DEATHLANDS: RED HOLOCAUST

What if the world reverted to a primitive state, with just enough leftover high-tech hardware to make the shoot-em-ups sizzle? That's the premise in the Deathlands series, in which Ryan Cawdor and his band of misfits "jump" in a sort of Star Trek-transporter way from spot to irradiated spot in a U.S. decimated by the Third World War--which was lost by every country on earth 100 years earlier. Having read at least a dozen books in this series, I wasn't sure I could get into an abridgment but was pleasantly surprised. McCallister reads with authority, and the pace feels just right--I actually picked up details I'd missed in my own first reading. For anyone who likes the after-the-end-of-the-world-then-what? genre, this series is a must. M.C. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 99]