Ground Zero

Phoenix #2

by David Alexander

Crossing the nuclear devastated landscape on his way to New York, Magnus Trench, also known as Phoenix, encounters a deadly new sport in the ruins of Las Vegas

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1987

About the author

David Alexander began writing early in life and began writing uncoaxed and spontaneously. His fledgling appearance in print dates to a sonnet published in a New York City daily newspaper when David was in elementary school in Brooklyn. Between then and today, he has written and published in virtually every literary category, including novels, novelettes, short fiction, poetry, essays and film scripts. He received his early education via the New York City public school system. He later attended Columbia University in New York City and Sorbonne University in Paris, France.

In addition to fiction and creative nonfiction, Alexander has written technical papers as a defense analyst for some of the world's most prestigious international defense publications on high-technology combat systems and their strategic and tactical applications. He is as conversant with the global corporate and civilian defense sector as he is with the military side. Few can justly claim the scope and breadth of his knowledge of and familiarity with the international defense community, ranging from weapon systems to global strategic policy.

As an author, Alexander can justly claim to have pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. Never has he benefited from anybody's patronage. There have been no wealthy relatives with connections, no connections by marriage; no favors traded in secret, no hooked-up friends to fast-track his career. Nor has anybody but David Alexander penned the titles published over David Alexander's byline. Alexander is a resident of Brooklyn Heights, where he has lived and written for many years.

Reviews

[Steve Dilks · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's 1987 and Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon (producer and director of RE-ANIMATOR and FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED) have been offered $$$$ loads of money and a big bag of coke to make a high impact SF/Action/Horror movie. Their main star is to be Sylvester Willis Schwarzenegger and they need to get this out for the summer. In this parallel universe, PHOENIX: GROUND ZERO is the movie they made. It's schlock on a radioactive scale cranked up to 12. I've read three PHOENIX books but GROUND ZERO is the one that spoke to me the most. It just doesn't let up. From the first page to the last our hero, Vietnam vet, Magnus Trench (yes, MAGNUS TRENCH!) hurtles from one action set piece to another in a bloody welter of bullet mangled contam corpses. But it's not all about the action. No. To break up the carnage unleashed in this post-nuke hell there's also some disgusting bodymorphic horror interspersed with some grotesquely perverse sex. The plot is riddled with more holes than a block of Swiss cheese but if you're lingering on the story telling elements buddy, you're in the wrong place. When I finally put this book down it was with a lot of reluctance. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Something of this caliber deserves no less than 10 rapid fired Uzi bullets to the head out of 5. Love it.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm just guessing, but I think David Alexander watched "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" while writing this.in the book we have Vegas, Max had Bartertown. There is a midget/dwarf who plays a big part in helping Phoenix. Sort of like The Master in the movie. Instead of Thunderdome, we have the murder marathon, a car race to the death. We do have our hero blackout in the desert, like Max, but instead of children rescuing him, we get a bunch of loonies called Earthbound. A cult that lives in a missile silo underground. They have all sorts of fun with sex, drugs, and mutant creatures. That's about where the similarities end. Although that's pretty much the 3/4th of this book.

The ending has Phoenix in a showdown in a ghost town with six killers of the new order. Since there is a book three, you can guess that it has an open ending. This is pretty much all go, no slow action. The killing is only stopped by the hard core sex.

[Jason Mussett · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this the second installment our hero Magnus Trench has left San Francisco behind-can you blame him? Arriving in an ersatz BarterTown outside Las Vegas, he soon runs into trouble when he's recognised by some bounty hunter types. Following a blazing fire fight and an awesome Mad Max style car chase Trench escapes and hooks up with a midget named Big Wally-another odd name-who along with an ex Mafia boss calling himself the Shiek of Las Vegas-talks Trench into participating in another Mad Max style race called the Murder Martathon (you'll see why!)

But revenge obsessed mercenary John Tallon is hot on Trench's tail with his own private Death Squad. There's sordid sex with ex porn stars, action galore, more bizarre named characters, gun porn and a cliffhanger ending which sees our hero carted off by Tallon.

More fast moving than its predessor-literally, with an awesome car chase, this one does have you wanting more. Perhaps Mr Alexander could sell the film rights and cast Dwayne Johnson as Magnus Trench, that would never work-or would it...

[DJMikeG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, I am giving this reprehensible, vile novel 4 stars. It is not even anywhere near the neighborhood of "good" let alone "excellent", but I absolutely could not put the thing down. Many times, I could not believe what I was reading. I couldn't believe that A: someone wrote this, B: someone wrote this with the intention of getting the public at large to read it, C: someone read this and said "Yes, this is what we want to publish!" and D: this was published and put on airport gift shop, supermarket, and probably the K and Wal Mart shelves of 1987. This is beyond mondo, beyond gonzo, this is pure, grade A batshit insanity in the form of a book. Everything is cranked so high, and it is put together so crassly, with nary a sense of taste.
I can't wait to read the next one.

[Nick Horvath · Rating 5 out of 5]

DAMN. THIS BOOK IS IT!

If you're looking for the ultimate in over-the-top man-porn, THIS IS THE ONE.

Book 2 in the Phoenix series sees our unkillable badass Magnus Trench enter a post-nuclear-apocalypse Las Vegas and do what he does best: kick ALL the ass and fuck all the hotties, then murder them when they turn out to be psychotic.

Think Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome with a dash of Deathrace 2000, ramped to a billion, then add more guns and boobs. Violence porn, gun porn, porn porn, and more violence porn. Epic. As. Fuck.

Immediately jumped VERY high up my all-time men's adventure list. Search it out ASAP.