Greg Rhodes

This was a tour de force action yarn! Bolan was jumping all over the place wreaking nine kinds of havoc on three or four different factions of bad guys. And it was cohesive -- rather than small meaningless bits of plot and story wedged between action set pieces. One thing I found disappointing was that Mack had a perfectly good opportunity to get his groove on with two female DEA agents (at the same time no less!!!) and he blew it. I don't understand. (kidding) Anyway, it was a fun read completely absent of nukes, ninjas, bio-chem doomsday devices and what not. Just Mack kicking ass like a "kung-fu fight-ah!" The cliff hanger ending was awesome too. El Greggo The Armchair Critic says: TWO BIG ASS THUMBS WAY THE HELL UP!!!

I probably bought this one because of the cover -- which is pretty much why I bought most of my books back then. But that's another story. On with the review. There's not much about this book that strikes me as plausible, but that's not why you read this stuff. You read it because it's off-the-wall, violent ridiculous fun -- and because it was way more entertaining the most of the crap on TV at the time. But I'm digressing. I liked the story line with the five assassins. They probably could have been a lot scarier as villains go, but it worked for me. (it did when I was 14 anyway) There was a plot twist toward the end of the book, that brought Bolan and one of the heavies from South America all the way to Washington DC, that seemed like it didn't have enough room to work as well as it could have (within the context of the story) and came off as rather awkward as a result. For whatever reason it just felt out of place to me. Other than that I liked it.

I read this one around the time it came out and still have warm fuzzy memories of it. This one was written by acclaimed mystery author Dennis Lynds and his wife (who's name escapes me). Great story, plot and plenty of action. One of my favorite scenes has Bolan parachuting from a glider to infiltrate the enemy's island stronghold. And yet another scene where he's wreaking havoc in a castle in Europe and ends up diving into the moat to get away when things go south. A couple of things that didn't work for me were A) the arms dealers had a ninja working for them and B) there was another bad guy that Bolan knew from his service in Vietnam. It wasn't entirely implausible, but I don't feel the character-in-question would have been any less sinister (or any more) if he and Bolan hadn't previously known each other. Even so, in the grand scheme of things those minor quibbles didn't do much to detract from the story. Over all this is a kick ass action/adventure yarn. I'm giving it 10 stars because it was well written and it's as good a Bolan adventure as I could hope for. El Greggo The Armchair Critic Says: TWO BIG ASS THUMBS WAY THE HELL UP!!!!

This book had a few good action sequences. The raid on the apartment building was fun. Other than that it was boring. Was looking forward to Bolan mixing it up with the hit man/enforcer guy, but it never materialized. I'll say don't bother with Takedown and read something else.

I liked this one a lot. The thing that really had me hooked was the plot twist with all the impostors. Great action sequences and plenty of suspense too. Definitely a high point of the series for me. El Greggo The Armchair Critic says: 2 BIG ASS THUMBS WAY THE HELL UP!!!

This book had a great scene with Bolan kayaking across a lake in the fog to take down an enemy safe house in the woods. One of my favorite scenes of any Bolan yarn, ever. Unfortunately, the reset of it was pretty bland, IMO. I wanted to like this one, but I've read better. If you've got this one in your collection, read it for the safe house scene but stop when it gets boring because it doesn't get any better after that point.

This is an excellent firsthand account of a special-ops unit behind enemy lines in Gulf War I -- and their amazing (if not heart breaking) story of capture and torture. To be frank, the lengthy descriptions of torture (both physical and mental) are graphic, disturbing and ultimately depressing. Anyway, it's a great read.

Let me start by saying that this is hands down one of the best Bolan books I've ever read. The writing is solid, the story intriguing and most importantly, the characters were much more than perfunctory "road signs" to advance the plot. Another thing I found refreshing was a distinct lack of expository narration. I.E. showing as opposed to merely telling. I also liked the fact that Mack wasn't portrayed as a bullet-proof ass-kicking machine, but instead took his lumps, got knocked down and nearly ate it a few times. As purveyor of clumsy, ham-fisted writing (my own), I've got a strong appreciation for the craft of writing. Here's a list of four things that I felt made it work seamlessly: 1) A nicely rendered setting, or, a solid sense of place 2) Well written supporting characters, even the "throwaways" 3) Juicy villains 4)A well balanced ratio of action/plot/story Negative criticism? Just some minor things -- and I'm not sure they even qualify as criticism. 1) I would like to have seen the subplot with plan to steal the jets actually happen -- establishing a great storyline for a recovery operation etc. Not to mention how kick ass the raid/jet commandeering scene would have been. 2) This book could have easily been a longer Super Bolan or ever a two-parter; and I wish it would have. However, keeping it short and sweet ultimately resulted in a Bolan adventure that was firing on all four cylinders from start to fininsh -- as opposed to a longer story that starts strong and finishes weak or falls flat in the second act, et cetera. 3) Lawrence (the muscle-bound sociopath) should have appeared in more scenes given how much build up he had. 4) The Ice Man should have his own series. (Seriously, there were times when I was cheering for The Ice Man) I might be one of the only people who would want to read it, but that wouldn't bother me any. ;-) Failing that, I would like to have seen The Ice Man return to wreak even more havoc in another book, but to be fair that's not something Chuck Rogers would've had much say about. Overall it was a well written fun read and it left me wanting more. As it should be. El Gregg-o The Armchair Critic says: TWO BIG ASS THUMBS WAY THE HELL UP!!! Nicely done, Chuck. :)