Devil's Horn

This book is one of the most brutal entries in the series. When I first got into the Executioner series, this was one of the first titles I read and have yet to read another like it. It baffles me that after this book, Dan Schmidt's later novels had all the depth of a pancake. But this sure as hell isn't a fluke. No, it's essential reading. It starts out a pretty typical Executioner novel, with a Bolan Blitz(TM) on a drug baron's hideout, but the second half plays out like a horror novel. Uncompromising descriptions of human suffering make up a fair portion of the book and the villains' disregard for human life is abhorrent. I don't think any villain in the series has been as dark as Kam Chek, a little Oriental man who speaks French and wields a samurai sword and has a droopy moustache. He's terrifying, although the way he punctuates his sentences with random "Oui"'s and "Si tu plait"'s is funny as hell. The scenes at the opium fields are as grim as you'd expect them to be, and as entertaining as Kam Chek is, you will grow to hate him and Tourquemandan as much as Bolan, Grimaldi and company do. Schmidt did an amazing job portraying everyone's desperation and resolve to keep going even though their country has abandoned them. The final battle is excellent reading, although I would have preferred more of a one-on-one fight against Bolan and Kam Chek. Aw, well. Go track this one down if you haven't read it already. You won't regret it.

What am I doing here a Dan Schmidt title rating it a nine following shortly after rating a Charlie McDade title a nine ? Well I will be the first to say that these two authors are certainly not among my favourites but this title by Dan Schmidt coupled with his #205 Hell Road and #272 Stealth Striker stand out and scream out hey check out my stuff I can actually write riveting/exciting/entertaining stuff as well folks and so it is here with this title. Now every reviewer is entitled to their own view but my take on the start of this title is the exact opposite of the previous reviewer here where I thought the start was fantastic. The Big Guy in blitz/smash mode and he goes through the opposition like a hot knife through butter. Good descriptions of the carnage he causes as he blitzes through and yep did it for me. The kidnapping of the Drug Boss was hmm so so as was the introduction of the souped up Lear jet that Jack and the Big Guy travel to Thailand to (I much prefer Dragon Slayer) but to each their own. The initial strafing of the compound was okay BUT this title comes alive when they are shot down and forced to try and escape a couple of hundred troops. Initially Jack and the Big Guy are more than holding their own and could conceivably have turned the tide until (read it) ! Now we have come across quite a few bad guys in these series but the two War Lords and the Drug Cartel baron featured in this title will rapidly rise to the top of the list where you will actually take a hatred towards them with what they force our champions to endure and what goes on in the prison camp. Brutal stuff folks let me tell you and once again poor old Jack every time he is included in one of these titles gets the shit hammered out of him (personally if I was him I would be putting out my hand for a pay rise) but the Big Guy gets his lumps as well let me tell you. EXCELLENT writing on how long can endurance and the will to keep going allow. Some very good characters introduced on the good guys side with a lot of the fellow prisoners who have been confined in this slave camp for years just managing to survive the horror of their confinement. The final rush for freedom and how it was done and how it turns out is compelling reading and very believable that it could have been done without any miracle events occurring. The three bad guys plus a couple of rats who you will have come to despise are all taken out in an acceptable manner even though if you were there you would probably go over and kick the corpses a few times :-) Very good no Very Very good read here and HIGHLY recommended reading in the series folks this is one you should do yourself a favour and read it.

For the first time in a long time, I considered abandoning a Bolan before I finished it. I found the opening of "Devil's Horn" to be pretty weak due to all the silly hyperbole that made me wonder if the author thought he was Mickey Spillane. I stuck it out, however, and it turned out to be worth it. The story picked up after Bolan kidnaps the NYC drug lord and really took off. Those of you wondering just how tough Bolan really is will want to read this one. Our hero winds up becoming a prisoner of the drug barons he intended to destroy, and they make sure he suffers for it. But their sadistic treatment of Bolan only makes him all the more determined to end their operation, which is the driving theme of this entry. Villains in the Bolan series are always pretty vile and deserve the fate the Executioner brings on them, but in "Devil's Horn" the bad guys are downright inhuman. The story pulls the reader in because you want so badly to see them brought down, more so than in any other entry I've read. It's still far from the best Bolan I've come across, but it was definitely worth my time.

This is one of the best Bolan books and one of the best novels I have read in a long time. 1) Great characterizations. Playboy Brennan who went taken out of his rich element is really a whiny opportunist. Kam Chek is one of the most brutal, sadistic characters I have read in a long time. His killing of a very young boy to prove a point is one of the most brutal things I have read in a Bolan novel. 2) Bolan was not invincible. Each battle once he arrived in Thailand had him dealing with the costs of fighting and surrendering. Yes against Chek before he was taken prisoner he could have weighed the cost of having 7 prisoners dead to save the rest or surrendering. If chose the path that all innocent have to be saved including gambling on surrendering. 3) The death camp. Very well written section. Schmidt didn't do anything dumb like have a sympethetic guard or have one of the prisoners say "shouldn't we tie are captures up to be brought to trial". No clear cut bad guys and clear rage to kill all the guards and drug dealers. Also the way the death camp was run seemed true to life - ie having snitches, having prisoners beat each other for punishment etc. The Bataan death march was referenced a lot I suspect Schmidt researched that death march. 4) Narrative. The narrative was almost a third person. The author clearly caught up in a hatred for drug dealers. Its not often that you read a novel in which the narrative is not neutral. Usually a novelist uses narrative in which they look at the world that they write as very much a third person. Letting the characters set the pace. 5) For action there is not a whole lot. A lot of brutality - beheadings, burnings, whipping. I can't really find any negatives. Yes there would probably be better ways to get the cocaine from the fields to the capital but it seemed believable since Talqulamand was a sadist and seemed to look at these marches as a game and test of strength. Also Jack Grimaldi was a big part of this novel and he is my second fav character in the series - Mack is my fav of course. It was nice knowing that he really is not as tough as Bolan. His scenes showed that he is very human tough but not Bolan tough. Although Bolan only could take so much physical pain. This is the kind of novel that all Bolan books should achieve being. Excellent characters, excellent story, and got the details write along with a very believable plot.

I started reading Bolan in high school, beginning with Split Image and moving on to Devil's Horn. Well, I was hooked. I must have read close to forty in the next year or so. Suddenly, I stopped reading them. Now, 15 years later, I found a used bookstore with practically all the Bolan books. Just for yuks, I picked up Devil's Horn, and you know what? It's still amazing! The best book I've read in years. Now, I'm back into Bolan and it's like getting together with an old friend.

I read this after taking a coupla years off to read other things.Oh my God! This book punched me in the gut and put me through the wringer! A very dark story, Schmidt makes you hate the bad guys like never before and shows again that when he wants to he can write as good a Bolan as anybody has.

Awesome cover, awesome story, what more can you ask for? And Schmidt tosses in some great backstory about the villianous ex-CIA guy who hangs around after Nam and make a killing (in every sense of the word) on the drug scene. Kickass book.

What stood out in this story was the absolute hatred Bolan feels toward those who perpetuate "America's most horrible plague." Dan S. takes us into Bolan's mind and shows the rage Bolan feels - it makes it so much better when the bad guys start falling to the ground with vacant eyes and open mouths . . .

This one was excellent, and was written in a very similar vein to Don Pendleton's original books. The villians were so nasty that you want to go in and shoot them your self. Both Bolan and Grimaldi are knocking at death's door this time around, they most certainly would have needed hospital treatment afterwards. I would almost give this book a nine if it were not for a few small prtoblems. They are:- 1. Why did it take Bolan two weeks to identify a few small drug pushers in the middle of New York? 2. Why did the chief bad guy, Torquemandan die so suddenly? I wanted Bolan or Grimaldi to shoot him. 3. Was the death march needed? It was certainly harrowing, but the drugs lords were rich enough to buy trucks that could have delivered the heroin a lot faster whilst the prisoners could have been harvesting more, instead of being mules. That didn't make so much sense to me, but I am , thankfully, no drug lord. This is one excellent non Pendleton Bolan story and is most certainly to be recommended.

This was the first Bolan I purchased at the store. It was an incredible story that I just couldn't put down. The cover art was the cincher though. Who was this tough SOB staring at me? A definite 10 for 10 on this one.

Another good, action-packed story from Schmidt.

Man, what a deadly book I was kept in awe through-out the whole book.

ANOTHER GREAT ONE! TALK ABOUT JUST PLAIN EVIL, THE VILLANS TAKE HOME THE PRIZE ON THAT ONE.GOOD TO SEE JUSTICE PREVAIL IN THIS ONE.THE BAD GUYS ARE EVEN WORST THAN THE ONES ON VIETNAM FALLOUT, BOOK#113.

An excellent entry with plenty of action, story and awesome villains.

This was a great book. The bad guys were truly bad. I thought Grimaldi was gonna bite it in this one. A definite must read.

One of the best Executioner books. Good author. As evil as these bad guys were, I wanted them to die very painfully and not as quickly as they did. This book is so well written that you really feel Bolan's and the prisoners hate for these bad guys. You want to tear them apart yourself.

Now, I know I've thoroughly trashed, stomped, and otherwise bad mouthed Dan Schmidt's books to the point where if he were online, he wouldn't read one of my reviews for a million bucks.Shame too.Devil's Horn was not only my favorite book written by him, it is one of my favorite Bolan novels of all time, and the endcap to my favorite run of Bolan books starting with Defenders and Believers. Big praise and mad props to Schmidt on this one.Let's cover why:1) Bolan is not some indesctructable god swooping down from heaven. Oh, when you see Dragonslayer, you expect him to strike like Thor from his chariot drawn by Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher. But he's shot down, captured, and nearly killed.2) The villains aren't idiots who kill their henchmen left and right. They reserve their homicide for people we actually care about.3) Schmidt's calling Bolan a Pollack got me to look up what Bolan means in Polish: Pain. Nice little literary trick.4) By the time Schmidt DOES get around to his airstrike, it's NOT the boring overkill of other books... it's the cool venting of rage and vengeance you got from such classic movies like Blue Thunder or more recently Jon Guenther's airstrike in War Bird.5) I miss Bolan's signature "Little Lightning" mini-Uzi. I mean, the Desert Eagle is more practical since it uses more readily available ammo... but Big Thunder and Little Lightning and Belle... it gave some "props" to those who came before with their signature weapons... like Nick Carter (who even named a gas grenade fer crissakes)and Kenneth Robeson's The Avenger. Bolan is as much a pulp hero as he is a military action/adventure hero. I wish Schmidt wrote more great books like this one.