Ghost Dancers

Traveler #13

by D.B. Drumm

On the eve of doomsday, he was fighting to keep the nuclear madness from starting--all over again.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction

171 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1987

About the author

Pen-name for Ed Naha
Pen-name for John Shirley

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not many Men's Adventure series get an ending but the authors managed it for this 13 book post-apocalyptic series. And it's a good one. Not perfectly satisfying but it finishes the series well. D. B. Drumm is a house name. The books were written by John Shirley and Ed Naha. I believe most of them were Naha and this last one is. This is actually my favorite post-apocalyptic men's adventure series. All the books are well written and the character, a man known as Traveler, who roams the wasteland after a nuclear war, is both interesting and sympathetic. He's, naturally, a bit of a Road Warrior character, although with quite a bit of depth. The first 11 books in the series were action packed, but the last two were rather thoughtful and had a little taste of philosophy in them. Traveler proves himself to have quite a bit of depth.

Another interesting element is that, though the last 2 books were written in 1987, they echo quite a few of the political issues that we in the US are dealing with in 2022. They actually feel quite contemporary. All in all, a very strong and enjoyable 13 book post apocalyptic series.

[Lewis Szymanski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ed Naha writing as D.B. Drumm.

The Jefferson government is on the brink of a new nuclear war with whoever is occupying what is left of Russia. Traveler heads to Arizona to check out weird things happening there. Native American end-times myths seem to be coming true.

President Jefferson's Apocalyptic Christian Secretary of Defense slaughters the rest of the president's cabinet, then kills Orwell and Jefferson. He launches the nuclear weapons leftover from WWIII to bring about the rapture.

Meanwhile, Traveler has reunited with Rat Du Bois and Alexander. With Alexander's help, Traveler goes back in time to kill president Frayling and prevent WWIII.

Traveler fails at this task. The last chapter of this book is the first chapter of book one. Gutsy move, but also kind of dumb.

[Paperbackbooks86 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to finally finish the Traveler series, a series I have loved and slowly picked away at. However; I found this one to be my least favorite out of the whole series. What a bummer. It seemed as Drumm got towards the end of the series, he started letting his political beliefs and his beliefs on religion take over the series. While his political beliefs were always there (anti Reagan under the disguise of Flayling) it was never to the point where it was no longer the character talking, but the author butting in and going on an out of place rant. However; in the last three books, Drumm couldn't help himself, and those part of the books are rough.

With Ghost Dancers, its HEAVY on repeating how Traveler is feeling and what people are seeing. Every chapter I found myself saying, "Alright, I got it," and it started to feel like Drumm ran out of ideas and was padding the pages to make a final book. The main antagonist in Ghost Dancers had serious legs, but was rushed into two chapters and gone.

Without giving too many spoilers, Drumm used this antagonist to mock religion, once again to the point, where it was the author butting into the story to really let you know how much he disagrees with religion. We the readers are not stupid, we don't need you to spell it out for us.

There was SO MUCH potential for this one, but it falls short in every way. Characters you are excited to see play out just leave, answers you are expecting to get, never happen, and then the book.... ends. A disappointing end to a GREAT series. If you made it this far, read it and judge for yourself!