Ambush on Blood River

I got this book for Christmas in 1983. It's a good read then and it's a good read now. I liked the opening scenes with Bolan and Manning playing the survivalist game with the weekend warriors. Thought that was pretty comical. liked the flashback scene with Katz undercover with a mercenary army in the Congo hunting down a Nazi who escaped germany after the war. Thought the final confrontation between Katz and the Nazi was well written. All in all a pretty solid book. 8 stars

This book was decent as Phoenix Force showed up in an Executioner series book. While some parts of the book were strange (out of character) for a Bolan book...multiple double-crossings at end & a healthy dose of Katz's background...the ending was action-packed and somewhat saved a relatively uneventful middle portion of the book. I enjoyed the flash-back to Katz, but I'm not exactly sure why it ended up in an Executioner book. I wonder if this was a marketing strategy to increased the Phoenix Force readership during the early run of that series. Anyway, the storyline was good. Bolan and PF sent to Africa to find a load of stolen diamonds and some papers that are detrimental to the US. The entire African scene is filled with various characters -- both good and bad -- that does get somewhat confusing at times. As previously mentioned, the ending is well-written and highly entertaining. The very ending was classic...nicely done.

Well the Big Guy teams up with Phoenix Force and the title delivers a MASSIVE disappointment this is very ordinary folks. Action well forget that for a starter as basically nothing happens until the ending section. Storyline is actually okay where the Big Guy and Phoenix Force are in Africa on the trail of stolen diamonds and documents which could identify undercover US agents and are trailing the merc who originally stole them and are going to relieve him and his KGB cronies of same. Unfortunately the long sections throughout the title leading up to the finishing section is so boring I would guess a lot of readers would give it away and move onto something else I know I was tempted on more than one occassion. Nothing to recommend here look elsewhere.

This was the first Executioner I had read in several months, and it was a really cool trip back to the old days of this series. I have to admit that I have never read any of the old Phoenix Force novels, and have only read a handful of the current Stonyman books. That being said, it was very cool to see PF featured here. This mission was definitely a "team" outing, and Bolan's inclusion of PF was logical and well-handled. Kind of made me want to dig out some of the ones I do have and read those. As for the story itself, it was nicely done. Good pacing and action, fairly good characterization, and some interesting villains and plot twists. Unlike a lot of the books of this era, this one didn't really make anyone a "Superman" with over-the-top feats of action. Overall a good read.

Despite all the globe-hopping Mack Bolan does, it's kind of hard to find volumes in the series that actually provide a strong sense of place. AMBUSH ON BLOOD RIVER does that, drawing upon author Alan Bomack's experience as a journalist living in Africa to create the fictional central-African country of Kuranda. In this particular novel, Bolan is paired up with Phoenix Force. Yakov Katzenelenbogen gets a flashback scene specific both to the setting and one of the antagonists, tying him more closely to the action than even Bolan. On the trail of a South African mercenary and his KGB handler, Bolan and Phoenix Force are set to intercept the retrieval of a stolen cache of diamonds and potentially politically embarrassing documents. What follows is a surprisingly slow-burn novel that spends more time establishing its setting than it does providing non-stop action. Some might criticize AMBUSH ON BLOOD RIVER for being light on incident, but it works to the book's advantage because we really get to know WHY things are happening and not just jumping from set piece to set piece.

What could have been a kick-ass mini-Stony Man-type of book turned out to be a yawner. There wasn't much action, and when Bolan and Phoenix did get into it, the writing of said scenes was nothing special. The only two positives were a little bit of backstory on Katz and the final, "explosive" ending. A big disappointment for my final Terrorist Wars book.

I read the first half of this book in a couple hours, but it took me a whole month to finish it! that was about 17 years ago but i remember it well because it was the wierdest book i have ever read.It's a good story but how many heroes and villains can you possably shove in a 190 page book? There were so many Characters in here i could not keep track at all and i just lost interest in the story.If you removed about 500 people from this book it would have been a great read but... maybe I'm just too dumb to fit all those names in my head and remember who is who. I like the cover art, its one of my favorites from that time period.

I had to give this one a 10. I mean Phoenix Force teaming up with the man Mack Bolan himself it just doesn't get any better then that. This one was action packed and a real fast mover one of my all time favorite Executioner books a must read for any fan.

Ambush on Blood River has Phoenix Force joining Bolan for a mission in Africa that is more of an adventure than a straight action yarn. Bolan and Phoenix are out to recover some long hidden diamonds and documents after they're recovered by the thief and his KGB led allies. The story has enough plot to keep you interested even though there aren't that many action scenes. There is a good sub-plot concerning Yakov and the thief and their association during the Congo wars. The location of the story in central Africa really helps due to the great atmosphere evoked by the author's descriptions. The action here is limited to a bare-knuckle fight and a kind of mini-firefight in a village until the final action payoff. But that payoff of the ambush and the escape of Bolan's force is very good and should make action fans happy. The only thing that keeps this from being a 10 star book is a feeling that there might have been one more action scene in there somewhere. But it still makes a great read. 9 stars.

It's the one that hooked me. Best one so far. Super action-packed. Great.

ANOTHER AWSOME ENTRY IN THE TERRORIST WAR BOOKS. PHOENIX FORCE FIGHTING ALONG SIDE BOLAN WAS A NICE TOUCH THAT MADE THE STORY.

DEFINATE GOOD ACTIONER. I ALMOST SALUTE KATZ AS MUCH AS BOLAN IN THIS ONE AND THE END HAD A NEAT SUPRISE ENDING.

very good!! Action packed from start to finish.