State of Evil

this entry in this series SuperBolan: State of Evil is not too bad and is action-packed too

Guess I have to disagree with the other reviews. I found this to be quite a dull read. It was nice to have Johnny and Val make an appearance, but the story didn't move along at a great clip. Not to say the story was bad...it did sound interesting, but Quinn was a whiny brat to begin with. This storyline reminded me of the past Newton-penned monthly "Hour of Judgment". I think this type of plot is better condensed into 220 pages. The action scenes were not great, and all the extra bad-guy characters didn't enliven things one bit.

Perhaps the author was thinking about this title when he wrote #107 Survival reflex. Who cares this is the BEST work by Mike Newton I have read for a VERY long time certainly his finest of twenty three titles to date in this series. Why? Younger brother Johnny makes an appearance and also a blast from the very distant past Val also features quite some time indeed since she has featured in one of these titles. So as a result of a plea from a very old friend to look into the joining of a cult by one of her students the Big Guy is off to the Congo rainforest to kidnap this guy and bring him back to the States. Pretty simple for the Big Guy you would reckon and so it is as he quickly nicks into the cult's location in the Congo rain forest grabs and drugs the unwilling and is off for a rendezvous with Jack for an extraction. EXCELLENT READING FOLKS the chase through the jungle with the initially unwilling and then his escape and the sprint with the Big Guy closing and the inevitable look over the left shoulder to check out how close he is and then the look over the right and what happens will make you smile. The chasing pack of bad guys is a terrific bunch of interesting characters in it's own right and you will enjoy some fine reading as the chase continues through the forest and results in an excellent section where a helicopter flown by a Columbian drug cartel bad guy has a problem and goes down in the forest where he survives and what he does from the forest canopy and how he finally manages to get to the forest floor. AND what happens then BRILLIANT ! Bugger just when you think it is over no all of a sudden a nuclear device is exposed at the cult's location and about turn we go back to the cult's location. The title is a superb read from start to finish a brilliant story with just the right amount of action scenes, some very memorable characters and some of the funnier events introduced and all original. Loved it probably it would be fair to say that this author is not one of my favourites but every now and then these days he pops out a pearler and so is this. Do yourself a favour and read this one.

I found it an okay read, but it wasn't great. The main good points were revisiting a few characters that haven't been seen in a while (Val and Johnny) and having Bolan go off on a solo mission, something that occurs infrequently. Bolan heads into the Congo to recover a young lad that Val holds dear, one Patrick Quinn, a young man that has gotten in over his head with a doomsday cult. What ensues is a simple story of pursuit and ambush through the jungle. So far so good. The problem is that this is really an Executioner with lots of padding. Mike Newton tries to put thoughts into the characters heads, but each little voice sounds the same, whether it is coming from Bolan or any other character. The thoughts just ramble on about nothing. I found myself skip reading paragraphs of it to get back to the story. But I liked the story, even if it didn't always feel like it was set in a jungle. Even if the characters were a bit shallow, and main villain Gaborone didn't seem to charasmatic. And then Mike Newton went and ruined it with a cheap cop out. He has to get Bolan back to the village for the obligatory gunfight at the end where the baddies get killed, and to do that he has Quinn say something along the lines of "By the way, I didin't tell you before, but Gaborone has an atom bomb." And there we have it, the nuke of the week. How unoriginal. A nuke that Gaborone bought from some unknown Russian so that he could sell it on to a cardboard Columbian or a typecast Arab. Unlike the back cover blurb, there is no race to stop the detonation, Gaborone is going to sell it to one of the two buyers and wait to see what they do with it. How I disklike the nuke of the week stories (even though I knew that it was going to happen, I was still disappointed when it did). So that peice of creative thinking really knocked it back for me and that is why I am scoring this story so low. * To say nothing of the strange editorial oversight on pages 312 and 316. Bolan kills Kwabena on page 312, yet the guy is suddenly still alive on 316! Either Bolan's knife was blunt, or the author or the editors exchanged one characters name for another.

For a long time Bolan watcher like myself the premise of this book, Mack going into action at the request of none other than Valentina Querente, was enough to bring this one to top the read pile! I'm glad it did because with this one Mike Newton did not disappoint and this fast moving, action packed book shows why when he is at the top of his game Mike is the Dean of senior Bolan authors! Totally devoid of what many readers of Mike's work see as cliche, this book is one exciting train ride of a read from start to finish. Indeed, Mister Newton does a terrific job of channeling the same energy and suspense that he did in those long gone days of his collaborations with the man himself, Don Pendleton. From guest appearances from Johnny and Val, to the target of the rescue mission, the whole conceived and written young Patrick Quinn, this book succeeds on all levels. I've always been a fan of Mack's African missions and this one takes it's place right up there at the top! A must read for veteran fans like myself and a real keeper overall. Top notch stuff...hell yeah!

Mack Bolan is convinced by Val Querente to kidnap a former student of hers from a enigmatic African cult leader named Gaborone. Bolan heads to the deepest jungle of the Congo and retrieves an unwilling disciple. Bolan (not-so) quickly finds out there is a nuclear weapon in play, and the best laid plans of mice and Bolan are put on hold. Thus is the situation of “State of Evil” an overwritten but focused novel from Mike Newton. Parts of this novel is one part cult awareness drama and two parts Tears of the Sun. With a nuke. There is an obligatory Osama wanna be who makes a cameo appearance. But what works with this novel is the sense of focus, of a cult warlord trying to make sense of his situation, while Bolan negotiates the jungle with his charge. It’s a good chase novel. The story is believable and stands a nice change of pace for the series. It’s not a far-flung, overcooked potboiler. It is very basic, very primal. It works well. Ninety-five percent of the novel and a hundred percent of the action takes place in a relatively dense jungle. As for continuity, Bolan’s relationship and recap of his relationship with Val from Pittsfield to their last meeting in “Fatal Error” is rehashed, with some surprising revisions/oversights that I’m surprised Newton would make. Leo Turrin’s wife (and not mobsters as this history reveals) shot Bolan in Pittsfield.

This book was like the three bears: it wasn't too hot, wasn't too cold, it was just right. Here is why. The story started out a little slow with but it set the scene by establishing the creepy villain that had that David Koresh/Jim Jones vibe. Another factor that made this book cool for me, was that it was Mack Bolan helping out a friend and not going off on an official mission to save the world. And finally, the best part of this tale was that it had two of my favorite supporting characters that we really have not seen for quite a while now: Johnny and Val. It's really nice to see Mike Newton show his respect for these stories by touching on their history with unforgettable characters. well done.