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The Zone #5
Overkill
DEATH IS A WAY OF LIFE FOR THE NEW WARRIORS OF ARMAGEDDON
The cold war has turned white hot as the superpowers launch their deadly wipeout squads into the hellish strip of western Europe known as The Zone. War has become a fiery confrontation for supertanks, nuclear weapons and fiercely accurate missiles, but death is as bloody as ever for the warriors of tomorrow. American Major Revell and British Sergeant Hyde lead their joint NATO strike force up the wreckage and mine-strewn Elbe to the surrounded and besieged city of Hamburg. But the relief force arrives too late and too weakened to do more than join the desperate ill-fed, ill-armed defenders clinging to the ruins of the devastated city. With the stench of the dead hanging over the smoking rubble, they fight a hideous battle for survival against a Russian enemy grown savage with frustration in the nightmarish no-man's-land of... THE ZONE.
The cold war has turned white hot as the superpowers launch their deadly wipeout squads into the hellish strip of western Europe known as The Zone. War has become a fiery confrontation for supertanks, nuclear weapons and fiercely accurate missiles, but death is as bloody as ever for the warriors of tomorrow. American Major Revell and British Sergeant Hyde lead their joint NATO strike force up the wreckage and mine-strewn Elbe to the surrounded and besieged city of Hamburg. But the relief force arrives too late and too weakened to do more than join the desperate ill-fed, ill-armed defenders clinging to the ruins of the devastated city. With the stench of the dead hanging over the smoking rubble, they fight a hideous battle for survival against a Russian enemy grown savage with frustration in the nightmarish no-man's-land of... THE ZONE.
159 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 28, 2025
Overkill is the fifth novel in The Zone series. The first five were published in Great Britain in 1980-'82, then reprinted in the U.S. by Zebra with "Men's Adventure" printed on the spine as the genre category. (Zebra continued the series with another four books, and apparently a tenth volume was released by an electronic-only publisher in 2007.) The books are set in Europe during a ground war between NATO forces and Russia in a wasteland that's been repeatedly blasted by atomic, biological, and chemical weapons. In this one, Major Revell's and Sergeant Hyde's company are charged with
aiding in the defense of Hamburg, but they're too late. There's much savage violent warfare and war crimes and sex. Andrea, the beautiful psycho killer, has a rival named Inga; all of the rest of the females are prostitutes or victims. (Hence the mid-'80s men's adventure label.) Despite the future-setting, there's not much of science fiction feel to the book, because the war technology isn't much different from WWII. It's a competently done adventure and reads more like a shoot-'em-up video game narrative than anything else. It's not good literature but it is exactly what it wants to be.
aiding in the defense of Hamburg, but they're too late. There's much savage violent warfare and war crimes and sex. Andrea, the beautiful psycho killer, has a rival named Inga; all of the rest of the females are prostitutes or victims. (Hence the mid-'80s men's adventure label.) Despite the future-setting, there's not much of science fiction feel to the book, because the war technology isn't much different from WWII. It's a competently done adventure and reads more like a shoot-'em-up video game narrative than anything else. It's not good literature but it is exactly what it wants to be.
December 29, 2019
For a guy who writes so much about erections, the author is incredibly homophobic in this work. The action scenes are alright, but the writing/editing is pretty sloppy and the continual focus on sexual exploits detracts heavily from the Cold War-turned-hot fury of the first book in the fury. We get very little character development as we did in previous books either.
The focus on war crimes towards the end was interesting but very "Red Scare" with no critical self-analysis of war crimes as a problem on both sides of these conflicts.
The focus on war crimes towards the end was interesting but very "Red Scare" with no critical self-analysis of war crimes as a problem on both sides of these conflicts.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews