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After the Hell
Shadow Juke. Postapocalyptic gunslinger, mercenary, cold-blooded killer...red-hot lover. Forced to take on a rescue mission he never wanted, Shad must retrieve Harc, the lover of the ethereal witch the White Whisper, from the perilous Scarlet Fires Oasis. It is there the powerful wizard Capricorn holds the witch's beautiful lover captive. Too bad for Shad that he himself has fallen in love with the man. Shad is thrown down among the slaves of Capricorn's brutal temple, only to fall in with a gathering rebellion. There, he's forced into sexual gladiatorial games by an old nemesis. The world of After the Hell is fraught with sex, danger, monsters, mutants, black magic, radioactive wastes and even a porn-obsessed mad scientist. Throughout, Shadow Juke must fight his way against impossible odds. Yet if he succeeds in rescuing Harc, he may have to give up the man he loves...
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 30, 2013
1 person is currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Eric Del Carlo
112 books18 followers I was born during the Vietnam War, in the city of San Francisco. I retain a gauzy childhood memory of the Watergate Trials interfering with my afternoon cartoon viewing. From early days I was enthralled by reading; no accident, this--we were a house of readers. Books everywhere. My mother read endless stories to me. My father, Victor, had an extensive collection of thrillers and science fiction, all those lurid book covers, that wonderful choking scent of paper and print in the house's basement. Did I read those books? Oh, yes, I did. And, of course, it wasn't much of a drastic leap from consuming all this fabulous fiction--and it was all fabulous to me, all of it--to wanting to create it myself.
I started selling short fiction to small press magazines in my early twenties. The stories were earnest, arguably a bit literarily overwrought, but were genuine expressions of the kind of emotional work I wanted to produce. I probably most enjoyed selling to late lamented Figment magazine, whose editors Barb and J. C. Hendee have gone on to a successful joint writing career. I was swinging blind with my work, writing absolutely whatever I felt like, following any mood or impulse. It was hit or miss, sale or rejection, but the sheer giddy joy of that process was very valuable to me.
I moved fairly often. Without any higher education or anything resembling marketable job skills, beyond a willingness to submit to bottom-rung clerking gigs, I was free to go wherever I liked. I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico; twice in New Orleans; spent time in the U.K.'s London. I wrote throughout, but it hardly qualified as a career. During my second stint in New Orleans, living in the fabled French Quarter and again eking out a just-above-the-poverty-line existence, I met Robert Asprin. My soon to be wife, Samala Ray, brokered the encounter. Asprin frequented a few of the Quarter's overabundance of drinking establishments; Sam had bumped into him one night. I knew Asprin as a name writer of science fiction and fantasy, though I'd never read his work. Neither had I been to many conventions, and so had never come in contact with anyone famous in the field. Bob Asprin was--this is predictable, if you're familiar with his humorous fiction--a funny guy, with jokes aplenty to put anyone at ease who might be a bit starstruck to find himself sitting on a barstool adjacent to someone who had achieved fame when I was still banging out awkward disjointed fiction on a manual typewriter in grade school. A friendship formed, and collaboration loomed, and we produced two novels of non-humorous fantasy, the Wartorn books. When Bob died, my wife and I had long since fled New Orleans, getting out a day in front of Hurricane Katrina. I had only been back once, to retrieve what we'd left behind in our apartment. I saw Asprin then; and two and a half years later he was dead. I had gotten a chance to publish on a greater scale than I ever had before. I saw my own name rendered in Cyrillic on the covers of the Russian editions of the Wartorn novels. I will always be grateful to Robert Asprin for those experiences.
Now I live in California again, in wine country, in the quiet and predictability of a small town. I don't work day jobs anymore. I do what I've wanted to do since sometime around the age of seven: I write, I write, and I write; and the words do not stop.
I started selling short fiction to small press magazines in my early twenties. The stories were earnest, arguably a bit literarily overwrought, but were genuine expressions of the kind of emotional work I wanted to produce. I probably most enjoyed selling to late lamented Figment magazine, whose editors Barb and J. C. Hendee have gone on to a successful joint writing career. I was swinging blind with my work, writing absolutely whatever I felt like, following any mood or impulse. It was hit or miss, sale or rejection, but the sheer giddy joy of that process was very valuable to me.
I moved fairly often. Without any higher education or anything resembling marketable job skills, beyond a willingness to submit to bottom-rung clerking gigs, I was free to go wherever I liked. I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico; twice in New Orleans; spent time in the U.K.'s London. I wrote throughout, but it hardly qualified as a career. During my second stint in New Orleans, living in the fabled French Quarter and again eking out a just-above-the-poverty-line existence, I met Robert Asprin. My soon to be wife, Samala Ray, brokered the encounter. Asprin frequented a few of the Quarter's overabundance of drinking establishments; Sam had bumped into him one night. I knew Asprin as a name writer of science fiction and fantasy, though I'd never read his work. Neither had I been to many conventions, and so had never come in contact with anyone famous in the field. Bob Asprin was--this is predictable, if you're familiar with his humorous fiction--a funny guy, with jokes aplenty to put anyone at ease who might be a bit starstruck to find himself sitting on a barstool adjacent to someone who had achieved fame when I was still banging out awkward disjointed fiction on a manual typewriter in grade school. A friendship formed, and collaboration loomed, and we produced two novels of non-humorous fantasy, the Wartorn books. When Bob died, my wife and I had long since fled New Orleans, getting out a day in front of Hurricane Katrina. I had only been back once, to retrieve what we'd left behind in our apartment. I saw Asprin then; and two and a half years later he was dead. I had gotten a chance to publish on a greater scale than I ever had before. I saw my own name rendered in Cyrillic on the covers of the Russian editions of the Wartorn novels. I will always be grateful to Robert Asprin for those experiences.
Now I live in California again, in wine country, in the quiet and predictability of a small town. I don't work day jobs anymore. I do what I've wanted to do since sometime around the age of seven: I write, I write, and I write; and the words do not stop.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 17, 2014
3 Stars
A "Live Your Life, Buy The Book" Review
I've been struggling with what in the hell I'm going to say about this book in a review. I really liked parts of it. The other parts left me thinking this book was far out fantasy porn. So there were some highs and lows.
Shadow Juke is a gunslinger in a post apocalyptic world. He's hired by the White Witch to retrieve a man who was kidnapped. Shadow has to take the job despite promising to never return to Scarlet Fires Oasis. Since hell spilled out into the world he needs magic to live. Magic he takes as payment for his skills. What Shadow finds once he's inside the Oasis is a kingdom within it run by the powerful wizard Capricorn. Capricorn's power has gone to his head. He's created a place where they use people looking for safety from the ruthless world outside the gates only to find themselves used and thrown away for the purpose of Capricorn's vanity and greed.
Shadow has no choice but to find the beautiful creature he's been sent to return to the white witch. He didn't think it would be easy but he didn't realize completing his assignment would include joining the revolution brewing inside the palace. Shadow also didn't expect his response to the man he's sent to find. He's become slightly obsessed and yearns for his touch. Shadow doesn't even know the man but he can't shake off the feelings for the man. He's torn between what he wants and what he has to do to stay alive.
Like I said before, parts of this book were very intriguing. The premise and world building were great. The baddies were brutal and I hated them thoroughly. Shadow was a believable bad ass. Very sexy. The parts that kind of pulled me out of the fantasy element were the sex scenes with random men he happens upon. Don't get me wrong, they were all hot sex scenes but it was kind of bizarre. Like I was reading two different books. There's even a crazy scientist who keeps guys to watch them fight in a type of sexual gladiator takes all sort of thing. Also, the author switched up calling Shadow, Shad, Shadow Juke or Juke. It was kind of confusing in the beginning. The other problem I had were some of the too long over descriptive scenes in the book. I should never zone out in the middle of an intense scene. I should be in it and on the edge of my seat.
I wanted to love this book more than I did. The blurb sounded amazing. I think there was just so much going on I never really settled in.
A "Live Your Life, Buy The Book" Review
I've been struggling with what in the hell I'm going to say about this book in a review. I really liked parts of it. The other parts left me thinking this book was far out fantasy porn. So there were some highs and lows.
Shadow Juke is a gunslinger in a post apocalyptic world. He's hired by the White Witch to retrieve a man who was kidnapped. Shadow has to take the job despite promising to never return to Scarlet Fires Oasis. Since hell spilled out into the world he needs magic to live. Magic he takes as payment for his skills. What Shadow finds once he's inside the Oasis is a kingdom within it run by the powerful wizard Capricorn. Capricorn's power has gone to his head. He's created a place where they use people looking for safety from the ruthless world outside the gates only to find themselves used and thrown away for the purpose of Capricorn's vanity and greed.
Shadow has no choice but to find the beautiful creature he's been sent to return to the white witch. He didn't think it would be easy but he didn't realize completing his assignment would include joining the revolution brewing inside the palace. Shadow also didn't expect his response to the man he's sent to find. He's become slightly obsessed and yearns for his touch. Shadow doesn't even know the man but he can't shake off the feelings for the man. He's torn between what he wants and what he has to do to stay alive.
Like I said before, parts of this book were very intriguing. The premise and world building were great. The baddies were brutal and I hated them thoroughly. Shadow was a believable bad ass. Very sexy. The parts that kind of pulled me out of the fantasy element were the sex scenes with random men he happens upon. Don't get me wrong, they were all hot sex scenes but it was kind of bizarre. Like I was reading two different books. There's even a crazy scientist who keeps guys to watch them fight in a type of sexual gladiator takes all sort of thing. Also, the author switched up calling Shadow, Shad, Shadow Juke or Juke. It was kind of confusing in the beginning. The other problem I had were some of the too long over descriptive scenes in the book. I should never zone out in the middle of an intense scene. I should be in it and on the edge of my seat.
I wanted to love this book more than I did. The blurb sounded amazing. I think there was just so much going on I never really settled in.
February 25, 2014
3~3.5 Hearts
Review written for MM Good Book Reviews
Nuclear war a hundred years ago still affects the last remnants of humanity on Earth. The Hell had woken magic in this world and supernatural now walks side by side with natural. Civilization as we know it no longer exists. There are wizards and witches, and there are mere mortals trying to survive yet another day. And among them, there are… others as well.
I liked this post-apocalyptic world. I’d hate to live in such a desolate Earth where pain and suffering is a given, but it gave the read a tang of desperation that went hand in hand with the wastelands the story takes place. The Hell as it’s called in this book is the ultimate crash down of our society, humans releasing nuclear weapons and literally wiping out Earth’s bio system and life. What remained were a 10% perhaps of world’s population? The numbers are vague but we get the idea. As the Hell shattered the entire planet, it managed to open new possibilities. Magic became a given and few lucky humans got powers beyond imagination. As always with power came arrogance and cruelty. Also new creatures are introduced in this book as well as mutants. In this setting, we meet Shad...
Read the entire review here: http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.co...
Thommie.
Review written for MM Good Book Reviews
Nuclear war a hundred years ago still affects the last remnants of humanity on Earth. The Hell had woken magic in this world and supernatural now walks side by side with natural. Civilization as we know it no longer exists. There are wizards and witches, and there are mere mortals trying to survive yet another day. And among them, there are… others as well.
I liked this post-apocalyptic world. I’d hate to live in such a desolate Earth where pain and suffering is a given, but it gave the read a tang of desperation that went hand in hand with the wastelands the story takes place. The Hell as it’s called in this book is the ultimate crash down of our society, humans releasing nuclear weapons and literally wiping out Earth’s bio system and life. What remained were a 10% perhaps of world’s population? The numbers are vague but we get the idea. As the Hell shattered the entire planet, it managed to open new possibilities. Magic became a given and few lucky humans got powers beyond imagination. As always with power came arrogance and cruelty. Also new creatures are introduced in this book as well as mutants. In this setting, we meet Shad...
Read the entire review here: http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.co...
Thommie.
Want to read
January 2, 2014Post-apocalyptic gunslinger sounds good...in sexual gladiatorial games...? Hmmmmmm... **ponders**
March 7, 2014
I enjoyed the post apocalypse novel very much. I am looking forward to the sequel.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews