Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse

May 5, 2008
Guns, girls and alcohol occupy almost every inch of this raucous thrill ride, providing nonstop opportunities for both action and comedy. After coming down from his mountain bunker, insurance salesman Mortimer Tate finds a world that is postapocalyptic by way of early ’90s action films. Mortimer’s quests to find his ex-wife and discover his own purpose serve as a strong center line through a haze of madcap events. He and “Buffalo” Bill, a man obsessed with the idea of cowboys as a postcivilized focal point, encounter a wide cast of characters along their journeys, including foul-mouthed, gun-toting Sheila, who at times seems the best adapted to the harsh new world. The trio hop from one explosive encounter to another, often with the thinnest of reasons. Despite the frontier violence and sketchy plot, the humor of this armageddon western is woven deeply enough to keep Mortimer’s adventures feeling like a party.

May 15, 2008
Ten years after the world ends, insurance salesman Mortimer Tate emerges from his well-stocked mountain hideout to find a desolate land populated by bandits, savages, cannibals, and a lone cowboy named Buffalo Bill, who becomes his sidekick in danger and exploration. Joined by Sheila and Tyler, two women who have made their own paths to survival, the group discovers the glue that holds a fragile civilization togethera franchise of strip clubs called Joey Armageddon's Sassy-a-Go-Go. Gischler ("Gun Monkeys; The Pistol Poets; Suicide Squeeze; Shotgun Opera") specializes in morbid humor, dark sarcasm, and comic noir, complete with violence and mayhem. Eccentric seriocomic sf in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, this postapocalyptic adventure is recommended for most mature sf readers.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2008
Nine years after Mortimer Tate retreated from the end of the world (he thought) to the Tennessee mountains, three men appear before his cabin. He emerges, desperate for conversation. Unfortunately, they mistake his intentions, and he is forced to shoot them. Despite this inauspicious incident, Mortimer is optimistic enough to venture down the mountain. What passes for civilization surprises him: a chain of strip joints called Joey Armageddons Sassy-A-Go-Go has set itself as mankinds savior. But as with any fledgling world-saving operation, there is opposition--to wit, the terrorist-like Red Stripes, whom Mortimer is sent to defeat. His subsequent breakneck journey is full of cannibals, slave runners, bad booze, and other dangers, none more perilous than hope. Although this dark comedy makes one laugh, it isnt a romp in a postapocalyptic playground. Its violent and sleazy, laced with moments of quiet gravity, an intelligent satire of how American society works even after it has broken down (the label for postapocalypse Jack Daniels in chapter 23 is pure comic gold). Compulsively readable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)