Reviews (8)
Boring, Boring, Boring,Boring
Bolan is up against a mob of such incompetent stupid nobodies he is forced to break a few jaws, teeth, kidneys etc. as it would be cruel to shoot them.
He saves the day by one action at the end of a very non action/non plot book.
my two bobs worth..........
Man...........what a disappointment this book was!!!! It had all the right elements for a killer one with shadow conspiracy trying to ruin the tunnel between England and France, plot against plot, lots of shady characters and lot of potential. Yet..........the book turned out to be weak effort which dragged along with its poor setup and plot and not worthy of the ingredients that were in place but were very badly used.
This is just a standard Furst story.............with too many characters that usually make the story in cohesive and loose which be it hard to keep track of who was with which group in the plot. I am still wondering why all these characters were created for this book as most of then didn´t have any real need to be there in the first place.
Speaking of the plot; It dragged along with various unnecessary twists and turns making the progress of the story loose, slow and fairly average with little suspense or grand explosive parts
Some of the chapters often made little or no sense to the overall story and plot. This is most likely due to fouled up editing and bad writing and this had a lot of impact on the book and the slow progress of it till the end.
My hopes were high but sadly the book didn´t deliver in most ways....which is sad but true!!!
On the back cover of this book it is some statement regarding “a Bolan blitz". Hm...........I am still searching for that blitz now but I can´t seem to find it. I wonder if it is in the next book?? (Iceland - 2005)
The first half of the book is pretty good, but it things just didn't go right after that. This book would have made a good Nick Carter novel, rather than an Executioner. The book loses a star there.
I suspect some editing may have loused things up in this book. Two scenes that made no sense whatsoever occurred in this novel. One where Bolan and another guy leave a car on foot, while no mention of what the driver was or wasn't doing. When Bolan and his sidekick are on their way back to the car, a van drives by and some people throw a body out the back. No mention weather the guy is alive or dead. And apparently it is the driver. The scene ends. Later the guy shows up in the story, so he must have lived. The scene still makes no sense, and had nothing to do with the story.
The second nonsense scene involved Bolan on a patrol boat off the coast of England. Suddenly a rifle bullet almost hits him and another guy. They act as if nothing really happened. The scene ends. Wierd.
There was another scene, which was pretty good, involving Bolan's sidekick only, and I thought that Bolan himself could have been used here instead.
The book had a decent enough plot, but Bolan didn't do enough ass kicking, especially at the end.
This book had too many drawbacks to give it any higher rating than a five.
England and France are joining efforts to build a tunnel under the English Channel. This miracle of engineering, if it ever is built, will be the first time in history that England is connected to the mainland of Europe. Bolan is brought aboard as a trouble shooter because of 2 apparent sabotage attempts.
Obviously, the book is a bit dated, considering that the tunnel opened in May of 1994. However, the biggest problems with the book had more to do with logic and pacing.
Bolan enters the country under the guise of Colonel John Macklin. That cover fools nobody, though, and all of the bad guys figure out it is that "renegade American Mack Bolan" that they are up against. Why bother?
Also, the troops against Bolan know that he is a hard ass, but continue to send ineffective hit teams against him, every 20-30 pages or so. Sending a college professor to do a soldiers job is ridiculous, especially after Bolan has mowed down 20+ soldiers already.
The deepest flaw of the book, however, was that it tried to make Bolan into something he isn't. Working as the government's bitch has never really suited the Executioner. He is much better when he is lone wolf, or at least at arm's lenghth. He worked so closely with the British government that it really hampered his style. The only time Bolan could really get going against the evil-doers was when they attacked Bolan. This is especially disappointing because the back cover promised a Bolan blitz, but it did not deliver.
Underwater scenes are good, and the novel does have some good action. Unfortunately, it is not a top-notch Bolan read.
Run of the mill Executioner. It kept my interest, but too many characters were introduced. The action was standard Furst: nothing grand or explosive, but average.
Very well done, in my opinion.
Avoid this one. The plot drags, the action is contrived, the setup is poor, the resolution lacking... Best part to this one is the info on the development of the Chunnel, which anyone can get out of any old newsmagazine...
