Storm Burst

Well the third instalment of The Storm Trilogy and you will note if you have read the previous two by Mel Odom that this one is written by Jerry VanCook. This seemed to be the norm around the time this was written where two authors would collaborate on trilogies. I for one am very glad that this practise has ceased as normally the drastic change in writing styles takes away a lot from the reading experience. But not here folks Jerry VanCook seamlessly continues the reading experience of the trilogy and has produced a blockbuster of a title to boot. If you are an Able Team fan or more an Ironman fan he excels in this title with Pol and Gadgets very much taking a back seat, whilst failing to quite reach berserker mode he and the auto shotgun cut a massive path through the ranks of the terrorists. So many good scenes featuring Able Team but a couple of standouts the Motel clearing and the attack on the Zeppelin blimp amazing stuff some of the all too infrequent raising of the pulse rate when reading one of these titles. When Lyons picks up the female reporter in the blimp and what he does is amazing it stunned me but what happens after that (read it) was doubly amazing and okay I'm stunned and amazed at this stage but no there's more and Lyons throws himself out no parachute who comes floating down? and who else? and what happens and the little grin and the coming down and what happens with the umpire and the resultant response of the crowd just simply blew me away (read it) and if you love these books as much as I do I defy you to read this and not have a broad grin on your face at the ending of this section at the baseball ground simply one of the best scenes I have ever read in one of these series. Meanwhile Bolan and Phoenix Force team up for most of this title and again some very fine writing here where the Elldridge character is explained well and you can really start to get into the head of this character where what he does still makes no bloody sense at all but it interspaces well with the stolen nukes and the ongoing storyline here I guess. The female Merc character was different and with her jumping allegiances gave the big guy a few moments of doubt but comes through okay. Excellent scene with Elldridge, Katz and the big guy at the launcher where his hand is taped to the launch control. Many many other scenes I could carry on about this is a terrific read and I'm not gonna spoil it for you, excellent so close to a ten loved it. Highly recommended reading.

I picked this up in used bookstore after being impressed by one of the newer books in the series. Maybe it was because I hadn't read the first two books of the trilogy, but I had trouble getting into it and it moved kinda slow in a lot of places. I like the Able Team story best and there were some good shoot-em-up scenes, but this book isn't a must-read in my opinion.

This book is a smooth transition from the first two volumes in the trilogy despite a difference in the author. VanCook writes a whirlwind action conclusion to this excellent Storm trilogy. I enjoyed this much more than the Medellin trilogy. The whole storyline involving the Eldridge character takes shape, and adds a satisfying thread to the book, and Bolan's final showdown with him had my heart racing and was one of the more gripping moments of the story. If I were to ever write a Bolan book, a villain like Eldridge would be the type I would probably write about. Both Odom and Vancook did a great job with this character, and Katz's involvement at the end was great. Meanwhile Able Team's adventures continue on U.S. soil, with many outstanding and gripping action scenes. Vancook writes AT very well, if the AT series would have continued as a standalone, he would have been a good choice to write those. I thought that the main villain, Jaluwi, was kind of pushed in the background a little too much in this book. But all in all this is a terrific adventure novel, full of suspense and excitement. I recommend this whole trilogy, and the ending wasn't a disappointment like the Medellin one. It was also interesting to think that these books came out not long after the first Gulf war. You have to picture what the state of Iraq was at the time as Bolan and Phoenix Force have most of their adventures around Kuwait and Iraq.

Really good final to this trilogy. The only read flaw for me was the sudden apperance of the UAR. I don't know how in 2 days this new organization came to be along with uniforms for all Iraqi soldiers - in Iraq and in the US. Not sure why Jerry VanCook did this since Mel Odom who wrote the first two books did not include this. The action was fantastic including with Able team overtaking a Zeppelin. Also with terrorists actions happening all over the US in about a 6 day time frame I cannot picture a MLB game being played. I would think even in 1992 all major events would have been cancelled. Plus why isn't the Man's daughter and her husband not with her father who collapsed giving a speech in Washington? They should have been there or in an undisclosed location. I did like the book very much as a closing book to a trilogy. Most trilogies fizzled by book three this one did not. For this reason the book is getting a 9. I didn't like the idea of a rogue colonel with messianic visions in book 2 but his character was especially well handled by Jerry. His character turned into the key for the series. I do wish Peck would lived though. The scene where he Eldridge "interviewed" one of his men was a chilling scene. Note you do need to read the first two books to really know whats going on.

"Storm Burst" concludes the Storm Trilogy, with Bolan and his allies trying to stave off nuclear war with Iraq while fighting against a domestic terrorist threat. Wow. This one is so much better than the other two books in the trilogy. This one actually has a plot rather than just an abundance of battle scenes. Further, the plot is very good. A highlight involves Bolan and Phoenix Force caught in hostile territory with only pistols. This is fresh, different than some of what has gone on before. The flaws, though, are because of continuity. While this is supposed to be a direct continuation of the previous books, all of the sudden there is a new organization, the UAR, that has emblems, uniforms and more. In just a day or two? Impossible. Also, Bolan's ally flip-flops sides so much that her character is ultimately a disappointment. Overall, though, this one is a very good read. It stands alone well enough to skip the first books in the trilogy and only read this one.

This was a very fast paced book and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

This was a hell of a ride! The action was intense, and Eldridge was a hell of a villain. One of the better SuperBolans.