Doomsday Warrior #03 - The Last American

The third installment of Doomsday Warrior, The Last American, was authored by Ryder Syvertsen and Jan Stacy. It was published by Zebra in December 1984. 

The book begins with the series protagonist, Ted Rockson, leading a search-and-rescue mission for scientists. This inevitably leads to the pre-established formula of a mini adventure to open the novel. Only this time, Rockson is attacked by a L. Sprague de Camp monstrosity: a giant spider. He's injected with venom and descends into unconsciousness. After a series of medical procedures, Rockson is up and ready for the novel's two adventures, which is another staple of the series – a double matinee in each book.

In the first segment, Rockson chooses team member Chen to lead an annoying political activist and an older professor to an important meeting. There's an election happening to choose a new president. Each of these rebel cities must send a representative to vote and adopt a constitution. Of course, anytime a non-team character is introduced...it's to add to the body count. In this case, the older professor falls into a ravine and is munched to death by some mutant creatures. Eventually, the meeting happens, but it's ravaged by a Soviet attack. 

The book's second adventure finds Rockson, Kim (Rockson's girlfriend), and Kim's father injured after the attack. Rockson is rescued by a mountain man and nursed to health. Kim and her father are taken by mutants called Glowers. They have more in common with aliens than any mutant abomination. In fact, these Glowers are a kind race and use telepathy to communicate and heal. They are attempting to heal Kim, but need Rockson as her “true love” to immerse himself in her soul – literally. Rockson and the Glowers all unite in a telepathy orgie – no, seriously. It's metaphysical nonsense that seems way...like way...out of place here. But sometimes these 80s post-apocalyptic books take some sharp turns along the way. Doomsday Warrior is evolving into a weird title that blends a lot of ideas.

The Last American is a wacky trip laced with the typical G.I. Joe stuff that I've mentioned in my past reviews. Readers get a martial arts lesson from Chen, tepid sex, and a boring backstory as the two Soviet leaders spar. Overall, this seemed like a placeholder installment. Your mileage may vary.

Get The Last American HERE.

Doomsday Warrior #02 - Red America

The second Doomsday Warrior installment, Red America, was published in 1984 by Zebra Books. The series began with both Jan Stacy (The Last Ranger) and Ryder Syvertsen (C.A.D.S.) collaborating on the concept and writing the first four novels. Syvertsen solely took over writing duties for the remaining 15 installments. 

As I summarized in my review of the debut (HERE), the series is set in 2089. The nuked-out United States is now controlled by the Soviet Union, and most of the larger cities are ruled under a red iron fist. However, pockets of resistance still thrive across the country, partially led by a rebellion group called the American Free Cities. One of these liberated areas, Century City, is home to the Doomsday Warrior himself, the Ultimate American, Ted Rockson. 

As the novel begins, Rockson is leading this team of commandos on a mission to test a new laser rifle designed by Century City's premier scientist. Rockson's team is introduced like an episode of a G.I. Joe cartoon:

Detroit – African-American fighting man, second in command to Rockson
McCaughlin – Scotsman, the big brawler
Chen – Chinese-American ninja
Lang – The Kid, like a younger version of Rockson

The new rifle pays huge dividends as the team decimates over 100 Soviet vehicles and countless enemy soldiers and agents. But, through intel, Rockson learns that a secret red headquarters in Pavlov City is conducting a biological weapons campaign to turn Americans into fighting zombies. Yep. Fighting zombies.

After some graphic sex with girl Rhona, Rockson takes on a mission of locating and infiltrating Pavlov City. It is this early portion of the book that portrays Rockson like a lone cowboy, riding a hybrid beast creature across the wasteland, only to be captured by the bad guys. He gets a dose of unique torture – a powerful aphrodisiac that makes him extremely horny. He's then placed in a jail cell right next door to a beautiful naked virgin, a gymnast named Kim. She's begging for it, Rockson is juiced up. But, there are the steel bars and everything. The ultimate cockblock.

Eventually, Rockson upends the headquarters, frees the slave zombies, and gets some backup from his team. However, just like the debut, this is just the first mission of two. These books tend to place two adventures in each novel, so we aren't done with just the zombie stuff. 

In the book's second half, Rockson meets up with some wild beatnik Native American bikers (high concept) that pit Rockson and his team against a mutant dragon-thingy. The bikers are obnoxious, and remind me of the same setup of motorheads and Cheyenne warriors that Stacy used on War Weapons, the fifth installment in his post-apocalyptic The Last Ranger series (which is better than Doomsday Warrior). 

Red America is seriously like an episode of G.I. Joe. If that's your thing, then jump all over this book. You can also listen to the “movie in your mind” with the Graphic Audio edition. 

Get the book HERE.

Doomsday Warrior #01 - Doomsday Warrior

Jan Stacy (The Last Ranger) and Ryder Syvertsen (C.A.D.S.) originally met in the 1960s at Washington Square Park in New York City. Caught up in the beatnik cultural movement, the lifelong friends began swapping story and book ideas as well as songs. After working together on two non-fiction novels, Great Book of Movie Monsters (1983) and Great Book of Movie Villains (1984), the two collaborated on a post-apocalyptic series titled Doomsday Warrior under the pseudonym of Ryder Stacy. The series was published by Zebra and ran for a total of 19 installments between 1984 through 1991. The first four novels, Doomsday Warrior, Red America, The Last American and Bloody America were authored by both Stacy and Syvertsen. The remainder of the series was penned solely by Syvertsen. My review is for the series' debut, Doomsday Warrior.

The first installment is set in the year of 2089 where most of the world is either controlled by the Soviet Union or in a widely contested battle with the communist country. Most of the U.S. was decimated by nuclear bombs and the survivors maintain a meager living either as slaves or wretched scavengers that have succumbed to radiation's side-effects. With the nuclear attack occurring in 1984, the book's characters are all second to third generation survivors, a unique approach that mirrors another popular doomsday series, Deathlands.

The series stars Ted Rockson, an action-oriented adventurer that leads an American resistance group called the American Free Cities. While most of the U.S. is controlled and enslaved by the Soviet Union, underground cities still remain that are free and liberated from communist control. Rockson resides in Century City, an expansive free society that exists under a section of Colorado's Rocky Mountains (similar to Jan Stacy's character Martin Stone in The Last Ranger). Rockson's role is to lead reconnaissance patrols on missions to discover new supplies, weapons and enemy patrols. It's during one of these missions that readers are first introduced to Rockson and his Firefighter Team.

After blowing up a large bridge and a number of Soviet personnel carriers, Rockson's team comes under heavy fire from communist forces. After numerous casualties, the team retreats back to Century City to formulate a new plan of attack. The intense battle is reported back to three Soviet leaders – Killov, Zhabnov and Vassily. The trio, who compete for political power, begin an expeditionary patrol to find more resistance fighters. After locating a few underground cities, the Soviets are able to capture a number of American prisoners. Using an advanced technology called a Mind Breaker, the Soviets are able to pull pertinent information from American prisoners. Soon, the captives begin revealing locations of more underground cities that the Soviets hope to nuke.

The first 189 pages of Doomsday Warrior is clearly a debut novel that focuses on Rockson's attempts to break into a Soviet stronghold in Denver to rescue prisoners. His mission is to retrieve the captives, destroy the Mind Breaker units and prevent the Soviets from gaining the location of Century City. It's a riveting, explosive narrative that rivals and exceeds most of the 1980s post-apocalyptic novels (Wasteworld, Deathlands, Survivalist, Phoenix, Outrider, etc.). While that was enjoyable, the logic behind the book's second half is puzzling.

It is immediately clear that a new book begins at page 189. At 347 total pages, one would think Zebra would have capitalized on this and released the book's second half as second installment. These books were retailing for $2.95 each, essentially Zebra would have been doubling their money from avid consumers. Regardless of the publisher's marketing strategy, Doomsday Warrior's second narrative explores Rockson's attempts to locate a technologically advanced race in America's Pacific Northwest region.

The narrative begins with an expeditionary unit returning to Century City to report a strange mutant male they found near the Pacific coast line. This area remains vastly unexplored and the team was surprised to find people, evolved animals and a swath of jungle and wilderness that remains nearly intact despite the Soviet Union's devastating nuclear attack. Rockson, hoping to journey even further than the former team, recruits three men to assist him in exploring this new, untapped resource.

Stacy and Syvertsen really hit their stride in this second story arc. The narrative finds the crew battling mutant monsters, deadly quicksand, Soviet KGB forces and mutant, Neanderthal men. The team's exploration of a shopping mall was extremely enjoyable with just the right amount of humor to keep me laughing throughout. While the military style tactics utilized in the book's opening narrative are missing, Doomsday Warrior's second half is surprisingly far superior. The epic adventure, fast-paced writing, character development and action was absolutely top-notch.

The Doomsday Warrior series is off to a tremendous start with this rock-solid debut installment. As the series continues, I understand the quality begins to decline. However, knowing what the future holds for the series doesn't spoil the fun of this early volume. If you read nothing else by Stacy or Syvertsen, at least sample this novel. I think it represents everything that fans and readers loved about 1980s post-apocalyptic pop-culture. Recommended.

Buy a copy of Doomsday Warrior HERE

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 38

Episode 38 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast presents a feature on the life and work of post-apocalyptic fiction author Jan Stacy including a review of the first installment in his Doomsday Warrior series. We also discuss some recent purchases as well as a review of the Harry Whittington classic, A Night for Screaming. Please check us out on any podcast app, streaming below or direct download HERE

Listen to "Episode 38 - Jan Stacy and the End of the World" on Spreaker.