Pandora Driver: The Origin
By John Picha
- Release Date: 2011-03-17
- Genre: Action & Adventure
Description
It was the 1930s. The avarice of the elite had plunged the United States into the Great Depression. Class warfare was being waged, and someone was about to
snap!
Young Betty McDougal discovered how hard life could be when her family was evicted from their farm and forced to live in a Citadel City shelter. They struggled to survive. It was a time of desperation, sin and lessons Betty didn't want to learn. Her life felt pointless until a mysterious stranger delivered an ominous black car to her. It transformed her.
Pandora Driver became the relentless avenger of the common man, sifting right from wrong in a realm where the villains were the local gentry and the heroes were outlaws. Pandora was a mistress of disguise who used sly audacity and an unstoppable Car-of Tomorrow to unleash chaos into the halls of wealth and power. She infiltrated their ranks and adopted their methods to usurp them. Her fight was the fight of the ages. Her time was in the past, but the problems were the same blights facing society today.
Sometimes her actions were unsettling. Battling sin in the filth where it resides can dirty even the purest hearts; the good old days we remember in monochrome were lived in color. In a time when good and evil was simply black and white, Pandora lived in the gray area.
Pandora Driver: The Origin, is a retro-hero tale for mature readers. It ain't Shakespeare. It's pure Pulp!
Reviews
Perseverance, Lipstick Feminism, Revenge.
5By Buffy $Perseverance + Lipstick Feminism + Revenge = a delectable recipe for an uncommon heroine. As a woman I found myself in awe and disgust of what Pandora Driver was willing to do to accomplish her mission. Yet, I couldn't put this ebook down for long. Looking forward to her second adventure.Forget Occupying Wall Street...
5By AEDucheau...Pandora Driver runs big business off the road and kicks it square in the teeth. Drawing inspiration from classic comic book super heroes, bathed in the harsh back-lighting of film noir, Pandora takes us from the smokey backrooms of hopping speakeasies to the gilded opulence of dusty boardrooms. Truly a new pulp heroine plucked from the ranks of the proletariat, Pandora rises up from the gutter to defend those who can ill-afforded to defend themselves. Pandora Driver makes for a sexy and thoughtful read, filled with clever dieselpunk tech and engaging characters. As the first chapter of a high-adrenaline series, I look forward to Pandora's continuing adventures.Very engaging
5By PrettyOpera125I kept marveling at all the seemingly disparate things that were referenced within the story and how they connected and collided to shape something so visceral. This is a complex story that collects moments, mistakes, decisions, lessons, and 2 kinds of luck in the life of a young woman then rough-hews them into something unique. In this case it's a Pandora Driver. She pulls out all the stops to get back what is rightfully hers. She is tirelessly relentless and willing to use whatever resource available as a means to an end. She is a survivor that wages her own personal war against capitalist corruption. She is a mistress of disguise and seduction. She wields a dream inducing dart-gun, dawns a bulletproof costume and helms a mysterious car like it’s a force of nature. It's a rich noir story set in the past but in a time not unlike our own. It begs for a sequel. I'll be waiting.Noir at it's best - Pandora Driver light years ahead!
5By RussBoppBased on when this epulp was published the writer can either read tea leaves or is tuned into the zeitgeist because he clearly saw the spirit that manifested the Occupy Wall Street movement a few months before it arrived. I imagine that if Pandora Driver was still alive today she would be in sitting the thick of it. This story takes place in the late 1930s and it's about holding the corrupted accountable for their dirty deeds. This story is raw, unbridled, honest, surprising and weird, in the good way. It exposes what people say and do behind closed doors. It pulls no punches and you never know what's coming next. The story is broken into 4 parts. Part 1 is a biography of a life falling apart. In Part 2 our hero finds her power. Part 3 explores deception and corruption. In Part 4 a young woman tries to untangle right from wrong. The tone of the story reminded me of Black Dahlia or Sin City (updated noir) and LA Confidential (if they dumped the charm). The character makes me think, Batgirl born on the wrong side of the tracks. I like the old pulps, I like Noir and I can take the punch this story delivers. Pandora Driver takes us on a bumpy ride but it's a trip worth taking. On another note, I saw a review of this epulp that implies there are a lot of typos in it. Maybe that person saw an earlier version, because the one I downloaded and read was fine.A female action hero in a pulpy, radio drama in book form
3By David Mark BrownPandora Driver harkens back to the days of radio dramas and pulpy comic book heroes. If you are familiar with the aesthetic or genre of dieselpunk, than this is probably right up your alley. The innocent Betty evolves throughout the story into a sexy, depression-era crime fighter bent on succeeding where a broken and corrupt system of justice is failing. Along the way she encounters the need for several alias and is forced to learn to compartmentalize her life. The emotional and social undertones/subtext creates an interesting complexity as she wrestles with finding the best way to navigate her surroundings and still accomplish her dreams. This book does contain a considerable amount of type-os that have evaded editing, so if that sort of thing raises your hackles than you might find this read frustrating. And I found part one of this book to start slowly. But after reading into part two the story picked up considerably.Classic hero's tale for a modern age.
4By DelerioAnyone who appreciates classic noir heroes like Batman, The Shadow, or Rorschach from the Watchmen will love this book. It pit's a meaningful heroine against society's great evils in a way that is poignant, and eerily familiar to us in these modern times. Easy to read, yet remarkably insightful. I hope for a sequel, well done!Crooks get their due
5By The Worm KnowsVery interesting and the end was great. All the CROOKS on Wall Street should be forced to read it and do a book report for the courts. This might also be required reading for the Congress.
