‘13’ (255 pp) was published by Panther / Granada in 1985; the cover artwork is by Chris Moore. As best as I can tell, this novel never was released in the U.S.
Steve Wilson (b. 1943) wrote the 1976 sci-fi biker novel The Lost Traveler, which I reviewed here.
The 'Eight Miles Higher' website reviews 'Traveler' here. A somewhat less effusive review is available at the 'The Paperback Warrior' site.
After ‘Traveler’, Wilson continued to write novels about bikers and outlaws, all of which are not sf. Wilson also has written a number of collector's guidebooks about motorcycles, particularly British-made bikes.
The ‘13’ of the title refers to a group of California bikers who, in 1967, form a gang based on their mutual love of motorcycles and cruising the open road together. The 13 are not an 'outlaw' biker gang in the sense of the Hell’s Angels, but rather, a disparate collection of men who find kinship in their mellow attitudes towards life (although the 13 are very capable at combat should they find themselves in a confrontation).
A series of flashback chapters in the opening pages of the novel cast the 13 and their camaraderie during the late 60s in an idyllic light, suffused with the glow of the counterculture era and its easy living based on drugs, wine, and groupies.
The golden era of the West Coast biker scene comes to an abrupt end in the early Fall of 1969, when member Duane persuades the 13 to make a run to the small Louisiana town of Badwater. What promised to be a rousing good time in the bayou country turns out to be a road trip gone very bad, and in its aftermath, the gang dissolves.
The ‘13’ of the title refers to a group of California bikers who, in 1967, form a gang based on their mutual love of motorcycles and cruising the open road together. The 13 are not an 'outlaw' biker gang in the sense of the Hell’s Angels, but rather, a disparate collection of men who find kinship in their mellow attitudes towards life (although the 13 are very capable at combat should they find themselves in a confrontation).
A series of flashback chapters in the opening pages of the novel cast the 13 and their camaraderie during the late 60s in an idyllic light, suffused with the glow of the counterculture era and its easy living based on drugs, wine, and groupies.
The golden era of the West Coast biker scene comes to an abrupt end in the early Fall of 1969, when member Duane persuades the 13 to make a run to the small Louisiana town of Badwater. What promised to be a rousing good time in the bayou country turns out to be a road trip gone very bad, and in its aftermath, the gang dissolves.
The narrative then segues into the present day, i.e., 1982, and John Cleaver, the former leader of the gang, has received disquieting news: Duane recklessly has returned to Badwater, run afoul of the law, and been imprisoned.
Judge Andre Lafayette, the de facto ruler of the town, has given Cleaver an ultimatum: return with the 13 to Badwater and face the Judge’s vengeance for the events of 1969, or Duane will be killed.
The Judge knows that the 13 will come to try and rescue their comrade, no matter how stacked the odds are against their favor, and has prepared a lethal welcome for the bikers.
The Judge knows that the 13 will come to try and rescue their comrade, no matter how stacked the odds are against their favor, and has prepared a lethal welcome for the bikers.
But as John Cleaver assembles his gang for one last, desperate ride to Louisiana and a reckoning with the Judge, Cleaver knows he and his fellow bikers never run from a member in need……..and a war is going to be breaking out in the back woods, dirt roads, and swamps of Badwater…………
I found ‘13’ to be a better novel than The Lost Traveler. I’m not a biker myself, but author Wilson’s descriptions of riding and racing motorcycles have a sense of authenticity. Neither the heroes and the villains of the novel are cast so clearly in black and white as to impart a perfunctory air about their looming confrontation; as well, it’s by no means assured that the 13 will emerge unscathed.
That's not to say that ’13 doesn't have its weaknesses. The overly earnest philosophizing and metaphysical ruminations that slowed the action in The Lost Traveler are present in this novel, too, and some segments involving the musings of the gang’s resident poet, the Dude, strike boldly into the realm of the Corny.
Other passages designed to showcase 'biker' life, such as one involving an excitable young woman named Cherry who wears leg warmers (this is an 80s novel, after all), come across as more than a little contrived - just how many shapely nymphomaniacs elect to hang out around a biker gang, anyway ?!
The plot takes its time getting underway, but '13' rewards the persevering reader with concluding chapters that have the frenetic quality of an Arnold Schwarzenegger action film of the 80s; here author Wilson shows a talent for pacing and suspense that never really was fulfilled in The Lost Traveler.
Summing up, ’13’ - having never been published in the US in paperback or hardback - is not easy to find, but if you should come across it, it’s worth picking up.
I found ‘13’ to be a better novel than The Lost Traveler. I’m not a biker myself, but author Wilson’s descriptions of riding and racing motorcycles have a sense of authenticity. Neither the heroes and the villains of the novel are cast so clearly in black and white as to impart a perfunctory air about their looming confrontation; as well, it’s by no means assured that the 13 will emerge unscathed.
That's not to say that ’13 doesn't have its weaknesses. The overly earnest philosophizing and metaphysical ruminations that slowed the action in The Lost Traveler are present in this novel, too, and some segments involving the musings of the gang’s resident poet, the Dude, strike boldly into the realm of the Corny.
Other passages designed to showcase 'biker' life, such as one involving an excitable young woman named Cherry who wears leg warmers (this is an 80s novel, after all), come across as more than a little contrived - just how many shapely nymphomaniacs elect to hang out around a biker gang, anyway ?!
The plot takes its time getting underway, but '13' rewards the persevering reader with concluding chapters that have the frenetic quality of an Arnold Schwarzenegger action film of the 80s; here author Wilson shows a talent for pacing and suspense that never really was fulfilled in The Lost Traveler.
Summing up, ’13’ - having never been published in the US in paperback or hardback - is not easy to find, but if you should come across it, it’s worth picking up.
