Jay Russell Apocalypse Now, Voyager

Apocalypse Now, Voyager

Jay Russell

Earthling, Dec 2004

ISBN: 0974420387

In Long Beach, California, former child star Marty Burns is drinking in Haw Haw's, when a naked lady with a burned bush sits next to him. She introduces herself as Annie de Beuvoir, and asks Marty to walk with her. He gives her his coat and they leave.

However, someone knocks Marty out using a rotted piece of meat, ties him up, and puts him in a shopping cart with a dead Annie underneath him. The crazed woman who hogtied him, pushes him upriver past Vibiana and the Lost Boys, who recognize Marty as the Medicine man. The duo next meets the Hondo Hounds, including Marty's old pal Guy Bradley, but must keep trekking, but Cat People and Toypurina stand in the way of attaining the other side with the corpse.

This is a terrific allegorical satire, that will have horror and fantasy readers enthralled, as everyman Marty, in total denial, is forced on a quest through a weird world, on one of those "cherry-poppin" full moon type of evenings. While tied to a dead woman, he runs the gamut that takes him through a surreal section of Southern California. At each challenge, the weirdness grows, and the readers attention goes deeper, wondering what is going on, and as to whether Marty will survive Jay Russell's strange but entertaining journey into the eeriness that lurks around the corner just beyond the darkness.