Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Quantrill #2

Single Combat

Rate this book
The exciting sequel to Systemic Shock. The nuclear war against China and India has left America victorious, but devastated, and a strong and survival-minded government has seized control of what's left.

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 15, 1983

1 person is currently reading
63 people want to read

About the author

Dean Ing

75 books34 followers
Dean Charles Ing was an American author, who usually wrote in the science fiction and techno-thriller genres.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master’s degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1974). It was his work in communication theory at the University of Oregon that prompted him to turn to writing in the 1970s.

Dean Ing was a veteran of the United States Air Force, an aerospace engineer, and a university professor who holds a doctorate in communications theory. He became professional writer in 1977. Ing and his wife lived in Oregon.

Much of Ing's fiction includes detailed, practical descriptions of techniques and methods which would be useful in an individual or group survival situation, including instructions for the manufacture of tools and other implements, the recovery of stuck vehicles and avoidance of disease and injury.

In addition to his fiction writing, Ing wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan. Following in the footsteps of sci-fi novelist Pat Frank, Ing included a lengthy nonfiction appendix to his nuclear war survival novel Pulling Through.

In Ing’s fiction, his characters are involved with scientific or engineering solutions and entrepreneurial innovation, elements drawn from his own experience. A lifelong tinkerer, designer, and builder, he was an Air Force crew chief and a senior engineer for United Technologies and Lockheed. His characters know how things work, and they use ingenuity and engineering to solve situational challenges. Ing's work reflects the Oregon traditions of self-reliant independence and suspicion of authority.

“Since I deplore the voracious appetite of the public for entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake,” he told an interviewer in 1982, “most of my work has a clear didactic element. . . . I believe that Jefferson’s ideal of the independent yeoman farmer should be familiar to every generation because I mistrust a technological society in which most members are thoroughly incompetent to maintain the hardware or the software.”

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
32 (25%)
4 stars
56 (44%)
3 stars
29 (23%)
2 stars
5 (4%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Phil.
2,431 reviews236 followers
July 12, 2018
The second in the trilogy lives up to the first, but is less frenetic and has more character development. Ing's books always have great futuristic gadgets and this is no exception. I prefer to think of this series as a parallel universe rather than dated.
Profile Image for Kendal.
399 reviews3 followers
Read
March 3, 2022
This is part of a series, so I have no idea what went on before or after ... Try reading Orson Scott Card's Folk on the Fringe.
Profile Image for Steven Allen.
1,188 reviews23 followers
April 9, 2015
This was a good read. I particularly like how the main character is utterly loyal to his friends, faithful to his lover, and has a code of honor that he clings to no matter what. When someone who has gone through hell, basically sold their soul to the devil, and wallowed in death, to emerge still clinging to humanity and honor, despite being fractured and less than perfect is a great main character. I am looking forward to completing this series and seeing how things end with Ted and Streamlined America.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.