Review: AFRIKORPS

The Setting
The year is 2175 and the earth has succumbed to the detrimental effects of greenhouse gasses  For over 100 years, humans have lived in biospheres, each strategically placed in various parts of the world.  Each biosphere is given certain pieces of human culture to protect, based on the geographic location.  Outside the biospheres, hostiles have taken back the wastelands.  Left for dead by the biosphere inhabitants, the hostiles are being slowly re-introduced into human society as Pioneers, colonists thrown out into the wastelands to help reseed the planet with mankind.

The Story
This series of 6 books follows the main character of TC Creighton, a veteran US tank commander with and eye on retirement.  Setting up the arc for the whole series, this book follows TC as he makes his way to Africa as part of a newly formed, multi-national military task force called Afrikorps..  Africa is decades behind the rest of the world in its technology and it has begun to fall prey to an enigmatic force from the south.  Known as the Marauders, their goal is to sweep across Africa, either recruiting or killing any and all inhabitants they encounter.  Their ultimate prize id the resource-rich lands of Europe to the north.

Enter Afrikorps, acting as the spear tip towards uniting as many of the nomadic tribes of Africa as possible in order to mount a sustainable resistance.  Leading from his high-tech tank, known as Ribald's Chariot, TC Creighton and his crew of rough and tumble tankers seek to recruit a nomadic shaman that may turnout to be the key to ultimate victory in the unforgiving deserts of Africa.  And so their journey begins...

My Thoughts
This was an overall good read, it left me interested enough to seek out the 2nd book of the series.  The characters are not all that deep but they serve to play their according roles.  I did find the lack of depth a little hard to take at times, it's not easy to care about what some of these people are saying without an anchor of some kind.  The flat characters are balanced by a suitable amount of tank warfare and that becomes the obvious draw in this story.

My hope for the rest of this series is that most of the ideas touched on in book 1 will be further explored and expanded upon in the subsequent volumes.

Final score: 6 out of 10

• Title: Afrikorps
  
• Author: Bill Dolan
  
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061002038
• Available at Amazon.com

Vicarious Living In The Aftermath

While I've always been a fan of zombies and all the related fiction/films, I've strayed from another love over the years. The love of survival in a post apocalyptic world. This genre of fiction has such a rich canvas of possibilities and I'll be exploring some of those on this blog.

I will state for the record...I like mindless violence and heroic archetypes. As a child of the 80's, I grew up in a culture of "America vs. Russia." It was prevalent in movies(Red Dawn), sports(U.S. Olympic Hockey Team), and politics(Mr.Gorbachev...tear down this wall!)  I read many books that followed this sentiment into the post apocalyptic world.  I remember The Doomsday Warrior and Aftermath series.  I didn't fully appreciate the pulpiness of those titles like I do now.

As for what to read, I'll be using the Post Apocalyptic Book List as my jumping off point.  I happen to be a fan of books in a series so I'll start with those.  I'll usually read the first title before committing to the whole series.  All my opinions and reactions will be shared here in the hope that others will be turned on to some fun reading.

My warning: Many of these books are out of print and very few are available in ebook or PDF forms.  My main source for the works will be Amazon.com, which seems like a fairly reasonable place to locate most of the older titles.

I encourage readers to follow my progress and suggest other books they feel would fit the bill of the post apocalyptic genre.  Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions.

Well, that's it...my vehicle has a full tank of juice, I've packed plenty of ammo, and I've taken my anti-radiation pills.  Let's turn the key and hit the gas.