The Survivalist is a series from the 80s and 90s about John Thomas Rourke. A pulp hero who survives the apocalypse and fights for his family in this deadly post-apocalyptic world. As a pulp series; they’re relatively quick reads with two double length specials – each of which was essentially a soft reboot of the series that turned the status quo on its head.
Overall I quite enjoyed my time with this series. Its low brow reading. John Rourke is a demigod who never dies, is (almost) always right, and perfect in almost every way. He has a survival retreat that is positively science-fiction due to how unreal it is. He is joined on his adventures by two companions; Paul Rubenstein and Natalia Tiemerovna. A Jewish survivor and a Russian KGB agent. While their backgrounds play into things to some degree in every book, they never felt like token characters which was a godsend. There is also two side characters – one form the first third and the second from the last third, who I quite enjoyed. General Varakov was a surprisingly nuanced Russian general that had impacted the series greatly in its opening entries. Something the final book acknowledges. Emma Shaw, a military pilot living in the timeline 625 years after the start of this series, was probably the most consistently written character besides Varakov. Although she does hero worship John a bit more than I’d like.
The first half of this series is about fighting communism, while the second focuses on a resurgent Nazi threat. Can you tell this is an 80s series? One of the biggest strengths of this series is how descriptive Ahern’s prose is. Helps it stand out from other pulps in this subgenre.
Books 1-9 deal with the apocalypse and the months that follow. A 500 year timejump happens and books 10-15+*Mid-Wake* tackle a communistic threat alongside helping a group of spacers who return from a long mission. Books 16-21+*The Legend* see new nations tackle a Neo-Nazi Germany. Books 22-27 see another time jump, this time 125 years, and tackle a Nazi villain named Zimmer fighting against the forces of freedom. I will credit this series for reinventing itself often enough to feel fresh. Much appreciated by the time of *the Legend* when I was reaching burnout.
The characters swing on a pendulum from decently characterized to poorly written. Most glaring in that books 17-19 stretch was the problematic nerfing of Natalia, a solidly decent written female character considering the era this series was written. That is until Ahern has her suffer a psychotic break that stretches on for multiple books and it really feels lazy and a disservice to her character. Thankfully this is fixed and Natalia, along with the other women of this story, really have time to shine in the final stretch of novels.
The author lampshades John Rourke’s demigod status by the last third of this series. He comes up with a clever in-universe way of exploring it too which I was happy to see. There is a lot of guntalk, not surprising given the author’s enthusiasm for them. Ahern also is not subtle with his messaging. America is great. Communism and Nazis are bad. Nothing unusual for the more action hero-esque pulp subgenre! Ahern also was quite fond of Aryn Rand, which sneaks into the story at about 8 or so points.
Overall I would recommend this to anyone who can appreciate a good pulp series. Don’t expect top of the line apocalypse/science fiction. It was a bit bittersweet when it all ended. There is also full cast unabridged audio dramas!
by IllusiveManJr