Lethal Tribute

This one will get you right from the opening pages where the Big Guy is observing a Pakistani Special Forces Team closing in on a location where three stolen nuke devices may be recovered and it all goes to hell big time as the special force commandoes are attacked by invisible killers. Huh? Yep and it just keeps getting better and better. Where to start characters along for this title include Carl, Calvin and Red Burbick is back which is terrific but during the title you will meet some excellent believable characters who are introduced and I loved them all. So invisible killers? Yep introducing the Thuggees of Kali back with a vengeance with a charismatic leader and some outstanding technology and have just stolen the above mentioned nuke devices which you will basically not hear another thing about until the final section of the title. You will read a lot about invisible assassins strangling people left right and centre. Action scenes range from stunning to BLOODY stunning. From the attack on the Pakistani General's home with the tanks and troop carriers and how you can defend yourself with a half of a helicopter ( yep half read it ) is simply amazing reading and it just progresses along at the same pace until the ending section with the action in the Temple and the Leader. There are a couple of authors who are known to give the Big Guy a bit of a hard time in their titles which is good as he seems to float through too many times without a scratch. The Big Guy is battered pillar to post and back again more than once mentally as well as physically here where he is very much teetering on the edge. Read one of the best sections of the title where the rest of his Team try to take him down running naked covered in blood with a very big sword and know why he is doing this and what led up to it ( when you read it ). This title is in a league of only a few as in this series at number 102 it becomes only my fifth ten rating and fully deserved this title is an absolute cracker and highly recommended reading. Also did I say the word ORIGINAL ? Do yourself a favour.

I'm almost finished with "Lethal Tribute," and I can't put the damned thing down. It's superb. The character development is some of the best I've seen in any Bolanverse book, and the action is both fresh and gripping. The plot, while being a bit fantastical, is tight and holds together well. This book ranks as one of my favorite Superbolan titles. I'm going to give it a solid ten stars.

Invisibility cloaks! If you have a high tolerance for goofiness, then perhaps LETHAL TRIBUTE is the book for you. I'm not one of those readers. From the opening sequence, when a group of Pakistani special forces are wiped out by invisible stranglers to scenes where hordes of people are sprayed with paint pellets, the book is by turns silly and messy. The MacGuffin in this particular novel are a trio of nuclear warheads stolen from Pakistan. Unfortunately the book doesn't spend a lot of time on them, choosing instead to stage repetitious fight scenes with still more invisible bad guys. By the time our heroes are using laser range-finders to pinpoint the assassins ALIENS-style there aren't enough eye rolls left. LETHAL TRIBUTE also handles its cast of characters poorly, introducing a whole slew of helpers for Bolan that largely have no effect on the proceedings. Guest appearances by Carl Lyons and Calvin James are to be commended, but not when they're left with so little to do.

I recently bought this book used online. I could not wait to crack it open and finally get a look at why its on the top ten list. Now I know why. The Mack Bolan series is sometimes very generic, often its a "Mack/Stony Man runs in, kills bad guys, saves day/world." And they can often blur together. This book does not just stand out, it punches its way out of the river of generic and all the way into orbit. Needless to say, I loved this book the more I read it. In this book Bolan faces an enemy that is borderline paranormal and very scary. This novel contains enough plot, character development, dialouge, and just general goodness that I felt I was reading a much longer novel. The characters all feel so real that you actually feel for them as they continue their fight against the Cult of Kali. We see half the team get its ass kicked five times over, we see Mack take the mother of all abuses in tasting "The sweetness of Kali" And yet we see him pull himself back from the brink, with a little help from his friends. This novel even teaches a lesson if you look hard enough: We all need a little help from our friends. Mack, James, Lyons are at the top of the game, and Burdick is an awesome character. The villain is a frightening man that seemed an equal match for Bolan. He wasnt your usual terrorist of the month, but a legitimatley frightening man. If I ever have a friend who wants to get into Bolan, I am giving them this book. Thank you Chuck Rodgers.

I'm actually going to feel bad about this one more than likely dropping out of 1st place. I finally was able to snag this one and see what all the talk was about. Let me just say this. For the first 200 pages, I was ready to slap a 10 star rating on the book. I kept thinking about Predator, and hoping a character wasn't going to grunt, "I ain't got time to bleed!". But, when Makhdoom says something to the effect of "Djinn's don't bleed," I was thinking "If it bleeds, we can kill it." (Maybe I really did want someone to utter the famous Jesse Ventura line! :) ) Rogers goes ballistic with his action scenes from invisible assassins, to a fortress helicopter assault to an armored column attack which were all kick-ass. The supporting characters like Makhdoom and the nutty Pakistani general added to the fun. And why don't we add Burdick, Lyons and Calvin James just to send this book into the upper deck? The last 150 pages settled down a bit, but were still action packed and chilling. The rioting scene was edge-of-your-seat, as with all the fighting scenes between our heroes and the cultists. And the free-for-all trying to corral Bolan after he's been injected with Kali's superdrug was something to behold. But, the gunbattles did drop off in this portion of the book. And the finale scene was indeed good, but I think I wanted it to be so much more. So, a real knockout by Chuck Rogers. It just didn't end up being the total 10 star TKO.

This was another great read. I am really liking the larger format books. This one had a lot of action, some humor, some history. It even had sex that was relevant to the plot! The bad guys were scary, the tech was just within the believable, but just outside the known. All in all, one of the best I've read.

I was first introduced to the Cult of Kali in the movie "Gunga Din" so when I read the back cover of this book I was compelled to read it. I wasn't disappointed. In short, the characters, plot and conclussion were amazing and were typical Chuck Rogers. If I researched material as well as Chuck does I'd be a freaking Einstein. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK.

This is one that I almost didn't buy. The caption on the cover said it all "...stolen nukes..." and I tend to avoid the nuke of the week stories. I am glad that I read Blackstone's review and decided to order it any. It is very good. Not as good as Savage Game but still very good. The nuclear bombs are really only a hook to get Bolan involved in the story and feature very little in the plot. The main villain, Kaushal, is extremely nasty, but doesn't quite have the effect that the Iceman did, mainly because Iceman featured in the enitre story where as Kaushal only makes appearances here and there. Bolan and friends are once more bloody and beaten and barely standing by the end of the book, and once again Bolan is subjected to hallucigenic drugs, turning him into a slave of Kali. The Thuggee are one scary bunch of bad guys. Equipped with invisability cloaks they seem almost unstoppable. What did surpise me a little was that when various people were informed about the existance of the Thuggee, not one mentioned the Indiana Jones film. Perhaps the author hasn't seen this film !?!? Still, it was cool to see references to a past Phoenix Force adventure, Night of the Thuggee. Austenford was a good addition to the team and I hope that she returns with her Q branch goodies sometime in the future. The plot didn't really make sense. Kaushal steals three Pakistani nuclear weapons, smuggles them into India, then smuggles them to America, wanting two use two to destroy California and then smuggle the third back to India for use in Kashmir? Why not just smuggle two to America? Why bother with America at all when and attack on Kashmir, India and China would have worked just as well? I felt that the whole trip to America was superfluous to the plot, the story should have stayed entirely on the Indian subcontinent. I also have to wonder about the authors reluctance in using either Phoenix Force or Able Team in their entirety. We are informed that only James and Lyons are available, and they have to bring in outside help (Red) to work with them. So where are all the other guys? Why not just use Able Team? This happens a lot in Chuck Rodgers books, that is that he will only use individual characters from the teams but never the entire group. I find this to be very unusual. But the action scenes are excellent. From the opening chapter, through to the attack on the Pakistani army base to the house boat attack and onwards. All very exciting stuff. Well done Chuck Rodgers.

Awesome book. I've read probably about a hundred of the series over the years and this one is a true standout. I picked it up cause of all the glowing reviews on here. And man was I pleased. I've been trying to pick up all the Chuck Rogers stuff, cause I love the way he writes Bolan. Only drawback of course is that it's cool that James and IronMan ( who I don't care for ) are in this one, it's just that they really take a backseat, you'd think they are just a couple of wannabees . But I guess it is a Bolan book, not a StonyMan. And there were uh, um , a few too many chokings. Like what 5 times Bolan gets strangled ? But I digress. Rogers writes Bolan like he should be written, he's not Superman, just one very dangerous, smart deadly customer. Who kicks some serious terrorist ass throughout this whole action packed novel. Eh Kay says - check it out!

Believe what you have heard! With this book Chuck Rogers has placed himself at the very top of the new generation of cutting edge Bolan writers, and with company like DPW, Tim Tressler, and Jon Guenther, THAT is really saying something! Blackstone pretty much said it all in this review, so there is no need to repeat what he has said, and he has indeed really said it all...from the chilling first chapters to the slam-bang finish, I couldn't put this book down...quite simply this book kicks ass! ...and then kicks some MORE! The only problem I can see is how can Mister Rogers top this one? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out! One more thing...MORE RED BURDICK, PLEASE!

This Super-Bolan seemed more like a super Super-Bolan....lol This one had about everything but the kitchen sink thrown into it. I liked all the additional characters that helped Bolan and added to the overall story. The plot device added a nice mix of sci-fi & mystery aspects to the story. Bolan was once more pushed to his limits & beyond which again added to the overall story. Continuity to the Kali/Thuggee cult(s) of prior missions was also a nice touch. We definitely need to see more Bolan books written like this one!

I was just coming off a strech of reading the Pendleton novels when I decided to read one of the newer titles. I saw BLACKSTONE'S review and that is what prompted me to read the novel...and thank god I saw that review. I've heard alot of good things about Chuck Roger and his Bolan novels, but up until now I have never read one. That was a huge mistake on my part! This book was amazing. Most of what I want to say has already been said in Blackstone's review and there is little I can add. But there is one small thing I would like to point out... Bolan is realistic in this novel. Not the "I've been wounded." type (although he does take a huge beating) but he's back to his old self. Just the way he acts and treats other people reminds me of Pendleton's Bolan. This is the way Bolan should be written! From the chilling opening sequence to the grand finale, Lethal Tribute packs a punch and is one of the best SuperBolan novels I have EVER read. If you have plans to go somewhere or get something completed, then don't start reading this novel because you won't be able to stop turning the pages until you're done.

This is my LETHAL TRIBUTE review: This contains spoilers. S P O I L E R S P A C E This SUPER BOLAN has all the standard ingredients a Bolan book should have: action, big guns, explosions, stolen nukes, a huge conspiracy... But, like I told Chuck Rogers, none of those elements are what motivated me to get this book. The promise of good villains did. He set a standard with Iceman in SAVAGE GAME. The Cult Of Kali, the villains of the piece smoked Iceman. Oh sure, LETHAL TRIBUTE has plenty of that kick ass spec ops flavor, some cool macho wisecracking banter among Bolan and his allies, and the Mack bags not one but TWO babes. But the Cult Of Kali is teh reason to buy this book. The word "villains" do not apply here. These guys are EVIL. Not the adjective, the noun. They are totally insane, bloodthirtsy, fanatical, death woshipping iredeemable EVIL. And Bolan goes down. Obviously he doesn't die. But he goes DOWN. He is physically beaten and abused and pyscholigically RAPED. He is driven to the EDGE. He is driven OVER THAT EDGE. He goes insane. He embraces the very evil he's trying to fight..for a while. Then he gets back up, staggering, but the Spirit Of Vengeance that is the Executioner overcomes all of his trials and prevails against an ancient EVIL. This is my favorite SUPER BOLAN of all times. It holds unique fire and fury and stands out as one of the best Bolan books ever written. It reminded me why I loved this series of books in the first place. Not because it's a spec ops procedural, but bceause Bolan is a warrior, an Avenger, a Smasher Of EVIL. This book will kick your ass, squeeze your balls and make you its bitch. And you'll begging for MORE. Mr Rogers, you are THE MAN.