Traveler 1: First You Fight by D.B. Drumm

Traveler 1
First You Fight
by D.B. Drumm (Ed Naha)
1984, Dell

The series is set 15 years after a 1989 apocalypse. The Traveler was a special forces op who was exposed to an experimental neurotoxin which allows him to sense fear and pain in others, but makes him oversensitive to world around him, combined with good old fashioned PTSD.

Drumm travels the country looking for other members of his unit. He comes to a town run by two warring factions, and plays against them Yojumbo style as they look for a stash of weapons.

Good action and manages a great balance of elements: deeply grim while keeping a sense of humor, realistic characters in cartoonish situations.

Available from Amazon https://amzn.to/3BX67Bb

Doomsday Warrior 2: Red America by Ryder Stacy

Doomsday Warrior 2
Red America
by Ryder Stacy

The ultimate American Ted Rockson infiltrates and liberates a Russian brainwashing factory. Afterward he runs into a native American biker community, which would have been painfully stereotypical except that they all talk like beatniks. More sex than most post-apocalyptical books of the 80s, including a peyote fueled romp.

From Amazon https://amzn.to/3XyvFNp

Outrider by Richard Harding

Outrider
by Richard Harding
1984, Pinnacle

A century or so after the nuclear apocalypse, survivors gradually made their way out of hiding, connected by scouts called Outriders. One such Outrider is our hero Bonner, who survives an assassination attempt by his former buddy turned despot Leather, and learns that his girl is being held captive.

Bonner makes his way to Chicago to New York to DC, seemingly recognizing everyone he meets and joins forces. He ends up with the pyromaniac, Cooker, two mute barbarian types call the Mean Brothers, biker gang the Sisters, among others.

Very juvenile in tone, except for the cussing and violence. Some creative characters, but the action scenes often felt rushed, with a multi-state chase finale crammed into what felt like the last handful of pages. Probably the closest in feel to the Mad Max movies I've come across. Even had Radleps, radiation poisoned suicide troops, which prefigure Fury Road.

The author mainly worked in novelizations, including four Beethoven (the dog) tie-in novels.

Available from Amazon

Last Ranger 4: Rabid Brigadier by Craig Sargent

Last Ranger 4
Rabid Brigadier
by Craig Sargent (Jan Stacy)
1987 Warner Books

Martin Stone and his dog Excalibur join forces with an insane military dictator, who in a shocking turn of events turns out to be the wrong kind of insane military dictator. Stone starts a war with the mafia and biker gangs and has to stop a nuclear missile.

More restrained this time, with most of the story stalling during training sequences and Stone being tempted by the illusion of stability. It's becoming increasingly apparent that it takes some plot convolutions for Stone to end each story with his bike and dog intact.

Available from Amazon

Reidar Syvertsen titles on Kindle Unlimited

A huge number of men's adventure books from Reider Syvertsen, aka Ryder Syversen, aka John Sievert, aka Ryder Stacy, have come up on Kindle Unlimited recently.  These include titles from the series CADS, Mystic Rebel, and Doomsday Warrior.

Click here for the titles

Click here to try out Kindle Unlimited

Phoenix: The Warrior

Phoenix: The Warrior aka She-Wolves of the Wasteland (1988)

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated entirely by women, Phoenix protects a boy-child and his mother, crossing paths with an adult man fleeing the sperm banks. This piece of art is exactly what it looks like on the posters, and more. Punky 80s women out of a music video brawl and shoot each other. A little social satire, with a cult who read from the TV Guide and pray for their TV sets to work. Also, bewbs. Except for Persis Khambatta, who is wearing more clothes than the rest of the cast combined.

Currently on Amazon Video

Endworld 01 - Fox Run

Fox Run
by David Robbins
Endworld 01
Leisure Books 1986

Post apocalyptic survivors venture out of their compound for the first time in a hundred years.  Eventually.  A lot of planning, a little killing mutated wildlife, and a lot of talking.  Just before our heroes are about to leave, the compound is raided by Trolls, who end up being the offspring of a home for the mentally retarded.

The Trolls capture some women and vaguely menace them with rape.  There are pages upon pages of:

"What are you going to do with me?"
"You'll find out.  You'll have to do...dishes!"
"Oh no!"
"And other things that a woman does, like...laundry!"
"Gasp!"
"And the other thing a woman is good for is -"

Etcetera.  I thought Robbins was just being way too coy, but then he had the captured women be tested to see if they were strong enough to withstand the horrible things the Trolls had in mind...by having them compete in track and field events.  So maybe no implied sexual slavery and I just have a dirty mind.

The whole thing was pretty light hearted and non-political for the genre.  Aside from blaming the collapse of civilization on premarital sex, no liberal blaming or even mention of Communism.  The action was way too brief, with "blink and you'll miss it" action scenes.

Post-Apocalyptic Men's Adventure

In the 1980s, Men's Adventure fiction began to move away from vigilantism and crime and towards militarism and anti-terrorism.  Another direction it took was towards post-apocalyptic and survivalist fiction.  Post-apocalyptic fiction is a much broader category, but within that umbrella there were several series of Men's Adventure paperbacks that were oriented more towards action than science fiction.

Many, such as The Survivalist and Ashes, start before the apocalypse, while others like Deathlands and Doomsday Warrior are set in a future wasteland.  Many are Road Warrior knock offs.  Cold War paranoia is in full bloom here, and the Russians often remain the enemy.

Some recurring themes:

Blaming liberals:  America was destroyed because liberals were too cowardly to preemptively murder the entire eastern hemisphere.

Showing up the exes:  So, you left me because I spent the kids' college fund on dried MREs and boxes of gold I buried in the woods?  Now who wants in my nuclear bunker, huh?

Rape Gangs:  The mushroom clouds are still hovering in the air when the survivors divide themselves into competing themed rape gangs.  Food and clean water can come later.

My more or less exhaustive list.  Of these, Deathlands and Endworld have survived as of 2014.

• Ashes by William J Johnstone
• Blade by David Robbins
• CADS by John Sievert
• Deathlands by James Axler
• Doomsday Warrior by Ryder Stacy
• Eagleheart by CT Westcott
• Endworld by David Robbins
• Freeway Warrior by Joe Dever
• The Guardians by Richard Austin
• Last Ranger by Craig Sargent
• Last Rangers by Jake Davis
• The Marauders by Michael McGann
• Mutants Amok by Mark Grant
• Outrider by Richard Harding
• Phoenix by David Alexander
• Roadblaster by Paul Hofrichter
• Steele by JD Masters
• The Survivalist by Jerry Ahern
• Swampmaster by Jake Spencer
• Traveler by DB Drumm
• Warlord by Jason Frost
• Wingman by Mark Maloney
• The Zone by James Rouch

More, in broader strokes, at http://www.apocalypsebooks.com/