The Last Ranger

The Last Ranger #1

by Craig Sargent

The place: America. The time: the future. Atom bombs have decimated some of the big cities; conventional weaponry has battered the rest. In a landscape of jagged ruin and rubble, marauding biker gangs and neo-fascists battle for power, defenseless survivors are told into slaver, and government by the people is but a faded memory. Yet within this violent chaos, one ex-marine barret has had the foresight to place his wife and family in a special mountain hideaway to protect them from the war he know would come.

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction, Fiction

215 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1981

About the author

Pseudonym for Jan Stacy

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m wavering between 3 and 4 stars for this one, as it’s definitely a notch above most post-nuke men’s adventure novels I’ve read, but judged on it’s own merits I don’t think it quite reaches 4 star territory. The first third or so is great, as it depicts young protagonist Martin Stone’s life immediately preceding the nukes, and provides intriguing backstory on why his father felt the need to build a massive secret bomb shelter/fortress in the Rockies (literally inside a mountain). It explains how they, as well as Martin’s mom and sister, end up there as the Russian missiles begin dropping in the late 80s. Once Martin emerges to scope out the scene, years later, it becomes pretty standard fare for books of this ilk, with no government or civilization, just roving hordes of murderous gangs everywhere, and Stone seems one of the only people left with any moral compass whatsoever. But he was trained to be the ultimate badass by his father, a hard special forces vet who saw all this coming and wanted to make sure his son was prepared, despite Martin’s more liberal leanings and protestations. Good thing too, as his sister is swiftly kidnapped by a cannibal biker gang and needs some rescuing.

There’s a handful of rousing action scenes here, and some creatively excessive violence, but not much else really separates it from the wealth of similar series of the era like David Alexander’s Phoenix and D.B. Drumm’s (aka John Shirley and Ed Naha) Traveler. It’s not quite as excessive as far as gun porn goes, thankfully, though there’s still lots of talk of various calibers, models, pros and cons of each, etc. The characterization is slightly above average considering we actually get some backstory, but Stone, unlike some of the batshit characters he meets along the way, doesn’t have much of a personality to speak of. The only time we get real insight into him is during a nightmarish peyote trip he goes on with the shaman of a Ute tribe, which was vividly depicted and showed that the author (actually Jan Stacy, who also wrote the fun as hell pro wrestling/super spy adventure mashup Body Smasher) knew about hellish psychedelic journeys from personal experience.

Overall I’d recommend it for fans of trashy pulp action, as it’s a fun read that can be finished in a few hours, but most would be better off just sticking with the Mad Max films for their brutal post-apocalyptic fix. I’ll likely continue the series since I already own several of them. Plus, Jan Stacey’s style is ideal for those times when you simply want to shut your brain off for a spell and wallow in some mindless, violent shenanigans with a bunch of ultra-deranged characters for company.

3.5 stars, closer to a 4 when judged solely against other men’s adventure novels. I’m hoping there’s more mutant action in the following volumes. This had a tad, but not near enough for my tastes.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the main series I read growing up in the ‘80s, and the fact that I held on to the paperbacks all these years might attest to that. While this is nothing more than post-apocalyptic pulp mired in the imagined horrors of the “Cold War”, I read this as also being somewhat of a harsh, nihilistic middle-finger shoved in the face of myopic Humanity, as the author deteriorated to the effects of AIDs. You can find some of these as e-books on Barnes & Noble and Amazon, via some subsidiary of Hachette Books called Grand Central Publishing. Attempts to talk to someone there about reinventing this series have been unanswered so far. Anyway, it’s pretty obvious that after the first three novels were written, the original publisher—Warner Books—decided to stretch the whole thing to ten, and while the middle books are simply episodic filler for the meta-plot, it ends wonderfully and epically. I would love the opportunity to reinvent this “Mad Max in America” structure, updating it for the times and making it a bit more intellectual, making Martin Stone more like Martin Stone-Martinez. I could see it as e-novellas, a graphic novel series, and a screenplay ripe for consumption. I’m happy to collaborate on this, just for fun, and we could give the proceeds to an HIV research organization.

As an added aside, Dawn Stover recently (DEC 2018) wrote a wonderful piece for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists about the The Day After (https://thebulletin.org/facing-nuclea...), even mentioning Trump's TV time, echoing the Fox News Boob-Tubers, and wondering if a similar visual tactic would make POTUS aware (which I sincerely doubt, but still, why not try?). It might make more Americans wake up to this existential threat still looming over all of us.

Here's my fantasy soundtrack for the film:

“Move It” by Great White
“The Day All Hell Broke Loose” by Trauma
“Into the Lungs of Hell” / “Set the World Afire” by Megadeth
“As the World Burns” by Kreator
“After the Bomb” by Warlock
“When Freedom Dies” by Nuclear Assault
“The Years of Decay” by Overkill
“Strange Highways” by Dio
“Road Mutants” by Death Angel
“Hell Bent for Leather” by Judas Priest
“Widowmaker” by W.A.S.P.
“Do or Die” by Testament
“Time to Kill” by Overkill
“Strange Wings” by Savatage
“Lunatic Parade” by Exodus
“Plastic Town” by Powermad
“The Sun Also Rises in Hell” by XYZ
“Badlands” by Metal Church
“Violence and Bloodshed” by Manowar
“Russian Roulette” by Accept
“Kill or Be Killed” by Twisted Sister
“The Evil That Men Do” by Iron Maiden
“At Death’s Door” by Sacrilege
“Last Man Alive” by Whiplash
“And So Is Life” by Dismember
“Future World” by Pretty Maids

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originalist westerns author Zane Grey wrote a novel about his famous pioneer ancestor Betty Zane in a novel called "Betty Zane" in 1903 that was republished in 1974 as this "The Last Ranger." This is more of a pre-western frontier historical fiction tale than a classic western as it takes place in late-1770's western Pennsylvania. Betty Zane, Jonathan Zane, the Indian-captured Isaac Zane, the Indian fighter Lewis Wetzel, the traitor (spoiler removed), Betty's love interest Alfred Clarke, the chaos-spreading Indian-rousing white devil Girty, some Shawnees, Hurons, Delawares, and Wyandots, and other real historical figures make appearances.

Goodreads has combined both this "The Last Ranger" (1974 reprinting of the 1903 novel) and a post-nuclear apocalypse Cold War violence adventure also called "The Last Ranger," (1981) so the reviews are fun to scroll through and see the confusion. Honestly, I kind of want to find the nuke one.

This novel shares equal parts romance tale, pre- western genre environment and character beats, textbookish informational notes, travels through Indian, British, and pioneer settings, personal growth narratives and survival exploits, genealogical stories that Grey's family probably appreciated (this was written before he was a nationally-recognized tried-and-true author so it may have been intended just for his family reading before he was able to have it published), Austen-inspired societal obligations and unspoken feelings, and in a Cooper-inspired woodland frontier setting before the climactic 1782 Siege of Fort Henry when Betty Zane famously saved the fort.

Verdict: The earliest of Gray novels, "Betty Zane" aka "Last Ranger" has a lot of ideas mashed into one place and is a challenge, reading a bit dry at times and not as immersively alive as Grey's later western classics.

Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG

[Paperbackbooks86 · Rating 5 out of 5]

While purchasing M.I.A. Hunter this book showed up as a recommendation. The cover caught my eye, so I clicked on the title and read the description. It seemed up my alley, and the reviews were overwhelmingly positive so I gave it a chance.

I’m glad I did. The Last Ranger is unique, because unlike regular post apocalyptic men’s novels from this era, we don’t just start off in the wasteland of America. We follow a hero, his backstory and then we get to our main hero and storyline.

The first half of The Last Ranger was phenomenal. The story telling and the characters had me wanting to read more and more. The author found a clever way to set up our hero with the tools he needs, but also gives him the weakness to not be an unstoppable force.

The second half of the book then dives into your gruesome, violent end of the world action, that if you’re reading these types of books, you are searching for. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and will now be adding another series to my must read collection! Five stars.

[Joe Davoust · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a lot of "too much." Too much macho, too much sexism, too much apocalypse, too much firepower, too many cliches, too much rape, too much murder, too many explosives, etc. Also included was a little bit of racism, a lot of sexism, a ton of right wing politics and a bit of conservative religion too. Not my kind of book, but it was an easy to understand, quick, not too deep story, that was easy to get through, despite many of the references being out of date. It was like watching an old rerun of a knockoff made-for-TV Rambo movie that was done in the 80's. I can't recommend it to anyone alive today although I'm sure it appealed to lots of white men in the 80's.

[BlueMastiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clayton Stone a special forces bad ass foresees the coming nuclear apocalypses and is determined to prepare his unwilling son Martin by teaching him the art of survival and killing. When Martin's sister is taken by a lawless gang of bikers to be used for their pleasure he will use his fathers teachings to try and save her.

I thought this book was okay. If I would have read it in my younger days I am sure I would have loved it. For me it was like reading a cheesy over the top B movie that had parts that you enjoyed and others that had you rolling your eyes. I will try some more in this series to see how it progresses.

[Scott Schmidt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tracked this one down via Paperback Warrior's recommendation from their Pulp Apocalypse compendium. I really liked the set up and Martin Stone's backstory in relation to his extreme warrior/doom prepper father, but once the actual post-apocalypse setting began it kind of fell apart for me. The world-building was lacking and Stone's character was, for lack of a more articulate term, awful. I have the second book so I'll read it, maybe things get better, but I was disappointed after staring at this one on my to-read shelf for so long.

[Brian G Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic start to a series!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great characters and story...

[Douglas Strozek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the first book in the series but the fifth but still a easy quick good read

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

as always form Zane Grey, a great story well told