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Deathlands #8
Ice and Fire
Snakefish, California, is rich in the currency of post-holocaust America -- gasoline.
Almost leveled by the Soviet missiles that annihilated most of the West Coast, Snakefish is in the midst of a reconstruction, financed by a commodity far more valuable than the usual Deathlands jack.
But greed and man's lust for power threaten to shatter the hard-won peace and tranquility of this fledgling community as disparate factions fight for control of the substance that will give them wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
Ryan Cawdor and his companions emerge from a gateway and step into the path of a smoldering war for power.
Almost leveled by the Soviet missiles that annihilated most of the West Coast, Snakefish is in the midst of a reconstruction, financed by a commodity far more valuable than the usual Deathlands jack.
But greed and man's lust for power threaten to shatter the hard-won peace and tranquility of this fledgling community as disparate factions fight for control of the substance that will give them wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
Ryan Cawdor and his companions emerge from a gateway and step into the path of a smoldering war for power.
Audio CD
First published November 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 3, 2015
5-stars for killing off Lori.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2025
Condition: Quite good, all things considered. Moderate spine creases. Half-inch tear at top of front cover. No distinguishing marks or stamps.
Ice and Fire is not a bad entry in the Deathlands series, but certainly one that struggles under its own bulk. The team has jumped to southern California this time, running into a (relatively, for the setting) large city named Snakefish with a burgeoning gasoline trade that is in danger of a coup from a powerful cult of mutant snake worshipers (they worship the mutant snakes, they are not mutant snakes themselves- though that wouldn’t shock me as a plot point in an unrelated book in the future.) Getting to see the team in a comparatively more “civilized” setting is certainly interesting, and James makes a good effort to provide nearly all of them some deeper character moments in the downtime that dominates a good chunk of the book. Unfortunately, this laudable effort at a more traditionally literary quality is difficult to negotiate given the large cast of characters, compounded by all the OTHER new characters of Snakefish we must rapidly become acquainted with. The result is a story with a lot of interesting elements given too little time and attention each, and the book overall feels diffuse and unfocused.
A large part of the problem is new member of the party Rick Ginsburg, the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer whose fixation on his past life before the nuclear holocaust and staunch personal pacifism makes him kind of a bummer addition to the team- perhaps he becomes more interesting in later entries, but his persistent gloom and unwillingness to adapt to the new world infects the book more intensely than one might imagine. On the other hand, the characters of Snakefish, particularly the members of the snake cult, are kind of fun, larger than life caricatures, but there’s so many of them that they can’t be much more than hastily drawn sketches, making the climactic battle at the end feel a little slight- while the action is gratifying as always, the emotional stakes don’t feel sufficiently high for all the chaos at hand. This makes Lori’s death at the end feel like a bit of a copout stinger; I hope this doesn’t indicate that we’re going to be in a perpetual “one in, one out” rhythm with members of the team. Let’s not just move interchangeable pieces around the chessboard; structural dynamism is the lifesblood of a series like this.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
Ice and Fire is not a bad entry in the Deathlands series, but certainly one that struggles under its own bulk. The team has jumped to southern California this time, running into a (relatively, for the setting) large city named Snakefish with a burgeoning gasoline trade that is in danger of a coup from a powerful cult of mutant snake worshipers (they worship the mutant snakes, they are not mutant snakes themselves- though that wouldn’t shock me as a plot point in an unrelated book in the future.) Getting to see the team in a comparatively more “civilized” setting is certainly interesting, and James makes a good effort to provide nearly all of them some deeper character moments in the downtime that dominates a good chunk of the book. Unfortunately, this laudable effort at a more traditionally literary quality is difficult to negotiate given the large cast of characters, compounded by all the OTHER new characters of Snakefish we must rapidly become acquainted with. The result is a story with a lot of interesting elements given too little time and attention each, and the book overall feels diffuse and unfocused.
A large part of the problem is new member of the party Rick Ginsburg, the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer whose fixation on his past life before the nuclear holocaust and staunch personal pacifism makes him kind of a bummer addition to the team- perhaps he becomes more interesting in later entries, but his persistent gloom and unwillingness to adapt to the new world infects the book more intensely than one might imagine. On the other hand, the characters of Snakefish, particularly the members of the snake cult, are kind of fun, larger than life caricatures, but there’s so many of them that they can’t be much more than hastily drawn sketches, making the climactic battle at the end feel a little slight- while the action is gratifying as always, the emotional stakes don’t feel sufficiently high for all the chaos at hand. This makes Lori’s death at the end feel like a bit of a copout stinger; I hope this doesn’t indicate that we’re going to be in a perpetual “one in, one out” rhythm with members of the team. Let’s not just move interchangeable pieces around the chessboard; structural dynamism is the lifesblood of a series like this.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
July 18, 2026
Snakefish, California, looks like a charming pre-nuke town. People are really nice to outsiders at first. Never mind the giant collared snakes living in the desert. Never mind the cult built around said snakes, led by a charismatic duo and their churlish son. The baron's a nice guy. JB may have found a love interest! The biker gang guarding the ville welcome Ryan and Jak into their fold, to hunt stickies*. There's even an air wag! That flies!
Never mind that outsiders get blamed for anything that may go wrong. Never mind that the cultist duo's answer to disaster is to offer up a guilty person (or someone they want to be guilty) to the giant snakes in a feeding...
*Stickies are muties that absolutely hate all living beings, have suckers on their fingers and toes that can rip the flesh off of their victims, and they love love loooooove fire. Especially setting people on fire.
Never mind that outsiders get blamed for anything that may go wrong. Never mind that the cultist duo's answer to disaster is to offer up a guilty person (or someone they want to be guilty) to the giant snakes in a feeding...
*Stickies are muties that absolutely hate all living beings, have suckers on their fingers and toes that can rip the flesh off of their victims, and they love love loooooove fire. Especially setting people on fire.
March 13, 2019
This was a good entry in the series. Crazy Cults sure are common in the Deathlands. In this instance, they worship snakes. There were actually some good people in the ville though, for once. One character from the party dies and one is added. He's a "freezie" from the 20th c. woken from cryogenic sleep, which made for an interesting awakening. No rape and torture, for once.
March 28, 2019
They took my favorite character, Jack, and reduced him to a blithering idiot speaking garbled English and took Lori, the true blithering idiot, and turned her into a cold bitch.
I was happy when she was killed off in the fire at the end.
I was happy when she was killed off in the fire at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2017
Killed off an annoying character, but got another annoying character. Story is fun.
November 20, 2011
Post apocalytic western with classic themes of men and women doin' what they gotta' do and murky morality. The Stickies, mutant humans with suckers are genuinely repellant and camaraderie between Ryan Cawdor's band makes them likeable, despite their ruthless behaviour. New awakened cyro patient Rick is literally something of a load on the band and the story but presumably he's arrival is leading to something in a later book. Good action scenes and the Hell's Angels are colourful opponents. It's another pulp book that's written with surpising care.
August 30, 2013
I am currently working through this series, and I have to say, it's just plain fun. I like the post-apocalyptic setting, the characters are developing through the series with each book revealing a little more back story, and there's action and gunfights and mutated creatures. Good fun!
July 8, 2014
This one is pretty good with the strangle little conflicted ville and the freezies. Interesting new information is brought to light, and an increasingly irritating character is eliminated from the series.
Read
May 1, 2010This is the one that got me started. Everyone is a thrill ride.
July 9, 2011
more deathlands wackiness. this time with giant-snake worshipping religious fanatics. A guilty pleasure.
January 26, 2012
The Deathlands series is my not so guilty pleasure - enjoy every one.
January 16, 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
Read
July 26, 2017Just listened to the audio. three hours to work and three hours home...Love em! Now I need to get #9---the miles peel away and its a movie in your mind..
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews