Hayduke Lives! picks up several years after the
cliffhanger and escape from the posse at the end of the previous book. It chronicles
George Hayduke's return to the deserts of southern Utah and northern Arizona, where he continues the sabotage initiated in
The Monkey Wrench Gang under numerous aliases, such as The Green Baron, and Fred Goodsell. The enigmatic "Kemosabe" (a hero from Abbey's first novel,
The Brave Cowboy) also makes a reappearance, coming to the aid of Hayduke after his escape from the posse. For a grand finale, Abbey reunites Hayduke with the outlaw-heroes of
The Monkey Wrench Gang as they plan the destruction the world's largest
walking dragline excavator (a giant earth mover, also called GEM or Goliath, used for
surface mining) while combating a greed-ridden
Mormon Bishop in another attempt to save the
American Southwest from development. The narrative shifts numerous times between characters neglected by the previous book, including Bishop Love, the wives of Seldom Seen Smith and the
FBI agents sent to end the sabotage. == Legacy ==