What do you think?
Rate this book
Angels from Hell
The four books in Mick Norman's notorious Angel Chronicles : Angels from Hell , Angel Challenge , Guardian Angels and Angels on my Mind , are here presented in a single compendium edition, making available these classics of wild youth culture for the first time in twenty years. The Angel Chronicles present a vision of a nightmare near-future which is even more chillingly relevant now than when they first appeared. England, turn of the millenium. Government repression has driven the Hell's Angels underground; yet they still exist. The final outlaws. From their hide-out in the mountains of Snowdonia, Gerry Vinson leads his chapter, the Lasst Heroes into battle. Apart from police and government manipulation, the Angels must contend with The Ghouls - a satin-jacketed yet sadistic rival chapter - as well as unscrupulous rock promoters who need them as cannon fodder against the emerging breed of razor-wielding teen rock fans and, above all, the deadly new threat from gangs of strutting, scented, ultra-violent mod-skinhead the skulls. The result is a brutal, mythopoeic odyssey of sex, drugs, madness, betrayal and violent death; the outsider aesthetic taken to its logical extremes.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
23 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 29, 2014
It's future year 197-. Biker violence has resulting in the erosion of civil liberties and the rise of vigilante gangs. While set in the future, it's really more of an alternate present - think Clockwork Orange.
Only a handful of bike gangs remain, including the Last Heroes chapter of the Hell's Angels.
An art student turned soldier decides that society needs shaking up, so he decides to join up with his girlfriend. We're treated to the cliched initiation before fast forwarding several months.
The upstart is challenging the leadership of the group, wanting to bring discipline to make the Last Heroes a money making criminal enterprise, while others in the gang prefer the chaos.
The short novel is basically three set pieces. A banker has his daughter kidnapped and ransomed off. It doesn't end well for either of them.
Next, an exploitation flim director wants to use the Last Heroes as extras in his upcoming film. The cast and crew are pretty much all gay because, you know, Hollywood. The gay male lead makes some passes, while the gay female lead plays the tease. You can guess how that ends up.
The police are closing in on the Last Heroes, but they strike back in a bloodbath that kills fifty cops. This makes them folk heroes, but they ride out to join a mythical lost Welsh bike gang.
James Laurence was the editor for New English Library, which produced tons of excellent exploitation. There's some sex, which is not as graphic as the violence, with heads being tossed around aplenty.
While not incredibly explicit, the novel is definitely nasty in tone. There are little touches, like mentioning that a cop's wife is having an affair and won't miss him as he's being murdered
You can tell Laurence is having fun with it, and plays around with the form as he goes. He breaks the fourth wall, stops to go inside the heads of the characters, and uses transcript and screenplay format in places.
More reviews at Trash Menace.
Only a handful of bike gangs remain, including the Last Heroes chapter of the Hell's Angels.
An art student turned soldier decides that society needs shaking up, so he decides to join up with his girlfriend. We're treated to the cliched initiation before fast forwarding several months.
The upstart is challenging the leadership of the group, wanting to bring discipline to make the Last Heroes a money making criminal enterprise, while others in the gang prefer the chaos.
The short novel is basically three set pieces. A banker has his daughter kidnapped and ransomed off. It doesn't end well for either of them.
Next, an exploitation flim director wants to use the Last Heroes as extras in his upcoming film. The cast and crew are pretty much all gay because, you know, Hollywood. The gay male lead makes some passes, while the gay female lead plays the tease. You can guess how that ends up.
The police are closing in on the Last Heroes, but they strike back in a bloodbath that kills fifty cops. This makes them folk heroes, but they ride out to join a mythical lost Welsh bike gang.
James Laurence was the editor for New English Library, which produced tons of excellent exploitation. There's some sex, which is not as graphic as the violence, with heads being tossed around aplenty.
While not incredibly explicit, the novel is definitely nasty in tone. There are little touches, like mentioning that a cop's wife is having an affair and won't miss him as he's being murdered
You can tell Laurence is having fun with it, and plays around with the form as he goes. He breaks the fourth wall, stops to go inside the heads of the characters, and uses transcript and screenplay format in places.
More reviews at Trash Menace.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review