Paradines Gauntlet

I thought a bit on 9 versus 10, but went with 10 stars. This is a great book; my second 10 rating for Newton (#387). A terrorist from Bolan's past, Paradine, returns on the scene to take up vengeance against the Executioner. He devises and sets out on a plot that entails taking hostages, demanding a billion dollars worth of diamonds, and enacts a plan to bring Bolan into Paradine's cross-hairs. How? Paradines states he'll kill the hostages if the diamonds are not delivered by John Phoenix. Bolan brings the diamonds into the gambit and the battle begins. Newton does an extraordinary job of capturing much of Bolan's universe...Hal, April, and a rebuilt war wagon. Great stuff. Bolan, with the frequent help of April, sets out to track down Paradine through multiple stops. Bolan's every war capability seems tapped as he hunts down Paradine and attempts to retrieve the hostages. In doing so, April gets severely wounded, Bolan takes an injury, and Newton keeps you turning the pages with the highly-detailed action scenes. Paradine's Gauntlet has the new war wagon, car chases, and great fighting scenes. This is definitely a title recommended for reading.

Paradine a terrorist legend who somehow managed to escape the Big Guy's wrath previously is back and with vengeance on his mind big time. Eager to entice the Big Guy into his clutches and kill him for revenge over his one and only failure and to re-establish himself in the eyes of his terrorist cronies he hijacks a plane and takes hostages sending out a message to the Big Guy bring one billion dollars worth of diamonds to my trap and all will be forgiven thinking to himself haha I have got this sucker this time. Unfortunately (for him) spies within his network leak information of this to various terrorist groups hence the gauntlet the Big Guy faces trying to deliver the diamonds as they all line up along the way to take him down and relieve him of the diamonds. Action action action Mike Newton at his best this title socks it to you with no rest at all. On and on car chase after car chase excellent reading page after page as the Big Guy gets closer and closer to Paradine at his fortress compound and well all of a sudden maybe this was not the most brilliant thought I have ever had is what our main bad guy is thinking to himself. Excellent finish at the enemy compound where the Big Guy storms in and decimates the bad guys left right and centre brilliant reading here folks. The only thing that held me back from a ten on this title was the inclusion of April Rose and the new born again War Wagon now the Laser Wagon which in my opinion was unnecessary for the title although I accept the seed being sown for the Big Guy to head out solo again coming up. A small complaint only this title rocks and is very highly recommended reading in the series.

Had high hopes for this one as it is an early Newton and featured the new War Wagon. Alas, it wound up being run-of-the-mill Bolan. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I thought the book, with an interesting premise for the Executioner, would have played out better. There's some fine action but the climax when the two adversaries meet is anti-climatic at best. Still it was a quick read and provided some fun. Put this one down as average Bolan. Worth a read but it won't blow your mind.

I decided to read this one out of nostalgia, as it came from the era where I started reading Mack Bolan books. On the whole, it was a good read. Nothing spectacular, but a good, standard fare Bolan adventure. The action was fast paced, exciting, and well-described. The dialogue was good, and the characterizations well-done. Overall, an enjoyable read. The only complaints I have are that there are sections of obvious fluff. Mike Newton was clearly struggling to make the word-count on this one, and so filled many pages with superfluous exposition (chapter 16 is 2 pages, and has absolutely nothing to do with the plot). Also, some of the action was a bit over the top, and, as other reviewers have stated, made Mack look a little too super-human (A shoulder roll that carries him 36 feet? That's some Spider-Man stuff there). But, if you just breeze through those sections, it's a good effort, and very indicative of the period in which it was written. There isn't much that really dates it, aside from political references. And the "laser wagon" was a bit of a stretch at time, but not too much.

Yet another Mike Newton book and yet another dull one from this author. From my point of view the books of Mike Newton seems to be interested in the beginning but that changes after the first few chapters and sadly his writing style doesn´t appeal to me. What was then wrong with this book then? Basically the action was too much and didn´t focus enough on the showdown and prelude to it between Bolan and Paradine but instead there was very little suspense or mystery and instead was non-stop and badly written action. The strange twist and badly explained one in the storyline was the greedy European hard men and Mafia boy after the ransom payment. This was a strange element and out of context with the story line and made the book incoherent and out of order instead of doing more for the Paradine element especially in the beginning when he hijacked the plane. Speaking of Paradine..........well, he was just a small time mental case which never really showed his true hate and boiling rage for Bolan and was basically a coward trying to save his own flesh in the end instead of fighting Bolan with his boiling rage. War wagon was nice but it is kind of difficult to get the final picture of it in my mind with all the rockets, gadgets and leisure stuff in there but the wagon is well stocked in any possible way but I wonder the estimated size of it to manage to withhold everything in there??? Confusing book and badly written storyline are the key issues here and yet another disappointing book to read (2004)

This book delivers the action left and right,but my problem with it was too much of it was run of the mill,which is a reaccuring theme in some of Newtons novels. Still it is a wild ride and worthy of at least 6 star.

"Paradine's Gauntlet" continues in the familiar line of most of the books in the terrorist wars period. Bolan is up against some time constraint and has to rush into situations, reacting always to the villain's plot and trying to stay alive. Not bad but it would be nice to see Bolan once again planning and executing a hit on his own terms and having the elements of surprise and confusion working for him. In this tale the Executioner is up against Paradine from the earlier book, "Double Crossfire". Paradine got the worst of it in the last book and his ego demands revenge. His twisted idea of revenge is hijacking a plane filled with diplomats and demanding that "Phoenix" deliver the ransom alone. Of course Bolan and his team know it's a trap but he goes anyway, leaving a trail of bodies across southern Europe. The set-up is that Paradine gives Bolan points to get to and will observe to make sure he is alone. But since every criminal group in Europe knows about it they all try to ambush and steal the ransom. This leads to much shooting and things going boom. Not of much interest though after the first one. This book introduces the "Laser Wagon", a new and improved version of Bolan's old RV fighting vehicle. It has the same rocketry that became such a crutch during the mafia wars. This book also suffers from an over-abundance of April Rose. She has to follow Bolan against his wishes (of course) and comes to his rescue (of course) and then gets shot. Maybe it's just my old dislike of her whining and sobbing but having her anywhere except at Stony Man Farm really annoys me. The action here was frequent and furious but I didn't believe it very much. The odds were really stacked against Bolan every time and he was being ambushed and surprised. I know the guy can handle long odds but here he almost seemed superhuman. I figure this one is worth 6 stars if you like action. One or two fewer if you prefer plot.

Bolan is up against an old nemesis. Paradine has kidnapped some diplomats and is holding them hostage until he can trap Bolan. This book was a disapointment. Paradine, who was so calm and sinister in his first appearances, was a shadow of himself. Granted, Bolan has given him something to fear by almost killing him, but this assassin damn near pissed himself whenever Bolan was around. Considering he planned the whole affair, this was not realistic. Also, Bolan was not up to his usual standards. Twice he got caught in firefights that he needed outside assistance to save his bacon. Once in a while this is understandable; twice in the same book made Bolan seem a buffoon. Also, the return of the War Wagon (now the Laser Wagon) was not a good thing. When Pendleton was writing in the 70's the wagon seemed cool. For the 80's, it seemed a stretch, especially as all the action is in Europe. With a Phoenix emblem on the outside, this is not the subtle vehicle that Bolan used before. It might as well have had a target painted on it. The good parts of the book were the action writing. Bolan was in several firefights that were well-written and exciting. The plot moved along and was realistic. Overall, though the book is just about average.

A good action-packed story with a good villian. I liked seeing the return of Paradine.

DEFINATELY EXCITING. APRIL NEARLY BUYS THE FARM IN THIS ONE.

Along with Double Crossfire, this one was pure excitement.