Extreme Arsenal

Wow, and I do mean Wow! The action in this one does not let up until somewhere around page 120, there is a mission briefing and then it is back to the action. Normally I would prefer a bit of story line but this is contained within the action. The teams are put through the wringer and I am surprised they could still walk at the end of it all. Go read this one! But only nine stars because some parts were rushed or contained plot holes keeping it from being the perfect Stony Man. How did the Teams latch onto the fact that the problems came from Central America? Did I miss something in all the excitement? Maybe, but how did everybody know to call the killer robots 'Anklyosaurs' without being told? Why were Phoenix Force meeting with a CIA agent at Langley? We will never know. How did the Teams know that Fixx was behind it all when we, the readers, had only just been introduced? It was little things like this that kept it from being one of the best for me, however it does get a solid 9 stars and deservedly so.

Extreme Arsenal what a brilliant title for this as that Is exactly what the title is ALL about. aka big/powerful guns with big/powerful projectiles fired from them. Excellent title here I usually don't get to into titles heavy on descriptions of the weapons/bullets etc. preferring a good storyline/plot with good action scenes but the author manages to slip in all his descriptions of the numerous weapons because simply he has written a wonderful original story which if you decide to read it you WILL be entertained. I really don't want to give anything away regarding the plot in this so if you look at the front of the title you will read "Someone has the means". SHE does and some of the stuff she has developed is remarkable hence the need for the Big Guns and the Big Bullets. The final action scene featuring the above named bitch and our own beloved Ironman in beserker mode is some VERY VERY fine reading indeed folks. Highly recommended reading here.

I really don't think you can have TOO much action in a Stony Man novel. I very much enjoyed the pacing of this book, and I think DPW does a great job of weaving the past storylines into the text. As someone who is fairly new to the Don Pendleton universe, I like these glimpses into the past and I don't find them at all confusing. I think Mr. W. does a superb job of integrating history into all his books. Regarding the plot, yes, it was inventive, but I didn't find it too much of a stretch. Robotics are definitely the wave of the future in combat. I just finished co-authoring a book with an Iraq War veteran, an infantry soldier in a national guard unit stationed with the marines in Anbar Province. In addition to combat patrols, he learned to fly a spy drone and used it to capture some insurgents planting an IED. This stuff is happening in real combat and will play an increasingly important part in Bolan/Stony Man novels, too. I too enjoy the way Mr. W. draws the Stony Man characters, though one thing I've noticed in not just this, but all Stony Man novels is that sometimes the voices of the characters aren't distinct enough. Sometimes the characters all meld together a bit too much. This is probably realistic--people who work closely together tend to pick up each other's speach habits--but it is a bit confusing in a book. "Extreme Arsenal" was no worse than any other in this regard, but it is something all "Stony Man" authors might want to keep in mind.

This book was nearly wall-to-wall action, and while that's generally a good thing, to me, there was almost too much action in this book. I found myself getting confused as to what was going on plotwise, forgetting why a group was where they were, that info getting lost in the shuffle of near-misses on the part of the bad guys, and creative hits on the part of the good. Still, Dan Schmidt this was not! (Compliment, that.) Our guys get beat up, and yet they kick ass and take names. As others have mentioned, I suspect I would've been more engrossed in the story had I read the Able Team novels referenced. I've only read a handful of them, more due to lack of availability than anything else. Still, it was a good read and I look forward to DPW's next Stony Man entry with excitement! Oh, and Doug ... keep that wonderful banter and those pop-culture references coming! They really spice up an already-zesty recipe. Thanks.

I agree that the was McCarter is dropped into the action was a bit lame (and why "Pat"? Whatever happened to Mei Anna?) I loved the references to the old PF/AT books. As in Doom Prophecy it brings a history back to the characters. I loved the banter between the characters and the action is top notch. I can understand how those unfamiliar with the old books would feel a bit lost with the Unomundo story line,but I loved it and hope Doug writes many, many more Stony Man titles.

I agree with much of what the prior reviewer said. I have not read the Able Team novels yet (I will soon, hopefully, since I have the first 20 or so which I recently purchased off ebay). So I was not familiar with all the references to Able's prior work in South America. A few references would have been fine, and I liked getting a glimpse of the old books. But the vast quantity of references became off-putting quickly. I also agree that the plot was a bit of a stretch, though like you I can forgive that easily. More grating was the continuing adding on of terrorist groups to form conglomerate villain of the novel (again, associated with the references with old Able Team novels.

Back in the Eighties, when the teams had their own individual series’ of books, a handful of writers were given multi-book runs. William Fieldhouse, had enough latitude to kill off Keio Ohara and create a new Phoenix Force member from scratch. GH Frost used his run to create an epic story arc. Several Able Team and Stony Man writers have come and gone, none of them were able to capture the magic of the GH Frost run. “Extreme Arsenal,” Douglas P Wojtowicz’s second Stony Man entry, does not quite capture the magic, but pays homage to Able Team’s roots in nothing but flattering ways. This novel is a long-deserved (sort of) sequel to the events depicted in the GH Frost epics. And it’s also a continuation to Wojtowicz’s own emerging storyline. He is quietly building one from his body of work. Shhh! Don’t tell Gold Eagle. I have grievances to the absurdly random way McCarter entered into the novel, the preposterous plot, and the sheer magnitude of references from books past. That doesn’t really matter. It’s an action-adventure, not a plot-and-ponder. All is forgiven when I am given the opportunity to witness the Cowboy Jihad rise again.