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The DNA Cowboys #1-3
The DNA Cowboys Trilogy: The Quest of the DNA Cowboys/Synaptic Manhunt/The Neural Atrocity
Written practically non-stop in 1975 and 1976 The DNA Cowboys Trilogy offers fantastic adventures into the unknown and unexpected. With influences that range from Star Trek to Kung Fu, from the Marquis de Sade to Sam Peckinpah, Farren has created a bizarre universe populated with pre-teen dictators, huge twin-brained domestic lizards, and growing bio-computers tended by martial arts-practising monks. Farren let his imagination run wild and the results are awesome. Expect fanciful weapons, medieval jails, public hangings, Albert Speer architecture, gunfights, stiletto heels and femmes fatales in tight clothing, orgies, orgasms, and undefined monsters called Disruptors that suck up all life and logic.
The Quest of the DNA Cowboys: Striding out of the small township of Pleasant Gap - reproduction pistols in their hands, portable generators at their belt - come Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys. They hit the long and winding trail through the molecular dissolution of the Nothings, teetering on the edge of non-existence, to Graveyard and beyond...
Synaptic Manhunt: Brother Jeb Stuart Ho's mission will take him out into the sick, post-cataclysmic world, to the pleasure city of Litz, with its Sex-O-Mats, its Torture-Parlours, its genetically-bred courtesans, where Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys, have found their private hells.
The Neural Atrocity: The all-knowing, all-providing computer at Stuff Central has made a critical error that could mean the end of human life. Against all its programming, the cloning plant at Stuff Central has supplied A.A. Catto - sadistic child-woman ruler of Quahal - with enough genetically-engineered soldiers to realise her dream of world conquest. The Brotherhood orders Jeb Stuart Ho to stop her.
The Quest of the DNA Cowboys: Striding out of the small township of Pleasant Gap - reproduction pistols in their hands, portable generators at their belt - come Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys. They hit the long and winding trail through the molecular dissolution of the Nothings, teetering on the edge of non-existence, to Graveyard and beyond...
Synaptic Manhunt: Brother Jeb Stuart Ho's mission will take him out into the sick, post-cataclysmic world, to the pleasure city of Litz, with its Sex-O-Mats, its Torture-Parlours, its genetically-bred courtesans, where Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys, have found their private hells.
The Neural Atrocity: The all-knowing, all-providing computer at Stuff Central has made a critical error that could mean the end of human life. Against all its programming, the cloning plant at Stuff Central has supplied A.A. Catto - sadistic child-woman ruler of Quahal - with enough genetically-engineered soldiers to realise her dream of world conquest. The Brotherhood orders Jeb Stuart Ho to stop her.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
532 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Mick Farren
69 books84 followersFarren was the singer with the proto-punk English band The Deviants between 1967 and 1969, releasing three albums. In 1970 he released the solo album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus which also featured Steve Peregrin Took, John Gustafson and Paul Buckmaster, before leaving the music business to concentrate on his writing.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 15, 2020
DNF. tw: mention of rape.
started as fun pulpy science fiction, devolved into absolute garbage. no emotional consequences for any characters, nothing interesting about the world is actually fleshed out. i was gonna give it two stars because sometimes it’s funny but the gang rape at the end made me put it down and never intend to read again. so many interesting foundations, but the author apparently couldn’t stand to do a second edit or get a proofread from someone who actually knows how stories work.
started as fun pulpy science fiction, devolved into absolute garbage. no emotional consequences for any characters, nothing interesting about the world is actually fleshed out. i was gonna give it two stars because sometimes it’s funny but the gang rape at the end made me put it down and never intend to read again. so many interesting foundations, but the author apparently couldn’t stand to do a second edit or get a proofread from someone who actually knows how stories work.
May 29, 2026
I read the DNA Cowboys trilogy about 25 years ago and it completely blew my mind at the time. Looking back at it now, it really is just pure, drug-induced 1970s sci-fi pulp reading. The whole thing is incredibly corny and honestly pretty inappropriate. Mick Farren was running on that raw, offensive UK punk energy from those days, throwing in everything from public executions to random orgies just to shock people.
But that completely trashy, jagged energy is exactly why the characters work so well. Billy Oblivion and the rest of the crew have this bizarre vibe that would make an amazing, stylized late-night film that would be perfect for some back-alley art cinema.
He also threw in this crazy she/they concept that actually managed to be interesting. To me, it wasn't necessarily about being progressive, it was just Farren messing around with fluid identity to add to the total chaos of the world, and it completely worked. The constant tension between she/they and the encroaching darkness added some interesting moments between chapters. A side quest, if you will.
It cracks me up to see people leaving one-star reviews on it today because of its content. I think these reviews completely miss the point because they seem to stem from modern outrage culture where everyone immediately howls the second they run into something graphic or highly inappropriate. No, I am not condoning the content or the actions of these characters. You can’t look at raw 1970s counterculture through a pristine, hyper-sensitive lens and expect it to comply with today's societal rules.
You just have to accept it for what it is. It is dated, offensive, and incredibly hokey, and that is exactly why it's such an interesting read.
But that completely trashy, jagged energy is exactly why the characters work so well. Billy Oblivion and the rest of the crew have this bizarre vibe that would make an amazing, stylized late-night film that would be perfect for some back-alley art cinema.
He also threw in this crazy she/they concept that actually managed to be interesting. To me, it wasn't necessarily about being progressive, it was just Farren messing around with fluid identity to add to the total chaos of the world, and it completely worked. The constant tension between she/they and the encroaching darkness added some interesting moments between chapters. A side quest, if you will.
It cracks me up to see people leaving one-star reviews on it today because of its content. I think these reviews completely miss the point because they seem to stem from modern outrage culture where everyone immediately howls the second they run into something graphic or highly inappropriate. No, I am not condoning the content or the actions of these characters. You can’t look at raw 1970s counterculture through a pristine, hyper-sensitive lens and expect it to comply with today's societal rules.
You just have to accept it for what it is. It is dated, offensive, and incredibly hokey, and that is exactly why it's such an interesting read.
April 22, 2026
Not really my thing. Just random goofyness happening constantly.
August 12, 2016
Started off promising but main characters' lack of emotional reactions to key plot developments in 'Synaptic Manhunt' (Book 2 of 3) too unrealistic/unexplored to make the last part of the trilogy feel like anything more than a cartoon. Frustrating read to the end. Overall: Disappointing
July 5, 2014
Sci-fi, fantasy and sex you say? Sounded right up my street, until I actually tried to read it - turgid writing, tedious characters, frankly this was boring. I abandoned it before the end, and I rarely do that with a book. Not worth the time.
November 6, 2015
I read The Quest of the DNA Cowboys many years ago and spotted the trilogy in a bookshop a while back. I finally got around to reading the trilogy this year.
A wild ride, this will not be for everyone. Weird as, but I enjoyed the ride.
A wild ride, this will not be for everyone. Weird as, but I enjoyed the ride.
April 1, 2008
This book had a lot of great and really fun ideas but as a whole the concepts in it weren't really fleshed out.
May 26, 2012
I really enjoyed this, despite its flaws. It has flaws. You will notice them. Will you care? Maybe.
July 26, 2012
Not the best writing in the world but very entertaining. I would love to revisit the world he created.
Read
January 9, 2013Farren at his best..look no further!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews