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Deathlands #5
Homeward Bound
SURVIVORS IN A WORLD GONE HIDEOUSLY WRONG...
Ryan Cawdor's post-holocaust odyssey across America is about to come full circle - Ryan Cawdor is going home.
Forced away from Front Royal years earlier by a power-mad brother who had already committed fratricide, Ryan had roamed a devastated America searching out the small pockets of life where civilization was being reborn.
Emerging from a gateway in the ruins of New York City, Ryan decides to put his own house in order - it's time to avenge the deaths of his father and older brother.
Accompanied by Krysty Wroth and J.B. Dix, Ryan Cawdor comes face-to-face with the harsh reality of post-nuclear America. In the Deathlands, honor and fair play are words of the past. Vengeance is a word to live by.
Ryan Cawdor's post-holocaust odyssey across America is about to come full circle - Ryan Cawdor is going home.
Forced away from Front Royal years earlier by a power-mad brother who had already committed fratricide, Ryan had roamed a devastated America searching out the small pockets of life where civilization was being reborn.
Emerging from a gateway in the ruins of New York City, Ryan decides to put his own house in order - it's time to avenge the deaths of his father and older brother.
Accompanied by Krysty Wroth and J.B. Dix, Ryan Cawdor comes face-to-face with the harsh reality of post-nuclear America. In the Deathlands, honor and fair play are words of the past. Vengeance is a word to live by.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1987
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253 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 2, 2024
Even though it’s been something like 6 years since o read a previous book on this series, it’s like I never left. The Deathland books remain ridiculous, over the too, cliched, and dumb. And yet they are still an absolute blast to read.
Homeward Bound continues the story of Ryan Cowder and is ragtag band of post apocalyptic survivors, trudging their way through the Deathlands, either on foot or using the MAT-Trans portals they continue to come across. Inbetween there are mutants, bands of wild gangs, animals, and, in this case, despotic rulers of pockets of civilization that just so happen to be related to Ryan.
Yeah, the whole thing is crazy, but I’m not complaining since I have the same attention span and juvenile enjoyment of this kind of thing that a 14 year old testosterone fueled adolescent boy would. I don’t need a deep plot or much of anything as long as there is a radiated wasteland, lots of guns, lots of action, lots of death, and lots of sex. As the previous 4 books already did, Homeward Bound delivers on all those things, keeping most readers of the same mindset satisfied.
I guess you could equate reading this book (and series) to cake. You know what you’re getting isn’t necessarily the best thing for you, nor are there any real healthy benefits to consuming, but it sure tastes good for those few moments you get to taste it.
Homeward Bound continues the story of Ryan Cowder and is ragtag band of post apocalyptic survivors, trudging their way through the Deathlands, either on foot or using the MAT-Trans portals they continue to come across. Inbetween there are mutants, bands of wild gangs, animals, and, in this case, despotic rulers of pockets of civilization that just so happen to be related to Ryan.
Yeah, the whole thing is crazy, but I’m not complaining since I have the same attention span and juvenile enjoyment of this kind of thing that a 14 year old testosterone fueled adolescent boy would. I don’t need a deep plot or much of anything as long as there is a radiated wasteland, lots of guns, lots of action, lots of death, and lots of sex. As the previous 4 books already did, Homeward Bound delivers on all those things, keeping most readers of the same mindset satisfied.
I guess you could equate reading this book (and series) to cake. You know what you’re getting isn’t necessarily the best thing for you, nor are there any real healthy benefits to consuming, but it sure tastes good for those few moments you get to taste it.
September 21, 2013
More sex death and destruction in the deathlands.
December 22, 2018
Ryan and crew go to his home, the barony and fights his brother. Other crazy stuff happens along the way. Another fun, interesting post-apoc story. Pulp fiction at it's finest.
June 22, 2025
Condition: Mediocre. Substantial peeling at the bottom of the spine. Overall exterior wear and tear is noticeable. (Fun fact: I’ve bought this one twice, after I accidentally ripped the cover off my first copy in a dumb accident.)
Something changes with this one. The first handful of Deathlands books I own are all original print runs, and Homeward Bound is the first since the debut to crest 300 pages; the paper is thicker and better quality. This may be the moment where Gold Eagle (an imprint of Harlequin, for those in the know) decided that Deathlands might be worth putting a little more money into.
It was good timing; Homeward Bound is an entry with greater ambition than the handful of novels before it. Cawdor and co. must return to Virginia so Ryan can enact revenge upon the older brother who took his eye and seized control of the ville from their ailing father. Despite the madcap depiction of Ryan’s in-laws once they make it to Virginia from New York, this is a mostly grim affair. The expansion of Ryan’s arc into something that books are directly connected to rather than merely hovering in the background is a welcome change. While one of the strengths of Deathlands is its monster-of-the-week style, providing ample opportunity for a kitchen-sink approach to creativity, its relative lack of continuity apart from the drip-feed of character details can make for something rather slight in its slower moments. Homeward Bound, though, manages to do both; the exit from New York is a suitably bleak affair with some surprisingly strong visual prose from James, and the protracted battle of wills between Ryan and Harvey is both rooted in the former’s character and weirdly shaped and surprising enough to keep the pages turning. Points A and Z of a Deathlands book are always fairly clear, but the whole alphabet in between can provide some pretty striking moments. It’s the journey, not the destination, man.
One last point of interest, as I incrementally iterate on my reading of the whole series as I get books under my belt: the casual amorality of the gang is genuinely a powerful asset to the books. These are not good people; while not pointlessly sadistic, their callousness and constant, immediate propensity for violence marks them as some of the darker antiheroes I’ve seen in a pulp series. Deathlands is not a story of the world piecing itself together after the nuclear holocaust; it’s about picking the bones.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
Something changes with this one. The first handful of Deathlands books I own are all original print runs, and Homeward Bound is the first since the debut to crest 300 pages; the paper is thicker and better quality. This may be the moment where Gold Eagle (an imprint of Harlequin, for those in the know) decided that Deathlands might be worth putting a little more money into.
It was good timing; Homeward Bound is an entry with greater ambition than the handful of novels before it. Cawdor and co. must return to Virginia so Ryan can enact revenge upon the older brother who took his eye and seized control of the ville from their ailing father. Despite the madcap depiction of Ryan’s in-laws once they make it to Virginia from New York, this is a mostly grim affair. The expansion of Ryan’s arc into something that books are directly connected to rather than merely hovering in the background is a welcome change. While one of the strengths of Deathlands is its monster-of-the-week style, providing ample opportunity for a kitchen-sink approach to creativity, its relative lack of continuity apart from the drip-feed of character details can make for something rather slight in its slower moments. Homeward Bound, though, manages to do both; the exit from New York is a suitably bleak affair with some surprisingly strong visual prose from James, and the protracted battle of wills between Ryan and Harvey is both rooted in the former’s character and weirdly shaped and surprising enough to keep the pages turning. Points A and Z of a Deathlands book are always fairly clear, but the whole alphabet in between can provide some pretty striking moments. It’s the journey, not the destination, man.
One last point of interest, as I incrementally iterate on my reading of the whole series as I get books under my belt: the casual amorality of the gang is genuinely a powerful asset to the books. These are not good people; while not pointlessly sadistic, their callousness and constant, immediate propensity for violence marks them as some of the darker antiheroes I’ve seen in a pulp series. Deathlands is not a story of the world piecing itself together after the nuclear holocaust; it’s about picking the bones.
https://hideousrecollection.substack.com
January 17, 2025
This was close to a 2 for me--and I usually don't finish books like that. However, it picked up a lot in the final quarter of the book, and I enjoyed reading the rest of the way to the end. I'll give it a 3.
I've been checking out various kinds of pulp fiction, most from the 70s, some a bit more recent, and this series popped up. The setup is pretty great--a post-apocalyptic America filled with mutated humans and every kind of danger. Everyone carries weapons, mostly handguns and rifles, and here and there people are trying to civilize the place again. I wondered what made this series work, and I'm not too sure right now.
I kind of understand the appeal of others, like Doc Savage and Tarzan, The Executioner and The Destroyer, Hellboy and Rogue Angel. They all have some hooks to catch your attention, some superhero mojo and some beat-the-bad-guys adrenaline bringing the reader back. This series, though, doesn't have any of that that I can see. I've only read one so far, but it reads like a typical science fiction story, mostly derivative and uninspired, and not only is it long for pulp, I found big chunks of it tough to wade through. I'm a little surprised it was good enough to publish at all. However, I realize I'm probably overlooking some fun stuff. It's got a couple hooks, I guess, depending on the interest of the reader, and it does pick up toward the end. In any case, the series was successful enough that it stretched out past 150 titles. Somebody was buying it. Something drew them in.
So I didn't love it, but it was good enough to finish and good enough to look into some of the other titles. I bought 5 or 6 used ones all at once, so I hope I enjoy the next one more. Those more familiar with the series might be able to tell me what to look for, which titles work best, how to get the most fun out of the books.
After I've read a few more, we'll see what kind of recommendations I have.
I've been checking out various kinds of pulp fiction, most from the 70s, some a bit more recent, and this series popped up. The setup is pretty great--a post-apocalyptic America filled with mutated humans and every kind of danger. Everyone carries weapons, mostly handguns and rifles, and here and there people are trying to civilize the place again. I wondered what made this series work, and I'm not too sure right now.
I kind of understand the appeal of others, like Doc Savage and Tarzan, The Executioner and The Destroyer, Hellboy and Rogue Angel. They all have some hooks to catch your attention, some superhero mojo and some beat-the-bad-guys adrenaline bringing the reader back. This series, though, doesn't have any of that that I can see. I've only read one so far, but it reads like a typical science fiction story, mostly derivative and uninspired, and not only is it long for pulp, I found big chunks of it tough to wade through. I'm a little surprised it was good enough to publish at all. However, I realize I'm probably overlooking some fun stuff. It's got a couple hooks, I guess, depending on the interest of the reader, and it does pick up toward the end. In any case, the series was successful enough that it stretched out past 150 titles. Somebody was buying it. Something drew them in.
So I didn't love it, but it was good enough to finish and good enough to look into some of the other titles. I bought 5 or 6 used ones all at once, so I hope I enjoy the next one more. Those more familiar with the series might be able to tell me what to look for, which titles work best, how to get the most fun out of the books.
After I've read a few more, we'll see what kind of recommendations I have.
July 18, 2022
The real abomination is not the fact that the world blew up with a nuclear exchange at the begging of the series, but the fact that the SyFy channel made an adaptation of this novel that was so hideous and wrong that I am sure it keeps readers away from Homeward Bound to this day. A real travesty.
That is because this is the best title in the series up to this point. The backstory of conflict with Ryan's traitorous brother culminates in a satisfying ending to this book. There are many twists and turns and the plans never go out like the protagonists (or readers) want them to do so. The effect is a conflict woven throughout the book that is really interesting.
Of all the evil barons thus far, Ryan's brother makes for the best one. Again, he is not without flaws so that the push and shove between characters has credibility. The history setup prior to this book is finally revealed in all its glory. You really get to see what make Ryan Cawdor who he is and after this book who he will become.
The theme is that you can't escape your past. What a great lesson. I just wish we could escape the past where this wonderful entry into the Deathlands series was adapted into such a crappy movie.
That is because this is the best title in the series up to this point. The backstory of conflict with Ryan's traitorous brother culminates in a satisfying ending to this book. There are many twists and turns and the plans never go out like the protagonists (or readers) want them to do so. The effect is a conflict woven throughout the book that is really interesting.
Of all the evil barons thus far, Ryan's brother makes for the best one. Again, he is not without flaws so that the push and shove between characters has credibility. The history setup prior to this book is finally revealed in all its glory. You really get to see what make Ryan Cawdor who he is and after this book who he will become.
The theme is that you can't escape your past. What a great lesson. I just wish we could escape the past where this wonderful entry into the Deathlands series was adapted into such a crappy movie.
April 3, 2020
Every time I read one of these, I am reminded that while the main characters may be the "nicest" people around, they are not what you would normally consider nice. And probably no one who reads this will know what I mean, but there was a "Tree of Palme" moment in it. Set me up good, though I SHOULD have seen it coming. So far, entertaining enough to contiune, but there's a long way to go. Not to mention the spinoff series...
April 4, 2022
So-so, just like the previous book, but even less interesting. The gratuitous racy scenes were joined by even more gratuitous gore.
June 11, 2024
Just brutal for the sake of being brutal…this one should have come with a warning: butchery, incest, cannibalism and a little bit of character development to make it “seem” like a real story…
September 9, 2011
My ratings system is as follows. One star is GOOD. The book is entertaining, easy to read and you don't want to stop reading because something about the book is compelling you not to. Two stars is GREAT! This time the story is not only entertaining, but highly creative, unique, easy to read and hard to put down. Three stars is EXCELLENT. Here the book has all aspects of one and two stars, but now the book is thought and emotionally provoking. Four is AWESOME. This is the read that is not only creative, original and emotionally and utterly captivating, but you are overwhelmed at how talented and skilled the author is in telling you their story. Literary brilliance. Five is PHENOMENAL. This is the book that has all the components of the previous four ratings but leaves that lasting impression. It's the book that changes dramatically your point of view and your interpretation of experiences you or others around you endure.
August 4, 2022
I think I will say the same thing about every Deathlands book until I find one that is either better or worse than all the others...
They are an insane (inane?) ride through a post apocalyptic version of the movie Hobbs and Shaw on ketamine with mutants and portals through time and space.
If you're interested in the above description, you will more than likely find something you enjoy in the Deathlands series. They are INCREDIBLY formulaic but I thoroughly enjoy the characters, and most story arcs are interesting enough for me to pick up the next one eventually.
The Graphic Audio versions are superbly made.
I'd probably give most Deathlands books a 3.5/5. Since Goodreads doesn't allow that, I'll give them a 4/5.
They are an insane (inane?) ride through a post apocalyptic version of the movie Hobbs and Shaw on ketamine with mutants and portals through time and space.
If you're interested in the above description, you will more than likely find something you enjoy in the Deathlands series. They are INCREDIBLY formulaic but I thoroughly enjoy the characters, and most story arcs are interesting enough for me to pick up the next one eventually.
The Graphic Audio versions are superbly made.
I'd probably give most Deathlands books a 3.5/5. Since Goodreads doesn't allow that, I'll give them a 4/5.
December 10, 2012
Audiobook: I am seeing a pattern to this series. One teleport scene one sex scene and a shoot out to fill the story.
Still enjoying it though. Good filler between longer books.
Still enjoying it though. Good filler between longer books.
February 20, 2013
Bloody, full of action. The death of Harvey Cawdor was very dissappointing. I was hoping for a face scoring, vengeful end by Ryan, but it just didn't happen that way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2016
An average apocalyptic adventure story. This one takes a century after the last war and now there are mutants running around the earth. Recommended
April 22, 2017
Put together well but with a really abrupt ending, considering the gravity of the situation.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews