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Deathlands #7
Dectra Chain
The world blew out in 2001. Vast areas of what was the United States lie beneath an umbrella of noxious dust and radioactive debris, a mantle of destruction drawn over a land of doom. Much of the East Coast has been obliterated; the Southwest is a land of fire; cities of smoldering ash have given birth to horrifically mutated life forms. Such is the Deathlands, legacy of global annihilation.
But there were survivors, struggling to overcome a dark new age of plague, radiation sickness, barbarism and madness. Out of the ruins come Ryan Cawdor and his band of post-holocaust survivors, whose odyssey of discovery takes them in search of other pockets of civilization.
Emerging from a gateway in Maine, Ryan confronts a ruthless and brutal sea captain, a woman prepared to go to any lengths to get what she wants...
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 30, 2009
This one has a great villian.
June 28, 2025
Condition: Largely good except for a very annoying, tiny, ripped off chunk of the bottom right front cover.
There is no such thing as a “dectra chain.” Dectra is not a word. This is not a phrase used in the book. There is no Dectra and chains are not of any more import than in any other Deathlands book. I don’t know if it’s a leftover from an earlier draft or if James just made mouth sounds until he landed on something he liked.
This is kind of a good one, though not really for any conventional reason- we’re entering lit crit territory on this one, boys. Cawdor and company wind up in Maine, where the main man and native sidekick Man Whose Eyes See More (plucked from the previous book, Pony Soldiers) get sucked into a riff on Moby Dick and forced to hunt mutant whales. The rest of the cast are largely sidelined in this one- most of the time is spent on Cawdor and Donfil trying to survive their whaling expedition and avoiding the wrath of the dread Captain Quadde. While the other characters attempt to find a way to chase Cawdor and Donfil down on the high seas, the majority of the meat of the book is spent with the duo and the cast of shipmates, scaling down the scope of the story dramatically. This change of perspective is pretty welcome; one of the problems with the Deathlands books has always been their drowning under the weight of the extensive cast, and forcibly reducing the scope does a lot to provide the story some breathing room. In terms of plotting itself, it’s solid if unexceptional: Quadde is a quality villain in the Deathlands tradition, the old country New England dialects are a fun change of pace in dialogue, and the whaling expedition is exciting and dramatic enough to sustain the pace across 350 pages.
What’s more interesting, to me, is how this book reveals some of the strange tensions that underline the entire series. Ryan Cawdor is in especially rare form in this book; nearly every bad turn the team takes is prompted by his own ego and anger, and James does little to suggest that it’s justifiable or even rational. The “team,” as it is, is really a dictatorship with a cast of lackeys who prefer to be behind the barrel of the gun rather than in front of it. More significantly, the suggestion that there’s no real endgame for the team presents itself; Cawdor claims to Krysty that they’re looking for a place to put down their roots and leave the game of wasteland wandering behind, but there’s little to suggest that this is sincere. Ryan has no real goal; he has turned his nose up at every opportunity to settle down thus far, and he will continue to in the future, and the cast of characters surrounding him are just as desperate and clueless as he is. Did James intent for this cutting cynicism to be an essential part of the story? Probably not. But I think it’s a more interesting series with it in mind. Notice how Man Whose Eyes See More must invariably disappear from the books once he has chosen to stay in Maine; this is not the story of men capable of living ordinary lives, as much as they might beg to differ.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
There is no such thing as a “dectra chain.” Dectra is not a word. This is not a phrase used in the book. There is no Dectra and chains are not of any more import than in any other Deathlands book. I don’t know if it’s a leftover from an earlier draft or if James just made mouth sounds until he landed on something he liked.
This is kind of a good one, though not really for any conventional reason- we’re entering lit crit territory on this one, boys. Cawdor and company wind up in Maine, where the main man and native sidekick Man Whose Eyes See More (plucked from the previous book, Pony Soldiers) get sucked into a riff on Moby Dick and forced to hunt mutant whales. The rest of the cast are largely sidelined in this one- most of the time is spent on Cawdor and Donfil trying to survive their whaling expedition and avoiding the wrath of the dread Captain Quadde. While the other characters attempt to find a way to chase Cawdor and Donfil down on the high seas, the majority of the meat of the book is spent with the duo and the cast of shipmates, scaling down the scope of the story dramatically. This change of perspective is pretty welcome; one of the problems with the Deathlands books has always been their drowning under the weight of the extensive cast, and forcibly reducing the scope does a lot to provide the story some breathing room. In terms of plotting itself, it’s solid if unexceptional: Quadde is a quality villain in the Deathlands tradition, the old country New England dialects are a fun change of pace in dialogue, and the whaling expedition is exciting and dramatic enough to sustain the pace across 350 pages.
What’s more interesting, to me, is how this book reveals some of the strange tensions that underline the entire series. Ryan Cawdor is in especially rare form in this book; nearly every bad turn the team takes is prompted by his own ego and anger, and James does little to suggest that it’s justifiable or even rational. The “team,” as it is, is really a dictatorship with a cast of lackeys who prefer to be behind the barrel of the gun rather than in front of it. More significantly, the suggestion that there’s no real endgame for the team presents itself; Cawdor claims to Krysty that they’re looking for a place to put down their roots and leave the game of wasteland wandering behind, but there’s little to suggest that this is sincere. Ryan has no real goal; he has turned his nose up at every opportunity to settle down thus far, and he will continue to in the future, and the cast of characters surrounding him are just as desperate and clueless as he is. Did James intent for this cutting cynicism to be an essential part of the story? Probably not. But I think it’s a more interesting series with it in mind. Notice how Man Whose Eyes See More must invariably disappear from the books once he has chosen to stay in Maine; this is not the story of men capable of living ordinary lives, as much as they might beg to differ.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
February 5, 2019
This entry into the Deathlands series was pretty good. It still more or less followed the same formula, but it made it different enough to be fresh. A fair bit of this one took place on a whaling ship off the coast of Maine. The crazy person in this case was the female captain. I was hoping it would bend a little into more Lovecraftian stuff as it was hinted at a few times. I liked the Lovecraft and Stephen King story names, like Castle Rock and Miskatonic University thrown in.
August 22, 2022
Most of this novel had a predictable plot, the setting seemed not very well considered in it's inner workings. The invented words did not seem to add much value to the smooth function of the telling.
May 13, 2017
Boilerplate, but with enough interesting changes and a fun antagonist to keep it interesting.
December 5, 2021
The body count is pretty high in all the books in this series, but this one seems particularly so.
January 14, 2023
Not to bad better one so far in the sieres
March 10, 2009
Ryan's been especially stupid in this one :(
January 26, 2016
An average apocalyptic adventure story. This one takes a century after the last war and now there are mutants running around the earth. Recommended
May 30, 2011
audible rocks! love the psychotic she-devil/captain.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews