Chuck Rogers

I did not actually leave stars, because as an author in the series, I, (personal choice here), believe that it is up to the fans to make or break a book on a fan site. That said, unofficially, I would rate "Blood Trade" a solid eight. Story was good, the heroes brave and the villains bad, as well as a bit different than the usual Bolan bad guys, and the nature of their evil so rotten you really wanted to see them all go down. Pace was good, action flowed. The good guys took a beating, (no one was Superman), and there was tragedy amongst the good guys, which always adds impact in a book. References to the past were good and added depth. Liked the Peters character, it is always nice to see the UN, much less Canadian UN, doing something constructive. Hmmm. The character seemed vaguely, familiar somehow . . . Some of the action was "over-written" as was some of the dialogue. There was also dialogue that came off as a little too cute and unrealistic, but only some. Bolan seemed awfully preachy. This can probably be attributed to the authors youthful, (youthful as in published works), exuberance and wanting to "get it all in." Sometimes less is more. I could go English Teacher and red-pen a lot of pages with what I might change, but most of it would be nit-picking. Over all a very solid effort. To give a book a ten I think the author has to genuinely slam it all the way out of the ballpark. I do believe however Doug did slam it into the stands on his very first attempt, and Bolan fans have every reason to go wild, and eagerly await his next one.