XENOZOIC TALES PART 3

"LOST LINK IN THE CHAIN" | "LORDS OF THE EARTH" | "PRIMEVAL"
"TWO CITIES" | "DANGEROUS GROUNDS" | "ANOTHER SWARM"
By Mark Schultz

Following from the previous chapter's journey into the spiritual realm, our next installment moves back to a more relatable realm, straight action/adventure with just a hint of intrigue. The main story is concerned with Jack, having just dealt with some poachers in the jungle, struggling to elude a very determined velociraptor. He survives in the end, of course, with the aid of a larger predator who pops up at just the right moment to devour the raptor -- but he realizes he wouldn't have found himself in this predicament in the first place were someone not trying to kill him.

This revelation has its seed in the prior chapter, when one of the Governors, Dahlgren, visited Jack to tell him that the other Governrors were beginning to question his usefulness and that he should watch his back. Now, Jack finds that his car and rifle were both sabotaged before he headed out on patrol, confirming Dahlgren's warning that someone may be trying to get rid of him.

The story ramps up big time in the next chapter, as Hannah and Jack's chief mechanic, Kirgo, pick up Jack in the jungle and return home with him. Along the way, we get some backstory on the Xenozoic world, namely that Jack is a direct descendant of the "Old Blood Mechanics", the people who kept Cataclysm regugees alive while they spent hundreds of years in shelter as the nuclear fallout subsided. During this time, the Old Bloods formed a doctrine called the Machinatio Vitae, the laws of balance between man and nature which people have lived by ever since emerging from shelter. But there are those who believe the Machinatio Vitae is too stifling, and who want to return the old, pre-Cataclysm ways. Among these is Scharnhorst, the sinister leader of the "Moles", who have guarded the underwater vaults in the City in the Sea for many years. With the recent death of Senator Gorgostamos, a seat has opened on the Governors' Council, and Scharnhorst has thrown her hat into the ring. But running against her is Jack's friend, Mustapha Cairo -- a follower of the Old Blood ways himself.

By the time Jack and Hannah return to the City, the election is on. Both candidates make their cases, but Scharnhorst has had plenty of time to rile up the tribe, and she is voted in by the other Council members. Immediately Scharnhorst orders Jack and all other Old Bloods arrested -- but Cairo and the rest of the Old Bloods make their escape while Jack is taken into custody. Hannah rescues Jack, and with help from Governor Dahlgren and Cairo, the pair escapes the city. Dahlgren promises to work against Scharnhorst from within, while Cairo assures Jack that he will mount a resistance. The story ends with Jack and Hannah on a ship at sea, as Hannah begins to formulate a plan to convince her people to aid Jack in returning to the City and reclaiming it from the corrupt Governors.

And that's just one chapter! This is a really good one, filling in some of the world's backstory and presenting some exciting political intrigue. This sort of material is way more in my wheelhouse than the spiritual side of the XENOZOIC saga, discussed last week. Obviously those sorts of stories won't go away, having been established as a major part of the saga -- but I can at least hope that they will be counterbalanced going forward with more of this political stuff.

That said, there are only four stories left at this point though they all run at least twenty pages, just like the past couple. Up next, Jack refuses Hannah's offer and wants to live in the wild, by himself, for the rest of his life. But the pair is soon attacked by agents of Scharnhorst. Though Jack and Hannah take out their pursuers, their ship wrecks on a desolate island populated by predators. Jack and Hannah escape, but Hannah is bitten and poisoned by a large crab, and Jack agrees to go to Wassoon, if only to help her. But back in the City in the Sea, Scharnhorst prepares to send ambassadors to Wassoon as well, to thwart any possibility of Jack and Hannah turning Hannah's people to their side.

I'm a bit confused as to why, immediately after being elected to a council of four allegedly equal governors, Scharnhorst is suddenly calling all the shots; ordering Jack and the Old Bloods arrested, ordering her fellow governors to prepare a delegation, and so forth. She has apparently riled up the people behind her agenda, and the has the Moles to back her up, but it's still odd that she's able to just give orders to her fellow governors without any sort of debate.

Anyway -- we get our first glimpse (outside of flashbacks) of Wassoon in the next story, as Jack and Hannah arrive there. Hannah is taken for medical care, while Jack is placed under guard. In his room, he's visited by another Old Blood, who delivers him a message from the Grith: the Wassoon, including Hannah, are never to be trusted. Soon after, when the City in the Sea's delegation arrives in Wassoon, the Wassoon enact a plan to very publicly fake Jack's death with some staged gunfire and a random headless corpse they happened to have lying around (something Jack questions, with no answer, in the following chapter).

Of course, they do this without Jack's knowledge, kidnapping him in the process. XENOZOIC's penultimate story begins with the City in the Sea's delegation gone, and the Wassoon holding a welcome back gala for Hannah. There, Jack meets her consort, Lord Balclutha. But Hannah immediately leaves Balclutha's arm and beelines for Jack. The two sneak away to a small room, where they consummate their long flirtation on a rug, secretly observed by the jealous Balclutha.

Yes, XENOZOIC has veered into full-on soap opera territory, and I love it. The plot continues with Balclutha inviting Jack to go hunting with him the next day. Jack, who loathes hunting for sport, agrees nonetheless, pleasing Wassoon's leaders. As they explain to Hannah, Balclutha has become more trouble than he's worth, and they're counting on Jack eliminating him for them, as he has done to countless poachers up in his home territories. Soon, out in the wilds, Balclutha turns on Jack, hunting him. But Jack gets the better of his foe and strangles him in a river.

The chapter ends with Jack returning to Wassoon to confront its leader, Lord Drumheller, over forcing him to kill Balclutha. But in a genuninely shocking moment, Jack is accompanied by Balclutha, who Jack ultimately stopped himself from killing. Now armed with the knowledge that the Wassoon governors had a political rival killed by Balclutha and used as the corpose they claimed was him, Jack blackmails Drumheller into helping him retake the City in the Sea under his terms.

Which brings us to the final chapter. Published in 1996 (two years after the prior installment), "Another Swarm" is the final XENOZOIC tale to date -- but it's clear Mark Schultz wasn't expecting that to be the case, as what we have here is more business as usual with the ongoing storyline. In this one, Drumheller captures a gigantic spider from underground, called a harvestman. Jack and the Wassoon Old Bloods set out to free the beast from Drumheller's dungeon, accompanied by Balclutha and Hannah. But Drumheller has laid a trap, and capture them all -- until Hannah releases the beast (against the wishes of her patron, Drumheller). Subsequently, everyone returns to the surface, agreeing to keep the entire affair secret. In the aftermath, the Grith speak with Jack, telling him Hannah has passed a test, and that she is to join him on his mission to the City in the Sea.

And that's it! The book ends with a promise of "...more mystery, mayhem & intrigue in future XENOZOIC stories!" -- but given this volume was published in 2013 and, as noted above, there has been no new XENOZOIC material since 1994, I have no idea when a continuation might happen. I suppose it's possible Schultz is working on it now, planning to publish some sort of "grand finale" in the future. I hate to be like the somewhat ghoulish SONG OF ICE AND FIRE fans who lament that George R.R. Martin may never finish his epic before he dies, but one gets the same feeling about XENOZOIC. Mark Schultz is 65 right now, and hasn't published any new XENOZOIC stories since he was around 40!

Still, hope springs eternal. I really like this story and would love to see Schultz bring it to an end. Heck, I'd even take it as a prose story accompanied by single illustrations, as he apparently did with his 2015 story STORMS AT SEA. For now, however, we've reached the end of the Xenozoic era. Though there's still that CADILLACS AND DINOSAURS cartoon series floating around out there... maybe I should figure out if it's streaming anywhere and give it a look!