I have previously posted about the Vic Challenger series by Jerry Gill, and now look at the latest volume, #7: Bloody Reprisal.
Set in the 1920s, the New Pulp series stars young Victoria Custer who discovers she is the reincarnation of a cave girl, Nat-ul, born and died 100,000 years ago.
Using the name “Vic Challenger,” she works as a travel writer (and adventurer) while looking for her soul mate from 100,000 years ago whom she thinks is also reincarnated. But in her travels, she gets into various dangers, and experience in her past life as a cave girl warrior helps her out.
The character actually comes from Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ The Eternal Lover (later renamed The Eternal Savage). As the Burroughs novel is in the public domain, I am sure calling the character “Vic Challenger” makes it easier to copyright this different take on the character.
As in all the other novels, Vic and her friends always come up against bad guys and dangerous cryptids. But this time it’s not in an exotic location, but back home.
The main plot has a villain that Vic and Lin Li crossed paths with back in book #3 coming back for revenge. Not just against them, but the secret service group that Vic has been helping with in past novels. This person, with the help of a network of associates, attacks Vic and Lin near their hometown, causing several deaths and injuries, including to Lin, who is taken out of the action.
Vic decides to search him out, and in the process deals with a cryptid on a 300-year mission of vengeance.
She is able to deal with both threats, but others are affected by events, sometimes fatally. Vic’s search for her re-incarnated lover is not moved forward in this volume, so maybe next time.
No idea when we’ll see the next one, or where it will take us. Lin was seriously injured in this one, so may not be involved in future adventures. Will Vic be doing more work with this secret service group? And the villain in this one was also involved in a serious threat to the U.S. Is that threat still there and might it be addressed in future works? We’ll have to see. But I do look forward to seeing what we’ll get. Check out this series if you haven’t already.
I do have to comment about the cover art. I’ve seen changes in the cover art over the course of getting this series. Cover art is expensive, so I can understand that a small press can struggle to get good artwork. The first covers were okay if a little comicbookish/cartoonish. Then they went with using a model for Vic, adding a bit of photo-art to the covers.
The most recent set of covers has taken the cartoon art and photo art, which is fine, but have gone with a uniform color palette that leans toward dark colors, reds, and yellows. I liked the prior covers’ color scheme, as they were bright and more cheerful. I think the current color palette is just too dark. I wish they’d go back to a more colorful style as I wonder if the new style will affect sales.
