Outlanders: Awakening

Rating:
Summary: The good, the bad and the annoying
Review: Awakenings, the first OL novel by Victor Milan was a mixture of good and bad. A lot of books are like this (even a few OL-sorry!) but in this case I think the bad outweighed the good.

The main bad thing about it was that Awakening was not an OL novel but one of Victor Milan's Guardians post-nuke novels. Sixteen of them were published between 1985 and 1991. Why he thinks the Outlanders series, which is only marginally a post-nuke series is a good place to relaunch a long-dead and pretty much forgotten series is a mystery.

Awakening features the EXACT same stereotypical characters with the names changed but with same adolescent fixation on guns and macho posturing instead of plot. And speaking of plot, this one was nothing but the premise of the old Morrow Project role playing game.

I got the impression that the writer, Victor Milan was trying to "show up" the OL characters by reintroducing his Guardians characters who are really not much more than mercenaries who work for an industrialist named Gilgamesh Bates.

The writer skews the situations blatantly to make it seem like Kane and Grant are amateurs who should've been able to overthrow the barons in two years...but he conveniently makes no mention of the fact that the Cerberus warriors have faced down the likes of the Tushe Gun, Sindri, Zakat, Sam, Thrush, Maccan and several other major non-baronial enemies during that time.

These are enemies who would so out-class the Guardians-I mean Team Phoenix-they'd have no idea what do. The major battle they have in the book is with Sky Dog's band of Indian warriors. It's not exactly an even match, armored ATV and rocket launchers against bare-chested guys on horses with bows and arrows.

And just as conveniently the writer doesn't mention how Kane and Grant have saved the world like five times as opposed to the ZERO times of the Guardians--I mean, Team Phoenix. As far as I'm concerned that's a cheap tactic and an insult not only to the long-time fans of the series but to the creator, Mark Ellis.

As far as Team Phoenix are concerned I thought the Guardians characters were one-dimensional macho cliches when I first read them 12 years ago. That's why I was a never a fan of the series. I think I must have picked up the last book in the series anyway and tried to read a couple of earlier ones.

They still are stereotypes today, even with new names. They also come off as kind of dumb, letting themselves be ordered around by the hologram of Gilgamesh Bates who they think died 200 years ago.

Also it takes them nearly to the end of the book before they finally realize that the instructions they're receiving aren't from a dead guy at all. Even Domi would have figured that out long before they did. That was a very juvenile element to the story. I'm pretty sure Kane and Grant wouldn't agree to take orders from a hologram no matter how much they were paid.

And speaking of Domi Victor Milan characterizes her as the same way Mel Odom did--a psychopathic bimbo. Brigid and the other female characters are given short shrift but he constantly compares Domi to a stripper and gives her more pages than any of the other OL characters except for Kane and Grant.

I won't say this book was a complete loss because it had some sections in it I actually liked. But if I wanted to read a Guardians novel I'd make a visit to a used bookstore.

I enjoyed some of the interaction between Kane, Grant and Sky Dog, but the author stays away from the more complex relationships among the characters. There's no real sci-fi elements in it either which is another annoying thing.

I can only hope if Victor Milan writes more OL novels he'll get into the groove and realize OL isn't part of that hacked out post-nuke men's adventure junk of the kind he used to write with the Guardians. There were a number of continuity errors in it that distracted me, too.

The good stuff is that Victor Milan is a good writer and he gets most of the main characters right though I think he really dropped ball with Lakesh and Domi. The dialogue is pretty sharp and his descriptions of battle scenes are strong but I found the whole thing with Team Phoenix slaughtering most of Sky Dog's band repulsive and even cowardly. Those aren't my kind of heroes. Not to mention they handed Cerberus a huge diplomatic problem which they then just drive away from.

My opinion is that if Victor Milan thinks his Guardians characters are so much better than the OL characters (I assume he was paid to write an OL novel not a Guardians revival), he should try to interest another publisher in reviving them, not force-feed them to fans of OL or use OL as a way to relaunch the series.

They come off to me as stereotypes, a conceited bunch of macho-man gun worshipping clichés. There�s nothing new about them, they could be any character from any of the jizillion post-nuke series that were published in the 80s. I think the writer really misunderstood the audience of OL.

Overall, I'll give Awakening a borderline 3 stars. I would have given it a full 4 but for the fact the OL characters who I buy the series to read about were reduced to being guest stars in their own series.

I really DON'T want to see Team Phoenix reappear. I had enough of them when they were called the Guardians.

(...)

Rating:
Summary: The good, the bad and the annoying
Review: Awakenings, the first OL novel by Victor Milan was a mixture of good and bad. A lot of books are like this (even a few OL-sorry!) but in this case I think the bad outweighed the good.

The main bad thing about it was that Awakening was not an OL novel but one of Victor Milan's Guardians post-nuke novels. Sixteen of them were published between 1985 and 1991. Why he thinks the Outlanders series, which is only marginally a post-nuke series is a good place to relaunch a long-dead and pretty much forgotten series is a mystery.

Awakening features the EXACT same stereotypical characters with the names changed but with same adolescent fixation on guns and macho posturing instead of plot. And speaking of plot, this one was nothing but the premise of the old Morrow Project role playing game.

I got the impression that the writer, Victor Milan was trying to "show up" the OL characters by reintroducing his Guardians characters who are really not much more than mercenaries who work for an industrialist named Gilgamesh Bates.

The writer skews the situations blatantly to make it seem like Kane and Grant are amateurs who should've been able to overthrow the barons in two years...but he conveniently makes no mention of the fact that the Cerberus warriors have faced down the likes of the Tushe Gun, Sindri, Zakat, Sam, Thrush, Maccan and several other major non-baronial enemies during that time.

These are enemies who would so out-class the Guardians-I mean Team Phoenix-they'd have no idea what do. The major battle they have in the book is with Sky Dog's band of Indian warriors. It's not exactly an even match, armored ATV and rocket launchers against bare-chested guys on horses with bows and arrows.

And just as conveniently the writer doesn't mention how Kane and Grant have saved the world like five times as opposed to the ZERO times of the Guardians--I mean, Team Phoenix. As far as I'm concerned that's a cheap tactic and an insult not only to the long-time fans of the series but to the creator, Mark Ellis.

As far as Team Phoenix are concerned I thought the Guardians characters were one-dimensional macho cliches when I first read them 12 years ago. That's why I was a never a fan of the series. I think I must have picked up the last book in the series anyway and tried to read a couple of earlier ones.

They still are stereotypes today, even with new names. They also come off as kind of dumb, letting themselves be ordered around by the hologram of Gilgamesh Bates who they think died 200 years ago.

Also it takes them nearly to the end of the book before they finally realize that the instructions they're receiving aren't from a dead guy at all. Even Domi would have figured that out long before they did. That was a very juvenile element to the story. I'm pretty sure Kane and Grant wouldn't agree to take orders from a hologram no matter how much they were paid.

And speaking of Domi Victor Milan characterizes her as the same way Mel Odom did--a psychopathic bimbo. Brigid and the other female characters are given short shrift but he constantly compares Domi to a stripper and gives her more pages than any of the other OL characters except for Kane and Grant.

I won't say this book was a complete loss because it had some sections in it I actually liked. But if I wanted to read a Guardians novel I'd make a visit to a used bookstore.

I enjoyed some of the interaction between Kane, Grant and Sky Dog, but the author stays away from the more complex relationships among the characters. There's no real sci-fi elements in it either which is another annoying thing.

I can only hope if Victor Milan writes more OL novels he'll get into the groove and realize OL isn't part of that hacked out post-nuke men's adventure junk of the kind he used to write with the Guardians. There were a number of continuity errors in it that distracted me, too.

The good stuff is that Victor Milan is a good writer and he gets most of the main characters right though I think he really dropped ball with Lakesh and Domi. The dialogue is pretty sharp and his descriptions of battle scenes are strong but I found the whole thing with Team Phoenix slaughtering most of Sky Dog's band repulsive and even cowardly. Those aren't my kind of heroes. Not to mention they handed Cerberus a huge diplomatic problem which they then just drive away from.

My opinion is that if Victor Milan thinks his Guardians characters are so much better than the OL characters (I assume he was paid to write an OL novel not a Guardians revival), he should try to interest another publisher in reviving them, not force-feed them to fans of OL or use OL as a way to relaunch the series.

They come off to me as stereotypes, a conceited bunch of macho-man gun worshipping clichés. There's nothing new about them, they could be any character from any of the jizillion post-nuke series that were published in the 80s. I think the writer really misunderstood the audience of OL.

Overall, I'll give Awakening a borderline 3 stars. I would have given it a full 4 but for the fact the OL characters who I buy the series to read about were reduced to being guest stars in their own series.

I really DON'T want to see Team Phoenix reappear. I had enough of them when they were called the Guardians.

(...)

Rating:
Summary: Dude, where's my Outlanders?
Review: I don't know anything about the Guardians but I know about the Outlanders and that they were not in this book, even when bad facsimilies with their names were on the page. I knew after the first chapter that this one was not written by Mark Ellis, the series creator.

Awakening was a very angering book for a lot of reasons, the least of which was the "Team Phoenix" attitude that Kane and Grant and everyone were a group of incompetents and they were the "real deal". This was a very dishonest and even nasty tactic on the part of the writer, Victor Milan.

I buy the Outlanders series so I can read about the adventures of Grant, Kane, Brigid, all of the Cerberus crew, not about a bunch of thawed-out lowlives with gun and movie fixations.

I hope this writer has not taken over the OL series because I don't think I'll care to be around to see what he does to it.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. It wasn't like the others in the series I read. It hardly had any of the main Outlanders characters in it and I didn't like Team Phoneix at all.

Some people may like this book because of all the violence but that's about all it had.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not _exactly_ Outlanders as we know it.
Review: Okay, at least I'm not the ONLY one who recognized the similarities between Team Phoenix and the late 80's/early-90's series "The Guardians" (though Billy McKay would never have allowed himself to grow a gut, no matter how much beer he drank).

In fact, it was Robey's review (below) that made me do the search for Victor Milan where I found out that he wrote "The Guardians" series under the nom-de-plume "Richard Austin."

I was going to initially accuse Mr. Milan of blatantly stealing the Guardian's concept as a basis for this book. I mean, come on. . .some guy named Gilgamesh Bates gives them a job to restore America? Granted, it's not _exactly_ the Blueprint For Renewal, but it sounds a lot like it. However, seeing as Mr. Milan actually wrote The Guardians. . .

And Team Phoenix isn't running around in a big V450 Supercommando, but that LAV is awfully close.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to a couple of points.

1. The book is pretty good. Despite the obvious mischaracterizations and oversights, the storyline is quite appealing. If you can forget for a moment that this is supposed to be an Outlanders book and view it with a less-jaundiced eye. . .you might just enjoy it.

2. This is good, old 1980's Cold War Post-Armageddon men's sci-fi laced liberally with testosterone and cordite. The only real problem is that this is now the 21st Century and the Outlanders series has garnered quite a different fan base as written by Mark Ellis. Many of the readers are unfamiliar with the old stuff (Robey notwithstanding!).

My complaint is that Mr. Milan may have misunderstood the demographics of the Outlander following. I remember (and have) each and every one of The Guardians series. I truly enjoyed the series up to the point that they obviously were written by alternate writers. But reading this almost insulted me.

While many of the younger readers may not realize that Team Phoenix is almost identical to The Guardians (four military experts tasked with rebuilding a post-nuke America utilizing the best training and equipment the Continuity of Government program can buy), I sure recognized them. It was this recognition that dampened my enjoyment somewhat. In fact, I almost felt insulted that someone would steal Richard Austin's ideas and try to pawn them off on me twelve years after his series was cancelled.

This was, of course, before I found out that Mr. Milan is actually Richard Austin.

This book, however, is one of The Outlanders series. While I am not the publisher, I AM a devoted reader. I would recommend that Mr. Milan please try to stick to the theme and feeling of the original storyline.

The concept is good, but as Roby pointed out below, the "flavor" is all wrong. I read The Outlanders because I "know" the characters and are comfortable with them. In my opinion, this almost seemed like an attempt at the introduction of a spin-off series centered on Team Phoenix.

This is enjoyable Sci-fi men's adventure. It is NOT, however, The Outlanders as anyone knows it.

Would someone PLEASE let Mr. Milan write a series of his own? He has the experience to do so and writes stories very well. Please let him run with his own series.

Let's leave The Outlanders to Mark Ellis and (occasionally) Mel Odom.

Just my opinion, worth exactly what you paid for it.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but not _exactly_ Outlanders as we know it.
Review: Okay, at least I'm not the ONLY one who recognized the similarities between Team Phoenix and the late 80's/early-90's series "The Guardians" (though Billy McKay would never have allowed himself to grow a gut, no matter how much beer he drank).

In fact, it was Robey's review (below) that made me do the search for Victor Milan where I found out that he wrote "The Guardians" series under the nom-de-plume "Richard Austin."

I was going to initially accuse Mr. Milan of blatantly stealing the Guardian's concept as a basis for this book. I mean, come on. . .some guy named Gilgamesh Bates gives them a job to restore America? Granted, it's not _exactly_ the Blueprint For Renewal, but it sounds a lot like it. However, seeing as Mr. Milan actually wrote The Guardians. . .

And Team Phoenix isn't running around in a big V450 Supercommando, but that LAV is awfully close.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to a couple of points.

1. The book is pretty good. Despite the obvious mischaracterizations and oversights, the storyline is quite appealing. If you can forget for a moment that this is supposed to be an Outlanders book and view it with a less-jaundiced eye. . .you might just enjoy it.

2. This is good, old 1980's Cold War Post-Armageddon men's sci-fi laced liberally with testosterone and cordite. The only real problem is that this is now the 21st Century and the Outlanders series has garnered quite a different fan base as written by Mark Ellis. Many of the readers are unfamiliar with the old stuff (Robey notwithstanding!).

My complaint is that Mr. Milan may have misunderstood the demographics of the Outlander following. I remember (and have) each and every one of The Guardians series. I truly enjoyed the series up to the point that they obviously were written by alternate writers. But reading this almost insulted me.

While many of the younger readers may not realize that Team Phoenix is almost identical to The Guardians (four military experts tasked with rebuilding a post-nuke America utilizing the best training and equipment the Continuity of Government program can buy), I sure recognized them. It was this recognition that dampened my enjoyment somewhat. In fact, I almost felt insulted that someone would steal Richard Austin's ideas and try to pawn them off on me twelve years after his series was cancelled.

This was, of course, before I found out that Mr. Milan is actually Richard Austin.

This book, however, is one of The Outlanders series. While I am not the publisher, I AM a devoted reader. I would recommend that Mr. Milan please try to stick to the theme and feeling of the original storyline.

The concept is good, but as Roby pointed out below, the "flavor" is all wrong. I read The Outlanders because I "know" the characters and are comfortable with them. In my opinion, this almost seemed like an attempt at the introduction of a spin-off series centered on Team Phoenix.

This is enjoyable Sci-fi men's adventure. It is NOT, however, The Outlanders as anyone knows it.

Would someone PLEASE let Mr. Milan write a series of his own? He has the experience to do so and writes stories very well. Please let him run with his own series.

Let's leave The Outlanders to Mark Ellis and (occasionally) Mel Odom.

Just my opinion, worth exactly what you paid for it.

Rating:
Summary: Have You Ever Read An Outlanders Novel, Mr. Milan?
Review: Outlanders is a truly awesome saga, epic in scope, but this is not the book to start with if you have never tried this series before. It is one of only a few Outlanders novels not written by series creator Mark Ellis, a phenomenally-gifted writer/visionary who is an almost impossible act to follow.

Awakening is written by Victor Milan. This book marks Mr. Milan's first foray into the Outlanders universe and it ain't a pretty thing to behold for long-time Outlanders freaks such as myself. This book reads much more like an installment of Deathlands, a series I despise.

Now, Awakening isn't all bad, I'll grant you. Victor Milan is obviously a talented writer and if Awakening wasn't an Outlanders novel, I would have given it two and a half stars instead of one. It was an average read in many respects....

But since it IS an Outlanders novel, I think I'm being charitable giving this steaming turd a whole star as it is a complete betrayal of much of what Mark Ellis has spent several years building with this series.

My main complaint is characterization. Or, perhaps I should say, character assasination. Every single Outlanders character is portrayed in inexcusably terrible fashion in this novel---I would laugh my big fat butt off if it didn't make me so frigging sad. My God, have you ever even read an Outlanders novel, Mr Milan?

Team Phoenix are decent enough characters of the stereotypically macho and somewhat brain-dead variety and if this was a Team Phoenix novel, it would likely be a solid enough effort. However, it almost seemed as if Victor Milan was purposely sabotaging all of the series' regular characters---in effect, flipping off series creator Mark Ellis.

I'm sure Mr. Milan is capable of better than this. I certainly hope so, since he's contracted to write more Outlanders novels. I also hope this circumstance doesn't degenerate into a "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah!!! My characters are better than yours!!!!" situation on Mr. Milan's part. Because, quite simply, they are not.

Kane and Grant could eat Team Phoenix's souls....

That is, if Team Phoenix had any souls.

Rating:
Summary: Have You Ever Read An Outlanders Novel, Mr. Milan?
Review: Outlanders is a truly awesome saga, epic in scope, but this is not the book to start with if you have never tried this series before. It is one of only a few Outlanders novels not written by series creator Mark Ellis, a phenomenally-gifted writer/visionary who is an almost impossible act to follow.

Awakening is written by Victor Milan. This book marks Mr. Milan's first foray into the Outlanders universe and it ain't a pretty thing to behold for long-time Outlanders freaks such as myself. This book reads much more like an installment of Deathlands, a series I despise.

Now, Awakening isn't all bad, I'll grant you. Victor Milan is obviously a talented writer and if Awakening wasn't an Outlanders novel, I would have given it two and a half stars instead of one. It was an average read in many respects....

But since it IS an Outlanders novel, I think I'm being charitable giving this steaming turd a whole star as it is a complete betrayal of much of what Mark Ellis has spent several years building with this series.

My main complaint is characterization. Or, perhaps I should say, character assasination. Every single Outlanders character is portrayed in inexcusably terrible fashion in this novel---I would laugh my big fat butt off if it didn't make me so frigging sad. My God, have you ever even read an Outlanders novel, Mr Milan?

Team Phoenix are decent enough characters of the stereotypically macho and somewhat brain-dead variety and if this was a Team Phoenix novel, it would likely be a solid enough effort. However, it almost seemed as if Victor Milan was purposely sabotaging all of the series' regular characters---in effect, flipping off series creator Mark Ellis.

I'm sure Mr. Milan is capable of better than this. I certainly hope so, since he's contracted to write more Outlanders novels. I also hope this circumstance doesn't degenerate into a "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah!!! My characters are better than yours!!!!" situation on Mr. Milan's part. Because, quite simply, they are not.

Kane and Grant could eat Team Phoenix's souls....

That is, if Team Phoenix had any souls.

Rating:
Summary: Should be NO stars!
Review: This book is a waste of time and money!

Rating:
Summary: OUTLANDERS REAWAKENS!
Review: This newest from new-comer writer Victor Milan features a great debut novel in this series.
Team Phoenix is awakened in the new nuclear world, where upon revival, they plow their way straight for cerberus redoubt. All along the way, these soldiers from our time era, fight every mile against mutants and American Indians, making this a fraught-filled adventure novel that never lets up.
Victor Milan takes his personal license here, but it fits!! Domi is used to great delight here. She joins up with this Team Phoenix, making this reader delve in deeper because of all the hair-raising action and suspense between the two groups.
When Kane and Grant finally meet up with this group - its hell-bent for leather action sure to entertain adventure readers the world round!
I love the diatribe within the Team Phoenix. They talk and argue about today's movies and actors. Mentioning big names such as Tarantino and John Woo was funny to read. They are extremely colorful and bad ass to the core.
One of my all time favorite characters, Sky Dog makes a reappearance here, and that is just an added bonus for this reader.
Not everything is as it seems in this book, chock-full of tension and tenuous alliances that is sure to keep you riveted.
The only reason I didn't give it a 10 was because it was full of awkward and wrong sentence structures. Lots of editing mistakes here, but they are thrown to the side as the bullets and the fists fly.
I for one can't wait for Milan's next novel in this universe. He fits it like a glove!
Awesome read that Hollywood could easily turn into a stand-alone big budget movie. Open up and say 'AHHH' Hollywood!