always seems to take too long; they're skimmable or skippable, like you'd ignore commercials on tv or skip over advertisements in comic books. Anyway, this new world is dominated by Nazis. The focus on the final few books in the series goes from less of a political story to more of a post-apocalyptic theme, and the science fictiony idea of cloning becomes pivotal. The worst of the bad guys is named Zimmer, who raised one of JTR's sons of all things. Now, the planet's going to blow up unless they set off a nuclear back-blast. Zimmer controls the armory. It's one last all-or-nothing foray for JTR (fresh from a heart transplant) and the gang... if you haven't read at least some of the previous books, you're probably lost altogether. It's yet another vast and glorious cartoon serial comic book story... It's a very well-told and fast-paced story with some good humor, a fast read peopled with clear cut good guys and bad guys. I didn't agree with the extremity of some of the political philosophy, but Ahern was a great storyteller, and Rourke's friends-and-family dynamics were a truly compelling continuing soap opera. This twenty-ninth volume was labeled as number twenty-seven, which led to unending confusion about the proper continuity. Two super-sized volumes appeared at the beginning of the major resets without numbers, Mid-Wake and The Legend, which Goodreads lists as #28 and #29 for some reason, though I've also seen them as 15.5 and 22.5 elsewhere. Zebra continued their misleading, confusing, and erroneous numbering for the duration of the series, but you have to read all (or at least some!) of them in publication order to follow the overall story.

[Little Timmy]

This is my favorite adventure series. Dr John Thomas Rourke leads his family and friends through a post apocalyptic world fighting ever step if the way. Fantastic characters and plots. Very detailed weapon descriptions. Excellent series. My highest recommendation

[Joseph B]

The world faces imminent destruction as the supervolcano threat seems inevitable. Zimmer and Martin have ensured they'll live forever. Meanwhile John recovers from his heart transplant; that heart ripped from the body of his clone. Ahern explores the ethics of using the clone as an organ donor. As well as some somewhat preachy moments about what made John and Co. in the right so often (expect more Aryn Rand references!). Given this is the final book in the series, at least initially was before the 2010s continuation. However peace is within grasp; as a splinter group of Nazi forces vows against Zimmer. Allying with the Trans-Global Alliance after learning of the omega contingency. A virus Zimmer will unleash to wipe out every living thing on the planet. Rourke and everyone he has allied with races to stop Zimmer.

John Rourke, Natalia Tiemerovna, Paul Rubenstein. We have journeyed with them for 29 books. It is almost bittersweet to see it all end. It is a satisfying if not predictable ending. 4 1/2 stars out of 5 for pulp fans.