Sleepers

Amazing I was about half way through this June 2010 when the news came through that eleven Russian sleeper agents had been arrested by the FBI and that is exactly what this title is all about? An ex KGB guy who placed around 20 sleepers into the States decades ago starts to activate them with the intention of causing as much carnage as possible which he hopes will kindle a war between the US and the Mother Country where the Communists will again rise to power. I haven't seen the previously mentioned movie to comment on the similarity of the plot but as far as these series is concerned I found it to be original and refreshing. Liked the Russian sidekick and a classic scene where one of the sleepers is a serving police officer and Mack is in a quandry how to bring him down, noticing he is wearing a kevlar vest he fires twice into his chest which only knocks him down, he rises about to shoot Mack and the Russian plugs him THROUGH the vest and says to the Big Guy "You need a bigger gun". Good action scenes as usual but it started to get a little tedious as the same action scenes are repeated over and again with the sleepers but finished off quite well. Worth the read I reckon.

A decent Bolan homage to the Charles Bronsan movie 'TeleFon'. All the guest characters were very entertaining in this one: 01.) The female Russian agent helping Bolan was a nice touch, but I was disappointed Bolan didn't bed her at least once in this story. 02.) The rogue ex-KGB agent made for a nice villian, but I wished that Boan & him would've had more of a one on one adversarial match. 03.) The treasonous U.S. Army officer that was Bolan's key in this story made for a nice touch, it was nice to see him try redeeming himself by the book's end. The showdown finale at Disney World was a unique Bolan ending to say the least.

While this book was a decent entry in to the Bolan series, I felt it was lacking some major entertainment value, and the development seemed way to slow for a Super Bolan novel. This book quite frankly didnt hit the spot for me in most areas, I felt it lacked action untill the very end and didnt seem to have much in the way of a background character development. In many ways I struggled to finish it.

Not an uninteresting book, but after a while, it got to be regular Mike Newton monotony, with the sleeper doing the same thing, and Bolan and Co. chasing them down. The finale though, was quite tense and action-packed. Sometimes I wish Bolan and the female character would get into a bit of a relationship. Maybe I'm reading the wrong ones.

I like Newton's work. He has done some great BOLAN books. The whole time I was reading this one, something kept nagging at me. The feeling I had read something like it before. Then about halfway through I remembered an old Charles Bronson movie, TELEFON, about sleeper Russian moles being activated, and I realized why the plot seemed so familiar. Not that I'm saying that was his inspiration or anything. Let me make that clear. Like they say, there's nothing new under the sun, just variations on a theme. Newton doesn't disappoint. He keeps the pace flowing. Since he's done so many of these, he 'knows' Bolan as well as anyone, and his stories are always right on the mark.

Nothing against the new entries by Doug and Nick, but let's not forget about the established masters in all the hoopla, gang. Newton's latest, with the threat of sleeper asssassins wreaking hell across America, is a clever treat. Liked the pacing, the rapport between Bolan and his Russian femme fatale, and the cutaways to the bad guys. For a while there it felt like Newton was just mailing 'em in, but here he shows that he's back on top of his game.