Death Load

This is actually not bad when you finish it with some good parts. The beginning of the book is slow but it eventually picks up pace and you finish with a reasonable read. The Katherine May character is very well done through the book BUT the tunnel section where Mack is crawling through with one leg injured is terrific. I liked at the end the way Kwanh stopped from getting onto the helicopter to stay and take care of the traitor Trang. my two bobs worth............

Bolan is sent to rescue a female agent Katherine May from a camp in Cambodia. Thats pretty much what the plot is, but this book is really about a suspensful trek through the jungles of Thailand and war-torn Cambodia. Ambushed by roving bands of Khmer Rouge, Chinese, and Vietnamese soldiers, Bolan along with his ally Kwanh seek out the missing woman deep in dangerous territory. I liked how the author wrote about how Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had affected the people in the country, and the relationships between the different nationalities in that part of Asia. I thought the scenes with Katherine were done very well, and my favorite part of the book had to be Bolan's escape through the underground tunnels beneath one of the villages. A suspenseful and cool scene that brings my rating up a star. The ending was ok, but not great, rather predictable and brief, but at least the loose end about who was the traitor was solved at the last moment. As an action/adventure story, I thought this book was decent, not a great book at all, but has some good moments, it was worth reading.

Do the artists actually read or get conulted? Don't know who did this cover but the girl on the cover was blonde, blue eyed and white. Her father is Cambodian, Katherine May the only female in the book is described as raven hair. Raven is not blonde. The covers almos always show reasonly well the characters in the book. This was so far off. The beginning was horrible when Mack first showed up in the book. Who sent Mack did he decide to do this himself or did Hal suggest it? Why did Bishop know Mack's name? Why didn't Mack have Bishop use an alian to introduce him I suspect Hal sent Mack to meet with Bishop about his problem with May. The journey on the road into Cambodia with the Thaii colonel and the Vietnamese officer was fun. Never had a clue that the Vietname officer was working with May. I had to reread the last 3 pages to figur it out. Enough seens with Katherine to give us a hint. The tunnel scene with Mack barely able to move but having to with his twisted ankle was good. I didn't quite understand the geopolitics of Cambodia. I thought the Khmer Rouge controlled all of Cambodia not just pockets. I do recall their utter brutality and how they did kill those with glasses (sign of having money and education). The scene rescuing the Cambodian officer was a great scene. Very depressing how innocent people were treated at that work camp not the the officer was an innocent. Did Trang consider him to be counterrevolutionary and sent him there to take his job or was he sent there for different reason. This is an extremely fast moving novel large print and lots of space. Its like it was written to be 180 pages long but had to be expanded.

An American agent is captured by Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. Bolan is set to get her out. That's it as far as plot goes is "Death Load". This one was a stinker. There are several supporting characters, but they never get a moment to shine. Bolan has misgivings about them, but there is no explanation for his feelings. Foreshadowing is a nice literary device, but when it's used, there has to be something happening at the end. Not so with this novel; it stops with unresolved plots. It seems like there must have been some serious editing here by the Gold Eagle team. The margins on this book are huge -- it still goes 220 pages, but there is a lot of white on those pages. Whole subplots must have been snipped. The end result is a virtually unreadable mess. Why was Bolan in Cambodia in the first place? What "secret" was Bolan's contact Bishop holding? What happened to Kwanh at the end? What happened to the contact Trang? All of this are unanswered. Very disappointing effort.

Standard, run-of-the-mill Bolan. Having Bolan being pursued while he was wounded was a plus. And the final shootout was above par.

A so-so southeast asia tale.

I always like the Bolan stories that take place in Asia, but this one was a bit slow.

NO BIG DEAL. THIS BOOK IS JUST OK WITH ME.