Paradise Loses

Edge #15

by George G. Gilman

The town called Paradise was hell on earth for outsiders. Off the beaten track, its very isolation let Paradise create its own code of law, and it was vicious, ruthless, and merciless. Edge had already been in a town called Hate, where they hanged a man for spitting in the street, so how bad could paradise really be?

Genres: Westerns

1 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

A pseudonym used by Terry Harknett.

Edge (61 books as George G. Gilman)
Adam Steele (49 books as George G. Gilman)
Edge Meets Adam Steele (3 books as George G. Gilman)
The Undertaker (6 books as George G. Gilman)

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another dual story from past and present. The first sees Edge save two men from drowning. The towns people of Paradise who put them there are not pleased. They are a radical group of religious zealots who see just about everything as a sin.

The second is from when Edge was fighting the Civil War. Him and his men have to escape from another Southern prison. They make their escape on a Rebel navy ship.

Both stories are great. The only problem is that it's more like a short story for both. If each story was a whole book in itself, it would have been a better read for me. Still great violent western action.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you point a gun at Edge, make sure you pull the trigger. Edge hates people pulling a gun at him. Edge now in a religious, crazy town called Paradise. Sins are punished, a man pushed off execution rock, scalp split, bone splintering into millions of fragments, a shower of blood. Edge has his money stolen AGAIN and decides to save a town from Native Americans. Blowing up explosives, a man's hands blown off 5 yards from his gaping stump, rifle still attached. Not a great one in this series.

[Bill Riggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lessons learned:
1. No good deed goes unpunished
2. You can live in isolation and call it Paradise but that doesn’t make it so
3. Do not point a gun at a man you do not intend to kill
4. Never underestimate how valuable a herd of sheep may be in a gunfight

[Jack R.]

Early in my obsession with paperbacks, I would scour the mystery, science-fiction, fantasy, horror, and classics sections of used bookstores and thrift shops for vintage pulp. Indeed, to find some underpriced retro sleaze, I would venture into romance, if briefly. The only section I would avoid was westerns: those oft-forgotten, under-purchased, dusty mass markets, of which 90 percent was Bantam-era Louis L'Amour. I have spent hundreds of hours shifting through used books (I even worked for a second-hand store while in high school) and not once have I ever laid eyes upon someone pursuing the western section. Granted, I live in the urban portions of the Pacific Northwest, which definitely lacks a cowboy culture. The notion of a western genre shelf evokes feelings of dullness, tiredness, an unengaging, by-the-books story telling. It's the the books they sell at truck stops and dollar stores. It replaces the amoral repugnance of crime and sword-and-sorcery pulp with an uncomplicated black-and-white narrative universe. I love western movies-- indeed John Ford's The Searchers is an all-time favorite, along with the work of Anthony Mann-- but those are nuanced pieces of cinematic art, with characters and themes. I never thought Louis L'Amour possessed that ability or desire to write equivalent pieces of fiction.

Now, I have changed my tune. I have become increasingly interested in the pulp western genre, and slowly adding to my still light library of gunslinging titles. After reading online forums and listening to podcasts, I have discovered a whole world of grim and gritty western pulp literature, with the "Edge" westerns being a series that piqued by interested right away. These books advertise themselves as being "ultra-violent," promising bloody and gory goodness in a short 150 pages. I was excited when I found a worn, but completely intact, volume for a couple cents at a favorite used haunt (trying to find Edge books in the Pacific Northwest has proved to be as difficult as searching for the ark of the covenant). The 15th-entry in the Edge series, Paradise Loses does feature violence: depictions of blood-gushing bullet wounds, neck lacerations, and wholy bodily mutilation via mortar fire. Yet, this book has two totally inchoate plots that lack any semblance of intrigue or tension. One involves Edge, the wild west outlaw, helping a group of Shaker-esque sectarians (who live in Paradise) survive rape and pillage from Spokane natives. For a book with the town name in the title, this portion of the book plays second fiddle to the flashback sequences of Edge as captain of a Union special-ops force during the Civil War (the Edge books were published by Pinnacle, pioneers in the "Men's Action and Adventure" genre which featured such "behind enemy lines" plotlines). In the former, Edge takes care of the natives via a contrived "exploding wagon" routine, while the latter sees Edge and his gang evade Confederate capture through, yes, contrived escapes (like fleeing on a conveniently docked ironclad!). Not only does the bifurcated, back-and-forth delivery hinder investment in either plot-- and is unsuccessful in covering up how little there is to each story--but this kind of fast-paced, easy solution action I find unreadable and silly, a pure example of the author putting words to page to get to the blood soaked violence without pausing to see if the transition is satisfactory. The one moment where the Paradise Loses kept my interest was in a race-against-time prison escape where Edge and co. dig a tunnel at lightening speed under the compound. It was as equally ridiculous but the author created the right stakes to make the scenario properly tense.

While other reviewers point to this work as a low-point in the early Edge westerns, my interest in this series has cooled, almost frigidly. Maybe an early entry, or a late, more developed episode, will prove a worthwhile, but I think I will stop my avid search for these books. Of course, if I find a lot for cheap, I will pick them up without a thought.

[Jim Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regarded as one of the most violent western series ever written, Paradise Loses lives up to that promise. Only the second Edge book I've read and I might have already had enough. Rife with rich descriptions of heads exploding and crimson gouts of blood and guts and filled with characters that are hateful, misogynistic, and homophobic, it's tough to like much about this. One gay character stereotypically described as "cowardly and weakly handsome" is mocked throughout the story by the writer and the characters using hateful and juvenile "jokes." I get it, men in combat situations will make fun of each other to ease the stress of battle. I can see that kind of good-natured ribbing happening, but when it's the writer describing the character as "pleading shrilly," "hissing anxiously," and various other descriptions of "shrieking" and "whining," it begins to wear a little thin. I could go on. Let's just say it took me out of the story more than once and was unnecessary.
The above issues notwithstanding, I did enjoy the story, or more to the point, the two stories. Paradise Loses tells two stories, alternating between a "current" adventure and a flashback to his Civil War days, having no connection between them at all. It was a quick read, and for the most part, enjoyable, but man, they certainly got away with some shit in the 70s, didn't they?