Accompanied by his cowboy sidekick Buffalo Bill, the gorgeous stripper Sheila, and the mountain man Ted, Mortimer journeys to the lost city of Atlanta -- and a showdown that might determine the fate of humanity.

Average Rating:


Review: 2008-11-04

Post-Apocalyptic Thrill Ride
Since the world started falling apart right around the same time as Mortimer Tate's marriage, he was well prepared. He maxed out three credit cards and built a cabin by a mountaintop cave, and rode out the apocalypse there. Nine years later, when he has to kill three men who wander into his territory, he realizes he misses the rest of the world and it's time to come off the mountain and see what's left of it.

He finds that the world is a changed place, and very dangerous. When the first person he comes across attempts to enslave him and steal his stash, he is quickly awakened to the new reality. He makes a friend in Buffalo Bill, a cowboy complete with a hat and six-shooters, and the two of them make their way to what's left of Mort's old home so they can find what became of his wife Anne. There isn't much order in the world, but the little in existence is known as Joey Armageddon's Sassy A Go-Go, a place where a man can get a cold beer, a lap dance, and anything else that's currently up for trade. Without an infrastructure, electricity is powered by slaves on stationary bikes, and the train service, the Muscle Express, is powered by big, beefy men on a hand cart. Most women work as prostitutes, and are bought and sold. Cannibals roam the wilderness, and now, a barbarian overlord known as the Red Czar is poised to destroy Joey Armageddon and his empire. Just as Mortimer reaches the epiphany that he doesn't need to find his wife anymore, he is sent on an impossible mission to find her and save Joey Armageddon's empire from the barbarian hordes of the Red Stripes.

Though the violence sometimes made me cringe, this book was sheer fun from beginning to end. It answers the question of what could happen if the world as we know it was destroyed and the planet was plunged into a new Dark Age of barbarism. It shows pockets of civilization and people clinging to what's left of the old world as they make their way in the new. It does all of this with a wry sense of humor, wrapped around a group of unique characters it was impossible not to like. It was easy to picture life in the post-apocalyptic world. I don't know if Gischler does sequels, but I would definitely read the next chapter of life in Mortimer Tate's world. I didn't want to leave it when it ended.



Review: 2008-10-27

A fun romp in the wasteland
Go Go Girls of the Apocalypes is a novel that is filled with the vast majority of post nuclear clichés that ran rampant during the 80's.

The funny thing is, it's all the good (if there is such a beast) clichés, not the post nuclear male fantasy crap that was so prevalent.

There were no strange mutants, no bizarre powers, no super science, nothing at all like that.

There wasn't even one sick, fat, sexually depraved would be world ruler.

That fact set this novel apart from the crap that was prevalent in the 80's.

Oh, there were parts of the book that existed back then, believe me - strange cults, factions vying for domination, that sort of thing.

Before I go any further, here's the typical disclaimer - I will not reveal any details about the novel that you can't glean from reading the back cover, with the exception of what I mentioned above. I don't like spoilers.

Nine years have passed since the world as we know it ended. A man, Mortimer Tate, hid away in the mountains of Tennessee and waited out the end of the world, abandoning everything including his ex wife.

Nine years have passed without any contact with human life. He has no idea if the world has been spared, or if things have decayed into pure hell on earth or not. But, he's lonely and wants to see what has happened.

It doesn't take long for Mort to discover what has happened in the nine years since he abandoned civilization... and what he learns isn't pretty.

Except for the dancers who are the main attraction of Joey Armageddon's Sassy A-Go-Go strip clubs, which have become a shining, naked beacon in the ruined cities and towns of Tennessee.

But, all is not well in paradise... The Red Stripes want to control everything, and Joey Armageddon's standing in the way of their domination.

Now, growing up in the 80's I read pretty much every single crappy post nuclear series I could get my hands on. Hey, it was crap, and I didn't know better, I just read what I enjoyed.

All but one of those series has long since been cancelled and has gone the way of the do-do bird, with good reason.

These books for the most part were complete and utter crap! Something that took me years to figure out.

But when I saw the book at the local book store and read the back, despite my feelings towards the long dead series, I felt a stirring of nostalgia. I figured, meh, what could one book hurt? It might be fun to read the stuff I used to love but finally grew out of.

I was pleasantly surprised that despite it being along the lines of the stuff that I grew up on, it wasn't bad at all.

Gone were the typical crappy clichés of the series - the impossible mutants, the super science that was lost but somehow recently discovered, the muscle bound `heroes' and I use that term loosely that typically shot first and then had messy and erotic carnal relations with loose beautiful women.

Gone were the often crazy, oft mutated world ruler wannabes.

In other words, gone were pretty much all the really bad aspects of the now defunct genre.

Yes, other aspects of the genre one would expect are there, including violence, factions trying to rule the wastes, strange groups and the hope of a better tomorrow, and of course unusual food.

The main character was pretty much a Joe average. Nothing remarkable about him, just someone who saw the writing on the wall and decided to cut while the going was good. He wasn't some super-soldier or survivalist, just someone who got lucky and rode out the end in relative comfort.

The book was a fun read. Pure and simple, and it was a well written tale of survival in a new world, clinging to the remnants of the old, while trying to carve out a future.

And the characters were not only believable, but very human. Strength and weakness all rolled into one.

Finally, the two so called bosses, the two men at odds with one another who both want to reshape the world, well, they certainly weren't what I was expecting to read about, and that alone was a refreshing surprise.

Overall, it was a fun read, it wasn't a great read, but it was most definitely worth the cost of the book - especially if you happen to be a fan or as me, a former fan of this sub-genre of science fiction that hopefully is long gone and never to return.

3.5 out of 5

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