To Renew The Ages

by Robert Coulson, Kelly Freas (Illustrator), Roger Elwood (Editor)

North America, after the nuclear holocaust, is a hostile and desolate land - populated by tribes of barbaric savages and ferocious wild animals. From one of the few widely scattered settlements, Bill Ashley rides onto the Deadlands, searching for a chilling, unknown enemy that lures its prey by telepathy. Instead, he finds Tamara Bush, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. She considers him beneath contempt. But if she is ever to see her home again, Tamara knows she must accept Bill's protection.

Genres: Science Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1976

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the few Coulson books to appear without a collaborator. It's a good post-apocalyptic/holocaust novel with many familiar tropes of rebuilding civilization, developing ESPer powers, a nice romance (a -clean- romance, though- it was a Laser book!), and a fast-paced adventure. The Kelly Freas cover (Freas painted the covers of all 58 Laser books) is one of his goriest and most violent. The story may be a little dated, but it was a fun read.

[Ann aka Iftcan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting early post-apocalyptic novel. Basically, as the result of that good old stand-by nuclear holocaust, humans are finally starting to rebuild civilization in a few spots. Bill Ashley, a scout from one of those attempts at rebuilding things is searching for a mysterious danger that his people have heard of, but have no actual first hand knowledge of. Bill calls his people "barbarians" rather than savages, because they've begun to build communities and work together to create a better life for themselves.

Don't let the rather weird cover fool you--Bill IS human--he just had a run in with a bear, which cost him one eye and ruined his face. He volunteered to be the scout for his people because he felt that he was expendable, since none of the women of his people was willing to even look at him, never mind marry him.

So, there he is, wandering around, meeting up with small bands of peoples that he DOES classify as savages, when, suddenly, the band of people that he's with is attacked by a flying saucer with an energy weapon. He succeeds in using his bow and bringing down the ship, and discovers that it's piloted by a girl from another cut off group of people. But her people never lost their technology because it was a small city of scientists, engineers and assorted other wiz-kid types.

The 2 team up and the story moves on from there. It's rather dated now, which isn't surprising, since things have definitely changed since it's publishing in 1976, but the story and writing are solid, and it is still well worth the read.