Doom Prophecy

Only a couple of things I can add that hasn't already been mentioned. I agree with most of the reviews, good and bad, and there aren't that many bad. I really liked the humor in this book, the guys seemed more real cracking jokes especially when things get tense. I also liked the tie in to Mack with both AT and PF. I deducted a star for the simple reasons of the cliff hangers got a little old, the mistake of the Colonel in the Navy and I would have liked to see a debrief with all at the end of the story. Overall a very enjoyable read.

As has been previously reviewed some excellent villains here with the main one Ka55andra someone you will despise for her callous indifference to the slaughters she engineers whilst sympathizing with her background and reasons for her motivations. The three members of the hit squad were as good especially the dwarf. All of the teams get equal action here (well whilst they are still standing). Action packed non stop which will keep you turning pages with as mentioned previously a cliff hanger at the end of every section where focus is changed. I don't mind that so much myself if the title is exciting as I am constantly thinking at the back of my mind what has happened in the previous section. Every member of the Teams takes a hammering here which is also good as I totally agree with previous reviewers that in some of these titles the Team members seem to be indestructible. Lots and lots of close quarter hand to hand combat sections in the title which make for some fine reading indeed. The finish of the title is superb where all of the bad guys are taken out (pity as would have been good to see some of them make a return in the future). Little wonder the author is regarded as one of the best of the contributing authors in these series. Well done Doug. Highly recommended reading here folks.

Amazing...simply amazing and AWESOME! Those clanging sounds you hear when reading this action masterpiece is everything including the kitchen sink making an appearance. From the opening chapter of a Vietnam massacre to the villianess lying in wait for her prey, but having it go horribly wrong opens this stunning Stony Man. Then you have action scene after action scene, but the story still unfolds nicely and keeps you wanting more. Instead of just a two-pronged attack for the Stony Men against KA55ANDRA and her minions, you have triple the action as Phoenix gets split up into two groups. Able, along with Carmen Delahunt is assigned stateside to stop 3 psycho's from unleashing carnage on a horrifying scale. Frankly, Delahunt was never interesting to me as a character...until this one. She shines bright as she wants revenge for the murder of a friend. Carl Lyons's character is BRILLIANT! This is the Lyons of old...grumpy, beserker, but compassionate...and that crush on Delahunt that was mentioned once or twice in previous books makes its way subtly into this one. Pol and Gadgets are the two jokesters that I remember from the mid-1980's, constantly harrassing Lyons and making me giggle. The one arc of Phoenix's mission is terrifying...a blood-thirsty cult, where the leader revels in wearing human skin as a cloak and his soldiers are pretty much zombified in nature. McCarter, Manning and Hawkins have their hands full. James and Encizo have the finale scene, and they must tackle ninjas, so their knife-fighting skills come in handy. Also, the computer team must work overtime to stop KA55ANDRA'S repeated cyber-attacks. There are so many standout scenes, but the one that had me enthralled the most was an in-your-face fight scene between Pol and a massive giant. All the villains were absolutely detestable and dispicable, and you just can't wait until Able and Phoenix deliver them to the fiery pits of hell that they deserve. And the Mott character, the one who ignites KA55ANDRA's reign of terror is yet another memorable slime-ball, who just happens to hold a high office in the U.S. government. Man, this will go down as my longest written review, but it was such a deliciously intense experience that won't be forgotten.

Maybe it's just me, but my favorite type of rollercoasters are the ones where you have a chance to catch your breath and build a little anticipation before the next big dip or sharp turn. I feel the same about action novels, that there should be a lull here and there between shootouts and all the mayhem. This is a great book in terms of delivering fast-paced action, but for me there was a point where I found myself wishing there'd be a break where I'd get a chance to learn more about the characters and get a little more into the story. Doom Prophecy was like eating one of those big tubs of popcorn at a movie theatre; you feel full but not totally satisfied. I will say, though, that I liked all of our guys getting pretty much equal play, and Kassandra was an interesting villain and would have been truly memorable if we could have gotten to know a little more about her. I liked her goon squad, too, but they seemed a little over-the-top and cartoonish at times.

This is the greatest Stony Man story I have ever read!!!! Doug is one of the gods of the Bolan Universe because his writting style is so over the top with excitement that you just cannot put them down. Everybody on the team got their asses handed to them before they saved the day but the villains were what stole the show. Aguil was the creepiest, most disturbing, and most vile villain I have ever seen since Adonis and Dark. HE WEARS A CAPE MADE OF HUMAN SKIN WITH TATOOS ON THEM !!!!!!!!!!!! Don't give this book a ten give it one million!!!!

Okay, as former reader and even a contributer to the "Bolanverse", my feeling is that any writer whose individual work can be recognized in the unfortunately homogenized mess of The Executioner, Stony Man and Mack Bolan series is something special. The work by Douglas P. Wojtowicz qualifies as something special because it breaks the formula and more importantly--it's MEMORABLE. As other reviewers have pointed out, Doom Prophecy has everything that makes a picture perfect "pulpish" classic--colorful locales, blazing action, sharp characterizaton, witty dialogue and more importantly--big-time adversaries! Vivid villains who are intelligent as well as multi-dimensional who actually give the heroes a run for their money, instead of cliched straw man ethnic stereotypes far too many Bolanverse contributers fall back on. Doom Prophecy is a terrific entry in the Stony Man series and just as a stand-alone novel, it's far superior to most of the pulp disguised as "thrillers" that are so heavily promoted by more high-profile publishers. Great work!

Two Questions ... one - Is there still room left on the bandwagon ? And two - how do you spell AWESOME ?? This was one kick ass book. Action packed , fantastic villains , and amazing writing. One of the best I've read of this or any of the other series . I've been trying to save my 10 star review for a book that was really worthy and really stood out from the rest of the pack , and for a "series" that has HUNDREDS of books in it, this one is a true standout ! A classic that will be recommended for years to come, and that hopefully will raise the bar for the whole library ! Eh Kay says - if you miss this book, well, you're an idiot !! Peace !

Over the years, I've taken my distance from these books, the Bolan related books. I find it hard to care about a series in which nothing that happens really matters, because there are no consequences to the following books. But, I do drop in every once in a while, when I feel like an action filled adventure, as long as the villains are not TOO overused. And, man, am I glad I dropped into this party. I never thought that these books should be ultra-realistic procedurals, but true adventures with larger than live villains and unstoppable heroes and this is what we have here. KA55ANDRA-an evil Oracle-her fearsome trio of murderers, along with an entire cadre of killers, or a league of assassins, if you will. And Algul, a demon headed, mass murdering, blood drinking psychopath, along with his brother blood spilling followers. Some of the coolest villains ever. I regret their demise, they would have made for some great recurring arch-nemessis types. And I would liked to have seen more of them. Sure, action packed, funny banter between the boys, no Bolan, barely any Hal, Carmen jumping in to get her some, all of that was great, but the villains...wow. Get your hands on this rampaging bastard of a book. You won't regret it.

It is always easier to criticise a book then it is to praise it. At least it is for me. I seem to have an unfortunate tendancy to pick holes. And I did pick a few in this story. Not that this was a bad book - far from it - but I'll get to the minus points later. First the good. Like other reviewers have already said, all of the characters get airplay in Doom Prophecy. Which is a major suprise. All too often one of the teams (usually Able) are given little to do or characters are completely forgotten as if they never existed. Here we see all of them shine. Past adventures are mentioned, previous terrorist attacks on Pearl Harbour, Kassandra's research into Phoenix Force, Mott's mention of Able relationship with the Executioner. All of PF and AT are wounded by the end of the adventure, all suffer from gunshot wounds, knife wounds, broken bones or all three. Again too often the characters walk away without a scratch, this time they need to be carried off in stretchers. One can only hope that nothing happens whilst the boys are recovering. Carmen Delahunt gets some action and temas up with AT. The ex-FBI lady doesn't actually get to shoot anybody, but she is there on the ground with Able. I would have liked to have seen a little more time spent on her, but I guess that there wasn't room in this story. The niggles: There wasn't really anything bad about this novel, just things that niggled or jarred. The most jarring and irritating was the cliffhangers. Every other paragraph seemed to end on a cliffhanger - one of the guys is about to get it, eg McCarter is about to get shot, and the story would jump away to Gadgets and he is about to be blown up and then we would jump to Enzico and he is about to be stabbed and then we would jump to Kurtzman and his pc is going to crash and then we would jump back to McCarter who survives but then Hawkins is about to die before we jump to Lyons who saves Gadgets and so on and so on. It took me eight or nine days to read the book, and I found myself constantly flick back through the pages to see what was happening and where. This slowed the story somewhat. Another niggle that ties in with the one above is the action. Yes it is an action adventure story, but the adventure tends to get lost in the pages. Begining with chapter two PF and AT open fire and don't stop shooting until the last page. All very well and good, but there is very little in between. Personally I would have liked to see something else besides constant shoot-reload-shoot. Some car chases, helicopter chases, daring-do and a little less bang-bang-your-dead. But that is just me. I also found it a shame that all the shooting tended to get in the way of the character development of the villains. Just where did Kassandra develop her computer skills, how did she come to be adopted and who were her adopted parents, what was her precise relationship with her criminal step brother and why did he want to risk his criminal enterprise to help her on her quest for revenge? How did they find Aghul (who was a great villain who also wasn't as developed as he could have been)? Where did they get all these terrorist mercenaries from? The Teams make leaps of deduction that are always correct. Can't they be wrong even once? Everytime we had a character say "I think that it is this" then it would be so. It happened several time in the novel and became a little tedious after the third or fouth time. Like Monsta Mack, I sometimes found the action to be a little unclear, certainly during the close quarter fights. Something would be half described or just appear leaving me wondering where it came from. The most confusing fight that I came across was with Able Team and the Gremlin, Snake and the Giant at the arms expo. How big the building was and where everything was was often hazy. Knives and guns: Mr Wojtowicz likes both and often goes into excruciating detail over each weapon. Which is fine in moderation, but by the time the sixth manufacturer of a knife is described it becomes a little boring and I found myself skipping that paragraph. Yes a combat knife is sharp and a gun shoots bullets, but too much description does tend to slow the story. Not really a niggle but I saw that Riddley Mott had time to be racist and insulting to everyone with the notable exception of Calvin James. After calling Pol 'spick and wetback' and finding equally insulting names for other members of the Stony Man teams, he had nothing left for old Calvin. I had the feeling here that Douglas was trying hard not to step on anybodies toes, which felt strange after all the other utterances that Mott spouted off. But, and it is a big but, despite all these little flaws it must be remembered that the various authors have a deadline of three months to complete a Stony Man, a feat that takes a main stream author a year or two. So in the face of this incredibly tiny deadline, DOug has done extremely well with his first Stony Man. Well Done!

I could go on and on about why this novel is such an incredible entry in the Bolan canon by conventional means, but that could go on for years and cost millions of lives...instead I'll say this... DPW obviously enjoys his work...his obvious dedication to keeping these characters not only true to their roots but in taking them to new places that we, the lucky reader, have never seen our long time favorite modern day pulp heroes in before is evident. What more could you want in a Stony Man novel? Focus on the teams, Phoenix and Able...no Mack in sight...with each and every member getting an equal part of the spotlight...characterization so spot on, it's almost like reading the charaters fully and totally realized for the very first time...Doug has taken everything good about these characters that has come before, and without missing a single element of the past history of each, brought them to new light that allows them to shine for the great heroes they are! Villains? You want 'em...you got 'em! In this day and age I'll admit I love to read about Bolan and the fighting heroes of Stony Man venting out carnage on the same forces of evil we see on the news everyday...I find it often cathartic...but that said, there is enough evil in the world that a change from the standard terrorist group of the month is not only invited, but a welcome respite...and again DPW pulls it off in spades, offering up some of the most original and innovative villains seen in a while! And while he wears his influences on his sleeve...and to a fellow comic fan said influences are quite enjoyable...he explores a uniqueness in evil...that while at first may seem over the top, but in truth could...and probably does...exsist somewhere in "our" world. Not to mention the straight up coolness factor of the things that spring from DPW's fertile imagination...just for example...a maniac who wears a cloak...made up of the unit emblem tatooed skin of his fallen foes...brilliant! Oh...what about the action? ACTION?!? Does thing go to eleven? From cover to cover...some of the most intense, yet well thought, out battles to grace the pages of purple prose since the heyday of the hero pulps...can you imagine "Hard Boiled" era John Woo hopped up on caffeine and energy drinks by the case? Well, there you have it...this author knows action...over the top, but so well orchestrated it reads off the page like a finely tuned precision dance of destruction...truly, truly AWESOME! OK...by now, I guess you realize I enjoyed this novel to the extreme...but I will offer up some constructive criticism...at times the prose can get moving at such a headlong pace that you feel like you might have missed something, especially in the early chapters...but I chalk this up to the author's still relative newcomer status and feel it will only get more polished with time...but this is truly a minor nit...barely worth mentioning in the big picture. I've been conversing with the esteemed Doctor Skaramine at this website...truthfully, at odds at times, yet more often allied at others... since the day I first came to this spot in cyberspace over six years ago... and having done so know of his true passion not only for these heroes, but heroic fiction in general as well...so, needless to say, I was very curious how this, the author's first Stony Man would turn out... It did not disappoint...at all...way to go Doug! Hell yeah!

This is the one worth waiting for. Not only does it bring in things long forgotten since PF and AT stopped having their own book, but it also never stopped! The villains were a bit bazaar, but proved to be a credible threat throughout. At least it wasn't yet another super weaponry taken by terrorist.

Doom Prophecy was a well written and plotted entry. It's a welcome revival of the Golden Age of Stony Man from an author who obviouusly remembers the classic individual adventures of the teams. Every member of Phoenix Force and Able Team is given room to breathe, think and fight. There are a number of first-time events... action in every chapter. Phoenix Force is divided up from the start, literally covering more territory. Where one team is fighting, the others are recovering/prepping. The only weakness was that the villians' characterizations were a little too cartoonish. But this is cancelled out by the fact there were about five core enemies that could have each fueled a novel. More is richer. More please.

I understand nowadays that the the Bush Administration is not popular, and that the art of our day reflects this. However, there is a fine line between dissent and left-wing propaganda. 24, Season 5 tried to play with this line and fell over the deep end, so to speak. Doug Wojtowicz apparently didn't make the same mistake. He works wonders with the characters, the backgrounds, the intricacies of it all, makes a political statement (a real patriot is not a jingoist), and still manages to pull off a damn fine story, without falling into the politcal propaganda category. So why did I dock one point? Doug, Doug, Doug…there are no colonels in the Navy. C'mon, you and I both knew that. That's why you got nine stars instead of ten-a glaring yet minor mistake. But it was still a damn fine read. You keep upping the ante in the Stony Man universe.

This was one of the best books in the entire series. The story was good, the plot really moved along, and the action was intense. Best off all, the characters themselves were the most believable and human they've been in some time.Especially Able, which seems to be passed over a lot by the sheer number of Phoenix fighters.I liked their past with Mack being recalled, and the fact that all of them proved they could fight not just with their weapons, but with their brains.Great job!

I don't care much for the Stony Man format, the days of AT and PF in smaller independent adventures are long gone, but those were the good old days when I really enjoyed the series. But I just had to check out this book, the author proved that he could write Mack Bolan, but how would he handle the two greatest commando teams in action fiction? All I can say is it's just awesome!! This is the real deal folks, not only are the members of AT and PF written just as I always remembered them, but this whole book totally kicks ass. A complex plot weaved among an exciting action thriller with colorfull villains and very human heroes. Intense battles against a variety of badguys, in a variety of locations around the world. Each Stony warrior is given great scenes of battle, including some great one-on-one bloody fights. All of them take quite a beating by the time this adventure is over! This book has one of the most nasty villains I ever remember reading in the GE series. Algul is one freaky badguy, you have to read it to believe it, and I loved the way McCarter took him out. I was impressed with the development of the author's skills as a writer, I found this book to be written with a much improved prose from what I remember in his first Executioners. And the dialogue was realistic, and all the characters were spot on, especialy Able Team! Man how I miss reading those guys. Now the modern version of Phoenix Force took a little getting used to for me, McCarter is now the leader, Katz is gone, and there is this new guy Hawkins, but this new incarnation was one hell of a great squad, and Calvin and Rafe just by themselves are just awesome in this novel. I didnt think this book was perfect, there were some parts of the plot that were a little fuzzy around the edges, and the scenes jump from so many perspectives so often, it was a struggle to keep track of what was going on with all the different teams, another reason I prefer the old independant books, but this story is just too good and ass kicking to give it less than a 10. No question about it, this author has got Mack Bolan, and now has AT and PF too, as well as the computer team at the farm. Fans of the Stony Man series should make this book required reading on their schedule. Nuff said.