Monsta Mack

A cool premise of a laser technology used to destroy satellites in orbit. Bolan is tasked with finding the source of the problem and eliminate it. The expected action packed adventure begins, with much world hopping from place to place. There are characters from earlier in the series that show up here and Bolan teams up with these allies as well as a few random members of Stony Man. The action ends up in Congo Africa with some intense battles in the jungle. A good adventure, with some standard villains and nonstop action cover to cover, this is another worthy entry in the series.

There might have been a few moments here and there in the book that I liked, but overall this was a bland and mediocre entry in the series. Bolan is in Panama, with a local sidekick in tow, instead of Grimaldi, going about the business of the hit list and eventually getting the various factions to start going against each other and the expected sniper scene to warn them that they need to release the female hostage and so on, you know the drill. The final battle takes place in a soccer stadium for some reason, I couldn't figure out why, I must have dozed off and missed something, but a nothing special ending to a nothing special book. Not worth reading unless you never read an Executioner novel before.

The best thing about this book was the pacing, which was an adventure that went by swiftly with no boring parts, the action always close at hand. The plot device was nothing new, the action scenes nothing that hasn't been seen before, and only an interesting twist to it kept it from being nothing but a retread of many other action novels like this. I liked the setting of the story, almost the whole story takes place in the wilderness of the Idaho/Oregon area, and contains some good river action and forest and cave scenes. I might have liked the novel more had I not read the first 256 books in the series first, but I just didn't get enough from the story that wasn't already done so many times, but on its own a decent adventure for Bolan.

A typical Schmidt adventure with ex military gone bad groups, this time in league with an Islamic terrorist faction. The bad guys are the standard you can expect in any of his novels. The body count is surprisingly lower than expected, the plot nothing special, the action scenes done well but not much you haven't seen before. There is the big stakes with the chaos in the city that adds a tension to the story that worked decently. A lot of editorial gaffs in this one, making me wonder if a proofreader was absent. Overall an ok action yarn, but not among the better novels in the series.

Easily the best book of the three, we have the conclusion to this trilogy, well done and it seems to imply at the end that there could be a sequel in the future. I am not sure if there is one or not, but I would want to read it. There is quite a bit of excellent action sequences in this one, both from Bolan's and Brognola's scenes. I was expecting to see Grimaldi at some point, but that didn't happen. An excellent trilogy here, there are some editorial gaffs, but they didn't take away from this action thriller. Definitely one of the better trilogies in this series.

The second book in the trilogy is pretty much a bridge between the first and third book, with small plot development and big action. The story shifts from Baja to the Costa Rica area, with some scenes in San Diego. The cartel enforcer brothers have survived the first book, but one of them is hospitalised while the other assaults the safehouse and grabs the kids out from Brognola's clutches, we will see what happens next, the Lord of the Seas is still a mystery at this point. Excellent action in several scenes and the expected explosive assault Bolan gives at the end.

The start of the trilogy where we don't get to see the main villain yet, but instead the focus is on his two captains in the form of two brothers that act as his main enforcers. Enter Mack Bolan to take down the whole operation. The plot is not complex, but where this book shines is in the action scenes. Either out in the Baja wilderness or in the ranch compound, the action is fast and furious. A good balance of perspectives is provided between Bolan and other characters in the story. Things get intense toward the end and we have a guest appearance by Grimaldi to help save the day. Overall a solid novel, a worthy book one to this trilogy.

This is one of those infiltrate the badguy team storylines that I like, and from Rogers, it would have to be an excellent one, and it is. Having looked over what other readers have said about this well-reviewed title, I don't have too much to add to the praises as well as the criticisms of it. A better than average villain in The Iceman, an awesome final confrontation with said villain, and cool scenes like the graveyard scenes and the fight aboard the helicopter and the action after the crash. Plenty to like in this action thriller, but I had some issues that kept it from earning the top rating. First, the too convenient plot device where Bolan decides that a friend of Calvin James is the the guy to get his mission going, and wouldn't you know the guy just happens to be the recruiter for the Iceman's group. Bolan himself admits later on in the story that it was a "coincidence". Second, I am not on board with other reviewers about the scene where Bolan answers his cell phone in the middle of battle. This came across to me as silly, and was a weak point in the novel. Third, is a general theme that occurs far too frequently from cover to cover in this book. That being that human bodies, whether it be Bolan, Brognola, Delcarpio, or assorted bad guys would take massive injuries from all sorts of terrible things, bullets, grenades, RPG missiles, blades, poison spiders, lack of oxygen, you name it, and not only survive, but would fight on, whether it be days later, hours later, minutes later, or even seconds later. Oh sure, some kind of super armor vest was often involved, but these kinds of things just happened far too much, far too often. All being said, there was lots to like about this episode in the series. You get more bang for your buck than just about any Executioner title in the long running series, and I got the impression that if the series ever had an end, Savage Game would be a great candidate for the last mission ever for the big guy. Well worth the read, If you like Roger's Bolans, and who wouldn't, you shouldn't miss out on this title.

The plot idea had me interested in this book for a long time, now that I finally got around to it, I was satisfied enough with the story. It is unique in the series, something I was in the mood for. The villain in this novel operates a hunt club servicing wealthy clients willing to pay a million bucks to go on a hunt in remote regions of the world. For human prey. Bolan soon gets involved to take him down, meeting an unexpected ally on the way. Bolan finds himself the target eventually, on the huntmaster's private island, with four of his wealthy clients sent after Bolan. I liked how Bolan turned the tables on his hunters, starting with literally nothing. It was fun to see his skills put to the test in this way, and things do not end up well for his adversaries. I liked the small cast of characters for this SuperBolan, no armies of straw badguys slaughtered by the dozens, just a few main villains in a survivalist atmosphere in a couple forested regions. Despite some overall slow pacing, I very much enjoyed this episode. Sadly, the writer passed away while I was reading this, Mike Newton, you will be missed, thanks for all the great books and keeping Bolan alive.

This is the first book in the series not available in printed book form. It took some getting used to reading the kindle on my computer screen, but before long I was absorbed into this action packed story. A sarin gas attack in L.A. stirs a hornets nest in the form of Mack Bolan, and before long, the Korean terrorist network is feeling the wrath of the Executioner's bullets. Good but standard action in the San Francisco area, then Bolan moves on to South Korea for the middle part of the book. The last portion has Bolan, along with a female sidekick infiltrating North Korea with a good action packed assault there. I liked the perspectives of the various Korean bad guys, my favorite being the one that turned the tables on his torturers after they were pissed at him for their empire collapsing, though we all know who was really responsible for that. A very quick read here, I read it in less than a day, another tight thriller from Newton.

I was surprised to discover that this book was not a run-of-the-mill also-ran entry as I feared it might be. Schmidt wrote a terrific action yarn here, and managed to avoid at least some of his usual tropes throughout the story. There are four locations as the stage for the action, starting on Long Island. Moscow, Pakistan, and Yemen close out the adventure. Lots of factions to keep track of, but the central villains are the Russian mafia family, and everything is connected to them and their schemes. The writing really shines in between the action scenes, and the buckets of blood, while present, are kept to a minimum as the storytelling unfolds. My favorite scene might be the tense drama between the factions in Yemen with Pavlovka. While a minor character and not really crucial to the overall plot, I thought this was an excellent section in the book. Bolan teams up with Grimaldi as his sidekick for the whole novel, with the predictable air support at the end. I would rank this among the author's better books, I recommend it.

This episode takes place in South America and guest stars Encizo, McCarter, Gadjets, and Grimaldi. It starts out with some standard action and later on we see the villain's plot start to develop. The threat posed by the villain is frightening, the helplessness of the victims pulled me into the story more, and I also liked the twist with the "assassin", who, I have to admit, I didn't know the identity until it was revealed. The Stony Man crew worked well together, Bolan was very much part of a team for this adventure. The ending was rather brief, but the feeling of a major catastrophe averted was strong. The fate of the villain's sister is left unknown. A pretty solid book from Rogers, although not up to par with the Power trilogy books.

Set mostly in Algiers, Bolan is in town to take out some Islamic extremist groups. He has a local sidekick for this mission, rarely is he alone in this story. What seems at the foundation to be the usual hit list, getting two factions to fight each other kind of plot, actually has a lot more to it in this finely crafted action book that has a lot of perspectives from the various groups and the interplay between them. What I liked most about the story was the infusion of the American muslim that was acting as the counter-Bolan. He was trying to negotiate with the faction leaders to unite them as Bolan was trying to tear them apart. The Filali character that was Bolan's contact was another perspective I thought was written well. I found the book to be compelling and kept me entertained, the setting was interesting, the action was consistent, the drama of the faction characters was excellent. All around, a good installment in the super Bolan line of novels.

Excellent action thriller here, set in Nevada, Bolan is after a madman that is planning to spread a very toxic poison in three cities to achieve his crazy bid for power. The villain has a notable sidekick, Starkey is a duel pistol wielding quickdraw that is one of the fastest and accurate shooters Bolan has ever faced. The potential danger of exposure to the toxic sludge added some tension and terror to the novel. Vehicle chases of all sorts abound, and the pacing of the story is full tilt to the last page. Garth is a tricky villain, always seeming to be a step ahead of Bolan, despite being crazy, is still a crafty and smart opponent. I was thinking this would make a good action movie. I enjoyed the read and definitely consider this book a worthy purchase.

The conclusion to the Border Fire trilogy. This is a Stony Man novel really, and I did like the Able Team scenes as well as Bolan's encounters with the creepy brothers. Overall, lots of action and a few good scenes here and there, but I had issues with this book. The first two volumes were much better written in my opinion. The review from Dan Xavier touched on some of my gripes with this story, so I will be brief with my own. I felt like too many side characters were inserted into the story that just were not needed. With AT and PF included as well as Leo, I thought there was plenty that could have been done with these characters. Manning might as well have been a shadow in the background, Encizo had an important but very brief role, and Hawkins was not involved. New characters that were thrown in seemed to be cookie cutter add-ons that bloated the large cast of heroes. Too many times during the book, It seemed that there were small plot holes created, then bandaged over, and this cycle continued as the main foundation of the narrative. The part at the end where the villain didn't recognize Bolan was just one too many. Very disappointed with this conclusion, but at least plenty of good parts to keep the book afloat enough to cap a trilogy that was better than the previous one from Schmidt.

The story continues here in book two. This is more of a Stony Man story than an Executioner. Able Team and Phoenix Force are all on the job working with Bolan on the mission now. Bolan continues to figure out if the President of Mexico is a good guy or a bad guy, and Mack himself now becomes a target of the enemy. Able Team's role is decent reading, and PF gets a spotlight, mostly in one of the tunnels under the border. More of the creepy brothers from the opening of the trilogy get involved in the story. Good action and tense scenes abound throughout the book, but be prepared for a multitude of editorial gaffs everywhere. Was this manuscript even proofread? Anyway as a middle book for the trilogy, it held up the storytelling and momentum from the first book well.

A solid beginning book in the Border Fire trilogy. Bolan is part of the protection team for the Mexican president, while trying to figure out if the man is clean or dirty. Some suspense thrown in, which I always like in the author's undercover roles for Bolan. Some Phoenix Force members also join the cast. Encizo and James have their own scenes in another part of Mexico, with some knife fights included as expected in a VanCook story. A good mix of storytelling and action, with a hint of the rest of PF as well as Able Team joining later in the trilogy. The creepy old lady in the prologue didn't get much development in this volume, maybe more on this will be in the next book. The chaos ramps up all over Mexico and some captures and escapes make things exciting through to the last pages.

The title of this book should have been Cut And Paste. Pretty much all that went on from cover to cover was the same action scenes over and over again. To begin with I was not excited about the plot based on the cover information, just another drug kingpin Chinese Triad story that has been done before. After reading the story, there wasn't much other than just that. The body count is ridiculous, the repetitive action scenes never seemed to stop and the times where bloody bullet riddled blown up bodies and spilled intestines took a brief break, there were far too many characters introduced, with similar sounding names, that did nothing but add confusion to the story. An interesting connection with the main villain and his mother and a US senator, and a smattering of Russian spy stuff in here, but not enough to keep this book from being a boring novel that had way too much nothing special action, that can easily be skipped in favor of just about any other Supersized Bolan adventure. There are worse out there, but not many.

The title makes sense regarding the interesting situation Bolan has to begin this mission. Tasked with taking out a Russian mafia figure that is making deals with the mafia in the United States, this makes this a classic mafia story with a new twist. Bolan's target is a mystery to the soldier as plastic surgery has modified his face so that Bolan must figure out how to identify the villain before he can get his mission started. Mostly a lone wolf adventure, not even Grimaldi is mentioned in this book, as Bolan moves around several locations taking out the mob, Russian or otherwise. A surprise ally joins him for a time, and soon a method is discovered to find out the villain's identity. From there the action heats up and I really enjoyed the final pages with an excellent chase scene to cap the adventure. I would have rated this book higher, but I thought the pacing dragged in some places with a little too much of the narrative devoted to the thoughts of every main character of the factions involved. All said and done, this is a classic Executioner style that was enjoyable, with an interesting start and an exciting ending.

This is another drug king takedown story, this time in the Miami area where the whole adventure takes place. Grimaldi is Bolan's sidekick for this mission. Not too much new here, there were a few parts that held my interest in the story enough to keep the pages turning, but overall this is average stuff. A few different factions working together, including a biker gang, make Bolan's adversary in Florida, leading up to a grand finale on the highway leading out of Miami. Bolan's assault using a van that acted as a simplified version of the war wagon he used a couple times before, make it more interesting. Here we have a convoy on the freeway as the ending instead of the usual compound style scenes, which was a good change. Grimaldi added destructive air support as usual. There are predictable formulas that the author uses in his books, and these again show up here, but there was enough going on to keep this book from being a disappointment. Many other better reads in the series than this, but if you are a fan of Schmidt, you should like it.

The final Hydra trilogy volume opens up with a better transition than the middle book. I thought Assault Reflex had a strong start, at least the first third was excellent reading as Bolan is now in the Philippines taking on the next group in this huge conspiracy. Things kind of went flat in too many ways for the rest of the book. The Borneo section featured some good elements, like Bolan's allies, and the journey to and from the compound dealing with the natives. The compound battle itself was the usual mayhem of explosions and fire and body count found in earlier scenes of the trilogy. Then it is on to Russia, the final leg of the overall mission. Not much to see here, standard scenes seen many times before with Bolan and Grimaldi blitzing in Moscow. Later the final scene at the Siberia compound and it is more of the same explosions and fire and body count and Grimaldi blowing everything up from his helicopter. This book showed promise at first, but does not deliver enough new material. A lot happens in this book, there are sections of good reading, but too many cookie cutter sections fail to bring the story out of mediocrity when it is all said and done.

The abrupt ending to the first book does not transition to the beginning of book two as I had hoped. In addition, it wasn't clear who if any of the main villains survived at the very end. Book two starts off with Bolan attacking a compound in France. More attacks in a string of hits leads Bolan to Germany, Lebanon, and eventually to Pakistan. Bolan's end of things got repetitive, with Grimaldi blowing everything up with a jet or a helicopter, Bolan interrogating a survivor to find out where to go next, etc. The better parts of the story were from the villain's perspective, This is where the author's writing really shines in this title. While packed with action, I wasn't all that impressed with some of it, including the ending where it was just a bunch of explosions and fire. My favorite moments were the dramatic tension between the main villains and their dodgy allies, as the impending unknown problem followed them wherever they went. The villain's plot is revealed in detail in this book, after this, it looks like book three might be more of the similar Bolan/Grimaldi assaults, I am hoping things will change up a little.

Dan Schmidt gets his first crack at a trilogy here, Evil Reborn being book one of the Hydra trilogy. A decent beginning, starting up with a major conspiracy cast of characters from all sorts of dangerous types. We have KGB,Columbian drug lords, middle east terrorists, and other assorted bad guys all in a network for Bolan to tackle. The opening sequence takes place in the New York and New Jersey areas, which I thought were well done scenes. Miami gets the next phase, the shorter of the scenes, I like how Bolan managed to manipulate the boss there to set up  an explosive fate for that group. Grimaldi takes a bigger role as Bolan's sidekick as the story moves along. Columbia is the final battleground, although the action wasn't as good as the interactions between the bad guys. I was expecting a better conclusion, I thought it was rushed, but at least most of the book was a compelling read. My favorite part of the book might be the character of Kuschka, who had potential as a villain, sadly the author botched this by ending his fate here in book one. The scene with him at the Siberian camp was excellent. I also liked the way Bolan was referred to as "The problem". I wanted to rate the book higher, but too much potential squandered, so a seven is fair.

This is an Island adventure, no globe hopping here, everything takes place on an island in the Pacific ocean somewhere. The factions involved are the natives, the French, and the Japanese. Bolan outclasses all three of these groups early on to set the stage, and we get great action scenes as Bolan uses various tactics to fend off several assaults. The action is terrific all through the book, my favorite being the defense of the U.S. oil base, and the boat scenes. The island's doctor was a good character and Bolan ally, and there are other allies that may or may not be on Bolan's side. The switching allegiances of the French was a little hard to swallow however, it just came across to me as unbelievable. Otherwise a heck of a story. The guest Stony Man member here is Gadjets of Able Team, who plays an excellent role, but Lyons and all of Phoenix Force chip in on some action as well. Gotta love how they used the Submarine against the French divers, one of the best moments of the book. The Japanese end of things kind of is a sequel to the Stony Man novel Skylance, written by the author's father, but I have yet to read that book.

VanCook's first crack at a Stony Man here, and a job well done. The teams are assigned to different areas of the globe, with a common plot thread connecting them. While the main focus is South Africa, a skyscraper in Amsterdam is one of the bigger set pieces, and the Miami area and East Los Angeles are visited by Able Team. I liked how Calvin James was used with Able Team, and balancing out the forces. Bolan's end of things were good, particularly the action protecting the African leader in the jungle of South Africa. Some moments of undercover roles provided some danger and suspense. Action was nothing too special, but plenty was there in the right places. There was a good balance for each of the teams represented and everything came together in a coordinated effort at the end. Well worth the read.

The main villain that got away in the Phoenix Force novel Amazon Strike by the same author, is back and he has another plan for his terrorist agenda. The remnants of the Nazi regime are resurging under Mohn's leadership, and a very deadly virus is soon to be unleashed. Enter Mack Bolan to save the day, and there is nonstop action to kick off the story in the Chicago area. If blazing action without much setup or storyline is your thing, then the first half of the book will provide all you can handle. And who doesn't like seeing Nazi's getting blown away by the bushels? The action slows down later as the Black Dawn group is wiped out and the focus moves to New Mexico. The best part of this book for me was the New Mexican portion, as some interesting character's were introduced, the interplay between them, and the setting moves from big city to the outback of the countryside. Almost giving an old western sort of vibe, the second half of the novel was more enjoyable, and the final assault on the Nazi base was excellent. I liked how Bolan used the terrain to his advantage, good tactical moves to help take out the bad guys.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. It was a mixture of the good, the bad, and the weird. The SOBs are sent to then Soviet Russia to infiltrate a computer center to find evidence of who was behind the destruction of a Korean airliner. The crew decides to add destroying the whole center, in a silly way, as well as wreaking destruction all across the Sakhalin island. Much of the adventure has the gang going around the island like a merry-go-round, gathering an arsenal of weapons and causing all kinds of trouble for the soviets. As far as an action novel goes, there is enough to like in that department, but overall, this book is a demonstration that when a publisher has a hectic schedule of pumping out books in a series like this, not all random writers for hire are going to be top notch talent like the Philipson and Hardy books are. The writing was decent at times and at times not so much, and poor or oddball editing didn't help. At one point, on page 112, when the SOBs are going to assault Popolov's house, Barrabas instructs some of his crew- "Nate, Billy Two and Hayes- you'd better discard your uniforms and go in like us." Go in where I don't know, but these three disappear into the ether, and later on the main group is on another portion of the island on page 130, and the three magically show up in a emergency vehicle and start shooting at Barrabas. Umm... what? Some minor strangeness here and there as well, but at least the story moved along at a good pace and the action was ok. A sub plot among the KGB officers added some meat to the story, and the novel had a good ending, I was on the edge of my seat, the final chapters were done well. This bumped up my rating a star. One glaring issue I had with the book overall is the lack of characterization. This title has the textbook definition of cardboard cutout characters. There was no banter between the SOBs, and their personalities could have come from a mannequin factory. If you are a completist, this book can get you by, it does bring some stuff to the table, but if you are looking for just the better titles in the series, I would suggest skipping this one.

The massive Executioner story Four Horseman, finally concludes with Termination Point. The cult is not done despite their setbacks, and now they are turning to capturing some nuclear warheads off a b-2 aircraft, intending to wreak destruction on Washington DC. This is an entertaining series of events, more cult members in key positions are revealed, as well as finally getting around to the Apollo character introduced earlier in the trilogy. A good portion of the book deals with this threat, then the Icarus and Apollo villains take center stage. Another excellent series of events regarding the crazy plot involving Apollo's assassination attempt, and Icarus's crazy attack on camp David. Meanwhile Bolan and Grimaldi are in the thick of it. Great reading here, but at this point the book has really already reached its climax, as the rest of the story is pretty much just a brief conclusion. The finale to the whole trilogy is lacking in punch, I was expecting much more. The ending in Cloud of Death was excellent, but nothing at that level happens in this book. What major villains remain after Bolan's action thus far are gathered at the final compound, but not really a final grand slam ending takes place. Bolan has a good rescue of the children of the cult members, but there is really no confrontation with Apollo nor the cult leaders themselves. Although this portion of the story fell a little flat, this is still an entertaining read, just not as good as the other two books in the trilogy. Overall, the Four Horseman is an excellent addition to the series and I'm glad I got around to reading it.

The middle book of the four horseman trilogy begins where Initiation left off, with Bolan already having embedded himself well into the cult by this time. The focus now shifts more toward action, and the further down the rabbit hole that Bolan goes. This is an outstanding piece of work from Newton, and his best work in my opinion since #142 Fatal Error. The aftermath of the conclusion from the last book sets the stage, and Cloud Of Death brings the story to a new level, this time with a ramped-up threat in the form of a Oklahoma City bombing inspired plot with additional villains outside the cult adding to the mix. Bolan's mission must enfold all the while remaining undercover and this is one of my favorite parts of the story, Newton handled it very well and I didn't want to put the book down. Loved the way Bolan actually worked his way higher in the cult just when you thought his cover would be blown. The action scenes were terrific, the way Mack used the biker gang to his advantage was pure genius, and a whole new threat gets introduced to add even more meat to the adventure. The final action in Los Angeles was terrific, yet another group, this time Arab terrorists collude with the cult, and their plot is the most threatening of all. With Bolan in the thick of things the whole way undercover, it was an excellent break from the standard perspective from most of the rest of the series. Really well done, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book, and while by the end it seems like Bolan's cover is finally blown, I am hoping this good storytelling momentum will continue in Termination Point, the conclusion to the trilogy.

The first volume in the Four Horseman superBolan trilogy, which at this point would be the largest Executioner story thus far. Here we have a decent start, where Bolan has infiltrated a doomsday cult, with the help of a former member. I liked the different direction this book takes, being more of an undercover operation rather than a Bolan blitz. Learning more as he goes, Bolan has to be on his toes at any moment, using his skills in role camouflage and somehow try and get word to Brognola without getting caught. Not a whole lot of action scenes due to the nature of the story, but this was not a problem for me as I enjoyed the infiltration, and the crazy idealism that the cult believed in was an interesting subject matter to explore as the villain's plot. A lot of characters are introduced, with one of them, Pluto, being one that has an agenda against Bolan. The Pluto character in this reminded me of a similar plot device used in the American trilogy, another infiltration story Newton had written, but overall the story was different enough that it didn't seem like a blatant copy. The female ally was captured eventually as predicted, but at least this was handled very differently from Bolan's perspective as thankfully no sniper scene followed by calls to return the woman thing goes on this time around. The ending sequence in the Mormon temple was odd but some tense moments there with the crap hitting the fan for the final action. A good enough start to the trilogy, we will see how the rest of the story arc develops in Cloud of Death.

This book has an interesting plot device that drew me in quickly. Able Team takes a virtual reality training session to hone their abilities, but not all is as it seems. An odd plot where Korean and Japanese villains are using virtual reality to program bodyguards and agents to assassinate their superiors in America. A highlight of this story is the three AT warriors attack on Stony Man Farm. Terrific action scenes there aa well as Bolan's infiltration of the building in Texas. As expected from Fieldhouse, a lot of hand to hand combat is featured, including the usual guns being knocked out of hands. I was surprised to find John Trent make an appearance, joining Bolan for the final action in Japan. I guess it makes sense since this is the Phoenix Force writer at the helm and what seems to be the last book written for Gold Eagle from this writer. Might as well throw in some ninja action to close out an outstanding body of work for the Bolan universe. The actual method in how the virtual reality program was used to manipulate the Able Team members is not revealed, just some information Bolan grabs that will be explored later, so that was something I was a little disappointed with but there was few unique concepts that make this book stand out and the action was written well. I was hooked enough to keep turning the pages and overall another excellent entry in this long running series.

This story is something special. It is not often that Bolan enlists a soldier from his enemy camp to be his partner on a mission. Here however the author weaves a terrific tale of a former mob hitman turned goodguy, who not only is still on the wanted list of the authorities, but is now the arch-enemy of his former mob associates. With Bolan at his side, this is a formidable team, and much ass kicking ensues. Most of the action takes place in New York City, however the countryside north of there has a good portion of the action, including snowy weather conditions Bolan must contend with. Both his unlikely sidekick and the weather are used to Mack's advantage very well in this novel, and there is so much more to add to this adventure. Not only are there different factions involved, making the book more interesting, but the whole side plot with the documentary producer was woven into the story very well, I loved how he eventually worked with Bolan and Brognola to help get the main villain, Sienna, to play into their hands and help take him down. The mob wheelman was another excellent addition to the narrative. The interaction with the hitman, as well as his own perspective in the adventure was entertaining, along with the other characters in the various factions that got some attention in the book. The sit-down with Mcneil and the nearby crimelords worried about the problems Sienna was creating was another great scene. In general, there were many great dialogue interactions between all of the various characters in this adventure, cover to cover, not just the great action scenes, there is too much to count, there just is so much to like about the quality of writing found in this story. I always liked this author's books, perhaps more so than the average Bolan reader, but here we see the potential unlocked of this writer's talent, this is far and away his best Executioner in this series. I enjoyed it a lot and highly recommend this title in the series, it is a great read.

The first Stony Man from Newton, and it was better than I expected. The book starts off with some mini missions Bolan, AT, and PF are on independently. After these are over and they all gather together at the farm, that is when the story really begins. This is a standard drug smuggler operation takedown adventure, involving a number of high profile dealers and their cohorts in politics and law enforcement. The settings were diverse as expected for a Stony Man, Panama, Columbia, Cuba, Jamaica, and Bahamas as the teams were spread out among these locations. A large cast of villains are introduced around pages 74-78, and I would recommend bookmarking these, as it will help in keeping track of who is who and what role they have in the story. For me, I am not the greatest fan of the Stony Man format, preferring the older independent series. Having too many heroes and villains in too many places makes it difficult to follow the narrative, too often I find myself flipping back pages to remember where scenes left off, after shifting between all the different viewpoints. Overall, I thought Newton told a good story, with a few good action scenes here and there, my favorite being Encizo and James' scene when James gets caught at a fence, some great action there. While there was not as much action as I expected, I thought it was fine because there was plenty of room for the story and characters to develop. My only gripe for this book which I'm deducting a star for is there are a couple of cut and paste scenes in here from Bolan's perspective. The sniper scene was included, a carbon copy of many seen in the Executioner series, and later another girl hostage with Bolan going from faction to faction with the return the girl or I won't stop routine. It was nice to see the Stony Man teams again, AT and PF were written very well, I thought, and Grimaldi had a nice role in the book as well, all in all I liked the book, worth the read in my opinion.

The book opens with a scene depicting Katz's wife, and what happened to her many years earlier to set up the story. Here we have a very unique entry in the series centered on the Phoenix Force leader, who was as much a focus for this book as Bolan himself was. This is a departure from the standard formula that was a welcome experience, and the author did a good job telling an interesting and compelling story. Katz and Bolan team up to bring down the murderer of his wife after it is discovered Zhdanov is out of jail and now plots to murder Katz and his daughter. This makes another main villain focused story much like VanCook's earlier SuperBolan Showdown, which I enjoyed very much. It was nice to take a break from armies of straw badguys riddled with bullets to focus on one main villain with just a few henchmen on the side. This also leaves enough room for a good backstory to go with Zhdanov, as well as Katz. The action scenes, particularly in the first half of the novel were good, and there was an element of suspense in the writing that added to the enjoyment of reading it, although this seemed to taper off later in the story, but the ending had me on the edge of my seat. This is a book that is memorable, this is no also-ran in a large series, but rather a story that stands out, and can be remembered for long afterward. The story of some history of Katz and his family is special, and is highly recommended reading even if you might not know anything about the outstanding Phoenix Force series. Keep in mind this takes place after Katz is no longer the leader of PF, but he will always be considered the leader to me.

A quality entry that had enough potential to have been an even better book if it had been written for a super-Bolan. A bold plot of Soviet KGB types working with traitors in the Cuban government as well as other groups to dispose of Castro and take over Cuba to install an even more die-hard communist regime run by the Soviets. As if Castro's Cuba wasn't bad enough... Here enters Mack Bolan, along with Grimaldi, to save the day. Great action takes place in the islands and waters around the Cuba area. Even more in central America. Not only are Bolan and Grimaldi's heroics fun to read, but the plot development and all the large cast of villains makes for a excellent page turning adventure. The conspiracy within the Cuban military was great reading. The author managed to shoehorn a lot into this 220 page format, and pulled it off very well. The only gripe I had was that it could have benefited from a larger epilogue, including what happened to many of the villains involved in the story that didn't obviously get killed off. I am developing a stronger desire to read more from Somheil, I very much enjoy his stories, and Hostile Proximity is a good representation of his talents as a writer in the Bolan universe.

Bolan takes on a number of cells of an extremist right wing network of ex lawmen who are actively eliminating anyone they deem to be undesirable. The typical Schmidt style of Bolan blitz of explosions and buckets of blood paint the action scenes throughout the novel. As Bolan moves from cell to cell, he picks up an ally along the way, effectively making this a two-man destruction squad for much of the story. The author made it obvious at one point that Daly was not going to live to the end of this blitz. It was like he was saying hey, we all know this ally is going to be killed off, so lets drop big clues right into the story that he was about to die. For me, the scenes in between the action were the better parts of the story, and the balance between the villain's perspectives and Bolan's was just right. For a superBolan the plot was rather simple, but there were a multitude of main and sub villains to fill out the larger story. I liked the part where Shyrock had dirt on the politician that was bankrolling the whole movement and called in to the tv show to intimidate him. Scenes such as this kept the book from being a stale hit list story. Overall, not a bad read, but no where as good as Code of Bushido was.

The whole book takes place on and in the ocean surrounding Jamaica. Oddly enough, despite a lack of globe hopping, or anything close to that, this entry in the series reads more like it might have been intended as a super Bolan rather than a 220 page Executioner. There is much in the way of plot and characters that would have been more than enough for a larger novel, yet was somehow crammed into this smaller format. While this made for a jam-packed read, it also was a little too much and kind of made it a little bit of a muddled mess. However, this book has plenty of good moments, and the ending was terrific, which is why I am going to give Crimson Tide an 8 rating. The early part of the story focus is on the kidnapping for ransom end of the story, and later on the toxic waste part becomes the major focus, with yet more hostage rescue thrown in to make things more tense. Along the way there are a variety of lesser villains and allies Bolan deals with to go with the larger than usual cast of main villains. I thought there was too much going on regarding the number of main factions and their leaders, but like I mentioned, I think being a larger book would have been better for this story, but still an enjoyable read, there is a lot of bang for the buck going on here, so worth the read for sure.

The creator of the awesome Outlanders series gives us this offering of the Executioner. The story is told with a unique voice, giving it a flavor that adds more diversity to the adventures that the writing stable at Gold Eagle can bring. While some readers seem to describe Hellfire Trigger as a James Bond type of story, I thought it was more of an Executioner/comic graphic novel kind of infusion. Given the author's background, this only makes sense. Above all else, this is an entertaining adventure, with colorful villains and some high tech plot devices and plenty of action to move the story along. The book begins in Algiers, and as the plot develops, we get a more of a focus on the main villain and his holdings on the coast of Florida, and his secret base on an island nearby. My favorite part of this novel was the action on the island, the crazy setup Bolan discovers there and his thrilling escape. The action at the villain's building (kind of his Trump tower, lol) was a good conclusion to the action, and as a bonus we find maybe a future possibility that the villain could return again. Good read here, two thumbs up from me.

This is a Mafia story, with a bit of a twist. Here Bolan is between two different organized crime factions as they are at war with each other. A ruthless leader of the Naples based mob has decided to get revenge on the Sicilian based Mafia for past transgressions. While they might seem to be doing Bolan's work for him, the loss of civilian life and property in the war requires Bolan's intervention. Thus begins a series of actions ranging from New Jersey, to Chicago, and concluding in Los Angeles. One of my favorite parts of the story is the action in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. The level of skill of the six Mafia soldiers there is well above the usual mob goons Bolan has faced in most of his earlier clashes with the Mafia. This added a challenge for Bolan, making the story more interesting. I liked reading a Mafia oriented story again, and this being a super Bolan makes it even better. The overwhelming odds Bolan faces adds tension to the novel, the ending sequences are out of control, great reading to close out the book. Good stuff.

A great conclusion to this excellent trilogy! After foiling the villains plans in Europe and America, Bolan now turns his attention to the source of the problem in Japan. The fast paced action in Japan, more in Korea, and back to Japan again is more finely crafted reading where you will be entertained for sure. While the middle book in this trilogy is the best, this final book is better than most other Bolan adventures on its own. Some Phoenix Force members, as well as Grimaldi are here to assist Bolan and some of Grimaldi's best flying you will see in this book. The Burdick character was interesting for another Bolan ally, he reminded me much of the Ramzin character that served the same role in earlier books from Rogers. Great action all the way through, the ending scenes were intense, and a little mystery as to what really happened to one of the main villains at the end. Did he die, or escape? The power trilogy is one of the best out there, I strongly recommend it.

Here we have the middle of the trilogy, and to my surprise, is not only a major step up from the opening book, but I consider Plague Wind to be one of the finest executioner stories ever told. Chuck Rogers delivers top level adventure from beginning to end. I could tell at the start that this book was going to be on another level, and was pleased that this writing maintained that plateau to the last page. I had a hard time putting this book down, only to eat, sleep, or go to my job, otherwise I would have read it in one sitting. on its own this is a book that would make a script for a blockbuster Bolan movie. Bolan has never been in as much danger before, never faced as cunning and ruthless villains as these. All the adventure from the Uganda area in Africa to Arizona, to the wastelands of Mexico, the action is plenty and a terrifying story is weaved along the way. And who better to have at Bolan's side than one of my favorite Stony Man heroes, Gadjets from Able Team? All I can say is if you have not read this trilogy yet, you really need to give it a read, I still need to start book 3, and already this is one of the best trilogies in the series.

A good start to the Power trilogy regarding stolen plutonium and Bolan's mission to track it down and stop the plot of the various villains involved. Bolan has the help of Grimaldi, Gadjets, Manning, and McCarter for this one. Most of the book has Bolan and his allies going from Berlin to Moscow, and finally to London, scrapping with the bad guys and then scenes in some briefing room in between. This book seemed to have a Fieldhouse Phoenix Force novel kind of feel to it. No idea what the other members of Stony Man were doing, they must have been busy elsewhere. For the most part, an enjoyable act one for the trilogy, one of the best things for me was the return of various characters from the author's previous books in the series. I recommend reading #208 Death Whisper, and #227 Blood Circle, in order to be familiar with these characters. The exciting conclusion to the book is very well done, ratcheting up the tension of the bomb threat and the final battle in the final pages was the best part of all.

This is the only SuperBolan entry I know of from Alan Philipson, one of my favorite Gold Eagle writers. If only there could have been more! Every page was gripping, entertaining reading. A unique recruitment tool is used to find bloodthirsty killers as they bubble to the top in a video game where only the most ruthless killers become part of a very real life deadly club. Bolan's mission is infiltration of this group and take them down. Excellent scenes from the East coast to the West coast, with Brognola even getting some taste of the action in San Diego. The focus of the book takes an interesting turn when it shifts to a small town, not far from where I live, and we have a suspenseful thriller about a group of killers bent on murdering the entire town. If you have read the classic Able Team book The Hostaged Island, you will get a little bit of a feel for how this portion of the book goes. I was on the edge of my seat as Bolan and a variety of characters, the killers, the townsfolk, a police chief, battle it out in a very intense series of events that make for thriller that you can't put down. I also liked how the night vision goggles played a major role in the tactics Bolan used to take out the villains. This novel delivers a fresh and memorable reading experience, I highly recommend it, don't miss out on this book.

Bolan is in Peru to rescue an american hostage, and while there is not a whole lot more to the plot, I found this to be a decent book. The first half is by far the better half, with fast paced action in the Lima area, and several characters introduced to make the plot a little more interesting. The action then shifts to the jungle, which was still a good part of the story, Bolan against various factions on his own, as well as the perspective told from other main characters in the story. One plus about this book is Newton stays away from most of his usual cookie cutter formula, providing a more welcome and fresh read. However one habit that was not broken here dragged down the second half of this novel. The writing became very wordy, with far too much of the cerebral exposition that sometimes bogs down some of this writers books. The action was interrupted with the "if this", "if that" in every paragraph, bringing the pace of the narrative to a crawl. Otherwise this is one of the better novels in the series from Newton that I have read in a while, and found it to be well worth the read, and the daughter of the hostage was a terrific character, one of the highlights of the book.

I was not starting this book with high expectations considering the reviews on it, but I was satisfied enough with what it actually delivered. The previous book from this writer, Tiger Stalk, was too action oriented for much of the story to take place. With Jackal Hunt fortunately, the author achieved a balance that works much better, with good storytelling and the right amount of action sprinkled in. Bolan is out to stop an assassination plot against the President of the US. A wide cast of characters are introduced, a network of villains going about their schemes provides much of the meat of the story. Most of the book centers around the Geneva and Brussels areas, the badguys jockeying for position in the scheme and offing each other in the process thereby doing Bolan's work for him in many cases. When it was all said and done, this book turned out to be a decent read, I thought is was worth my while. And one of the main villains seemed to get away at the end, I wondered if the writer had planned to have him come back in a later adventure? That would have been cool.

This is a story driven novel, which is a change of pace. The previous superBolan, Rage For Justice, was wall to wall action, so in Rebels and Hostiles, we see the opposite extreme, and if written well, is more than welcome. This is an undercover role adventure taking place in Idaho and Washington, where Bolan infiltrates a secret militia that opposes the federal government. A pretty decent story with Bolan's lone wolf skills being put to the test in getting in this group and maintaining the role long enough to get the info he needs. However, more of the book is dedicated to characters other than Bolan, and considering the story driven aspect, this was ok. The various villains and good guys and their actions are really the center stage for this adventure and for the most part, it was entertaining. If you are looking for a body count book, than you picked up the wrong novel. So why am I giving this book only six stars? None of the other reviews I saw mentioned a problem I had with the story, so here goes my issue with it. The fact that Bolan does not dispatch a single badguy until page 333 really isn't a major issue, it was what Bolan DID do in his very limited action up to that point that was the problem. Bolan not only lays down the plan but participates in a terrorist attack against an FBI field office! He even drove all the way to Seattle and back to get the RPG rocket launchers used in the massive destruction attack on the facility. Bolan puts his trust in the main villain that the two officers on duty were not going to get hurt. The officers were described as "slightly injured" and meanwhile the building was blown to hell, the motorpool was destroyed, the helicopter pad and two helicopters blown up. All under Bolan's guidance, no joke! This is just not what Bolan would do, I wasn't buying this for a second. Because of this stupid scene, I cant give Rebels and Hostiles more than a 6 rating, too bad because while there were some small flaws I saw here in there in the storytelling, It was not too bad of an adventure, a nice change of pace from the body-count oriented books that get the lion's share of the series.

A returning CIA character from #215 Fire Hammer contacts Bolan to help her, and the big guy is off to China for the first part of the book. The action is fast and furious, in and around the city of Urumchi. Here the slave labor operations making the goods are the focal point as Bolan and his CIA sidekick blitz through them. This part of the book read more like a Newton novel, a hit list oriented action with sniper scene included. While the action was good, I thought there wasn't enough devoted to anything else at this stage of the story. What bothered me though about the story thus far had to do with the packet of info that the CIA agent and her partner had collected on the operation before Bolan's arrival. After capturing her and killing her partner, and taking the packet of info, wouldn't you, as the bad guy, simply destroy the evidence against you? Yet neither the agent nor Bolan considered this and wouldn't you know this cosmic sized plothole went on and the badguys still had this packet of info lying around and well, later in the story you see what happens. This ruined the story to some extent for me, so knocking a star off for this wierdness. Moving on to the united states along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the story took a better turn for part two of the story. This is where the book really starts to take off and I thought was a much improved reading experience, great action, characters, dialogue, and locations make this a terrific conclusion to the novel. I came into this book not expecting it to be as good as the author's first superBolan title, High Aggression, which I consider to be on of the best ever, so I wasn't disappointed with it, I was happy enough with Rage For Justice to continue to look forward to more from this writer.

This is a mission to take out a drug cartel leader who is using a unique method of transporting his goods: armed submarines. The plot is not very complex for this book, but the story makes up for it with plenty of fast paced adventure. Bolan's missions in the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of California were excellent reading. Eventually the action shifts to Columbia, where Bolan, with some allies have a dangerous journey in alligator infested waters, to find the villains secret lair. I liked the idea of pitting Bolan up against submarines. All the action scenes were done well, I enjoyed the whole book, and the ending scenes were great.

Bolan is in the Louisiana bayou taking on a few factions of badguys. The voodoo element added some interesting atmosphere to this novel, which was a plus. The opening action reminded me too much of a similar scene in Newton's American trilogy just before this. My hopes were not high for this book going in, so maybe I enjoyed it because it was much better than I thought it would be. The story moved in more original directions eventually, with only minor formula rewrites here and there. My only gripe really, was the author got too wordy in general, but there was so much action that this didn't get in the way too much. Bolan adds an ally along the way, a DEA agent that is a great addition to the story. The variety of villains in all the factions and their interactions were written well. The shift in the action to Haiti for the last third of the book was decent, but the middle of the book was the best part, I thought. Overall, not a bad book.

A terrorist attack on US soil opens this story, and Bolan is off to India to take down the Sihk faction responsible. Before long a conspiracy is unraveled involving other factions, where the Sihk group was just a pawn in a bigger game. Ok so now the story gets more interesting, and other villains as well as allies for Bolan make things move along plotwise. A few good moments of writing here and there keep the story afloat, the rest of the book is a war novel involving many slaughtered straw badguys and goodguys. The body count is over the top in this book. The battle scene on the mountain takes a big chunk of the action in the middle of this story, and although the avalanches were a nice touch to the action, I felt the scenes here were too out of control with the mindless death and destruction to follow with any sense of reality. Also, each faction was throwing helicopters at each other like no longer wanted toys. The criticism many readers have had of this author's work regarding high body count and blown up bloody body parts is represented in full form here. As a point of irony, the author's own words sum up things best, located on page 134: "Hell, bodies were piling up so fast, he figured a conveyor belt would be needed to haul off all the dead" For those looking for action, there is plenty here, but this is not one of Schmidt's better works. Try Code Of Bushido for a much better book, where the body count makes a little more sense in a better written story.

For the most part this is a rather generic tale about a arms dealing drug smuggling villain Bolan is assigned to take down. Two or three major action sequences are fairly well done, and sprinkled in between are a variety of sub villains to make a more interesting story. The everglades battle and the conflict on the island took up big chunks of the book, and the final battle in Texas although more brief, brought plenty of action to the novel. What otherwise would have been a book I might have rated a seven, I decided to give it an eight because the author did a great job with the overall storyline in this one. At one point I began to think that plot threads were left hanging too long or were completely forgotten, however, I was pleased that things came together nicely by the end. I also like books that have a unique and fitting way to put an end to the main villain, and the writer did a great job in that department I thought. While not too special of a book compared to the best of the super Bolan titles in this series, Judgment in Stone was a worthy enough read, even though I felt as if Bolan relied too much on others to aid him for this mission. If you prefer more the lone wolf kind of adventures, you might not like this title as much.

Here is a rare story that brings back a main villain from an earlier book. Baibakov is back, somehow, and his giant rifle he totes around adds to his formidable physical presence, and some strange garden tool is part of his arsenal, used to mutilate his victims. This brings Bolan onto his trail, and before long they are hunting each other. But this is not the only villain returning, making this even more of an interesting adventure. Bolan recruits Baibakov’s own partner in crime from the same book, making an interesting twist for Blood Circle, making Ramzin a kind of good guy this time around. With Ramzin and a female Russian agent on his side, Bolan has a nonstop romp through Bosnia, the United, States, and some terrific action in the ocean near Croatia. Excellent entry in the series, with many great action scenes, this book is definitely worth adding to your reading list.

I would have rated this book higher if it had a plot. Bolan’s first assault leads to a chase of a member of the Spear of Allah, a terrorist unit operating in the United States. The rest of the book involves tracking the members of this group across the world to their leader in Africa. This novel has a pattern of excellent action scenes with boring parts in between. If you are more into plot, than this book is not for you. However not all is bad, the action gets even better after a couple members of Phoenix Force are enlisted to help Bolan after he goes to Paris to take out the guy that got away from him in the States. Here it seemed like something interesting was going to develop plotwise with the female character, but unfortunately nothing came of that. So back to the assaults, and then we move on to the land of the terrorist leader located in Sudan. This section of the story ramps up the tension and action scenes as Bolan needs all the help he can get with Manning and McCarter at his side. Even this is not enough against overwhelming odds as rebel groups add their forces to Bolan’s assaults, leading to some terrific battles in the deserts of Sudan. While it was a decent enough book as a fan of the Executioner, Terror Spin in my opinion would only qualify as an also-ran in the massive line-up of SuperBolan titles in this series. Fans of Phoenix Force might have a mild interest in it, but there are many better volumes out there than this. Still, this book is much much better than Omega Game or Message to Medellin.

Fieldhouse can come up with some innovated ideas in some of his books, and here is an example of this, the title Body Armor says it all. Mack has a new challenge he has not faced before, I liked this aspect of the story as much as the armored villains, calling themselves Juggernauts, with their upgraded guns and ammo. The villain’s plot is a little far fetched, and like another reviewer mentioned, I found it too convenient that Stony Man would conclude exactly who and when the Juggernaut strike on the Miami guy was happening. I liked how Kissinger was put to the test to see if he could come up with an answer to these armored badguys. Bolan’s mission had an element of danger most books don’t have, in that he was more vulnerable not only to the heavier firepower of the ammo the Juggernauts were using, but that his normal trusty side-arms were useless against these villains. Although the action was fairly standard in this book, I thought the author did a good job with Bolan’s ability to take out these criminals, and the help of Stony Man was a must, with Kissinger’s work and the farm’s intel network providing Bolan with what he needed. While the villain’s plot was crazy, I did enjoy the scene with the President talking to the Juggernaut leader, one of my favorite moments between the action. Overall, a solid book with some fresh ideas, I recommend it.

One of the best books from this author so far in my opinion, the writing quality for his first SuperBolan is top notch, reminding me of the level of writing I remember from titles like Blood and Thunder and Devil’s Horn. As far as action goes, there was a good balance here between bloody mayhem and story development and characterization. Starting off with a frenzied battle in Beirut, the book then develops characters and story before a massive apocalyptic Chicago battlezone. This might have worked better as an ending sequence considering its scale, but plenty more action is yet to come. Moving on to Japan, the action cools off a bit as the plot develops, and then Bolan does some globetrotting between Japan and Iraq to finish the job. Along the way, this story brings ninjas, samurai, yakuza, corrupt FBI agents into an entertaining action flick that keeps you turning the pages. I would have liked to rate this book higher, but there were some things about the story that seemed off to me. One example was Osaka, the main villain, wanted Bolan sent to Iraq with his top ninja after Bolan’s infiltration was discovered. With the ninja chomping at the bit to kill Bolan, it just made no sense to me to send Bolan to Iraq with the ninja and his crew alive just to kill him and present his head to Saddam there. As much as I enjoyed the scene of Bolan’s heroics there, it was really rather predictable, one of those things where you think well gee golly, what do you think is gonna happen here? It made Osaka seem like an inept villain, and the honor thing wasn’t making me buy the premise of letting Bolan go like that. It kind of weakened the remaining ending scene a little for me, too bad because it was an excellent finish to the story. Great book though, if you are looking for one of the better books from Schmidt, this is one of them.

This is a surprise to me, as from reviews and from my experience with Newton’s trilogies before, I wasn’t expecting much from this conclusion to the American trilogy. This book is far superior to Ride the Beast, and light years better than the dreadful Message To Medellin in comparison. Bolan is still on the trail of Stone, and his mission for this book starts in the everglades of Florida. We are left off assuming that Bolan found reason to find Stone here, from the list of possible locations Bolan acquires at the end of book two. Info on how Bolan narrowed this down would have been helpful, but whatever, the everglades it is and off we go. A good sequence of battles in the everglades, some nostalgia from Paramilitary Plot here, and the action shifts to the other side of the world. The elusive Stone has found temporary sanctuary in the Seychelles now, and the rest of Bolan’s action takes place on this Island nation. Here is where the book really shines in my opinion. While not as centered on action as in the everglades sequence, I found the storytelling to be some of Newton’s better writing in some time for the rest of this novel. Gone is the endless pages of cerebral thoughts from every character that plagues too many of the writer’s books and bogs down the pace and momentum of the story. Here Newton sticks more to the interaction of a cast of characters in a complex storyline that involves several new characters and factions with their various agendas, and the story is weaved together to bring all this to the final conclusion of the trilogy. I enjoyed the whole setting, characters and events of this section of the book, and was left pleased with how this trilogy turned out. It was not perfect by any means, but I won’t bother nitpicking on small details. Sure Newton includes a cut-and-paste sniper scene here, but other than that I found most of this book to be rather original. I would rather have seen a better epilogue, maybe have Bolan finish off the original villain he ran over from book one, but he just has Brognola tell him that Pike didn’t make it. But oh well, good trilogy here, I recommend it.

The middle book of the American trilogy has Bolan on the trail of Stone south to Mexico. Here the adventure is set in the Baja region, with a few enemy camps set up around the area. Bolan adds a new villain to his list with Zinn, a religious zealot whom Stone has linked up with. Several factions in the mix with the different camps, and arms dealing characters on the side, offer a good series of action in this section of Bolan’s mission. With the undercover part of his actions over with, Bolan now goes on the offensive, and much mayhem ensues. The storyline seems to be meandering around in this part of the trilogy, but with this being book two, it doesn’t have the benefit of a beginning or an ending. A pretty good book overall, better than expected, compared to book two of the Red Dragon trilogy. We leave off with Bolan still after Stone, so looking forward to some loose ends being tied up in book three.

The first book of this trilogy, and so far, so good. Newton breaks away from his formula for this part, and the result is one of the more enjoyable novels from this author. Here we have an infiltration story, Bolan working undercover in a right wing extremist camp in Idaho. I liked the suspense of his situation in this kind of setting, and the characters around him make for some page turning reading. The Doyle character took as much a part of Bolan’s attention as the two main villains in the camp, and the lady agent made another interesting element added to the story. This is not a body count book, but Bolan gets involved in enough mayhem to satisfy any reader of the series. This is a lone wolf adventure, no Grimaldi or other allies in the field, Bolan must use his wits and role camouflage to get by in several sticky situations here. A good start for this trilogy, I liked it better than the first book of the Red Dragon trilogy.

I had no idea when I opened this book and started reading that it was going to be one of the best super Bolan titles I have ever read. The author’s first two Executioners, Fire Hammer, and Terror Intent, were just warm up acts. High Aggression is the big show. All 340 pages of this book are fantastic reading, and there is not one word of filler in it. The setting is mostly in the land of Tibet, but the action starts in Kazakhstan, and moves to Russia first. The captured satellite technology and it’s female operator are initially the focus of the mission. Terrific action to go with an interesting developing plot in both of these areas lead eventually in a gripping flight to the mountains of Tibet. Here the story makes a turn as survival in the harsh weather conditions of the mountains adds more substance to the story. Bolan is on the chase, with local allies, and Jack Grimaldi gets a starring role in this book here, and it is great reading. If you are a fan of Grimaldi, you need this book! The scenes with the crashed plane pilot and the woman are as intense as the chilling weather they must deal with. The old man guide and his son are another great addition to the novel. The various Chinese and Tibetan factions make for a good backstory to this adventure, and the ending sequences shift more toward Bolan taking out the main villain’s forces and encampments in the only way the Executioner can. Great stuff all around. This is a gem in the series, I can’t believe I had this book on my shelf since 1997 and just now got to reading it. Grab this one, it’s awesome.

This story is about taking down the makers and distributers of a dangerous new drug. Bolan starts his mission in New York, continues in Miami, then ends up in the country of the drug’s source, Jamaica. Nonstop action in each leg of his war moves this book along, with the body count rising more at each location. The brutal beating Bolan brings on the villains in Jamaica is awesome. All along Bolan has a DEA agent as an ally, and Grimaldi joins the action later on, as well as an unexpected and very helpful ally for the Jamaican end of the mission. Plenty of upper level villains are involved, and it was fun to see them realize that a one man army was besting all of them. A great action book well worth your time to get a hold of and read.

Who knew we had a terrific Bolan writer under our noses all this time? Glenn Williams, administrator of the Mack Bolan fansite, throws his hat into the ring, and too bad the Gold Eagle line is shutting down soon after we discover a new talent like his to add to the Executioner writing team. Not long after the novel begins, the first-time writer evolves from a promising rookie to what seems like a seasoned veteran. Not only does the prose improve, but the storytelling gets better and better. I found the story gripping and hard to put down. Williams populates this book with many interesting people, proving that there is plenty of room for characterization in an action novel. From the tense parachute drop into Yemen to the scenes on a ship, the dangerous streets of Djibouti City, great car chases, thrilling action on a train, a trek across the harsh desert, with ambushes at every turn, there is much to like about this adventure. I liked how Bolan used role camouflage, his wits, and his military skills to get himself out of many scrapes and tense situations. Everything a Super Bolan should offer is here, providing a enjoyable thrilling read. I encourage all the Bolan fans and authors alike to give this book a go, and look forward to seeing a successful writing career for Glenn.

I enjoyed the writer’s first couple of Executioner titles, but it is a shame Tiger Stalk is not up to par with those. A good cover graces this book, but the contents are disappointing. Bolan is in Sri Lanka to rescue a diplomat who has been imprisoned by one of the factions he went there to talk peace with. There are too many factions involved, with too many characters for a 220 page book. But the main problem is there is not enough room between the end of one action scene and the beginning of another for the story to breathe. After one female ally is killed off, another female ally takes her place and is involved in an identical car chase just pages after the first woman. Bolan continues to meander around investigating and getting into firefights for no real direction, it got to the point where you can’t help getting that feeling that the writer was just making stuff up as he went along. With a large cast of characters and multiple factions, it just ends up a mess, and some scenes in this book are simply way beyond belief, both in the villain’s behavior and Bolan’s. This is no where near the worst book I have read in this series, but I would suggest giving this title a miss.

First time Bolan adventure from Matt Kozar, so I had to give it a try. This is a solid addition to the series, with Stony Man experience under his belt already, the author produced a book that depicts Bolan and the Stony Man characters just fine. The focus for much of the story revolves around a collection of military intelligence operatives that have gone rogue to form their own little secret group up to no good for anyone but themselves. The cast of villains is large enough that you have to pay close attention to the cloak and dagger activities between them. They ultimately do as much destruction to themselves as Bolan does, and along the way we have Bolan doing some bold undercover work as he infiltrates the network to find more info and to play one faction against another. Add Grimaldi to the mix and we have another entertaining mission for the big guy, with enough action sequences sprinkled in to keep the story moving. The plot seemed a little muddled at times, but overall an enjoyable read, I recommend it.

This is the only supersized Bolan Adventure from Fieldhouse that I can remember, and it’s a shame there couldn’t have been more of them. Here the Phoenix Force writer infuses his good old team into this Bolan story, and it works out very well. The plot involves a frightening weapon that can burn someone instantly. This strange device makes this plot more memorable, and Bolan’s teaming up with PF makes this more like a Stony Man book minus Able Team. The action takes place in a few countries in the middle east, with a major peace conference gathering taking place in Tel Aviv, world leaders from all over are going to be targeted with this new weapon. This sets the stage for Bolan’s mission, involving undercover roles, gun battles, hand to hand combat, car chases and lots of mayhem. The villains were interesting and fleshed out, the spotlight divided among three main bad guys, plus a traitor loyal to them in the Isreal camp makes a good balance of storytelling between Bolan and his various allies and the villain’s crew. A good solid story, I enjoyed it.

A good start to the book to hook the reader in with the suicide bomber scene, and then Bolan’s mission in Africa begins. Starting in Sudan and moving to several cities in Egypt, Bolan tracks down the terrorist network, destroying each cell on the way. I liked how Bolan was in a lone wolf adventure here, with mild use of allies. Some cloak and dagger stuff thrown into the mix and we have a solid action story that packs a long adventure into under 220 pages. Some action scenes early on were a little hard to follow, a lack of good description of the scenes made it seem like the book was going to be a mess, but things got better as the book went along. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book much but when it was all said and done, I rather enjoyed the book as a whole. Never a dull moment in here, no filler, an action packed episode right down to the last page. It’s worth a read.

The plot for this book is an over the top idea a Brazilian has along with cartel bigwigs and terrorists from Columbia, Bolivia, and Venezuela. The method in which these villains use to get the money to finance their big plans is rather silly, in my opinion, especially in consideration their already immense wealth. I did like the interaction between these characters though, and this made for some of the more interesting passages in the book. The Stony Man crew, including Turrin and Trent, all get in on the action, each team getting their fair share of the takedown of everyone involved with the main villain’s plans. Some good ninja action scenes spice things up a bit in some portions, but otherwise it is pretty standard action in this story. The tanks and helicopter scenes were done well, and the Stony Man team works together like a well oiled machine, all said and done this is a good title in the series, but it is not what I consider to be among the top of the line books, just a solid read.

A terrific last entry from McQuay here. Bolan hunts down the Vulture across the U.S. ending up on the west coast and ultimately thwarting the villain’s plans. This is just the first part, Bolan then has to track down the Vulture at his lair in Switzerland. All along the way there is much storytelling, characters, and action that is original. This is one of those books that you don’t get the feeling that you have read these scenes before. Some of the action is over the top, with hollywood movie types of cars exploding in fireballs and people diving through plate glass windows and the like. But still it is one heck of a thriller and I found this story to be a breath of fresh air after the last couple super Bolan books I read. The Vulture is one of the most ruthless and weird badguys I can remember. It just seemed odd to me that after escaping from custody, he then embarks on some grandmaster plan of terrorism, including some strange connection with Anti-American presence in Iran that went nowhere, then after Bolan derails his scheme, he then is content to hole up in his giant castle in Switzerland and party. Nevertheless, this is one very entertaining read, and would recommend it highly.

This story is one of the older nuke threat entries in the series, and would have been more fresh if I had read it back then rather than now. Even so, the plot was not too original for its time, but Linaker can be counted on for a fast moving gripping Bolan adventure. Starting from Scotland Bolan follows the trail of nuclear weapon components that black market dealers are moving around to a destination and a purpose that Bolan needs to unravel as he moves along. I like how you don’t know where the bomb is going to be used till the very end, and the villains’s plan to use it is not what you might suspect. The second part of Bolan’s mission in the mountains of Afghanistan is another good section, always in danger, navigating through foreign territory and dealing with the harsh environment. The final act is a fictional island near Columbia for Bolan’s final assault as he has dispatched the sub villains by this time and finally takes on the man who actually plans to use the bomb. Again more blazing action, on land and in boats to wrap up his mission to find this bomb. I deduct a star for a couple things that were weird, more likely a result of editing. Hacksaw happy editing seemed to be the norm for Executioner books coming out around this time period. The helicopter Bolan shoots at on the cover is his escape method out of the Afghanistan mission. Piloting it himself, we have no idea where he went with it, how he got out of that region of the world, where did he land it? The next chapter has Bolan at the Island near Columbia. Later Bolan beaches a boat in some hidden inlet in the coastal wilds of the islands and goes to sleep. Next thing a man is there, becomes Bolan’s ally, leads him out of there, then is forgotten. Where did he come from? Why was he on the boat? What happened to him? It just seemed like some fleshing out of the story was missing in this book. However this is a good action yarn worth reading.

This is a cast of everyone Stony Man related in a global fight against a series of villains that are working together to take over the drug trade worldwide. Turrin, Grimaldi, Bolan, Mott, and a plethora of SEALS join AT and PF as they cover all the hotspots around the globe. The action shifts from one location to another frequently, each team getting a general slice of the pie as they track down, then eliminate the targets. Odom includes good dramatic scenes sprinkled between the action to make the book have more of a flavor, as is one of his strengths. Calvin James has some of the best scenes in here, and the inclusion of the undercover DEA agent had you guessing what side she is really on. All loose ends are wrapped up by the end, after a rather large cast of sub-villains are dealt with. The plot is complicated, but without being overly so, and the book overall is a well written Stony Man that has all the basic elements as would be expected for a novel in the series. Stony Man 3 was much better but Odom still brings a good performance here worth reading.

This is the second of only two Kasner Executioners, and while nowhere near as good as Shoot Down, still it is a worthy addition to the series. The story is fairly simple, the second half dedicated to Bolan’s helping of a Serbian village in getting weapons and setting up defenses against a warlord intending to take over the town in what he considers his territory. The town gets on the warlord’s radar when Bolan infiltrates his stronghold and makes off with his doctor, which is Bolan’s mission to begin with. Bolan, along with a female ally, who is mostly there as a translator, find a new ally in the town called the Gypsy. This was a great character, overshadowing Bolan’s female sidekick. Some decent scenes in the first half with Bolan’s snatching of the Doctor, later more predictable reading as the town is in siege mode against the warlord’s goons. A quick read, nothing too outstanding, but a solid adventure. Interesting to note, like Death Force before it, this book also features Bolan with several face to face encounters with the main villain throughout the book. The final confrontation was disappointing in my opinion, but overall not a bad book.

A new writer at bat, so I decided to do my usual and jump ahead in my reading to sample this new novel. Here we have an interesting twist in that Bolan does not know what kind of weapon the villains are obtaining, he just discovers that they are referred to as sleeping dragons. Bolan’s mission is to root out what is behind the death of a British agent in Hong Kong, where most of this story takes place. After an introduction chapter of Bolan in Mexico on a mini mission that has nothing to do with the rest of the story, Bolan, with Jack Grimaldi, look into the goings on in Hong Kong amid a variety of British intelligence characters good and bad. The villains consist of Eddie Lee, out for money, and the Libyan’s out to get these sleeping dragon weapons that Lee can provide. I liked the balance of Bolan and Grimaldi’s action and the parts devoted to the villains in this novel. A variety of intrigue and plot twists add to the decent action scenes make for a good read here. I am going to be generous and rate this book an 8, despite some issues I did have with the book, which I believe I need to elaborate on in detail. I felt that the ending of this book marred what would otherwise have been an outstanding first entry in this series. A really good book for me is one that not only entertains throughout, but concludes on a positive note when the last page is read. This book however ended with a slight bad taste in my mouth, and I’ll explain why. There are four things that were like a 1-2-3-4 series of jabs that left me with this feeling, all near or at the end of the novel. First, there was that little mission in Mexico, and Bolan was working with a four man group there calling themselves the Bearcats. Anyway after Bolan’s mission wrapped up on the Hong Kong end and was now at the concluding scene in Tripoli, among the agents assigned to protect a celebrity in a hotel there was none other than these same Bearcats. Huh? um sure ok. Aside from the fact that Able Team or Phoenix Force would have been the better choice in both the Mexican mission and the one in Tripoli, it is a nonsense coincidence like this that can rip me out of the story. The other three issues had to do with the poor epilogue for this book. Second, both the author and the editor didn’t notice that Bolan’s shoulder wound had magicly transferred from his left to his right. Third, the epilogue should have dealt with the fate of Cleeves. But we get nothing from this, if this were the conclusion of the book, it would have been the right cap to what otherwise was an excellent action thriller. But instead what we get brings me to the last thing. Instead of the Cleeves wrap-up, a suspicion I got earlier in the novel came to fruition in this silly epilogue. In the plethora of men’s action/paramilitary/Rambo-esque books I have read over the years, there have been among them some writers that infuse what is such a predictable cliché in their views on female actors with anything left of an ultra-conservative lean. The Celebrity in Tripoli that Bolan rescues is portrayed as a sniveling whiny bitch that’s has zero appreciation for the gun fondling he man that rescues her from certain death. We get more of depiction of Grimaldi’s testosterone level than a conclusion of a story that would have been a far better way as I suggested, but whatever I’m not an author. Overall, this is a good adventure definitely worth reading, give it a go.

This book has some good things going for it, nonstop action, standout scenes being Bolan’s turning the tables at the snakepit, and the scenes in the elevator shaft of the Empire State building had me on the edge of my seat. The author’s first two super Bolan titles: Shock Tactic and Precision Kill, were far better written books than this however, and I will mention at least four things that marred what would otherwise have been excellent action/suspense thriller. 1. The premise. I just wasn’t buying it. I just didn’t find it believable that the army would train their squads in the countryside using actual live nuclear bombs. The mockup bomb that Brognola brought in to the farm for Bolan to look at would have been more realistic thing used for such training purposes. 2. A silly scene where Bolan infiltrates a mansion of Akbar, the terrorists backer, moves around the grounds and climbs up the side of the house. Gee how luck for Bolan that the two Dobermans never bothered to bark at him. Really? It is difficult to find ANY dog that doesn’t bark at strangers prowling in their yard, let alone two Dobermans who are obviously there to keep unwanted folks away from his home. 3. At the bottom of page 268, while Bolan is chasing one nuke packing Nidal, the terrorist leader’s second in command, an odd paragraph mysteriously pops up reading as follows: Apparently Ahmed Tufayli (the main villain) had split the Golden Jihad into two cells. Nidal’s five-man unit had come to New York from Norristown, while Tufayli’s cell was either already in Washington, DC., or on its way there. umm, what? How did Bolan know this? Either editing chopped some part of the story out, or the author was trying to stretch across a plothole here. The word “apparently” at the beginning seems to indicate the latter. 4. The ending was less than spectacular and to be honest, very predictable. Without giving anything away, I think at the risk of being a backseat driver here the author missed an opportunity to put a different twist on this that not only would have been better but would have negated and turned around the issue I had with point #1. Overall, this book missed the mark in too many areas to rate it any higher than a six, which is a shame because there were good moments, and the threat was much larger than your average Bolan adventure, the book was never boring, and it had lots of potential. Perhaps if I had read it at the time of publication I would have been more gripped by the backpack nuke idea, but these days it gets lost in the nuke of the month pile. Some of the action scenes were hard to follow as well, leaving me with an impression that this book in general was rushed, lacking in the polish that I have read in this writer’s other novels.

This is a better book than most reviews might indicate. But there are points made that I agree with. The final scene should have been wrapped up at the landing strip rather than the suicide run the main villain, Bannon, made with the remnants of his forces. Bannon was a typical Schmidt badguy, interchangeable with other main villains used in some of his other novels. The book was short, over before you knew it, like it was a 188 page story stretched to fit a 224 page format. This was not your typical hunt down the badguy head honcho down to his lair and assault his compound story, which was a positive break from the norm. Here Bolan stumbles on something bad while on R and R near a small town in nowhere, Colorado. Bolan has face to face confrontations with Bannon throughout the story. Great scenes these. The body count is surprisingly low for a Schmidt novel, the build up of discovering what is going on, and the acquiring of surprising allies on the way make for good reading as the story moves forward to the expected firestorm of bloodshed when Bolan has his confrontation with Bannon and his forces in the town square. Not bad of an outing for Bolan here, while not among the best of Executioner titles, this is a worthwhile read in my opinion, and can be read in a short time.

If this book was intended to be a spoof, satire, a comedy, then I would have rated it higher. While all the basic aspects of this author’s typical storytelling are here: suspenseful and tense chases and escapes in an undercover role in dangerous territory, with helpful allies assisting Bolan when needed, there is an underlying problem that gets worse as the novel goes along, and before long, moments that rip the reader out of the narrative, setting the book down wondering what the heck?, become the norm rather than the exception. Somehow I don’t think this story is meant to be a spoof, but with some polish with that in mind it would have made a good one. There are far too many only-in-the-movies events, questionable plot developments, and general weirdness, to take this book seriously. What one one hand is the typical fast paced action thriller this author has produced prior to this book, there just seemed to be too much of making stuff up as you go along thing going on here both in action scenes and transitions from one plot point to another. Too many to bother mentioning here, but I was just not impressed with the writing overall. There was enough remnants of the writer’s usual storytelling prowess to make certain portions of this book really shine. I liked the suspense of Bolan going into the North Korean country and its capitol, with communist troops posing a danger anywhere and everywhere, plenty of good allies aid Bolan in this story, the Russian villain was very nasty, and despite what some reviewers have opined, there is plenty of nonstop action in this story. The super Bolan titles VanCook has penned prior to this have been nothing short of outstanding, but Red Heat is not a good representative of that group, I would consider it as a lower priority if you are looking to read through a stack of this author’s work in the series.

This book moves along with a good flow and pace, I read it within two days easily, and overall I thought this was a better than average entry in the series. Some atomic scientists are being held in Russia as part of a fake kidnapping scheme, but the master of the plan is a former KGB bigwig, now a Russian mafia kingpin, and so enters our favorite anti-mafia/KGB hero, Mack Bolan. More is at stake, with the scientists actually being used without their knowledge as pawns to sell them and their plutonium to the Iranians for big money. The plot thickens with a former CIA operative making the transaction for the Russian mobster. Bolan soon hooks up with a female sidekick, an excellent ally in this novel, and so the action begins, shootouts and chases and some cloak and dagger stuff thrown in as the plot moves along. Action scenes are standard, but overall, the balance of characters, plot, dialogue, and action is done well, with no dull moments, and everything is wrapped up nicely by the end. My only problem with this book was the end of chapter 21. It seems as though the editors chopped off the end of it, there seemed to be something missing. Bolan’s female ally is a captive, yet her perspective is not shown. Somehow she finds a way to a phone, then beginning with chapter 22, Bolan is at the house rescuing her. It is up to the reader what she did to escape and up to the reader to assume that her message got to Bolan. There is some story content missing there. Aside from this, the book was solid, I give it a strong 8.

I was impressed with this debut novel from a new writer. Bolan is undercover infiltrating a group that has now made a deal with jihadist terrorists to sneak them into the US from Mexico mixed along with the usual immigrants. There are two main villains in the story, the leader of the terrorists, and the leader of the immigrant smugglers. These two very different cultures working together creates an unusual alliance, which adds an interesting and tension filled relationship between these two groups. Bolan works with an ally he meets that is infiltrating the group, and finds out there is another undercover agent as well, leading to just some of the many agencies involved in the story later on. The perspective of the story shifts between all these various characters, making a good balance of action, drama and unique storytelling. One villain, called Digger, is one of the creepiest badguys in the series, something you might see in a Stephen King or Dean Koontz story. Bolan and his allies take a beating in this book, taxing their abilities to the limit. The setting takes place mostly in a forgotten ghost town in the Sonora desert. This book has a very western feel to it, the villains are colorful, the action crisp, the story keeps the reader interested, there is no filler. Great job by this writer, I recommend this title and would like to see more from Reynolds.

The Stony Man crew is sent to three locations to take out terrorists who made their presence known by attacking embassies in England, France, and Washington DC. Able Team’s mission in DC was well done, the first time I can remember Fieldhouse writing Able Team. Bolan and Phoenix Force takes on the Europe missions. More solid action to finish those up and it is time for the final showdown at the terrorists training base. Not all members will make it that far, the team takes some bad hits in this story. The final battles at the island base were written very well, wrapping up a tough mission. There are many villains sprinkled throughout this book, the team has to work their way through a lot of bad guys to find out who and where the main villains are located, and the language barriers are a challenge the warriors must deal with everywhere they go. This book has the unique voice of Fieldhouse, the main PF writer, so this was a read that reminded me of all the great books I enjoyed in the old series, and I was pleased how well the Able Team guys and Bolan were portrayed here too.

It has been too many years since I last read a book from Mcquay, and after reading Tooth and Claw, I am reminded how much I enjoyed his Bolan adventures. He penned some great classics like Death Has A Name, Code Of Dishonor, and one of my all time favorite Bolan novels, Fire In The Sky. The second of only three supers he wrote, this book is right up there in quality of entertainment as those earlier titles. The setting is Hong Kong, not long before the Communists are to take over the area. Chinese citizens looking to get out before the deadline are targeted for death by Red Chinese hardliners backed by a banker poised to take everyone’s money. So sets the plot for an excellent quality entertainment mission as Bolan helps these citizens, and goes after the army of goons bent on killing them all. The writing here is cover to cover great entertainment value, at times over the top, the only-in-the-movies stunts that push the bounds of make believe, but there is never a dull moment, in this fast paced thriller. The balance of plot and action, the great scenes, the drama between characters, the danger of the bad guys on a crazy drug, allies for Bolan you get to feel for, the crazy action sequences, the typhoon adding to the exciting conclusion, all add up to one heck of thrilling and original storytelling, I just gotta give this one a ten. My only criticism would be that Bolan was a little too eager to add citizens to his war, but all in all I really liked this book a lot and it really makes the ordinary run-of-the-mill books here and there in this series even more ordinary by comparison.

This book was a breath of fresh air after the doldrums of the Red Dragon trilogy. Odom tells a unique story involving an organ transplant ring in New Orleans. The villain in this book is selling body parts on the black market, using unwilling donors that are either killed or left as “zombies”. With a voodoo twist added to the mix, this is a rather macabre adventure for Bolan. There is plenty of plot and action going on here, despite the word count on these pages being very light. Perhaps editing may have taken chunks out of the story? I really liked this book, but one problem, maybe related to editing, is what ever happened to the doctor? He is the one depicted on the cover. As one of the villain’s main sidekicks, there seemed to be something missing at the final battle as to what happened to him. But I still enjoyed very much the original storytelling, the characters and action, I recommend this book for anyone that may have missed it.

The mission continues, blazing through Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Manila, and concluding at Hong Kong. Katz and McCarter are a good addition to the action, but all said and done, there is little originality or imagination in this book, or the whole trilogy for that matter. As before Bolan meets with a member of the local law, gets a hit list, and takes down the targets. Wash, rinse, and repeat. The ending action sequence was quite good, which saved this book from being rated below mediocre, but the book was another installment similar to the first two, with new locations and new badguy head-honchos names in place of the old. Action scenes were a little better than the other books but overall this trilogy offers nothing new for readers who have read many of Newton’s books before. Considering the author has written over 50 Bolan books since the writing of this trilogy, if this is any indication, I am not expecting much in the way of originality or imagination in those titles methinks.

The trilogy continues, with Bolan along with help from McCarter and Katz, moves from city to city, causing various problems for each place. This time Bolan is chasing Tu Sheng from one city to the next. Not much different from the first book, Newton’s one-trick pony style of storytelling is in full swing again here, extending this story through a middle book that adds more locations and more cardboard cutout enemies, but little else. The action scenes were brisk but plentiful, but too much of these pages were spent in a verbose thinking perspective of each badguy’s head as they reacted to the havoc done to them by this “faceless” enemy. I got a little bored with it by the end, and at this point just wanted to get to the final volume to see the conclusion, as well as the impending story behind McCarter’s promotion to Phoenix Force leader. A decent action romp through more Chinatowns and various other factions thrown into the mix, but ultimately nothing too special about this book.

This trilogy starts off with Bolan going after Chinese triads and their secret allies the communists. Going from chinatown to chinatown, Bolan hits San Fransisco, Vancouver, New York City, and ends up in London. Not a whole lot to say about the book, it is a relentless chase through the first three places, mostly Bolan hunting down Luk Pang as he escapes from location to location. Along the way Bolan’s action scenes are many but brief, it seemed like they were the cliff notes versions of the usual scenes Newton likes to write. An ally is picked up in Vancouver, a similar ally helps in New York, and yet another similar one helps in London. This book does not ramp up to any special conclusion, just leaves off ready for the next book in the trilogy, otherwise I would have been disappointed with the ending if it had been a stand alone. Still I expected more, and I was not left really anticipating much for the next book. The events regarding Katz’s retirement from PF are not in this volume, one thing I am looking forward to reading about later in the trilogy.

The majority of this novel takes place in Venice, allowing for an interesting experience for Bolan as he performs this mission in the canals of this city. Near the end he moves on to Romania, but almost all the story is in Venice. Fans of Leo Turrin will love this book, as he works with Bolan for the whole adventure. Bolan’s plan to rescue a boy held hostage turns out to be much more complicated than first thought. Odom weaves a complex backstory to the mafia families involved with the boys relatives, throw in the Romanian villain to add to the Galvani badguy for two main villains in this book. But another enigmatic side character, a priest, is added for another interesting seasoning in what turns out to be an entertaining and unique storyline. I liked how the author tied up the priest part at the end of the book, which made another positive aspect to this novel. The action is fairly standard, the body count rises as the book goes along, and Bolan uses the weapon shown on the cover of #60 Sold for Slaughter along with many grenades guns and vehicles, both boats and cars. This would make a good movie, plenty of room in here for action, dialogue, characters and story development. Definitely one of the Bolan adventures worth reading.

The opening chapters are pretty good, setting the stage for the novel. Bolan then starts his blitz against death squads in Rio, who have been taking the law into their own hands, often killing innocent civilians along with anyone else they believe oppose what they think ought to be. A plus for this section is the addition of Able Team. I enjoyed seeing these guys in action, and they worked with Bolan for the entire mission. However, at least in this portion of the story, Newton writes the same kind of scenes he has written many times before, capping it off with the woman-hostage-Bolan-rattles-cages till hostage is released sniper scene included. However, unlike Omega Game, where Newton sleepwalked through the whole book with these kind of scenes, he changes gears, and shifts things into a more fresh direction, for the rest of the book. The Stony Man crew then takes to the jungle of Brazil, going after the mastermind of the death squads and the hardmen destroying the native villages in the jungle. The Reese character, who had befriended the natives and helped ally Bolan with them, was a good character added to the story. I also liked the tension between the death squad leader and Nazare, the main villain as their world was falling apart as Newton is good with these kind of scenes. But I did think that the jungle portion of the book was drawn out too much, the action was plenty, but it seemed like the writer was trying to pad the word count in too many places. This is a trait in some of Newton’s books, and it bogged down the pacing of the book too much as usual. Overall, a good story, maybe would have been better as a smaller title, but Jungle Law is not the best, not the worst, just a fair read, with a good showing by Able Team for a special touch.

Bolan has many locations where he must go in this book to finish his mission. It didn’t matter if he was in Jamaica, Mexico, Chicago, Miami, Pennsylvania, or other locations, there was always something new for him to do, and the reading was always compelling. I liked the multiple villains in this book, the main villain called the Wizard, the secondary villains Gunther and Katya, and others, made the story interesting and fun. The high tech defenses the Wizard set up at his bases was a cool new challenge for Bolan, and old skills were needed as well with the jungle trek in Mexico, and I loved the scenes in the everglades and the sea in Florida. Excellent characters all throughout this story, the Irish gangsters in Chicago, the German assassins, Trask’s henchmen, the Mexican druglords, Bolan’s allies in Jamaica, and others made this an excellent nonstop action thriller worthy of a super sized Bolan adventure. This is a better book than the author’s first super Bolan Shock Tactic, which I enjoyed also. Makes me look forward to more titles from this author.

Bolan is left to fend for himself in Bangkok, as he infiltrates a group consisting of Triad gangsters and corrupt CIA officials. Bolan does a good job using his wits and and working without help to get through this mission. For a Fieldhouse novel, it was surprisingly low on action. A solid adventure though, with a decent plot and enough action and danger to keep the pages turning. A drawback to this book is how short it is. The adventure seemed to just get started and it was over. There isn’t much text on these pages. It’s almost like a couple chapters had been missing. At least the story did not have any obvious gaps in it. An enjoyable quick read here but nothing too special. Being set in an asian country, the expected hand to hand martial arts type fighting replaces some gun battles in this story. Mostly this is an undercover mission, if you like these, it’s a decent book, especially if you are looking for a really quick Bolan adventure.

Bolan is in some places I’ve not read about him being before, including Bosnia, and this was one of the things that make the story interesting. I liked the Doorn character, unfortunately she didn’t appear until late in the book. All around this book is a solid action yarn, but after you peel away these layers, the one major flaw is revealed beneath. At the root of this book you find the usual Newton formula. He has the hit list going from location A to location B and so on with the standard scenes and yes there is the Bolan in workman uniform on the rooftop sniper shooting at guys in an office across the street scene, the lady (Doorn) getting kidnapped and Bolan rattles cages to send a message to the main villain to let her go or he will come after him, which he is doing anyway, and even before that is the standard send a message to your boss scenes anyway. A decent book on its own, but not recommended if you have read many of Newton’s earlier books that use this same formula. I did get a good laugh out of the scene where Bolan tosses a guy a phone and it hits him in the face.

After the demise of the Room 59 series, the authors have moved on to other GE series. Davis has his second Executioner in this shipment, this time under his Room 59 alias of "Garret Dylan", and Helfers, after chipping in a couple Deathlands books, takes his first crack at Bolan with Stand Down, this time under the guise of "Travis Morgan". Overall, I thought Helfers did a better job with the Bolan character compared to Davis, even though it felt at times like just another agent by another name that could have been in a Room 59 story. Nevertheless, I thought this first-time effort was done very well, and the balance between storytelling and action was just right. What I really liked about this adventure was Bolan starts off driving through the middle of America, comes through a small town, finds a bad situation happening, and decides to get involved. At the end, he continues on, having not only an adventure as only Bolan could have, but making a significant impact on a place where most writers would not have thought or bothered to write about. There is no world hopping, country crossing, foreign adventure here, just a small town in the middle of nowhere, Kansas, but I like reading this kind of Executioner story now and then. A variety of chases, rescues, infiltration, and danger keeps the story moving, with a decent selection of allies and villains as Bolan is determined not to leave this town until the drug lord and his whole business is eradicated from this town. I loved the last paragraphs, it was an excellent way to cap the story.

It is rare for Bolan to take on a serial killer, stories that I wish we could see more of in these novels. VanCook manages to come up with an excellent yarn about Bolan hunting down and having a "Showdown" with one Jerry Wayne Waack. This is a memorable, crazy and smart villain, one of the better badguys I have ever read in this series. Bolan's mission to start with has nothing to do with going after this guy, Bolan is instead taking out a Korean gang of thugs that have chapters in several cities. What begins as small in the plot department eventually develops into something much more later in the novel. The author's storytelling is fresh and original, with suspense to go with the action, and I liked the idea of having the background of Waack tied to Bolan's past in Vietnam. The scenes involving Waack's activities were chilling, with major consequences effecting the higher levels of American government. Bolan is racing against time to stop this killer before he strikes again, but soon Waack turns his sites on Bolan himself. I very much enjoyed this book, one of the best of the SuperBolan's I've read, but giving it nine stars because what I will explain here. The author uses a plot device to get Bolan into the inner circle undercover of a white supremist group tied to Waack. Bolan uses a sniper attack on a congressman, and I just don't buy into Bolan going to this length to go undercover for a clan leader. Sure Bolan is a good shot and all, and he knew what he was doing, but I just don't see Bolan as putting an innocent at this kind of risk. If it had been Grimaldi or someone with the Stony group acting as decoy yes, but I just wasn't buying it. A flaw in an otherwise amazing story, and also I agree with other reviews about the ending, the last page was kinda hokey, but not enough to ruin an outstanding and gripping adventure. Highly recommended reading.

Not all books in this series pull off an ending that sets my pulse rate higher in an exciting finish. VanCook does a good job of pulling this off to finish an entertaining entry. What separates this novel from most is the fact there was no main villain in this story. Bolan is on a rescue mission in Rwanda, to get some actors out of a situation where they are caught up in the middle of a civil war. Along the way Bolan takes out a number of badguys from both sides, spends most of the time trying to locate the actors and gets the hell out of there. In place of main villains, VanCook offers a cast of allies for Bolan, featuring a merc named Walters, as well as an African who does not start out as a willing ally. I liked these characters, especially the African because it was funny to see him try to weasel out of Bolan's group while reluctantly helping at the same time. I also liked how there was a focus on the actor's point of view as they had their own scenes. Fast pacing and decent action keep the pages turning, and although there were some questionable coincidences, this is an excellent adventure for Bolan.

The character of Bolan is very accurately written in Linaker's novels, and this book is another example. A very tight, fast paced adventure with this aspect at the core provides a good read and solid action sequences. Bolan is after Islamic extremists that are running rampant in the U.S. trying to kill off a news team they believe is responsible for the death of their radical leader. From Chicago to Colorado, Connecticut to California, and other areas, Bolan is busy tracking down this kill team. With some help from Grimaldi, Bolan is mostly a lone wolf in this book. Captures and escapes, rescues, and some sleuthing, Bolan moves along, leaving bodies in his wake. Some decent scenes wrapping up the book, the villains were portrayed well and I really liked the final moment when Bolan confronts Gazli in the convention center, and what Gazli tells Bolan was really a chilling statement to read now, more so than it would have been back when this book was written. My only question about this book was... How did Bolan know where to find Tarantino? I wonder if maybe there was some editing done near the end of this title that might have chopped some vital information out. Anyhow, this is another in a long line of excellent action yarns from Linaker.

I wasn't too impressed with this Fieldhouse novel. There was nothing really wrong with it, I just didn't think it was more than ordinary. What I did like was the way the villain was portrayed. Valdez was a typical badguy, but I liked how Bolan's disruption of his plans and loss of his soldiers was having a cumulative effect on Valdez. He was forced to change his plans, deal with shortage of funds, try desperate tactics and work with a dwindling number of henchmen as the book went on. His focus moved from his revenge fueled agenda against the U.S. and Mexican governments to dealing with Bolan. Bolan deals with improvising weapons in the field, working with various allies, and a trek through the Mexican jungle. Standard action scenes bracketing passages of speculation on what the villains are going to do next are the norm for much of the book. Not too bad, but there are much better books from Fieldhouse out there, Assassin's Creed being one of them. I actually enjoyed the previous book in this series, #201 Prime Target, a little bit more. This makes me the odd one out for both of these books evidently. Although Grimaldi has a small role in Combat Zone, I was surprised that no Phoenix Force members were used here.

This book kept me entertained from cover to cover. Bolan's enemy this time is an eco-terrorist, Jason Creed, who cares for the environment but not a bit for people. What I really liked about the villains was there were a countable number of bad guys, each having a purpose for being part of the villain's plans. For a supersized Bolan adventure, I was pleased the author made this a viable approach to the story. Too many larger books, even the smaller Executioner adventures, have an unbelievable mass production of cardboard badguys that pop up just long enough for Bolan to blow them away. Bolan starts in Portland, thwarting one leg of Creed's three prong terrorist attacks. Nothing too special, but decent action. Then it is all the way to the east coast in New Jersey, for the second part. I liked the action at the chemical plant, one of my favorite parts of the book. Phase three is Creed's own master strike in California. Here Bolan must race against time and still find a way to track down what and where the terrorist is going to do. Bolan's skills are put to the test, dealing with a guy wearing night vision goggles, tracking a sub, surviving an underwater ride with no wetsuit, and dealing with all kinds of stuff like that. The balance between what the badguys were doing and what Bolan and his allies were doing was just right. A solid supersized Bolan adventure that was original and enjoyable.

This book started off good enough, with an interesting plot, and some good action. An elite Mafia organization has formed, called the Star, and it also involves being friends with other crime organizations all over the globe. Bolan is called in to stop nuclear bomb materials from being sent to an Arab terrorist in Algiers. The Star is out to make cash, and moving this weapon through their network is part of the business. Ok so we have another Mafia story, which blends into an Arab terrorist with a nuke story. Not bad, and with Newton's experience with Mafia adventures, this should be a good one. There are three main phases of Bolan's war here. One is Michigan, and Bolan does the typical mob busting, along with an excellent car chase. Nothing too new here, but it is moving right along. Phase two is Italy. This is really where the book went wrong. Starting with mainland Italy, Bolan, along with Grimaldi go into blitz mode, going from mob boss to mob boss, town to town, taking them out with ease, taking candy from a baby as they romp all over mainland Italy. Omega Game is an exercise in redundant repetition. Far, far too many scenes are the same, with one scene blending into the next in rubber stamping fashion. Newton seemed to think that giving Grimaldi his own scenes qualified as diversity. Just add more of the same scenes but use the name "Grimaldi" instead of "Bolan", and there you go. Mysteriously, they both take down all these capos, without a scratch, without a hitch, and they leave the scene without anyone bothering them or seeing them. They always seem to have just the right tools and weapons for the job at hand. But this phase is not done yet, oh no. This phase has a sub-phase. Sicily! Ok, so we now move on to the Island of Sicily, the birthplace of the Mafia, and the mobsters are well aware by now that someone, they don't know who, really has it in for them. This part of the blitz was a little more interesting, with Bolan's informant being more involved. Unfortunately, just when this character's storyline was developing, Bolan was done in Sicily, and Italy was left behind. So, what happens in Sicily? As much as I liked seeing the REAL Mack Bolan, along with his old friend, kickin ass and taking names in Sicily, we are treated to the same old same old repeated scenes all across the island. Borrrrring. Phase three moves Bolan and Grimaldi to Algeria. Another informant here adds some spice to the story, and the action is a little more diverse, but not enough. More blitzing until the old ally-captured-Bolan-turns-up-the-heat-until-ally-is-returned gag Newton likes to use comes in. Finally, its a decent chase to the final compound in the desert, in a decent battle there, and another chase to the final confrontation. Not too bad of a finish, but it was yawner for much of the book to get there. If there was an editor on this novel, they must have been as bored as I was, and never bothered to read it. Typos and miscues of various sorts abound in this book, sometimes several on the same page. I lost track of how many time I rolled my eyes. Newton also seemed to get stuck on the word "adversaries". If I had a dollar for every time this word was used, I could buy a car. And a garage to put it in. And a mansion to go with the Garage. If you want a better Mafia story, read Vendetta. If you want a better Bolan blitz, read Assault. If you want a better all around story, read Blood Strike or Flesh and Blood. You get the idea. Omega Game is nothing more than an also-ran, and Newton sleepwalked through too much of this book. He has written many better Super Bolan's than this, so don't waste your time.

Well here we have the 200th adventure, and it is in Mike Newton's hands, as was the last benchmark, #100 Blood Testament. Overall I liked #100 a little better, but Crisis Point is still a well done book. Once again Brognola plays a bigger role than usual, and is a key figure in the plotline. One snafu takes place in the final pages where Brognola's name was used in place of the main villain, but otherwise a more or less flawless book. Newton manages to bring something fresh to this story. His usual cookie-cutter scenes and plot devices can't be found here for once, but he does get rather long-winded with the cerebral perspectives of several key characters near the end of the book, which dragged the momentum down a bit before the final battle, as is often the case in some of his novels. I did like the way Bolan had to figure out what was going on and where his next target should be, instead of his going down the hit list assaults that Newton likes to write. A lot of time is spent developing the plot from the various villains perspectives, and I like the whole conspiracy and the way the plot was revealed. Grimaldi lays down a lot of helicopter beatdown in this book, both in the Idaho compound, and the Virginia hardsite. I thought it was odd that Bolan was still in the fight on the ground as this was going on, in both places. Seemed kind of reckless to me. I thought this book was a bold enough effort to be worth the #200 status, and enjoyed it.

The entire adventure takes place in France, so no major changes in settings for this story. Bolan's need to recover the dangerous chemical makes this a little different for him, because killing the main villain is secondary to retrieving the vials before its contents kill millions of people. Bolan's assault on the castle hideaway scatters the opposition, and we see a new ally at Bolan's side for the rest of the mission. Kuragin comes off as a strong woman at first, but becomes more of a victim later on. Many chases and firefights take place as the mission to track down Dorsikov, with Russian agents and Japanese gangs dogging their trail, make it a nonstop series of action, escapes, chases and rescues. I liked the action in the skeleton tunnels under Paris. The final scene in Paris was done very well, with one of those intense pulse-quickening endings to a very action oriented book.

I enjoyed this one very much. The entire story takes place in northeast Africa, mostly in the deserts of Somalia. I was glad that ficticious countries were not used in this book, like several other Bolan titles I have read. Bolan's mission is to take out four warlords that had taken over rule of Somalia. Bolan rounds up several allies as he moves to take down these warlords one by one in some great action scenes. Elliot and Barkari were a great and interesting team that the author focused on for many parts of the novel. This is the kind of thing that the standard size Executioner books are too small to include. The introduction and action of these two were excellent leading up to Bolan's meeting with them. Add Barkari's brother and eventually Aziza, the woman with ties to the warlords, and Bolan had a great team in his adventures throughout Somalia. General Ham and the other warlords were ruthless badguys, the plot was solid, the action scenes described very well, and the element of danger keeping the pages turning, this was another well written superBolan book from VanCook. Check it out.

7 This is the writer's first crack at an Executioner adventure, and if you look past the numerous grammatical errors, we have here an excellent entry in the series. Motorcycles and cycle racing is the major theme in this title, and I thought this put a fresh spin on the usual Bolan adventure. What is really another nuke story, the author manages to tie these elements together to make a plausable and nifty read. There is a good balance between action and storytelling. Bolan relies on a motorcycle to get just about everywhere in this tale, where the assistance of Grimaldi or others is never needed for travel, and other than a Stony Man blacksuit to help out in brief areas, Bolan does his investigation and scum removal mostly on his own. Action begins in the Middle East, then moves to the California Coast, where a big race is scheduled. The plot is revealed more, until Bolan realizes just how devastating the villian's plan really is. This brings a good, literally down-to-the-wire, ending that will quicken the pulse rate. I enjoyed the motorcycle racing substory, with Eddie and his brother, and Bolan buzzing around San Fran on high speed chases. Action scenes were decent enough, and everything wraps up nicely at the end. Good show.

Vendetta has a lot of good things going for it. A mafia story, a big one, with characters from the early days of Bolan's war. Grimaldi, Johnny Bolan, Leo Turrin, what more could you want? This is a classic blitz, Bolan even pulls out his Omega persona. He hits San Diego, Chicago, New York, Miami, Barbados. Told in Newton's hard-boiled old-school mafia books style with lots of wisecracks and tough-guy talk, it was a heck of a story. Vendetta suffered from two problems however. One is that I felt the story was too long. Too much repetition in the blitzes in several cities, it got to the point where scenes kind of blended together. Some scenes with Grimaldi or Johnny could have been dropped, and I would have dropped the whole Chicago part of it, and even some of the Miami, and just gone with the other cities. This book, if pared down to a sleek 220 page book, would have been one of the great mafia books of all time. This leads to the other problem with this book. Being that it is by Newton, if you have read many of his books, there are predictable scenes and situations that are a rewrite of sorts from other novels he has done. If you have read several dozen of his books, you may find, as I did, that this book would have been much better as a normal 220 page book of the time. However, if you haven't read much of Newton, I would highly recommend this novel, not only as a great mafia story, but as an all around ass kickin SuperBolan and with classic characters and villains. Newton manages to up the ante with an impressive capstone to this novel. I was impressed with the final showdown in Barbados, with more of a thought out final violent series of scenes when the capos finally get together to discuss Don Julio's bid to be the Don of all Dons. Guzman and Frost were more than just additions early in the book, they play a key factor in the end, and it is a ending worthy of a SuperBolan. All around, I thought this was a great book.

The final book in the Arms trilogy starts off with a great scene around the train in Italy. Herring captures the beginning of this scene nicely on the cover of the book. After this, the action again shifts between Able Team, Phoenix Force, and Bolan, as they move closer to unraveling the interesting plot and get closer to stopping Thone, the main villan. This trilogy has one of the most unusual tactics the villain uses to further his own gains that I've read yet in the series. Between the standard action scenes, this made the read more interesting, and I also liked how the woman huntsman was dealt with and she turned out to be a useful ally. A pretty decent ending in the mountains with a Bond-like scene on the ski slope and we have overall a solid trilogy loaded with all the Stony man personel and tons of fast paced action.

The mystery of the Huntsman continues, with the Stony Man teams blowing away badguys and playing detective in their own seperate areas of the world. Able Team's action in the States was my favorite, and overall a great middle book of this trilogy even though a different writer was at the helm. This book has a lot of humor in it, which I enjoyed and give this book a good rating because of that as much as anything else. Bolan didn't have a lot of screen time on this book, but as a Stony Man adventure, all the teams were written very well.

This is more of a Stony Man trilogy than an Executioner, with AT, PF, and even Brognola getting equal time in this first book of the Arms trilogy. What made me give this book a good rating more than anything else was the way the main villain, the Huntsman was portrayed. The mystery of who he or she really was, keeping the reader interested in this unique badguy, was a refreshing spin that separates this book from most. Odom writes a decent start to the trilogy, with good character interaction and crisp action sequences throughout.

I found the first two thirds of the book to be outstanding writing from Newton, with just the brief sniper scene early on that was a repeat from his earlier books. The last third was average action with predictable outcomes, beginning with Bolan's rattling cages till they bring back the girl captive scenes. Other than these two elements, I thought this book stood on its own as another terrific Bolan adventure from Newton Encizo gets a starring role alongside Bolan in this title. Bolan is tasked with keeping a corrupt candidate from winning an election on a fictitious island in the carribbean. Good character interaction and solid storyline to go with the action. My favorite part of the book was Bolan's phone calls with the Obregon's. I got a laugh from his conversation with Pablo. It was a hoot, this book gets a bonus star from that. The book was a little long winded, with the last scene dragged out with the bad candidate being hunted down in Cuba, nothing special there, and he should have been taken out in the main final battle, in my opinion.

This is the usual hardcore action that moves at a fast pace from Linaker. Beginning in Amsterdam, Bolan blazes through arms dealers and drug dealers in a hectic blitz until he is captured. Following this, the action shifts to a fictional African country, featuring an excellent prison-break with Bolan and his lady ally. Great scenes of trekking across the african wilderness with Mdofa's troops in persuit. A brief ending sequence to finish up the book at Mdofa's house was nothing special, but the book in general was another exciting action-packed romp from one of the best writers in the series.

I liked this book, one main reason being the villains were a different than usual bunch compared to other Bolan titles. The bad guys in this book were named after colors, like the movie Reservoir Dogs. Yep, there is even a Mr. Pink! I also liked the fact that there is a smaller cast of villains. Too many Executioner books have generic bad-guy generating machines that pop out targets for slaughter. This book has a limited number of villains, and as Bolan takes them down, the group recognizes the pieces of their organization falling apart. I liked Bolan's undercover role in infiltrating the Black Cross, and his southern accent was rather amusing. Action scenes are nothing special, but wow was Bolan ever beat up in this book. His determination to see the mission through despite his various injuries was a great show of his character. I would liked to have rated this book higher, but I think the smaller format of these books was a restraint to this title, I thought it was over just when things were kicking into high gear. Also I wanted to see an additional chapter with Bolan dealing with General Spencer. What happened with him? The mission ended with that part being unresolved. A good effort by a new writer, I recommend it.

The writer manages to put a lot of adventure within 190 pages. From the opening scenes in Idaho, to the docks near Oakland California, to the Congo in Africa, Bolan keeps himself busy unraveling a plot involving a major gold heist. The villains and their plots unfold as the story moves along, and I was impressed with the intricate storyline contained in this small size Executioner. Not since reading #90 Blood Heat Zero all those years ago have I read the original smaller size 190 page Bolan adventure. This book delivers the action just as much as the old books did. I very much enjoyed the scenes taking place in the United States, and Bolan's Federal marshal sidekick was a good character to add color to the story. There were some good scenes after Bolan arrived in Kinshasa in the Congo, but later on I thought the writing went downhill somewhat for the last quarter of the book. The first three quarters was by far my favorite of the novel, and even though there was a good wrap-up of the action and story by the end, I thought the last portions of the book were not up to par, thus dragging my rating down to an 8. Action scenes became hastily written, more fleshing out woud have helped, and also Bolan didnt seem like himself. Bolan would shoot off whole magazines, or blast away with pistols to no effect, and many times couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Too many times hardguys would not notice a white guy wandering among them, as Bolan infiltrated the hardsites, making it too easy for him. All in all, this was an entertaining first effort from this new writer, and I would like to see what other stories he might come up with.

There are a number of complicated plot elements that come together later in the novel, but at first, there are scenes taking place in a variety of places, with different members of Stony Man, as well as other characters. Mel Odom pushes the boundries of overcomplicated storytelling without actually crossing them, and provides a great large story as is the purpose of the superBolan format. Odom is great with introducing secondary characters in his books, and the chinese agent depicted on the cover is one of them. I also enjoyed the scenes with the Capps character. Voroshilov is an interesting character as the Russian sleeper agent, and David McCarter has his own scenes in this book, as well as Lyons, and Encizo. Hua and Shevchenko, the main villains in the book, had great scenes from their perspectives as well. A good plot and many action sequences make this novel an entertaining read. It would also make a good movie!

The beginning starts with a prisoner escape, being the leader of the Sword of Erin, a IRA rogue faction. Connolly is then the focus for Bolan for the rest of the novel. This is a chase novel for the most part, with Connolly being one of the most slippery and crafty villains Bolan has ever faced. From the US to Canada, to Ireland, to England, back to the US goes Bolan in pursuit of Connolly. Along the way, there is much going on on the sidelines, with numorous side characters introduced, many action scenes, and moments of suspensefull and violent action. Sprinkled early in the book are a few of Newton's cookie cutter action to get things going, but after this, the book really takes off in more original writing for the remainder of the story. While long in the tooth at 350 pages, nevertheless, Newton does a great job here in keeping the reader glued to the pages all the way to the final scene. A very good effert from Newton, I recommend it.

A solid, well told tale from the beginning to the last page. This story involves a group called Carib Command, who are planning to take over control of an island in the Caribbean. The tropical setting and culture make a colorful backdrop to Bolan's adventure, which takes place on the island or in the waters nearby. Action mixed with story development keeps the pages turning, and I enjoyed the book. Bolan has his lone wolf moments, but a lot of his time is spent working with other agents involved in the takedown of Carib Command badguys. Scenes from both villans and allies were written well, nothing too spectacular here, but good enough to provide an entertaining read. I liked the plot used to wrap up the villains in the last chapters. This added some spice to the usual endings you might see in an average novel in the series. I found this book to be a worthwhile read, not as good as the previous four books, but still a quality entry.

A decent start to the story, the author begins with a terrorist attack on the capitol, but this was to show what terrorists could do if they had access to weapons from arms dealers that didn't care what people wanted to do with the merchandise. The focus shifts to the "Vulture", residing in Brazil, and Bolan's takedown of the terrorists brings him after this arms dealer for the remainder of the story. The action builds more and more, a very tight action thriller, no filler in here, I very much enjoyed this entry in the series. Good action in the city, and later plenty of good jungle scenes, taking place in sparsely populated jungle and rivers deep in Brazil. The hostage rescue was great, but it was sad that Bolan's actions seemed to be in vain as far as the fate of the victims of the arms dealer. The Vulture is one of the nastiest villains I have read in this series. Very intense action all the way to the final pages in this adventure that deserves some more readership. Worth picking up if you can find a copy.

While I didn't think this superBolan was as good as the author's previous one, Onslought, I found Ambush to be entertaining enough and full of so much stuff, that it deserves nine stars. Ambush is more like a Stony Man in disguise, because a good portion of the book is dedicated to the operations of Phoenix Force and Able Team. The action scenes with both PF and AT were done very well, with PF having some great moments in Germany and Sweden. Bolan's assaults on his own and with these teams were all solid action sequences. The story contains two main villains, and Bolan uses a tactic everyone who has read much of his adventures has seen before to get these two working against each other. So the overall plot isn't much new, but VanCook tells this story in his unique and talented storytelling way, making the novel fresh and with a level of tension and suspense. The opening chapter pulls the reader in and the book ramps up the action more as the story moves along. The body count is huge, and the final fate of O'Banion was well deserved. Good stuff.

The entire novel takes place in South Africa, soon after the fall of apartheid. The action is plenty, with nonstop pacing from the first pages to the last. Newton does a great job with dialogue in this story. The plot was more interesting and more developed than some of Newton's earlier books. I was about to wonder if this was going to be another run-of-the-mill paint-by-numbers Newton title, but as I read on, I was pleasantly surprised to find a well thought out plot, and some good twists to the author's usual formula. Case in point, the sniper scene Newton likes to use in almost every book had a good variation that made it a plus for the novel, rather than a cookie cutter rewrite. I thought Bolan's allies were written very well, especially Seko, who kicked ass as Bolan's sidekick against superior numbers. The villains and their interactions were written well, although I thought the Schuster character seemed to be an added extra that wasn't really needed, but Bolan's scenes with him were very good. The action scenes were very crisp and easy to follow, all of them were great, some of the better written action I've read from Newton. All around, a solid Bolan adventure, well worth the time reading this book.

Not many Bolan adventures take place in the Oklahoma panhandle, but here is one, and most of the first two thirds of Wellfire take place around this area. There are two main villains in the story, Asul, depicted on the cover, and a german named Gerhardt. The strength of this novel is the undercover work Bolan does to infiltrate Asul's network and figure out his plans. The writer does a good job of creating a tense, gripping read as Bolan's mission unfolds. I liked how Bolan was able to use his skills in role camouflage, and his race against time and his risk of discovery added suspense to the story. The action shifts to the Washington DC area in the second phase of his operation, which was an ok ending to the book, but the best part of the book was over by this time in my opinion. An excellent title yet again by VanCook, but I had to keep this book at an 8 rating because I wasn't satisfied with the ending where Bolan stood there and mowed down all the gun weilding opponents with one shot each while mysteriously avoiding getting hit while surrounded by gunmen.

I was reluctant to read more Stony Man books after the disappointment of Stony Man 2, but I decided to take the plunge with the third book in this series. And am I glad I did! Odom is really on his game with this novel. An engaging plot, solid action, growing suspense, techno-thriller elements, and the whole Stony Man gang are thrown into this story, along with a power crazy villain in Jerred Quillian. No page is wasted with filler, and all members of the teams get in on the action, some more than others, and each mission is wrapped up by the end. The opening chapter really drew me in. I liked how the story developed, it didn't fall apart like in Odom's first Stony Man effort. Stony Man 3 is a book that is memorable. And the final assault on Quillian's base was very cool. This book isn't without its flaws. I thought the artificial Intelligence of the computer program was presented as far to human, making the make-believe a little too unbelievable. The armies attacking the farm, and the lab in silicon valley, seemed to just materialize out of thin air, with no description as how Quillian got these armies in place so quickly, and without anyone detecting them. Aside from these issues, I was very pleased at the quality of entertainment Odom provides with this book. Far superior in every way from the first two books in my opinion, I say check this one out.

Very impressed with this story. Odom has the Bolan character mastered at this point in the series, and puts together an original background to an otherwise standard drug-smuggling plot. Much of the novel takes place in and around an indian reservation near Rapid City, South Dakota. The author depicts the struggle the native Americans have with villains in their own ranks, headed by a ruthless drug smuggler named Detheridge. In addition to the good action, Odom weaves a good dramatic interaction between the various characters in this book. The action intensifies to an exciting finish. One of my favorite scenes was the motorcycle chase through the forest. This is a tight, well told adventure, is memorable, and has heart. Loved it, I highly recommend War Paint.

Hellground turned out better than I thought it would be. The story takes place in Mexican and Texas border towns. Bolan takes on a standard drug dealer there, but with an interesting twist. This dealer uses a cult leader to help protect his drug dealings, and what turns out to be the main villain you see on the cover, Martinez, has some of the more creepy activities of the villains in the Bolan series. His human sacrifice rituals and powerful hold he had on his cult members made an interesting element to an otherwise standard drug dealer story. Newton also creates a good cast of allies for Bolan at the start of the book. Three other lawmen from different jurisdictions work with Bolan, and also some tension among the group as no one really knows each other well and suspicions arise as to who might be a possible double agent. The best of these characters was Sanchez, the Mexican federale. Newton did a great job with this character. Action scenes were sometimes great, often standard, my favorite being the short but excellent action at the camp near the end. The perspectives change from one ally or allys to the next as each of Bolans group goes there saeperate route in trying to track down information on Martinez and the dealer in Mexico. All these scenes were good. I probably would have rated this book higher, but some of Bolan's scenes were carbon copies of action scenes Newton has used many times before. And there were times later in the book where the story was bogged down by a little too much of Newton's cerebral rambling. The ending was tense and decent, but man would I have loved to see Martinez get his end in his bone pot somehow. At least that is the way I would have concluded this story. But all in all, I enjoyed this superBolan. Thumbs up.

Mel Odom steps in where Newton left off to put a great conclusion to the terror trilogy. Here is where we get to see the whole plot of the story, and to wrap up everone's mission once and for all. Inferno is a change in writing style compared to the first couple of books, but the action and the fast pace is unbroken, and in my opinion, the best book of the three. Bolan wraps up his mission in Bolivia, with a great escape, and chase Rivera to Europe. Phoenix Force does the same and it isn't long before everyone meets up in the final scenes in the middle east. Both Bolan's and PF missions are well told, down to the wire action, and I thought a worthy conclusion to this trilogy. The various secondary characters provide depth to the story, the scenes with Price at the farm are excellent, and the complex plot was interesting. One surprise for me was the inclusion of Able Team. I wasn't expecting them to have a role in this trilogy, but there they were, and I thought those scenes were done well, and added more kick to the story. The main villain, Harel, had some co-conspirators that never got resolved as to what happened to them. I assume they got away, or maybe there was a passage that didn't make the final cut? I also hoped to see some kind of epilogue for this long story, but there was none. This trilogy overall is very good, I recommend reading it.

This second book in the Terror trilogy shifts Bolan's focus from California to Bolivia. Phoenix Force continues their assaults in Europe. Although there isn't much plot in this book, I was very pleased with this middle book. Bolan's blitz in Bolivia is fast and furious, keeping the bad guys on the run and also without their knowledge of just who they are dealing with. Several good scenes sprinkled throughout the novel made it an above average action thriller. As in the first novel, one of the major villains gets away from Bolan, and likewise another couple escape PF in Europe. These loose ends are obviously to be addressed in the final book. I thought this novel was actually a little bit better than book one. Both the Bolan side and the PF end were very well done, with good allys for both teams helping out. Crisp action scenes, evil villains, and tense adventure keep the pages turning. Grimaldi finally gets a piece of the action near the end after sitting on the sidelines from the beginning of the trilogy.

A decent start to this trilogy, where Phoenix Force and Bolan are called on to eradicate neo-nazi factions. Bolan takes on one group in California, while PF goes to Germany to take down another group there. The action is consistent and well done. The main villains take shape during the course of the book, as secondary badguys come and go. Newton does a goo0d job here in describing what kind of beliefs these guy have and what motivates them. Having these guys get blown away is a better satisfaction than the average terrorist! Newton's familiar plot device of a woman ally getting captured and Bolan turning up the heat on them, letting a badguy survive to send a message and later contacting the boss by phone, demanding the woman's release or the heat continues, is again used here, but overall a fairly solid, well told action book. The battles at the end of the book, both in L.A. and in Germany, are excellent action scenes to close out the first volume. Pratt, the main villain in Bolan's side of the mission will star in the next book as well, and the other main villains that were only briefly touched on in book one will hopefully take more of the center stage. A solid beginning to the terror trilogy.

I was wondering if the day would come when I would run into another book in the Bolan universe that was worth only a 1 out of 10 rating. And here it is with this boring, slow paced, uninteresting, and CONFUSING monstrosity of a book called "Death's Head" If I were an editor, and this manuscript came accross my desk, I would inform the writer that he should consider a career flipping burgers at his local Micky D's. This is 347 pages of mind bending, skullbusting, insanity that I consider even worse than Renegade Agent due to the fact that novel was thankfully only around 188 pages. I don't know where to begin ranting about this book, but I will keep it as simple as I can, because I want to forget about this thing as soon as possible. The story meanders around without going anywhere, there was no reason Bolan should have been on this mission, and the plot, as another reviewer mentioned, seemed to be made up as the author went along. This writer has pissed me off before with his lazy writing in some of his earlier Bolan books, but in "Death's Head", there are more places than I can count where the writing was horrible. Also, there were chapters where the writer couldn't keep a cojent train of thought between one paragraph and another, or even between sentences within a paragraph. The cast of characters grows larger with each page, many were killed off within pages of their introduction, others were forgotten for hundreds of pages. The muddled plot gets worse as the book goes along, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for anybody doing anything in the story. I never got to care about any of the good guys, and I didn't get any satisfaction when the main badguys bit the bullet later in the book. I got to the point I just wanted to finish the book so I could give it an honest review instead of just giving up with hundreds of pages to go. The only scene that was any good was Bolan's infiltration and destruction of a warehouse, but even that scene had nothing to do with the rest of the book, or any reason why Bolan knew to go there, or any lasting consequences of the action. The rest of this novel was just a jumbled mess of various factions in Germany doing something, and with perhaps the most bumbling, inept villans that have ever appeared in a Bolan book. Lets see... there were Soviet Spetznaz, the Green party, skinheads, german terrorists, Basque terrorists, Mossad agents, Bnd agents, double agents, and the ex nazi guy introduced in the prologue, and his daughter, umm... turkish soldiers, demonstraters, counter-demonstrators, german police, and many other characters and factions and sub factions involved, and with all of this, the story is lame, confusing, boring, and just plain dreadfull. And oh yea, there was the mafia too, but somehow they were not a part of this book, not that I would remember or care. That just sums up my whole attitude about the last half of the book. I didn't care what I was reading, and just read each sentence as if nothing had gone before, and somehow trudged through the endless pages, sometimes reading 3 or 4 pages in a day, and having to set the book down to do something else. Without a doubt the WORST book in this series, so please don't waste your time with this thing, pick up something in the series that has great reviews for it and read that. Even UFORCE was light years ahead in entertainment value compared to Death's Fucking Head!

Wow, Bolan's adventure in this book is relentlessly non-stop action, keeping him busy with barely time to take a breath. His mission is to stop a Columbian drug network from taking root in Jamaica, and also to prevent an assasination of a top level DEA agent. While the plot is nothing original, what this novel provides is an action reader's action book. Beaten, bloody, and kicking much ass, Bolan blitzes his way through droves of various drug ring badguys in the streets, in buildings, on boats, on docks, in jungles, and an awesome hand to hand battle with a couple different villains at the end. Bolan takes a beating, going from falling off a cliff, crashing in a chopper, getting shot up, beaten and defying great odds, to take down his enemies. The main villains are many, but the author manages to give all of them a unique character and they all tie together in their scheme very well. Bolan's allys don't live long in this book, but then nobody lives long in this story, a very classic Bolan blitz. His infiltration of the badguy's operations are awesome, and his skills are taken to the limit. Mike Linaker shows even from his earliest Executioner works that he is one of the best post-Pendleton Bolan writers ever. Read it!

Once again VanCook has told an entertaining fast paced tale with Death Warrant. The main villain is nothing new, another drug ring leader, with the usual secondary sidekicks and peripheral characters. Bolan has some special forces members help him later in the story. What makes this book good is the way the author tells the tale. A lot of the writing shows the scenes and the different plot elements as they unfold, the dialogue between the characters, the drama and humor of the character's lives. The first portion of the story involves Bolan's activities in the Florida Keys, with an excellent rescue mission there. The drug leader takes more center stage later in the story, and Bolan's mission shifts to South America for the investigation and confrontation with Rocha. All of these scenes were well written, with plenty of action to move the book along. There were some funny moments in the novel, and this humor bumps my rating another star because of it, this is another solid book from this author, you will enjoy it.

I was pleased with the quality of book from another new Bolan writer. Here we have a fast paced taut thriller taking place in central New York state. The Vigilante, the primary bad guy in this novel, is like Bolan's equal, and yet his opposite. Gary Rook is running rampant taking out bad guys, but unlike Bolan, he cares nothing for any innocents that get in his way, or any collateral damage he causes. This book offers one of the more memorable villains I've read, and this is only a portion of the overall story. A complex plot with a large cast of characters moves this book along fast and furious, many perspectives are depicted as the chinese agent's plot emerges more as the the book goes along. The author somehow manages to weave all this together smoothly, with good action scenes, and some surprises, making this a gripping and entertaining reading experience. There is even a posibility of a sequel of sorts left open, on the Chinese end of the story. The characterizations of Bolan and the cast of Stony Man regulars are done very well also, and I am eager to read more titles by Elmore. With the second book in a row from a new writer, this series hasn't lost a beat, both Spring and Elmore's first contibutions are worth checking out.

Well, there was plenty of action from cover to cover, and most of the story took place on the sea and in the Florida keys, which was a cool factor, but overall, this title was not among the better books in the series. There were too many small problems that drags this story down, the potential for a great book was there, but it didn't work out right. Bolan's presence in the first place was not needed, if all they wanted him to do was check out the mysterious freighter. Ok, so the Mafia gang called the Finzi's were involved, and after Bolan tangles with them at the beginning, the story should have been an old school mafia beating of the Finzi organization. But Bolan, along with a female ally called Keene, is sent to find out what the deal is with the freighter. The complication of the various factions involved in the plot begins here, and I couldn't help wondering why all these groups were necessary to tell this tale. There are the Romanians. But there were two factions here, the former Securitate group, and the regular Romanians. The leader of each of these are cousins. There are the Cubans. Two factions here as well. Castro's soldiers, and another group of Cubans involved in the mix. There are the members of the salvage company. This is a mixture of innocent civilians, and the bad guys working with at least one of the cuban factions, and in league with yet another group... the Finzis! Throw in a mixture of "innocents" into some or all of these groups, and you get in a sense, another faction. But wait... there's more. Add Menandres and his group of Cubans, that's right, another faction of Cubans, working covertly with the justice department, to aid Bolan later in the story. Plenty of seagoing vessels involved in the book to keep track of. The frieghter, the tugboat, a speedboat, a sporting yacht, a cruiser, a barge, another boat, two submarines, and Bolan's torpedo thing he spends much time riding around the ocean. Some things I didn't get is why Bolan went out on two different trips to plant explosives on two different boats. Why didn't he do both at once? And who started the fire aboard the freighter? Why did Bolan ally with the one Romanian bad guy? It was established at the beginning that he was clearly a bad guy. And just who the heck was this mysterious "sheriff" that was mentioned several times in the book. This character was never introduced, and I saw no reason for his mentioning whatsoever. The action scenes were at times great, at other times confusing, sometimes not making much sense. But there was plenty of adventure to be had on the seas, the boats, the island, that this book had a fair amount of entertainment value, just not overall one of the books that I would suggest as any priority reading material in this long running series.

This is an impressive debut novel in the series from Peter Spring. From the start, the action is plenty, and there are many exciting action scenes that could make for a good movie. Bolan displays a lot of ingenuity in his adventure, and the shootouts are usually more memorable than many standard scenes in a lot of these books. What really sets this book apart is it's one of the more original stories I've read in some time. And for a first entry in the series, Spring does a great job portraying a Bolan that is believable, and more true to the character than many other novelists in the past were able to achieve from the start. The plot was interesting, with many characters involved , many locations also, and an ending that had me on the edge of my seat. Palmer, the central villain, was to me one of the better bad guys I have seen in this series. Even an entire action scene is dedicated to this man's activities, and it is a good one, with skills rivaling the type of thing Bolan himself would be capable of. Although the final showdown is brief, it is quite unique, and took me by total surprise. The villain's plans were very complex, even confusing at times, but an interesting plot idea. I wish I could have been familiar with the locations where the story takes place, but the author does a decent job of describing the areas so I was able to visualize the action ok. Overall, I recommend everyone who is a fan of the series to give this writer a try, I very much look forward to more books from Spring.

This story starts out in the usual fashion from Mel Odom, right in the middle of some action, and the reader gets more of a backround later in the story. Nothing really impressive about the story or the plot or the action in the early stages of the novel. However the more I read, I continued to get more caught up in the adventure, and it turned out to be a really excellent read overall. The best scenes take place in the jungles of Burma, and here is where bolan is in his element, and we get to see a gripping adventure as Bolan takes on several factions mostly by himself, traveling many miles on foot, by truck or train or motorcycle in the Burma wilderness. This is one book where Bolan takes a beating, and his health is a key factor in his search for a crazed russian major and his Burmese drug-lord cronie. This added realism and suspense to the story, and I also liked the various allies Bolan encounters during the adventure. I thought that the character of Bolan in Lethal Agent is Odom's best portrayal of the Executioner I have seen in his writing. In general, so much of the entries from so many writers over a long period of time have generated an overall standardized military action hero character that it seems like the character has become generic in a lot of books. In this novel, however, I got the sense that I was reading the Mack Bolan I remember as the true Bolan from the days of Pendleton/Newton/Mertz. The action in this book never stops, the story moves at a brisk pace, and with the various positive traits in the writing, I really enjoyed this book.

I was surprised by this book, it was more than I thought it would be, even if much of it was fairly standard. Although the book suffers from the author's usual perspective of Bolan being in the backround much of the time and/or being just another soldier among other allies in his campaign, there were many aspects of the novel that made it overall a very satisfying reading experience. For one, I just enjoyed the setting and mood of the story, and the author's prose and narrative talents. The story was consistantly interesting and kept me turning the pages following the action and the variety of characters throughout the book. Some of the scenes were quite brilliant, one example being the background of Lorenz's assassin named Strashmir. This also introduced an interesting plot twist of having a bad guy who really could be just the opposite, and how would Bolan deal with this individual if he were to find out who this man really was? The action hops around various locations in Germany, England, and Romania, as Bolan and his allies close the net on Lorenz and his network. Erhard was a good villain, my complaint though was he kind of dropped out of site for too long in the book, and would have been a good opportunity to have he and Bolan in a final showdown. However Erhard's part in the book, while written well, didn't reach the potential that could have been. In conclusion, this book in some ways isn't among the better of the Superbolans, I've read, but in other ways, it has technical redeaming factors that make it a fun and enjoyable read that was more than I expected from it. I give it a thumbs up.

This book wasn't as good as the author's first Executioner (Double Action), nevertheless, I enjoyed Shifting Target. Here we have a novel strong on plot, with enough action to keep the pages turning. Bolan finds himself getting involved in more than meets the eye while on a mission to discover who is leaking secrets out of a chemical plant in Michigan. Soon a murder mystery, missing teenagers, an outlaw biker gang, an old asylum, a toxic waste facility, a wise-guy wanna-be, and Bolivian drug members are thrown into the mix to make an interesting and entertaining story. Grimaldi joins the action in the last portion of the book for a nice touch, and there were several scenes from the bad guys that were pretty good. Rosey Tosca was the main villain who had his nose in a variety of criminal activity, and I liked how everything went wrong for him in the end. The action at the end of the book is brief, but the loose ends in the story are tied up well. One thing that would have helped would have been to see Tosca meet a nastier fate, like somehow ending up in the quicklime, or some other permanent fate.

This book brings a bit of a fresh approach to the typical Executioner story, in that it's theme is spy/espionage, which I like to see now and then in the series. I liked the use of high-tech gadgetry and the sleuthing aspects of this book. Almost all the book takes place in Russia, and the action is focused on Bolan's point of view from the first page all the way to the last. Grimaldi has a small role, which plays out later in the story. As far as action goes, there is plenty, and it builds more as the book moves along. There are some good action sequences, including the helicopter/car chase which was the most gripping moment of the book. With the first Bolan entry from a new writer, there are the usual inconsistancies in the Bolan characterization, as I have seen in some of the new writers I have read in the past. Nothing major, but I got the sense that at times I was reading Bolan, and at times not Bolan. As much as I was salivating over the spy thriller theme of this book, I had some problems with it that brought my rating down for it. For one, I thought that it suffered from overcomplication. The overall plot was often muddled, and there were moments I almost forgot why Bolan was even doing what he was doing. The cast of characters consist of a large number of spy/counterspy agents and a complex web of connections between them that I got lost after a while. None of them were quite fleshed out enough to get a better grasp of them, and the lack of any point of view other than Bolan's degraded the potential for character development. Basicly, the rule of thumb concerning the characters in this book is: (mild spoiler here) - everyone in the book, with the exception of Bolan and Grimaldi, is either a bad guy, or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy, or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy pretending to be a bad guy, or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy pretending to be a bad guy pretending to be a good guy or... gah!!!! The one thing that really bothered me, or at least raised my curiousity, was why Bolan seemed to have no reaction to his then partner Sable, when she gunned down some policemen. Bolan wouldn't have stood for that, and he sure wouldn't have allowed himself to be caught off guard by Sable's treachery minutes later, concerning her reckless actions. There were some what appeared to be editing done with a chainsaw at the closing chapters of the book, there were characters dropped in at the last moment and scenes jumping around too abruptly, I got the sense some stuff had to be missing in order to fit the story in the 220 page format. But all in all this book had enough entertainment value to make it a good read, and I saw a good potential in this new writer to make some new, fresh, and exciting entries added to the Executioner series.

This book was aptley named because I had to force it down to get through it. The writing itself was fine. It has exotic locations. It has action. It has nasty villains. Bolan has good allies. But for some reason I just couldn't get hooked into the story. It took me many days to read, and found myself putting the book down often to do other things. Bolan's mission is to take out a growing army of organized badguys called Forca Militar, and travels from Brazil to Jamaica, and back to Brazil again to take them out. Almeiros was just as much or more so center stage as Bolan in the Brazil campaigns, and Beckett in the same role in Jamaica. This is one of the reasons why this book didn't read much like a true Executioner novel. There were some great scenes in the book that made it at least an acceptable read, Moura, one of the main villains, had some intense moments that really painted a scary badguy, and maybe my favorite scene in the novel was Bolan's confrontation with Silva at the airport. The last chapters of the book were ok, but I expected much better. As much as I enjoyed the author's first four Bolan titles, this book however, is very plain and average, and gets lost among the also-rans in this long running series.

This book starts off rather ordinary, then later develops in some good action scenes and fast paced storytelling. The plot is intricate with two different parties with their own agendas doing their thing, with Bolan and his allies mixed in to stop the badguys in the country of France. The Blood Against Oppression is a group using terrorism to achieve their goals, and the Russians use more covert means to achieve their agenda. These two groups are linked in complicated ways, and along with a large cast of characters on both the good and the bad sides, I thought this was a little too complicated to digest as I read. But Renauld keeps the story moving, with several good action sequences and detailed focus on the variety of villains in this novel. I really liked the hostage scenes at the airport. Mack Bolan himself doesn't accomplish much though, spending much of his time riding in helicopters and cars and getting involved in the action in only the most minimal scenes. Team Stony, as I like to think of it, consists of Bolan, Grimaldi, Kissinger, and Brognola. Each of these members get as much part of the action as any other, and one thing I did like was Brognola getting involved, which is something rarely seen in the series. As usual, Renauld has a very story oriented tale, with a good focus on the badguys, but I was disappointed with the ending of this book, it was very rushed, with an interesting but not much of a brief climax, with Bolan again not getting more than a paragraph of the action. All in all, Rampage is a decent book, but I liked Renauld's other superbolan novel I read, "Firepower", a little better.

This adventure is a race against time to prevent an Iraqi madman from unleashing nuclear missiles. Bolan spends much of the story one step behind the stolen hi-tech triggers for these missiles as they are smuggled around the world to their destination. Lots of carnage ensues as Bolan blasts his way through San Diego, Ireland, France, Spain and Iraq. A great finishing sequence at the missile base with Grimaldi piloting dragonslayer for the exciting final scenes. If you wondered when Bolan's first experience with dragonslayer was, this is the book.One of my favorite parts of the book was the trek Bolan and his allies made across the Turkish and Iraqi mountains. One of the things that make this book more than a standard Executioner adventure was the perfect fit the author made into the series with his first Bolan story. Like he did with with Phoenix Force, Linaker's first book read like he had been writing the series already for years. The Mack Bolan in this novel is the same and true version readers would be familiar with from the Pendleton/Newton/Mertz etc. of old. Another plus is for this book is the return of a character from another novel, Ben Sharon, who makes a solid ally for Bolan. Readers lucky enough to find the Heroes compilation books will recognize Sharon from the Phoenix Force novel Survival Run, also by Linaker. All in all, another good action-packed show.

I liked this book, although it was not close to being among the top levels of novels in this series, I will generously give Black Hand an 8 mainly because of a couple positive points. For one, Bolan's adversary in this book is limited mostly to a small group of turkish terrorists, the "black hand" numbering five in all, with just a few outside badguys thrown in to the mix. A vast majority of Bolan adventures ignore this approach in favor of hoards of generic terrorists mowed down by Bolan every few pages. This book has a good focus on the badguys and their internal struggle, with a great portrayal of the very evil leader of the band called Muzo Dora. That's him on the cover, although in the book he is described as wearing a mustache. The other thing I really liked about this story was the character of Bolan's ally for the first portion of the book, Arpinar. A well drawn character, and was a total contrast from Bolan's later ally, the sometimes annoying Saidra. While the focus shifted away from one ally to the other, I was in a way disappointed, but at the same time it added more depth to the story. The pacing and adventure moved along at a good clip, the overall story good, and the ending was fine, although it read like some parts were cut out of the ending sequences. All the action takes place in various cities and places in Turkey, so maybe a map of the country would be a help, as I had difficulty picturing where all these cities and places were at.

This is a basic drug dealer takedown novel that sends Bolan to the country of Myanmar, which used to be called Burma. Standard action kicks off the story and Bolan does some good soft probe action as well as some gun battles to uncover the conspiracy of drug smuggling into the U.S. from Burma. Thaung is the main villain, portrayed on the cover. Bolan's ally in Burma is Byu Lone, and he is a major help, and becomes very instrumental to the story at the end. Be prepared for Bolan to have a hard time of it in this mission, this is not a book where Bolan comes through without taking a beating. I found many portions of the novel to be rather wooden, both in story development and dialogue, which will bring my rating down a little, but man, did things get good when Bolan reaches Thaung's heroin base. Bolan's undercover role is played well, and when things go wrong, his ability to talk his way out of his jam is worth the price of admission for this book. Standard action ensues and the story wraps up nicely. Although not in the same league as his first Executioner, Assassin's Creed, Fieldhouse provides another solid action book to spend a few hours reading.

This is a kidnapping for ransom plot that is a simplistic storyline, yet provides what I consider to be an enjoyable and well written action-adventure episode in the Executioner series. The book moves with a good nonstop pace, and the author did a fine job in his storytelling. The action takes place in northern Italy, where ransom rackets are flourishing, and the leader of one of these gangs is the main villain named Faust, who is a well drawn badguy, the writer did a good job of making the reader really despise the man. Also I liked the Verga character, another well written badguy, as well as the Giamante punk that Bolan uses as his temporary ally. One headscratching mystery is what it was about this particular novel that other reviewers didn't like about it. Ok, so this book isn't one to wow anybody, and the hostage for ransom plot has been seen before and the tactic Bolan used to throw different gangs at each others throats has been seen in Pendleton and Newton novels before. But the whole book was a well told adventure with good characters, dialogue, drama and action, that I didn't see any drawback whatsoever to this novel. If there were any boring parts of the book, they must have been cut from the copy that I have. I thought this book was well worth reading. Ransom Run gets the Monsta Mack seal of approval.

This novel takes place in Russia, not long after the beginning of capitalism there, and Bolan's mission is to take out the New Brotherhood before they establish a foothold of organized crime in the country. This is an outstanding undercover role Bolan plays, and VanCook writes one of his best books yet with Onslaught. I liked the settings and mood VanCook captures as Bolan travels around the former Soviet Union, and Bolan's undercover adventure is gripping and even a little suspenseful, as he uses about three different alias, switching between them as needed. I found the characters in this book to be well drawn and interesting, both the good guys and the bad, and the sub-plots with Leskov and Solomentsev were great scenes. Jake Pool was one of the more unusual villains I've read in the series. A guy who thought he was the reincarnation of Wild Bill Hickock made an odd, but colorful badguy. I've read better endings, but with a book this good, I have to give it a top score. The writing is superb from the very beginning, and the flow of the story and the action and storyline always had me captured in the adventure and turning the pages. I recommend this novel as one to grab as it is one of the better SuperBolans I have read, and it is now 13 years old already, but if found on a used bookstore shelf, it is a great book to add to your Executioner reading list.

This is McDade's last book, and considering some of the weak novels he has written, I was pleased that Deadfall turned out to contain some of his best writing. The story is told in the mood of Bolan stumbling upon a mystery, with more and more events unfolding to draw him furthur into a conspiracy he must unravel. If you prefer the style of Executioner where Bolan has his target identified, knows what has happened and has a plan of action to go out and cause mass destruction on the badguy, then this book isn't for you. However, I like the variety of storytelling the the authors can bring to the table, and as long as the writing is good, I enjoy a good action flick. Deadfall has a sense of mystery and suspense that is the main driving force in pulling the reader into the novel and keeping the pages turning. Unlike in his previous superBolan "Counterblow", Mcdade manages to pull it off very well, including correcting major problems from that and other novels where plotlines go nowhere or are so confusing nothing makes sense, or other brow-furrowing moments in the book of one sort or another. Deadfall has a good direction in storyline behind the mystery, although not flawless, and what's more, the character interaction and dialogue is superb. The scenes between Marley and Harkness were great, and I really came to like the Marley character. Bradley was another good character, and I loved his scenes with his superior Dan Mitchell. There were many other allies for Bolan along the way, and they were good additions to the book also. The action scenes are fairly standard, with the final scenes in the closing chapters a little rushed, and I missed seeing one of the main villans involved in the final scene, rather than one of the lesser villans that was thrown in the latter portion of the story. All said and done I enjoyed the book, and give it a strong seven, and consider this book along with Meltdown and Backlash, to be the best group of books the author wrote for the series.

I don't care much for the Stony Man format, the days of AT and PF in smaller independent adventures are long gone, but those were the good old days when I really enjoyed the series. But I just had to check out this book, the author proved that he could write Mack Bolan, but how would he handle the two greatest commando teams in action fiction? All I can say is it's just awesome!! This is the real deal folks, not only are the members of AT and PF written just as I always remembered them, but this whole book totally kicks ass. A complex plot weaved among an exciting action thriller with colorfull villains and very human heroes. Intense battles against a variety of badguys, in a variety of locations around the world. Each Stony warrior is given great scenes of battle, including some great one-on-one bloody fights. All of them take quite a beating by the time this adventure is over! This book has one of the most nasty villains I ever remember reading in the GE series. Algul is one freaky badguy, you have to read it to believe it, and I loved the way McCarter took him out. I was impressed with the development of the author's skills as a writer, I found this book to be written with a much improved prose from what I remember in his first Executioners. And the dialogue was realistic, and all the characters were spot on, especialy Able Team! Man how I miss reading those guys. Now the modern version of Phoenix Force took a little getting used to for me, McCarter is now the leader, Katz is gone, and there is this new guy Hawkins, but this new incarnation was one hell of a great squad, and Calvin and Rafe just by themselves are just awesome in this novel. I didnt think this book was perfect, there were some parts of the plot that were a little fuzzy around the edges, and the scenes jump from so many perspectives so often, it was a struggle to keep track of what was going on with all the different teams, another reason I prefer the old independant books, but this story is just too good and ass kicking to give it less than a 10. No question about it, this author has got Mack Bolan, and now has AT and PF too, as well as the computer team at the farm. Fans of the Stony Man series should make this book required reading on their schedule. Nuff said.

The transition between writers is seamless for this conclusion of the Freedom trilogy and I was pleased that two authors could produce a quality and consistant product. Able Team gets more great scenes in this book, and I liked J.D. Ethan, he was an interesting ally. Phoenix Force gets equal time, with excellent and thrilling adventures in Haakovia and Finland. Mack Bolan's role is once more a leader for the allied army as they plan and execute penetration into North Haakovia. More good scenes with Brognola and the President. Kurtzman's talents were again a major impact in this novel. I liked how Odom continued the portrayal of the evil Stensvick that began in the second novel, and this villain turns out to be one of the more memorable bad guys in the series. Because of the size of the trilogy and of Battle Force in particular however, I thought some of the tension of Stensvick's threats, his missiles and the bacterial agents, was not as gripping as it could have been, as there was so much that goes on in the rest of the story, it kind of gets lost to some degree. But this final installment was very well written, and I thoght the writer put a lot of effort into making a solid product, making this whole trilogy a very good one, I enjoyed it a lot, even though Bolan isn't much of a focus in it.

This middle book in the Freedom trilogy is no filler between first and last novels, far from it. I found this to be not only a fun read, but much better than the first novel, and the story kicks into overdrive with page-turning excitement from cover to cover. The main villain, Stensvick, gets some focus here as I had hoped, and the author handled these scenes very well. Bolan, AT, and PF all get good scenes, but more than that, the individual adventures of each team member, particularly PF, are given attention, and I loved the rather amusing scenes James, and Manning and Encizo are in. The plot continues to develop, and the action moves swiftly to the last pages, with some minor resolutions, but much more is left to be dealt with in the third novel. The action at the end is kind of rushed a bit, but there are no major problems with this book. I consider this to be one of VanCooks best books I've read so far. Take note though, that this is really more of a stony man trilogy rather than an Executioner lone-wolf sort of story. The author did a great job with the PF characters, it was good to see them in action again.

A pretty good start to this trilogy, which is really more of a Stony Man story than an Executioner. AT is assigned to protect United Nation diplomats, PF is sent to infiltrate Finland to chase down an assassin, and Bolan is doing a number of things, including hooking up with some freedom fighters. Overall, a solid action novel, although its more of a setup for the rest of the trilogy, as no sub-plots are resolved in this first book, but there is plenty of stuff to keep all three teams busy in this adventure. I liked PF's sneaking into Finland scene, and Carl Lyons has a good plan to get AT out of their diplomat babysitting task. The main villain really isn't a part of this book, I'm hoping that he will get more focus in the rest of the trilogy. I enjoyed reading Kurtzman's computer skills at the farm. Although I didn't think this book was as good a start as the Storm trilogy had, I still enjoyed Battle Plan, and am looking forward to the continuation of this story in Battle Ground.

This is a gang war story that has Bolan in the D.C. area fighting against a variety of Jamaican drug rings. The book is loaded with action, so if that is all you want then maybe it is worth it to read, but I really didn't like this book. The general storyline is very simple, but there are so many little sub-plots going on everywhere that it was turned into a confusing mess after a while. Some of them came from nowhere and went nowhere. The villain from the New York gang was just not necessary, and Bolan even went to NY and did something there apparently, but this is only mentioned, and suddenly he is back in DC again. Bolan has a variety of allies, some helped some did not and later on there was no real reason Bolan was even needed in the final action scenes, which stunk anyway. I don't think that Albert Einstein himself could decipher the confusing and disjointed final action scenes on the sea. Crapitol Hit, as this book should have been called, just has too many flaws to be much of a gripping and enjoyable action thriller. Not all of it is bad, some parts were ok, but if you want a really outstanding inner-city drug-gang-war novel, read #148 Deep and Swift, and ignore Crapitol Hit. I was gonna give this book four stars, but because of that lousy last chapter and epilogue, I will rate this book a three.

This book starts off with a plot that is rather murky and remains so for much of the novel. I liked many of the scenes in the story, as Odom is really good with these kind of things, especialy the character interaction. But the plot is hard to follow, not that it is really important because it is really a mystery Bolan must solve, concerning who is doing what and why. The Falkenhayn woman was a fantastic character, which helped this novel a lot. She was involved with so many agencies though, which added to the confusion of this book. You really have to be on your toes to follow all the characters in here, and all of their various allegiences. Bolan is caught up in the middle of it all, and relies heavily on help from Kurtzman, Brognola, and others to supply him information. The ending was kind of disappointing, making this book just an average book in general, but at least the story is an interesting and imaginative entry in the series.

The strength of this novel lies with the suspensful action scenes and I liked the ending of the book even though the last page seems like it was chopped off, I thought an epilogue would have helped this novel. Bolan's mission is to rescue hostages from a group called Armenian Peoples Struggle. This group was not fleshed out very well, and I thought lacking background info concerning Anna's past with her father and his reasons for being killed by the main villain Haroun. The shift to Haroun from the original villain at the beginning of the novel, Hampirian, the guy shown on the cover, was odd, and it almost seemed like the author didn't know what to do with the Hampirian character, and came up with a better villain later. Some action scenes, although good, seemed like they were rehashed from other similar scenes in the novel. Some things about the story were strange, like why the hostages were split up in different places was not explained, and it seemed like many of Bolan's actions added up to little gain through the bulk of the book. The action takes place in and around Paris, and Bolan has a couple good allies that added a good dimension to the book, the perspectives from the bad guys were written well, and overall I was pleased with the author's last entry in the series, even if it was far from perfect. It is a very fast read, the pacing was solid, and would have rated it higher if it had some polishing in a few aspects of the story, in conclusion a six is my grade.

I really didn't know what to make of this novel. First off, knowing many people hated this book, I began reading UFORCE with as neutral a mindset as I could, giving the book a fresh chance to be what I wanted it to be, just another entertaining novel in a long ongoing series. Upon completion, I didn't think this was a bad novel at all. However, it wasn't a very good one either. The book starts out really cool, with interesting spooky events and some intrigue. In short, a military secret group with the latest modern technology is told that it is being cut off due to shortage of funding. This causes the UFORCE leader and main villain Goddard, to go rogue and continue his operation anyway, convinced his group is the only savior for America against any major threats. But this group is ruthless, has dirty hands, and uses unusual tactics to achieve its goals. These tactics are what makes this book the unusual story in the Bolan series that it is. The X-files and other shows of that kind are the influence for this book, something that GE apparently was into at the time, and UFORCE was Rich Rainey's contribution to this genre. So how was it? Strange for sure, and yet not so strange. Strange because for an Executioner novel we have ufos, gray aliens, mibs, crop circles, and futuristic sound and light weapons. Not so strange because this UFORCE is really behind it all, playing a big trick on gullible people. (oops, I didn't mean to spoil that for you, hehe haha)... So what we have here in this book in a nutshell is a vehicle to be a part the X-file mania of the time, and although this is a cool idea, and other authors have written these kind of books very well and very entertaining, however UFORCE fails to some degree in its execution. Mack Bolan is merely an extra in this novel. Not that he wasn't involved but he was not playing the role that he should have in this story, from beginning to end. He was about as far from lone-wolf as you can get, and he even allowed himself to be on camera, as well as expose himself to many many people in public. This just doesn't fit, and he was also bailed out of many situations as if he was incompitent and needed his military allies to do most of the work. The story jumps around quite frequently, and although I never got lost in the storyline, I thought too many characters and places were introduced without enough of an impact on the story for some of them to be necessary. I almost suspect this was a superbolan chopped up and squeezed into a regular series book. Also, I was disappointed in the ending, because there was so much build-up, but it was very brief and just not very good. Bolan should end up a novel kicking major ass, but in here he is an undercover guy playing Tom Clancy until the last minute and then he has a rather gimpy ending sequence. What did bring up my rating for this book however, is that there is plenty of originality and spooky stuff going on to make the read interesting, and a little bit of suspense, and I thought there were several entertaining moments in the novel overall. I liked the Stevenson villain, and some of the character interaction between various people in the book. And the "ufo" was cool too. Action scenes were good, and I always like some conpiracy sprinkled in a story. If you are looking for something different in this series, and like the ufo kind of stuff, give this book a try, but otherwise skip it, as it is not a spectacular entry, and is far from what Mack Bolan is good at doing. Not the best, but UFORCE is far from the worst. I guess a five is a fair grade.

This is a sleek well oiled machine of a Newton novel that is everything you can expect from the author of the old-school style of Executioner stories. From beginning to end, the story is a fast paced and gripping action novel that contains a solid plot and good side characters to go along with the usual Bolan blitz. And what's more... there is Johnny Bolan. Fans of the Bolan brothers working together will want to grab this book. No other writer can write the story of Johnny Bolan into the series the way Newton can, and it works out great in this book. All the action takes place in the San Diego area, and a brief scene in Baja. This is Johnny's territory, and we get to see a lot of both Bolans at work in this area. Mack's blitz is typical, seen many times before, but it is fun seeing him do what the executioner does, and I liked the Louisa character, her role in the novel was written very well. I would have liked to see this book as a superBolan, I thought it could have been expanded to be one, there was a lot of potential that could have been there, but the 220 pages limit was handled well by Newton. Everything wraps up nicely by the end. Definitely one of his better novels in the series, and I recommend it to all.

This is one of the more unique stories I have read in this long-running series, and I really enjoyed it. What is basicly a hostage rescue mission for Bolan, this simple plot manages to provide one of the best books this author had written, and I was surprised at how good this book turned out to be. The author likes to have a large cast of characters, and in this case, we have a number of allies Bolan works with on his rescue mission. Ok, so Phoenix Force and Able Team weren't available, but these guys were a great team and Bolan worked well with them. The whole novel takes place in a country near Iran, and the story is about Bolan and his party's journey through a hostile land in a mountainous desert landscape. I liked the flow of this book, and the tension of the enemy pursuit, the great rescue scene and other action throughout the novel. I almost took a star away due to the lack of fleshing out the main villian, Nassim. He was pretty much left in the background as a cardboard badguy, but I thought the author did such a good job with the story in the limited 220 pages he had to work with, that I have to give this book at least a nine. I really think this is a quality entry in the series, and I liked the ending. This book reminds me of Death Squad in that Bolan's team reminded me of those other guys and like when some of them didn't make it, it added some emotion to the reading. Too bad this was the last book by Furst, but he left with a winner.

A very solid Newton adventure, Bolan is kept very busy through each chapter of this story. The overall plot is to put a dent in the Triad drug trade in southeast Asia, specificly targeting the Yi Kwah Tao and its leaders. Bolan starts in the Australian desert, going after Lee, the guy shown on the cover of the book. I liked this portion of the story, but Lee I thought was a badguy that didn't reach any potential as a villain. Bolan's next stop is an exciting blitz in Bankok, then on to Burma to meet up with one of his better allies I have read in a while, Ne Kyat, and he later helps Bolan as a guide on his final journey to China, to knock off the big cheese in this war, General Li. Bolan has good allies in each stop, and I liked the epilogue, where Bolan returns to his Australian friend Minmara, a type of conclusion that is too often lacking in Bolan novels. I thought the action scenes were done well, and the ending was a good page-turning read. This is a tight, classic Newton book, and I might have given this novel another star but there were areas where the pacing of the story was too slow, but a well done episode in the SuperBolan series.

Bolan has the task of stopping a man named Wallace and his stolen circuit boards from being transported to a fictional Arab country before missiles can be upgraded with the boards. Much of this novel is about Bolan's pursuit of Wallace, starting in England, moving to France, into Italy and Yogoslavia, and finally the missile silos themselves. Much adventure happens along the way, the story moves along at a fast clip, and the overall plot is good and the action decent. Bolan has a sidekick for the whole novel, a woman Mossad agent, as well as working with a number of intelligence officers along the way, so there isn't much room for Bolan to work solo in this book. One weakness in this novel is Bolan's character could just as easily have been any other random agent in any other action series. But it was a fun adventure nevertheless. The ending I thought was innovative, and it was a good page turner and gripping conclusion. Intercept is not as good as this author's other superBolan novels, but it is a fun and fast paced read, I liked it.

This book is a smooth transition from the first two volumes in the trilogy despite a difference in the author. VanCook writes a whirlwind action conclusion to this excellent Storm trilogy. I enjoyed this much more than the Medellin trilogy. The whole storyline involving the Eldridge character takes shape, and adds a satisfying thread to the book, and Bolan's final showdown with him had my heart racing and was one of the more gripping moments of the story. If I were to ever write a Bolan book, a villain like Eldridge would be the type I would probably write about. Both Odom and Vancook did a great job with this character, and Katz's involvement at the end was great. Meanwhile Able Team's adventures continue on U.S. soil, with many outstanding and gripping action scenes. Vancook writes AT very well, if the AT series would have continued as a standalone, he would have been a good choice to write those. I thought that the main villain, Jaluwi, was kind of pushed in the background a little too much in this book. But all in all this is a terrific adventure novel, full of suspense and excitement. I recommend this whole trilogy, and the ending wasn't a disappointment like the Medellin one. It was also interesting to think that these books came out not long after the first Gulf war. You have to picture what the state of Iraq was at the time as Bolan and Phoenix Force have most of their adventures around Kuwait and Iraq.

With this book being the middle of a trilogy, it is a little different from most books in that it serves as a bridge between a biginning of a larger story and the ending of it. I thought it was done very well, the only thing I struggled with was the focus jumping from location to location frequently. Because this is more of a Stony Man trilogy, we have AT, PF, and Bolan in their seperate scenes, so the storyline is rather interupted. I would recommend reading this book in as few sittings as possible to get a better reading experience from it. Each of the teams has several good scenes in this book, keeping the action and the pace steaming along nicely. I wonder if Mel Odom had help in the writing of this novel, because it seemed like portions of this book were written with a different style from his usual writing. The thing that made this book unique was the weird scenes involving Eldridge. He was having some supernatural experiences, I guess it was all in his head, but these scenes were something I've never really seen in a Bolan book before. Very interesting, it makes me wonder what will become of this in the conclusion of the trilogy.

This is a very good beginning to this trilogy. Mack Bolan shares the spotlight with Able Team and Phoenix Force, making this more of a Stony Man novel than an Executioner. Mel Odom somehow makes it all work out though, in what I think is one of his very best writing yet at this point in the series. The villains take shape as the story develops, and a sense of impending worldwide trouble adds a grander threat which brings in the whole Stony Man crew to fight these terrorists. Mack gets in some good scenes, I liked the rescue of the soldiers in the sewers, and his taking command of Eldridge and his troops was a realistic scene. PF gets a little action, but not so much that it got in the way of Bolan. Able Team gets a couple really good moments. I liked the first altercation they were involved with, but what I really liked was later when they were sent to the mafia don's restaurant in New York. Here Odom really shows his stuff. We get a special treat here, because Leo Turrin gets his own scene here! Lyons gets to watch Turrin at work doing what he once did, as an undercover role in the mob, which was an excellently written scene. Just having old familiar characters working together -- Bolan, Leo, Carl, Pol, Gadjets, brings back memories from the earliest Pendleton days, this adds a special touch to this novel. Much more than a book with just gun battles, this book has a good developing plot, excellent character interaction, and smart writing, and the ending is a cliffhanger for book two to kick off with. And how about that Talia chick, she seems like a cool woman I want to read more about in this trilogy! I was very pleased with this entry.

I give this title as much as an 8 more because of originality as anything else. Mike Newton steps away from his standard plotline he has been using more lately and tells a good tense intrigue filled story set in Norway. Bolan has an ally, as shown on the front cover, and she helps Bolan throughout his campaign to help a Czech scientist defect to America while dealing with a gang of neo-nazis. Not much action to start off the book, but I hardly noticed because of the interesting storyline developing. I liked the ending car chase, I found it to be an exciting cap to this adventure. The only questionable thing about the book was I wasn't too clear on Rostov's motivation to capture the defector, since it was a major part of the ending, but was really not his primary motive. But it was nice to read nazi's getting their ass whooped, and there is plenty of that here. I found this novel to be more of a throwback to the books Newton wrote during his better writing period, like in the mid to late 80's. Even though Fire Sweep isn't among Newton's best novels, I think this book is worth picking up whether you like his books or not.

Another entertaining entry from VanCook. His novels seem to form the backbone of the series around this time. Although this book was nowhere near as good as Cayman Strike, it is still quite good and I enjoyed reading it. A major portion of the story is an undercover role for Bolan. I like these kind of books, and Bolan's "Al Giddings" persona puts him through some suspensful moments, some explosive action, and some crazy times. Gus Webster was a well written villain, and his three underboss badguys were interesting. Much of the book Bolan is paired up with one of the more memorable badguys in the series. Deetlev Van Doorn is a vile waste of human flesh, the author really piles on a cliche of an alchohol swigging racist woman beating lowlife, that it is a comical addition to the novel. You can really feel Bolan's revulsion to have to work with this loser, and the ultimate fate of this pairing of our hero and this scumbag is predictible, and chapter seven of this book alone is worth the price of admission just to see the great scene of Mack's takedown of Van Doorn. I also liked Bolan's taking action to save innocent lives near the boat when a plan he devised was about to backfire. It's good to read about these kinds of twists in a hero's plans, a story where everything works just the way the hero wanted makes for a less interesting adventure. I found myself going "oh shit, now what?". A good scene, as was many others in this novel.

This book reads like a rocket, a very well paced, smartly written adventure taking place in a small African country near the desert. I never heard of Zandesi, perhaps it's fictional?, but the political situation here was realistic and believable, and the villains were written well. I liked Bolan's main ally, Molembe. He was a very competent commander, and I liked how he had connections with his supporters in the city. I like the flow of this author's writing, and the battle scenes were done well. My only complaint was Bolan himself was a cardboard personality for much of the book, but otherwise there was nothing wrong with his character. I really liked his lone infiltration of the export company. One thing I missed, as another reviewer mentioned, was an ending pitting Bolan one on one with Fowler, the bad dude portrayed on the cover. A nasty villain, but he kind of went out with a whimper. This is a great story about a nation fighting back against a wanna-be dictator. With help from the nastiest man in black of them all.

This is a street gang story set in San Francisco. It is basicly a takeoff on the Bloods vs the Crips scene in L.A. Here we have the "blue" gang called the Skulls and the "red" gang called Savage Nomads. Bolan used the standard tactic found in most of Newton's novels of getting the two gangs to fight each other while Bolan picks them apart. The book has good pacing, the action is done well, and some good characters on Bolan's side. I liked the story about Captain Gibson, who Bolan had met before, how he had to keep his knowledge of Mack's presence secret to his fellow officers. It added some suspense and depth to the story. Souders was another good character, helping to keep this standard action novel more interesting. Bolan appears to be more ruthless than usual in this book. His enemies are quite different than the average terrorist or Mafia goons. Young street gang members make all of the bad guys in this book, but Bolan hoses them with lead like a shooting gallery. The ending wasn't one of the better action segments Newton usually writes, but it was ok, and overall a good adventure for the soldier. A solid 7 seems fair.

I found this book to be entertaining. It is quite different from most Bolan books. The usual formulas from the Pendleton-Newton style is not to be found here, but it was nice to read something heavy on the storyline, like Renauld's AT novels. A lot of time is spent on the perspective of the bad guys, and there are a lot of them in this story. I really liked the villains Ovitz and Tompkins. They were written very well, and were a good portrayal of basic nasty badguys going about their business. There are a lot of interconnected plot threads that had to come together at the end, some of which were not as good as I had hoped, but this book was fun to read about all the villain's scemes along the way. One thing that brings my rating down a little on this novel is that this story seemed to be about everything but Mack Bolan. Too often he was an afterthought, showing up for a page or two, then disappearing again for long stretches. His dialogue wasn't quite accurate either at times. One thing cool about this book is the presence of Able Team. It was nice to see Mack and Carl work together in a few scenes. Barbara Price gets a role in the book also. All in all, a fun read, but not a book all Bolan reader's will like, I think. I look forward to more novels from this writer though.

This book was an average adventure, well told, but nothing spectacular. Most of the action takes place on the Ohio river, and some surrounding towns. On one hand it was nice to see the story take place in one general area, instead of a world hopping adventure. On the other though, it wasn't a story of any grand scope, rather simplistic, with average villains, and basic plotlines. The main Japanese villain Takahashi, was described as someone Bolan has encountered before in a terrorist group called the "Red Sword", but I don't remember what novel, if any, he appeared in. Several other villains in the novel turned out to be either gimpy, or were offed by people other than Bolan's hand. Another villlain escapes near the end of the book, possibly to return in a future book? There were enough good action scenes throughout the book to keep the story moving along nicely and there were plenty of good allies Bolan works with, including a sheriff that Bolan met in the novel #141 "Direct Hit". A decent and quick read, but nowhere near the upper level of Executioner titles.

A mildly entertaining novel, but only just that. Bolan is investigating a situation in Puget Sound that leads him into a meandering plotline that never has any concrete direction. What is really a Mafia story, Bolan teams up with a mob hitman called the Shadow, for the purpose of pitting one family after a couple others. The result of this relationship was predictable, even if you didn't read the spoiler text on the inside front cover. There were far too many characters introduced in this book. It would have been much better to focus on fewer people, and the characters of Sally and Gloria got in the way of the introduction to Don Pietro's daughter Donna. Donna was supposed to be the main focus of the kidnapping, as well as a central character, but her introduction was dreadful. I got her and Gloria confused, and read many pages before I even knew Donna was the Don's daughter, and not Gloria. No description of any kind was even given for Donna. But this lack of description was prevalent in the book in general. Too often a scene would begin with no indication of where it was taking place. Are they in a car? A boat? A plane? A house? Inside or outside? On the telephone or in person? Many times I couldn't tell. Action scenes were good in some parts and mediocre in others. Bolan's character seemed slightly off at times. Mack had some good allies in the story, and there were enough scenes in general that I liked to keep this book from being a loser. Overall, a fair book but not really worth hunting down. The writer's first Executioner, #145 Chicago Payoff, was a far superior novel.

This is an outstanding Executioner title. The storytelling is nearly flawless from the start to the last page, with a fast paced and exciting thriller by a talented writer. All the action takes place on an Island, with Bolan pursued by a large army of cartel hitmen all over the place. His ability to keep the Gonzales couple safe while all this was going on really showed how awesome a soldier he is. I liked the Gonzales characters, they were realisticly written, and I liked how Bolan was patient with Tana and kept up her spirits through the ordeal. Jack Grimaldi has a role in the book as well, although his presence is limited in the novel, I thought his scenes were a great touch for the adventure. The story had a great flow, and lots of tension and suspense thrown in and it gave me the impression that happens very rarely that the author just seemed to have reached peak performance, kind of like being "in the zone". That is what this book is like through the whole thing. One of the best books in the series I think. It will be hard for VanCook to top this one, but I really look forward to reading more of his stuff. Cayman Strike deserves the whole ten stars.

I enjoyed this book, it was a sleek fast paced adventure that was a quick and action packed read. Bolan has a rather different battle than usual in this novel. He has been challenged by a Japanese religious sect called Unseen Power, and they have a strict code of war that makes their enemy fight a series of their best warriors, called champions. In a nutshell the plot was a contrived idea to display Bolan fighting in Japan one on one in some scenes using martial arts weapons and moves. But nevertheless the author wrote this around a very well written and exciting adventure with great action scenes and intelligent storytelling. The ending was a little rushed, but still it wasn't bad. This is a very different type of Bolan book in some ways, mainly with the way Bolan fought against some of the villains, so if you prefer more of the standard Executioner assaults, you might not like it as much, but I thought Phantom Force provided enough entertainment to rate it an 8.

After my disappointment with the lame Message To Medellin, I was a little worried if Newton was going to bounce back to his great form again with Hawaiian Heat. This book is vintage Mike Newton, the hardcore blitzing Bolan kicking the teeth out of the bad guys in a well written action novel that never let up on the throttle. Although Bolan's game plan in this novel is nothing new, it ws nice to see the old-school Executioner on the warpath again. The Yakuza and the Chinese Triads are Bolan's targets in this adventure, with Mack attacking both groups, and attempting to get them to go at war with each other as well. The Chinese end of it seemed to take more focus as the story moved along, and the Yakuza was a secondary plotline. I found a couple parts in the book a little confusing here, because with all the different hits Bolan was doing to these two groups, I could have sworn that Newton got the two mixed up on a couple occasions. Tommy Anders is featured in the book, it was nice to see him again after a lengthy absence. I liked the way the allies were involved in the story, and the various sideline characters on both sides kept the story interesting. Newton did a good job on this book, a solid well written episode.

Well, what can I say about this book? It was different that's for sure. The best way to describe it is it's weird. The occult is a major theme in this story, which is what Bolan faces in the oddball villains in this adventure. On one hand these are not your typical run-of the-mill bad guys, a good thing, and on the other hand these villains were rather not the type that a man of Bolan's talents should have even bothered with. The plot is interesting, and as usual with Leslie's novels, Bolan has a puzzle to solve along the way (yup, there is a hang glider in this book too), with plenty of Mack sneaking around and discovering all sorts of surprises. However the villains complicated sceme is a little hard to swallow, as quite an effort is made among many conspirators and involving a huge cast of extras with everything going right just to deceive somebody. I liked the concept of their plan, but the way it was written out in this story was too over the top. Most of the book takes place in a large house, and the expansive grounds surrounding it. A map of the interior of the mansion, as well as of the grounds would have been a major help in following the action. I had difficulty in picturing how all the stuff was layed out, particularly in the big yard with all the buildings and the natural scenery. The ending was a little dorky, but I did like Bolan's tense final showdown with Salter and Scarff in the last few pages. Basicly this book was a unique reading experience that had some good moments here and there but not as good as most Superbolans. I guess I will give this novel a 6. By the way Jason Mettner is one of Bolan's allies in here but off the top of my head I can't remember the other titles he showed up in. I'm assuming he was in some of Leslie's earlier books.

I had been sampling all the authors in the series whose Bolan novels I hadn't read before, and had left this novel for last mainly because it was the only title from the author, and because the reviews on on it were about the worst for any book from Gold Eagle. My expectations were not high going into it, so maybe that was why I enjoyed it more than I might have otherwise, but in any case I found Prime Target to be far from the bottom of the barrel. It wasn't spectacular either, but in a nutshell, I found the book to be worth the read. I suspect Price is a military guy, it was obvious from his writing that he was in the armed forces or at least had spent some years in it at one time. The action in this book is non-stop, aside from being a little bit monotonous in a couple spots, I thought the story moved along in an exciting, tense adventure that kept me glued to the action. The MP, Torrey, was a good ally at Bolan's side for much of the story, I just wish he would have had some kind of an introduction, as well as some closure as to his fate at the novel's conclusion. A couple of things about the story that kept me from rating it a star higher was some vagueness to the plotline. I wasn't quite clear on just what the Taiwanese mob's dealings were with the main villain, Schneider. And near the end, the scene at the computer room with the scientists was hard to follow and didn't quite satisfy. Schneider was a pretty good villain, and I liked how Bolan didn't have an easy time of it to kill him. The book has some good battle scenes, some were a little hard to follow, but the action was good and the tanks were a cool addition to the battlefield. This book wasn't anywhere near the upper level of Bolan novels, and had potential to be better that wasn't reached, but I liked this episode in the series and will be at least one reader that will put in a kind word for this one-time author's effort.

This novel deals with the struggle between blacks and whites in South Africa. Bolan is sent to protect the new black president and at the same time take out some white supremacist gangs in the area. North writes an entertaining action story, although with a large cast of characters, you might need a scorecard to keep track of them all. Lots of different gangs and their various allegiences make for some complicated reading, especially if you read the book over a few days. But it kept my interest and Bolan had some good allies and great blitzes against the gang-owned warehouses. Preston, the embassy man, was more and more a feature in the novel and provided valuable assistance to Bolan. Sonda was another main character who was the focal point of the story. This book has an interesting storyline with some by-the-numbers action sequences. A few things dropped my rating down a bit with some bits here and there that didn't seem to add up right. For one, I thought that it was too pat to have Preston constantly providing Bolan with all the info he needed. One scene in particular confused me. I couldn't figure out how Preston beat Bolan to Sonda's rescue when Bolan was the only one there and was tossing grenades into the building. There were no other entrances to the building. And Bolan had talked to Preston on the phone before he went there, Bolan was closer to the building. How did Preston get in there? Another item that didn't seem right was Sonda herself. Too much of is she a good guy or a bad guy thing going on in the story. Normaly this would be something to keep the reader guessing, but in this case there just didn't seem to be any consistency in her character. Another thing was Desmond. He seemed to be the main bad guy early in the novel, but he kind of disappeared after a while. Later on Bolan gets invited to his party. Preston supposedly got the invitation, but there was no apparent connection between Preston and Desmond. All in all a fairly good book that had even more potential, but for some questionable plot threads. A strong 7.

This is a very good Executioner story, even better than the author's first book #293 Death Merchants. Tresslar is without question one of the top talents in today's action-adventure genre. The action is fast and furious, the plot is interesting and the book is populated with well drawn characters and nonstop adventure. Much of the story takes place in Africa and in the state of Nevada. You won't find any cardboard villains in this novel. A big cast of badguys that are truly evil, all with their own personality, and as ruthless as any villains Bolan has faced before. Bolan has a great sidekick in this story, a russian woman Rytova, who is written very well, and a great warrior by Bolan's side. Great action scenes abound in this book, one of my favorites was the assault on Kursk's island home. Kursk is a great villain, and I liked the backstory behind him and his connection to Rytova. Tresslar has written an outstanding Bolan adventure, gripping, great dialogue, and an all around entertaining read. It seemed slightly disjointed in a few areas, but overall a nearly flawless novel. It would have made a better SuperBolan, but for a 220 page book you really get your moneys worth, a lot is packed between the covers. Tim really delivers the goods in this book, don't miss out on it!

With the unfortunate demise of the PF and AT series, many of those writers then joined the Executioner writing squad around the time this novel came out. (With much rejoicing!). Fieldhouse and Linaker from PF, and North and Renauld from AT. I was concerned though about which Renauld was going to show up for Double Action. The one who wrote the awesome Strike Force, or the one who wrote the gimpy Dead Zone? Thank heavens this book is written the way I was hoping for, and it sure packed a lot of entertainment between the covers. A well developed plot, plenty of action, suspenseful scenes, great locations, and a host of crafty villains make this an above average Bolan adventure that I enjoyed reading a lot. From the coast of California to the frozen tundra of Alaska, Bolan must track down an elusive mastermind who plots to damage the US oil industry. I liked the scenes in the snow, where Bolan must deal with the elements as he tangles with some bad guys and natural disasters. I liked how all the characters had different connections and the loose ends all came together nicely in an ending that had my pulse pounding at the final pages.

The king of the Phoenix Force series at last joins the Bolan series, and comes up with a damn good solid peformance. Fans of Katz should not be without this Executioner title, it is all Bolan and the one-armed PF commander in action in the same volume. Fieldhouse crafts his usual compelling writing, along with the great action and scenes where Katz and Bolan discuss and deduce theories about who is doing what and what could be done, just like his PF novels have. Excellent dialogue involving Katz and the Isreali Mossad leaders. All the action takes place in and around Isreal, as Bolan must take down an Isreali madman trying to incite war between Isreal and the Arabs. From cover to cover, a good book, and a classic now considering the eventual fate of Katz.

The author returns after a long absence from the series, with what I thought was a solid action novel. Not as good as most of his early books, but a satisfying enough yarn that I will be generous and give Hell Road an 8. Several great villains are weaved into this story. I liked how they were all connected, some backstory, some intrigue, and lots of wheeling and dealing between the various factions. And Gorman was a very well crafted and nasty villain. I also liked his connection to Marlin, and other villains were connected to various other Bolan allies, so everybody working with Bolan had strong motives for taking out specific badguys. Lots of the explosive and hard nosed action as can be expected from this writer. The action sequence at the end is rather rushed, I thought it could have been done better, but the loose ends were tied up ok, so it worked out.

Oh my god! Lockdown is unlike any Bolan book you've ever read before. I always thought that the element of suspense is something lacking in too many Executioner novels. I havn't seen very much of it since #108 Time To Kill. With Lockdown, I found myself with a book not only loaded with suspense, but I got more than I bargained for. But more than that this is really a horror novel. I'm talking about Mack Bolan meets Resident Evil here! The author really cuts loose with this title, so much so, that It's a wonder it even saw print. GE has a fairly tight formula they like to stick to, but hopefully books like this would be an indication that they are willing to allow more diversity in the stories. Personaly, I think books in the series that break the same-old same-old mold is a positive thing, not only for entertainment value, but after over 400 books, a series should remain fresh with flexibility rather than stagnate with the usual retreads. And a book this well written is a welcome addition to the lineup. I'm positive there will be readers of the series that will despise this novel, as there were a few that didn't like a book like Iron Fist, but whatever the case, this is entertaining storytelling, and that's what matters to me. I was on the edge of my seat, as this gripping horror novel of Bolan's rescue of Brognola, with McCarter at his side, explore the harrowing nightmare in an underground complex where Bolan comes across a horror unlike any he's seen before. Great scenes with Hal Brognola as well. I suggest reading this novel at night with a flashlight with erie music playing in the background for full effect - lol. There were only a few minor flaws here and there, the one thing I missed the most was in the epilogue there should have been a mention of exactly what went wrong in Lab 22. But I loved this book, it was good from the first page to the very last, and a unique reading experience in the series. I give it a 10.

Wow, what an outstanding book this turned out to be. Hell yeah. The Comcon trilogy has to be the best trilogy written in the series. All three books are awesome entertainment, and Ultimate Price in my opinion is the best of the three. First a shocking attack on Stony Man farm itself with an army of the secret nuke powered choppers. Excellent battle scenes there with Bolan and Price defending the farm. This makes up the first third of this thrilling novel. The second third of the book, my favorite, is the action at the 12 story hotel in west Texas. I loved this part. Bolan plays his role camaflage to the hilt as he poses as a SENSOPS agent, much like his black ace persona in the mafia wars. His manipulation of Saracino was brilliant, the action in the hotel was incredible, explosive and a great cinematic conclusion to the scene with the helicopters added to the action. Grimaldi's role in the novel is fantastic. Joe Newport. Ah, this is a great villain. Montgomery wrote this character brilliantly. I enjoyed all the scenes involving this guy. One flaw in the novel is I didn't get to see Bolan confront this man face to face for his demise. An interesting death for the villain all the same. The third portion of the story takes place at Area 51 in Nevada. Although the ending was somewhat rushed, I still thought it was great, with a terrifying conclusion, a gripping pulse pounding finish to one of the very best novels in the Executioner series. The author's writing is outstanding, I strongly recommend this trilogy for any fan of Mack Bolan, don't miss out on it!

This must be the most wacked-out novel in the whole series. A big guy with nonotechnology running through his blood and diamond fiber bones running amok in Denver is Bolan's adversary. A product of the Comcon Nazis, this nearly unkillable monster has some thrilling battles with Bolan, and later regenerates from deadly wounds. The side plot of the crazy journalist Garrison and his woman sidekick provide some of the most insane and amusing moments I've read in this series. His showdown with Sorenson was a very comical gun battle. Newport is the returning villain from Trigger Point, and though his role is limited, he is pretty much the leader of the Comcon bad guys at this point. His soldiers attacking the big airplane was a large part of the action in the novel, a very tense and well done action scene. The ending was good, but I thought the assault on the party house was a little gimpy with the main opposition being wimpy gunmen in bunny suits and half naked pro football players throwing a football at Lyons. There were a few loose ends left by the end, some stretches of believability and overall the book wasn't as good as Trigger Point was, but considering the originality of the book and the hillarious moments, and blazing action, I'm giving Iron Fist a ten anyway.

This is an awesome Bolan book. The author's writing is top-notch quality in every area. The character of Mack Bolan is written very well. Every page of this thriller oozes with plot. The reader's attention is captured at the start and is drawn more and more into the story as the pages go by. I liked the way the author has a well thought out backstory to the conspiracy taking place in the government. The FEMA organization seemed to have a likely position to accomplish their evil goals, making an element of tension to the story gripping and fascinating. Great action scenes that have major consequences to the storyline. The dialogue throughout the book was excellent. I liked the shifting between various points of view, especialy with the Gaines and Gump characters. I'm anxious to read on in Montgomery's next book, there are many loose ends to this story, which has so much going on, it is only the start of a trilogy. One of the most entertaining Bolan books out there.

This is one of Mel Odom's best books I've read so far, from the first page to the last the story had me turning the pages in a thrilling fast paced adventure. The main villain was very nasty and cunning, his terrorists were a good challenge for Bolan to take on. Most of the action is around Chicago, with Brognola having a good role in the story, and there are great scenes with Bolan working in among the police while undercover as a federal agent. The reporter Keller, was another good character, as was Trebeck, who was opposed to Bolan strongly, but when he found out who Bolan was, his actions turned out to be surprising. I also liked some references to Bolans past adventures, and this book has a kick-ass ending. A well done, entertaining novel, with Odom's storytelling strengths at top-notch level and even the action scenes were written better than expected. A strong 9.

An excellent solid action book from cover to cover. The story takes place in the areas of Miami, Lauderdale, in nearby swamps, on the sea, and even in Cuba. Bolan has good allies in a group of cubans who are fighting against local gangsters, and eventualy the communist cuban DGI is involved. Bolan blitzes both of these enemies in great action scenes, and gains another ally with the boat captain named Rodriguez. I liked the adventures on board his boat, which makes up a good portion of the novel. The girl Ramona was another great ally, her part was written very well. Pretty much everything was written well, Bolan's characterization, the storyline, villains, action scenes and the pacing was perfect. The attack on the swamp hideout was a tragic heartwrenching part of the story, and brought out the focus on the surviving Alvorado as another tough ally for Bolan. One of the author's best entrys in the series.

I will refer to this novel as the title it should have been -- Colonblow. Oh man, what a crappy book. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on througout the whole thing. There were so many characters, all with their own agendas, their own allies and enemies, and nobody seemed to know what they were really doing, or what was going on, including Mack Bolan. The gist of the story is a former soviet KGB man named Sharkov is now in the business of running a drug pipeline around the Pakistan area, and the Afghan named Hikmal is getting money from the russian so he can buy guns. Thats pretty much all I could figure out what was supposed to be going on anyway. What a fricken mess. This story has so many loose ends, too many characters doing too many nonsensical things, the storyline was one of the most disjointed and confusing that I have ever read in my life. The author seemed to be scraping random ideas and situations together in a pile and making that his complete manuscript. I stopped trying to follow the story early in the novel, and it would take a review as long as the book itself to explain all the problems within this pile of fecal matter. Mack Bolan himself was as confused as I was, so at least I wasn't alone. A warning to Bolan readers out there: stay away from this goat-scrotum book. Because of some decent action scenes here and there, I will give Colonblow 2 generous stars.

I'm just not cut out for Stony Man books. Although the first half of the novel contained something that the original Stony Man Doctrine lacked; a story, the book then took a turn for the worse and settled into the same action scene to action scene monotony. The good: A great villain was created, kind of like a Charles Manson combined with Bin Ladin. Early on, I liked the unique bad guy and the powers he had and the way he used them. Good scenes at the stony man farm, and introducing Kurtzman's help in the computer room. Also some good scenes featuring the president. Able Team's perspective was my favorite action in the book. Leo Turrin was part of the action here as well. The perspective of the hostage magazine reporter was done well. Also the conspiracy centering around getting the hostage newsman to report on Deering's activities. An interesting side plot was developing with the general who was called to the President's office. Nothing really developed there unfortunately. The bad: This book had two major problems. One was the endless and often repetitive action scenes that jumped from one place and perspective to another. Too many characters and places and battles just added to the confusion, and so many of them followed too much the same formula. The other problem with this novel is the action scenes themselves. I had trouble visualizing the action in most of the book. This was the strength of Stony Man Doctrine. But Stony Man 2 was lacking in the quality of the action writing. Far too confusing, too much stuff happened that just wasn't clear, it was more like reading what takes place in someones dream after the details have faded from memory. This combined with the nonstop shifting from one place to another from battle to battle and the repetitiveness of them all made for a less than satisfactory reading experience. The story faded more and more and by the end, it was all just a paramilitary war novel with a rushed and so-so ending. Some plot elements in the novel seemed to disappear. Many of the main bad guys were taken out in an offhand manner. Encizo seemed to be nothing more than in the background. The book had a decent enough start that I will give it a 5.

Another fast paced adventure thriller from VanCook. Bolan has to stop a Japanese Red Army gang from using a virus to infect the world's population. Bolan has an ally in the form of a female KGB agent, as the US and Russia must join forces to fight this global terror. This agent was an excellent character in the story. Bolan does some globe hopping in this adventure, the first piece of the story taking place in Spain. Bolan runs in the streets with the bulls! Good action here, then the story shifts to New Mexico. Eventually Bolan is in Hokaido, Japan for a decent assault on the base there, and back to the US again for an exciting down to the wire conclusion. I thought there was a stretch as far as how everything came together at the end. I wasn't too convinced about the terrorist leader wanting to show up there in person, and how the KGB Colonel would have known where to go, and I also wondered why the computer in Japan was in english. But what the heck, this was an entertaining story, great writing and action scenes, suspense and plot twists, I'm giving this book a 9.

This is a review for RAZORBACK, an Able Team novel by David North. I give it an 8 rating. I was surprised by this story, I wasn't expecting much, but it turned out to be one of the better AT novels in the last books of the series. The style reminded me of the better Ron Renauld books. A lot of the focus was on the bad guys and their scemes. A lot of different things were going on, but the author managed to keep everything tied together pretty well. One of the things that is a plus for this novel is the accuracy of the backgrounds of the characters and the events taken place throughout the series. Cowboy joins Lyons and Pol for much of the mission while Gadjets is on his own. I liked the various perspectives from so many different characters, it made the story more interesting and entertaining. The plot was pretty good, the corrupt sheriff was an unusual villain, I thought his role was written well. The leader of the biker gang was another good villain. Also I liked the character of Susan Phelen. She was so much more than just a love interest for Lyons. Her part in the book was excellent. And Sandy Meissner, whom Gadjets met in Strike Force, had an appearance as well.

Holy cow, Mike Linaker hits this one out of the ballpark! No, make that out of Earth's orbit! It's too bad it has taken so many years for this man to get a superBolan of his own. Zero Option has to rank as one of the best Bolan stories I've ever read. The action starts off with a man running away from a military base in New Mexico, with implants under his skin. The purpose of these implants? To connect man with machine. An orbiting space platform that is set to go online, with the man being the only one having the ability to fully activate the missile capabilities. Different factions want this powerful weapon, and most of them are up to no good. The Chinese want it destroyed. A corrupt senator wants it for himself, to take the white house and control the world in the satelite's grip. Before long Mack Bolan gets involved. The complex web of these various factions and their private armies clash in a well told, exciting and fast paced adventure that provides top-notch reading entertainment. This is what superBolans are all about. Bolan meets good allies along the way, and nasty villains. The adventure is suspensful, thrilling, and fast paced. The sci-fi elements of the story are fascinating, and all the characters, good and bad, are written with realism and great dialogue. The story builds through the novel to an exciting clash inside the facility, with captures and daring escapes, bloody action, and brutal fighting. The ending is about the most unique you will ever see in a Bolan novel. All the loose ends are tied up neatly by the end of the book. And I liked the conversation between Bolan and Kaplan near the end. I would say much more about this novel, but I will leave it to the reader to enjoy the book. Mike Linaker was in the ZONE when he wrote this masterpiece of action/adventure. This is a true Bolan classic. Don't miss out on it. Read it. Recommend it to your friends. With his first superBolan entry, Mike has conquered the superBolan universe.

Wow, this book both sucks AND blows. I began the final installment in this story in anticipation of a great reading experience to bring this trilogy to an exiting, action packed finale, with all the setup in the first novel coming to fruition and a continuation of the outstanding second book. Instead what I got was a turd. I guess every author, even the great ones write a novel once or twice in their career that just sucks. This novel, in my opinion, has to be Mike Newton's turd. I disliked many portions of the book, not only in the way the story played out, but also the aweful pacing. After a clunky start, the book started to take off, but then it just collapsed into monotany. Newton just couldn't seem to get his narrative rambling out of his system. This is something that plagued some of his earlier novels like Flight 741. It was: ramble, ramble, brief action, ramble, ramble, brief action, ramble, ramble, brief dialogue, then back to rambling. There were times when I had to put down the book and stare at random objects in the room for a bit. But this wasn't really the biggest problem with this book. It was just the fact that it wasn't very good. Able Team is set aside in book two, but gets minimal exposure at the beginning of this story. Leo Turrin is just a body along for the ride. Lyons really has no role at all. And "the spider", who's part in this whole trilogy was botched in more than one way, was dispatched in an unsatisfactory scene, with potential for a better involvement in the novel gone out the window. The capture of Franco's widow and daughter was too contrived, and didn't bring a gripping element to the story like it should have. Many positive things that make Newton's novels good seemed to be absent from this novel. Action scenes overall were stale and uneventful. PF was involved, but with the Canadian troop along for the ride as well, most of the characters were left in the background, doing what, I wasn't always sure. The final thirty percent of the book involved Bolan's trek through the jungle to Costanza's home, where the final battle, if it can be called that, takes place. The action there was unsatisfactory, the conclusion of a complex and lengthy trilogy ending with some shooting at Costanza's supposedly strong and outnumbering forces, then Bolan literaly walks in the door which was "left unlocked", shoots a few hardguys in the kitchen and then its out to the helipad to confront Costanza himself in a brief scene. Blah. Mercado and Rodriguez died in another unsatisfactory scene. There is more to gripe about but I have said enough about that, as far as what sucks. Oh, and as far as what blows about this novel, here are a couple other things. Costanza has a zoo at his place, which is the same kind of thing another bad guy in the same part of the world had in a PF novel I read recently. Anyway, while Bolan and a couple canadian allies walked through Costanza's door, what was PF doing? their action was an afterthought, but I know what Calvin James was doing. While Costanza's goons are shooting all around them, James is going around cutting all the monkeys and zebras and tigers loose. Just plain silly. Maybe after the battle, but I don't see with the limited personell to attack the house, that one of PF would be relegated to that task during the fight. But what I really thought was dumb about this book was the volcano. All through the second and third volumes, the earth would rumble periodicly, from the volcano located near Costanza's property. I began to think by the end of this clunker that "no way, this CANT work out the way I think it will". It did. The timing of this volcano that hadn't blown in who knows how many centuries to blow right when Bolan assaults Costanza's base was just plain dumb. Peter Leslie already pulled off a similar stunt in Sunscream, and that kind of thing can sort of work once, but it just turns out dumber the second time around. Especialy in a book that isn't all that great anyway. After a promising, entertaining, and well done trilogy going in the first two volumes, Message To Medellin brings the trilogy to a grinding halt and falls flat on its face.

Mel Odom writes a brilliant middle book in this trilogy. The focus moves away from AT, leaving that angle for the third book. PF gets in some good action and the priest introduced early in book one has a major role in this novel. The main storline centers around a new character called Franco, who is the new man in charge of bringing people against the cocaine cartels. His main target is Costanza, and Bolan finds a new ally for his war, along with the Canadian troop mentioned in book one. This is some of Odom's best writing I have seen yet. A good mix of action and storyline moves the trilogy along swiftly and smoothly. I liked the part where Barbara Price goes to Miami to confront Constantine in his office. And the side story of Flynn making a buy of drugs while Franco was giving his anti-drug speech and the ensuing events was a great touch to the novel. A great book to link the first and third novels together, I was pleased with it.

This book came out in the era of the drug war novels, and the main storyline is the takedown of the top drug cartels based out of Columbia. What is really more of a Stony Man trilogy, a three prong attack is launched, with AT in Miami, PF in Panama, and Bolan and Grimaldi in Columbia. Blood Rules is the setup for the trilogy, so it reads a little different, because the story isn't told in 220 pages, but I am judging each book on its own merit. I thought it was pretty good, although it seemed to have a lot of run of the mill action scenes. The tactic Bolan uses to get the various drug lords to point fingers at each other is something he has used numerous times, and that is the game plan here. What I liked about this story was Costanza kept a cool head, and didn't react the way Bolan had wanted him to. He was interested in finding out who was responsible for the attacks before he took action. Rodrigez and Mercado were kind of the same way, but all three of them were nevertheless plotting against each other. This kind of made the story more interesting, making you wonder if Bolan's plan would backfire, and have them unite together against their mysterious enemy instead of going at each other's thoats. Able Team's mission in Miami was kind of perplexing, because the character they were after was stated at the start as being a woman, and yet this person was refered as a he for the rest of the book. The true identity surprise was dropped near the end, but of course it was predictable, as well as guessing who this woman really was anyway. I thought Newton really dropped the ball here. There were areas of the novel that seemed to ramble too much, which hurt the pacing of the story, but there was a fair amount of characters and situations to keep the book interesting and leaves a cliffhanger at the end of the novel. Leo Turrin is going to join AT in Miami for the next book. This ought to be good.

This was an enjoyable entry in the series by one of the Trailsman writers. Bolan mission is to track down some drug dealers, and along the way he runs into a woman who is after the same people. I liked the way this woman's crusade against the drug lord kind of mirrored Bolan's own beginning when he went after the Mafia. I thought the interaction between Bolan and the woman was done very well and how he understood what she was going through. Although White Heat is standard as far as Executioner adventures go, I thought a strong point in the novel was the more human way Mack was portrayed, you read his thoughts and emotions, and his reasonings and so forth. This was the kind of thing I found lacking in the last Executioner I read: Fire Hammer #215. Decent action scenes, interesting villains, and three dimensional characters make this book a better than average read.

A couple leaders of an anti-PRC group are planning to ruin nuclear reactors in China. Bolan's mission is to track them down. A sidekick from the CIA, a woman named Jiahua, was with him for much of the adventure. I agree with Terry's review on this one, this book is an example of what can go wrong if a book is centered too much on just the action. While the book starts off with the action fast and furious, and continues throughout the novel, there were a number of areas in the story where the action or situations didn't seem plausible, or were repetitive, or just plain dry. But the biggest problem I had with the novel was the character of Mack Bolan... or rather the lack of it. Much of the time he was nothing more than an automaton, a generic action figure, where you could easily insert "Joe Smith: Superagent Commando", in place of Bolan. No showing of emotions, a good example is when he discovered on the road to the town the boy, Kin, who had helped them earlier, had been tortured and killed and the weeping mother bringing him back to town. Bolan had as much reaction to this scene as if he were walking past a fencepost. And much of the dialogue in the novel was as wooden as the fencepost. Pure action novel readers will like it, many good scenes, and the battle at the compound in and near the reactor replica were decent, but if you are looking for an entry in the series that is more of an actual Mack Bolan, than this book will not be satisfactory.

This is a review for DEATH LASH, an Able Team story by David North A fairly decent novel, with some funny banter between the team members, and Aaron Kurtzman gets a nice role in the story. A group of former Romanian secret police are now in america and steal a supercomputer bound for the NSA. They want to use it to break into all sorts of high level government computers to create problems and to make money. For this they need someone with computer hacking skills, and a former student of Kurtzman is captured to do the hack work. I like how Kurtzman was on the battlefield taking down the bad guys from his wheelchair. A lot of the novel centered around the woman leading the terrorist cell, and Able Team was in the background for some portions of the book. The ending wasn't all that spectacular, but overall I liked this novel, a good balance of action scenes and story development. A much better effort than Dueling Missiles was from this author.

I was impressed by this first Mack Bolan written by another new author. The characters were accurate, including the members of Able Team, who I was pleased to see in this novel. The action scenes were done well, and I found myself really getting into the story more and more as I read along. Bolan is out to find some suitcases that have ended up in the hands of black market dealers. These are actually atomic bombs, and Bolan must act fast to trace them down and disarm them. Full of fast paced adventure, with a good mix of perspectives from the bad guys and their scemes, Bolan, and Able Team. An enjoyable entertaining action flick.

Mack Bolan is hot on the trail of an Islamic terrorist cell leader by the name of Ahmur Ibn Laud. This story is about Bolan's relentless pursuit of this man through some of the most exciting, action packed, bloody and explosive adventures in his everlasting war. Full of spills and thrills, this fast paced book by the author of Blood Trade grabs you by the throat and shoves your face full-on into the action and lets you up for air just long enough to catch a breath before slamming you right back into the chaos and mayhem. This novel would make a great movie, I think, it would be cool to see what John Woo could do with it. Lots of hair raising stunts, one of my favorites being Mack's taking on a helicopter with a motorcycle. Literaly. Mack has two allies helping him through the adventure, Wazdi, and Kowalski. These were former blacksuits at the farm and they were outstanding warriors at Bolan's side, as well as infusing a sense of humor into the narrative. The final confrontation with Laud, after an exciting bullet riddled chase in trucks in the Egyptian desert, leads to one of the bloodiest and brutal one on one fights Mack has had in a long time. Our hero gets beat and busted up and exhausted by the end of this adventure, but as always, gets the job done. My one problem with the novel was some of the action scenes were hard to follow, I thought they could have used more polishing, and some more depth of descriptive detail. And some of the shooting seemed too generic. Although I thought Blood Trade was a better novel overall, I think this exciting book was worth a nine star rating, and full of enough action to make your head spin, readers who enjoyed Doug's first novel will not be disappointed by Hard Pursuit. Expect more of the same great stuff from this book, get yourself a copy today!

This is an excellent novel by a talented writer. The basic theme of this story is snipers, and sniping. An El Salvadoran sniper kill squad sent to harrass the drug cartel in Colombia instead turns on the government that set them up. The US government. Their murderous spree in the States brings in Mack Bolan to take them out, and he has an ally in TJ Hawkins to help him. This is the first time I have read a book with TJ in it, and he was used primarily as a countersniper to aid Bolan in his assualt on the drug dealer's compounds. The action was plenty and the pacing was fast and nonstop. The villains were strong and nasty opponents, and a lot of innocent lives were destroyed by the time Bolan finally tracked them all down, going down to the wire as the last man holed up in a tower shooting citizens of the town similar to the scene at a Texas college many years ago. A very explosive and suspenseful book by an author that I wish would write more Executioner stories. A Bolan book not to be missed if you are searching for the better ones. A strong 9.

A Russian pilot and his harrier style jet are hired by a Golden Triangle drug lord to protect his empire and run heroin shipments. Bolan's mission is to find and destroy this jet. Jack Grimaldi has a major role in this novel, working with Bolan for most of the adventure. I liked how Grimaldi kept his cool when captured and had the confidence Mack was going to rescue him. Mack displayed the same confidence in Jack, these guys have always made the best team, and this book shows this better than most books I can think of. Mack is back in the jungle once more doing what he does best, and Grimaldi's scenes piloting the captured helecopter are outstanding. The book is fast paced, action packed and full of thrilling arial combat and jungle warfare. The ending was very tense and exciting. The writing is excellent and full of descriptive detail and has realistic dialogue and characters. I really liked this novel, and am looking forward to reading many more books by Mr. Kasner.

This is a review for TERROR IN WARSAW, a Phoenix Force story by William Fieldhouse. Concluding the long running series, this is another typical PF action novel, this time taking place in Poland. After a cool rescue of hostages on a hijacked plane in Turkey, the Force is sent to Warsaw to find who is behind a plot to destroy the advancement of democracy in Poland by making it appear as if the capitalist influence is responsible for the rise of drugs and deaths from drug use. The real culprit is the latest attempt of the communists to try to regain power there, and it doesn't take long before Katz and the gang are back to kicking communist butt. A large roster of allies and villains make the story more interesting. A fairly standard adventure, some parts are a little slow, but the action picks up and this book has a real good final shootout at the docks, and I liked McCarter's exciting car chase to close out the series. A strong 7.

This is a review for SECRET JUSTICE, an Able Team story by Ken Rose I'm giving this one 8 stars. I read this fast moving novel in just a few hours, and it was one of the more enjoyable AT stories I've read in a long time. For much of the book, it seemed to be the author's best written of his entries in the series. The plot was an unusual one, this time Lyons and his partners must join forces with some lowlifes in a prison to fight against some much worse enemies; the corrupt prison guards. I liked the under cover role Pol played as an inmate, and Gadjets and Lyons posed as Guards. The prison camp was more a concentration camp, bringing people off the streets that the warden saw as an enemy to his beliefs, so many inmates in the prison were not even guilty of any serious crimes. The twisted main villain was a type similar to that of a Nazi death camp warden. A decent shootout at the end when the prisoners break out, but the layout of the whole compound was a little confusing to keep track of. A good epilogue to end the story, but it wasn't clear what happened to the inmates of the camp.

I read this book wanting to see if this new Bolan author made an improvement from his debut of #299. Although Boot is not the most gifted writer, I thought Point Position was a step up in some ways, and overall it was worth reading. Bolan's mission is to recover a stolen weapon from the hands of an arms dealer, before he sells it to a terrorist named Attaturk. The plot ideas concerning this sonic weapon were cool, and one of the things I liked about the story was the way it was used and how Bolan had to deal with it during his assault on the arms dealer's chateau. The action takes place in France, and one scene takes place in the underground sewer system which was another scene I liked. However I didn't care much for the silly fight with the homeless people in one of the rooms there. Bolan has some unlikely allies in this mission in the form of two merc agents named Goldman and Ross, who are also after the sonic weapon. Although Grimaldi is involved, most of Bolan's mission is with these two agents at his side. These are not the type of people Bolan was happy to work with, and the crazy Goldman and the levelheaded Ross made for an interesting pair for Mack to put up with. It was never made clear who exactly these agents were working for. Some parts of the book were a little slow paced for my liking, and Bolan didn't seem like himself at times. And the fate of Attaturk wasn't clear, and the character of D'Orsini, who was after him, was forgotten. I was hoping this side of the plot would have had a resolution, but it didn't happen. I did like the ending assault on the chateau, and I liked how Bolan was miked up with Grimaldi for much of the mission, a cool hi-tech angle to the action that I've only read so far in Blood Trade. In a nutshell, this is a novel that is ok to get by with until a better book in the series follows the next month.

This is a review for Dirty Mission, a Phoenix Force story by Mike Linaker. The Force goes to England to root out drug traffickers who are finding a market in selling drugs to soldiers at military bases. Their ally on this mission is Andrew Dexter, who was also with them in Linaker's first PF novel Missile Menace. He is a good ally and I was saddened by what happened to him later in the novel. This book has all the usual action and firefights as the Force also battles various drug kingpins and deal with informants in the police making things difficult for them. The final battle takes place in Holland, at the drug warehouse where McCarter gets seriously wounded. A solid action novel I would rate about a seven, but I'm giving it an extra star for the way the characters were written in this story. The confrontation between Katz and James was written very well, and saw a side of McCarter that was more mature and a hint that he was the best choice to be the eventual leader of the Force in the future. There was funny banter between the members of the team too.

Bolan is sent to rescue a female agent Katherine May from a camp in Cambodia. Thats pretty much what the plot is, but this book is really about a suspensful trek through the jungles of Thailand and war-torn Cambodia. Ambushed by roving bands of Khmer Rouge, Chinese, and Vietnamese soldiers, Bolan along with his ally Kwanh seek out the missing woman deep in dangerous territory. I liked how the author wrote about how Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had affected the people in the country, and the relationships between the different nationalities in that part of Asia. I thought the scenes with Katherine were done very well, and my favorite part of the book had to be Bolan's escape through the underground tunnels beneath one of the villages. A suspenseful and cool scene that brings my rating up a star. The ending was ok, but not great, rather predictable and brief, but at least the loose end about who was the traitor was solved at the last moment. As an action/adventure story, I thought this book was decent, not a great book at all, but has some good moments, it was worth reading.

I think this is Furst's best novel so far, and one of the better Executioner stories I've read in some time. An outstanding action packed gang warfare novel set in New York City. Readers who liked Red Horse should like this one, it is similar in some ways to that book. The action scenes were nonstop, but more than that, they were much better written than the older Furst books like Tightrope. Not as much conspiracy, just straight up taking out the bad guys in the streets of New York, but as a pure thrilling action novel, I enjoyed this book very much. Bolan gets involved in a gang war between the crack dealing Columbians and the new gang, the Vietnamese gang dealing in a new cocain/heroin mixture called "sotty". These gangs were ruthless and vicious, and I thought a good challenge for Bolan. The villains were done very well, in particular the vietnamese drug kingpins Pete Nhu and Bob Lac. I also thought Lac's henchmen Hao and Ngu were written great. They were competant, tough, and smart Soldiers that were believable and not just ordinary cardboard targets for Bolan's gun. I also liked the way the girl Minh, who helped Bolan, was written, a definite plus to the story. The final shootout at the drug lab was awesome, an excellent finishing scene to the book, which is another improvement from Furst's earlier books when you blink and the action is over. I almost gave Deadline and Knockdown 10 star ratings, but had minor issues that seemed to be solved in Deep and Swift. One hell of an exciting entry in the series.

This is a long winded actionfest of blazing guns, blown up and bullet riddled bodies. Nice to see an AT book with a lot of action, but it got a little bit wearysome after 346 pages. A pretty decent story dealing with AT helping out a Vietnamese detective in "Little Saigon" to find a missing friend and rescue his girl from the clutches of a General that has a iron grip on the community. Behind this general is a crazy woman who ultimately gives the orders, and she likes to torture people. Some nasty torture scenes in this book, and I thought there were a little too many of these graphic scenes. With this woman's reputation for torturing US soldiers back in the Vietnam war, a group of some of these former soldiers get a chance for revenge when they find out she is now operating a base inside the States. The last third of the novel is AT teaming up with these men for the assault in the wilderness and the underground tunnels below. I liked the nasty machine gun Gadjets used to mow down a bunch of bad guys. Blancanales gets a lot of focus in this book, more so than Lyons. It was interesting to see some flashbacks from his vietnam days. Some parts of the book were pretty good, although a little long and with the author's cookie cutter dialogue and Lyons and Gadjets again being cardboard cutouts, I consider this novel in the 7 star range.

This is a review for Hell Quest, a Phoenix Force story by William Fieldhouse. It's too bad that this novel didn't get its own individual book, I thought it was one of the better books in the series. This story breaks the mold of the usual plots and storylines that make up most of Fieldhouse's novels in this series. Also the writing is top notch, the characters seemed more human and action flowed at a good pace the whole book. The plot is rather simple, the Force must locate a fallen satelite in Ethiopia and extract the secret information inside before the Ethiopians, Libyans, and Isreali's get there first. There is no main bad guy, no terrorist attack at the beginning of the book which the Force must respond to, making it a rather unique storyline in the series, but the way this novel is written, Fieldhouse makes it all work very well, centering mostly on the Force's journey through a war torn country. They pick up good allies on the way. I like how Katz's loyalty to Phoenix Force is challenged somewhat when they confront the Israeli troop at the end, I loved the way he dealt with the situation, showing the qualities that make him a leader very well. A fan of Katz should not miss out on this story. A lot of little things about this action novel make this good story a great one.

I really liked this novel. Carl Furst usually has a huge cast of characters and sometimes light on the action, but Blockade is quite different. A very action packed story, with a good plot and interesting allies and a reasonable number of villains. This is a fun book to read. Bolan is after a leader of an IRA terrorist faction, who has aquired missile launchers to use against the Queen of Brittain. The scenes dealing with the assassination attempts were done very well, and suspenseful too. I liked Bolan's escapades in the streets of Dublin, which takes up most of the first half of the book. Excellent scenes also on the water with the boats. If you like to see missiles launched and things go boom, than this book has plenty for you. It was cool to see Bolan ride a motorcycle in a number of scenes. The battle at the compound in Africa was another great scene, but this leads to my only gripe with this book. The country Bolan is in is never named. I had no clue where it took place. This kind of thing bothers me, but I'm figuring it was something left out on the editing floor. Anyway, the destruction of the leader of this compound as well as his right hand man was just fantastic. The story moves at a fast pace, and is one of Furst's better novels, so far I have liked his SuperBolans very much.

An enjoyable exciting adventure taking place in Turkey, Syria, and Lebenon. Bolan needs to rescue hostages from a jihad crazy madman, and most of the book is Bolan's search for the hostages while time is running out for their execution. This novel was entertaining, and I liked Bolan's sidekick he picks up in Syria, who was a good ally, and as it turns out, is the twin brother of the main villain. One part of the book was questionable though, I couldn't figure out why Bolan was at Dr. Snodgrass's office. It seemed like a major coincidence he would show up there, when he didn't know where to go or know anybody in the town. It was like a part of the story was missing here. I did like the tie-in to #114 Cold Judgement, which is one of my favorite books by Newton. Several references are made to characters and events in that novel. This book stretched believability in parts, but overall, a fun fast paced adventure make this a better than most entry in the series.

I really had to give some thought as to what rating to give this novel. In some ways it was good and in some ways it wasn't so good. I tried to enjoy this book, but it seemed to drag at times for me. The opening action scene was fantastic, it was written well, it was like putting on an old favorite pair of shoes, a throwback to the style of older stories by Pendleton and Newton. I also enjoyed the scene when Bolan discovers the jet in the underground hanger, the action there and his capture, and whole scene involving his escape. The addition of Grimaldi was a plus. Plenty of action and adventure in the book, but there were a few things that kind of raised questions about what I was reading. For example, when Kaufmann was told by her boss that he had no description of Grimaldi, later on the same page he gives her a card with a description of Grimaldi. And I didn't like the fact that Schleyer (the main villain) at one point let on that he wasn't too concerned if the jet were to be destroyed or be late in construction, stating he had other ways to pull off his assault on Hawaii. The whole idea of the project and all the money he was spending was centered around this jet working on time. I just didn't buy into the scene at the airport hanger when Bolan let Kaufmann be taken at gunpoint during the firefight. It seemed like a risk Bolan was counting on things working out just like he wanted too, without knowing the opposition and wether they wouldn't just shoot her in panic or get caught in all the crossfire. It was never explained why the gunmen were Chinese. And Bolan had jumped off the roof of the hanger. I can understand a house, but an airplane hanger? And at one point Bolan could have taken Schleyer prisoner during his escape, but he just left him there. He didn't know it was Shleyer at the time but still I think Bolan would have taken the guy with him to question him later at least. I didn't care for the one on one confrontation between Bolan and Linger at the end. It would have fit if it was Rafeal Encizo, but it didn't seem to me to be in Bolan's character to handle it that way. I liked the assault on the castle, although it was a cakewalk for Mack as he blasts the weak army to smithereens. But before I rag on this story too much, I did think for a debut Executioner story, it wasn't all that bad, obviously written by someone who knows the series well, and is better than some books by established writers, and indicated a budding talent and an asset for the series.

This book has the whole package. A nifty title, another great cover by Herring, and one of the best Bolan adventures I have read in a while. I have finally entered Mr. Rogers' neighborhood and found out how entertaining a writer he is. This book is wall to wall full throttle action and excitement from the first chapter to the final pages. A Russian spetznaz group has set up an underground pipeline linking the US to Mexico. The death of the police chief of the nearby town brings in his daughter Pattie to replace him, along with Mack Bolan to investigate. Bolan and Pattie make a fine team through most of the book, and when she is too injured to continue, the likes of Grimaldi, Able Team, McCarter, Encizo, and Manning join in for the final battle. The Apache helicopter attack was awesome. I liked the evil villains in this story especialy the badass Baibokov character, a seven foot tall spetsnaz soldier, who is one of the main villains focused on in this novel. This guy returns later in #227 Blood Circle. I liked the frustration of his failing again and again to kill Mack. The only minor nitpick I had was the improper grammar use "off of", but otherwise an almost flawless Executioner entry. From firefights in the town of Crucible, to the chase into the desert, trapped in a underground mine, the infiltration of the hacienda in Mexico, and the final battles in the tunnel and the Arizona base, this is an awesome Bolan adventure no fan of this series should miss out on. Get it and read it!

I liked the acid bath part of the plot in this novel, which is a CIA and SAS men gone bad who uses a drug to extract information from spies so they can sell information to corrupt clients. This leaves the victim permanantly brain damaged and eventually dead, making this two reasons why Bolan needs to stop these conpirators. A third reason Bolan is involved is to help Baptiste overthrow Wadante in a country in Africa. Wadante is in league with the other two, and the action starts with Bolan helping the rebels in Africa. The best part of this book is when the action shifts from Africa to England, this is the part of the book that really shines. Good scenes and action there. The story shifts back to the African country where an ending similar to the one in Sudan Slaughter takes place. Some decent battles and mayhem close out this action packed book. Just good enough to rate a 7.

This is a review for SURVIVAL RUN, a phoenix force story by Mike Linaker. Rating - 7 stars.Another action packed fast paced PF book with some good firefights and the return of Dragonslayer.The Force needs to rescue the secretary of state from his kidnappers, who are jihad crazy fanatics who want to kill the secretary on tv to start off their war on the USA. Action starts in Saudi Arabia, on to Isreal, Lebanon, and ending up in Libya. McCarter has some funny banter with his teammates, and Grimaldi joins them for the final assault on the Lybian base, an awesome battle helped out by a new improved version of Dragonslayer. Grimaldi gets hurt, but his fate is sort of a mystery as the book ends.The scene in Isreal was nice, when Katz felt like home, and his thoughts about retiring there someday.

I was impressed with this first Bolan book from Green. It was a nonstop action thriller from cover to cover, the writing was crisp, and the character of Bolan was right on. The story revolves around a second in command of a Chicago mafia gang by the name of Lipardo, as he tries to manipulate his way to the top and take control of his gang as well as other mafia families. Many other elements to the plot, with undercover cops, and Bolan's role in the whole deal, but what keeps this book from being an 8 or even 9 star book is that the plot is hard to follow in some places. Add to this a large cast of characters that would have worked better in a superBolan size story. The other thing that confused me was the location of some of the homes where action took place were hard to keep track of. I liked the scene with the boats on lake Michigan, one of the best in the novel, and many other action scenes were done well. A good entertaining book.

A very unusual story in this series, Cult War deals with a zombie cult in New Orleans. After cops start to get killed by these "zombies", Able Team is called in to assist an inspector in taking out the leader of the cult. This book read more like a novel independent of anything to do with the Bolanverse, with the names of the AT members stamped in place of three of the characters in the story. Kind of interesting and spooky ideas and creepy scenes, but not really the best book by far in the series. The strange and bizarre world of voodoo and zombies and such was a main focus in the book, often replacing action scenes, which was not really a drawback, but the action scenes that are in here are kind of blah, as Gunslinger put it. What really set the story back was that there wasn't much of a motivation for the villain other than to see if tricking a guy through cultural beliefs and unique drugs to create a group of followers that did his bidding "could be done". There was a vague cocaine smuggling thing involved, but mentioned as a side note, not actually explained or even part of the plot. The inspector had a bigger role than any of the AT members, too many times he seemed to be in charge, playing second fiddle is not what AT is best at. An ok yarn, passable material, but Mean Streets and Skinwalker are better Rose novels.

The title of this book should have been called "Plothole". A bomber is loose in Manilla, and Bolan is sent there to find him, as well as Harding, who is the mastermind of a plot to destroy and/or take over the Filipenes. Hardings motivation is explained, but not very well. The opening chapter was cool, showing the actions of the bomber, whom I guess to be Cordero. This character seemed to get lost in the shuffle, and even at the end, Cordero was an afterthought, thrown in at the last second, almost as if the author simply had forgotten about him. Bolan wasn't involved in his demise either. Other characters seemed to show up with no real reason or importance to the not so clear plot in this novel. McRae shows up, apperently an ally, Bolan thinks he recognizes him, no reason is ever given for this. McRae's role in the story isn't really clear, and neither is Tom Colgan for that matter. And there is the mysterious Mrs. Colgan, who rescues Bolan from a downtown Manilla confrontation. It was never explained clearly why she was at that place at that time. Another gripe I had with the story is although McDades displays his usual attention to detail, he somehow neglects to describe which shoulder Bolan gets shot in. You just guess until a few chapters later, when it is hinted, and also apperently gets shot in the same arm again, but it is vague that it even happens at all and it doesn't seem to affect his actions. Also, when Bolan confronts McRae in the jungle, the scene ends abruptly, suddenly the next chapter starts with Bolan infiltrating Hardings' building in Manilla. Too much of a gap there. Other parts in the novel were lacking in detail I won't bother mentioning. After playing "where's Harding" (the main villain) for most of the book, Bolan finds him in Hardings' warehouse, which is one of the parts of the book that was exciting, a good scene there. Another great scene is Bolans infiltration of McRae's camp and the awsome rocket devastation Mack unleashes there. There was enough action and suspense to keep this book from being a loser, but it was not very well plotted, a letdown after reading Backlash.

The Force is sent to India to investigate an Islamic terrorist plan to get India and Pakistan to go to war on each other. The plan is to make it look like the U.S. is involved in the attacks. PF goes on a by the numbers assault on the various terrorist groups, getting information from survivors in order to find the next group of jihad fanatics to destroy. Many allies are involved to help out the Force, including one that had helped them before in Night Of The Thuggee. After battles in India, the next target is in Pakistan, and then on to the conclusion in Afganistan. Full of the usual action from cover to cover, the best fights were the assault with the leopard tank on the compound in Pakistan and the fight against the tanks in Afganistan. McCarter gets himself a girlfriend for a brief time in this book. I liked the scene when she embarrassed him in front of the others. Very action oriented novel, but I liked the other three super PF books better.

It took me a while to get into this monstrosity of a Bolan adventure, but it turned out to be a good book, I enjoyed it. The first half has Mack working more as part of a CIA team than his lone wolf mode. About halfway through this changed and he goes more independent for the rest of the book, with a little help from a woman ninja sidekick. Mel Odom writes some really great scenes, and my favorite in this novel is when the Hosaka brothers confront each other in Yemon's office. It was well done and had a shocking ending to the chapter that revealed a plot twist that I didn't see coming. Also while this was taking place both Bolan and the ninja infiltrated the building seperately, I liked those scenes also. Brognola has a bigger role than usual, I thought the scenes with him were done well, even taking on the bad guys while injured. There were too many bad guys in the book that were offing each other though, sometimes Mack was not around when some of the major players were taken out. This novel has a complex plot, kind of like a Clancy book with action scenes added. One thing though is it didn't feel like the action was taking place in Japan, the descriptions of surroundings were sometimes vague, like it could have taken place anywhere. But an entertaining read. Highly recommended for fans of Odom's work.

I think this is McDade's best Bolan since Meltdown, the pacing is consistant through the whole book, and it is loaded with adventure and action between the covers. It does have some problems, one of them being times where you were not clear on just where a scene was taking place, or how or why they were there. Scenes jumped around a little too much, and Bolan spent a lot of time reacting to situations, rather than having a plan of action. His shooting seemed off the mark too often. Most of the first half of the story takes place in south Florida, and the second half is in Nicaragua, where a dictator wanna be named Pagan is getting secret help from top level CIA agents. Unfortunately they are backing the wrong guy, in it for the money rather than supporting the best regime for the country. That's where Bolan comes in, to sort through the mess and help the General who opposes Pagan. A fair amount of conspiracy, entertaining scenes, and nonstop adventure made up for the books faults, and I enjoyed the novel.

The Force meets up with an ally from Cold Dead and go after a Red Army faction in the islands of Indonesia. Calvin gets hurt in this one, and his spot is filled nicely by Amir Said, one of the allies for the mission. Manning uses his c-4 frisbees, and Encizo has a cool scene where he blows up a boat from underwater. Some good banter between McCarter and Manning. This is probably the weakest book in general of all the Fieldhouse PF novels in the series. Some good scenes here and there, but nothing really special in the story or the plot. A little too predictable and flat to rate it any higher than a six.

A very different kind of Able Team story. It starts out more like something Mulder and Scully would investigate instead of AT. Using a plot out of a scooby doo cartoon, the villains are using an Eskimo Shaman dressed up in wolf skins to scare off any Eskimo resistance to the oil company planning off-shore drilling rigs. Enter Lyons and company to figure out what is going on and solve the problem. This book has a good amount of suspense, and spookyness. Despite the strange subject matter in this novel, it is a pretty good AT adventure, most of it taking place on the frozen tundra at the northern edge of Alaska. A decent battle on the ice against the squad called in to try and get rid of AT. The ending is a cool idea, but too much of a stretch for an AT novel. Although Pol and Gadjets seemed to be cardboard cuttouts along for the ride for parts of the book, it was a better story than most of the later books in the series.

For a 384 page book I was really expecting more from it, it didn't grab me the way most of Newton's books do, even times where I was confused a little by the plot but nevertheless, a book well worth reading. There is some conspiracy in here, along with the usual good action and dialogue from Newton. What is important about this entry in the series is the introduction to Price, who I took to be a replacement for April Rose on the Stony Man farm team. Mack and her got along pretty good, it seemed. She doesn't have a very big role in any books I've read though. Also this is a turning point in Mack's lone wolf/arms length alliance as well. This book isn't as good as Flesh and Blood, which is a better Newton superBolan.

Another nonstop intrigue filled adventure from Leslie, as Bolan finds himself teaming up with a man who is going after the Colombia drug smugglers. And twists and turns in the plot keeps this story full of surprises. The action starts in Columbia, and on to Venezuala and eventualy to some Islands in the Caribbean. Things are not what they seem, and Bolan is stuck in a maze of double and triple crossing drug lords. I liked the suspenseful scenes aboard the hijacked cruise ship, with Bolan moving through the passages, and hiding in a locker with terrorists moving about all around him. A good mixture of mystery and suspense and gunfights make this an enjoyable adventure to read, too bad this was the last Executioner Leslie wrote, I will miss reading his stories.

Another excellent mafia story from Newton. In this book, not only does Val Querente and Leo Turrin have roles, but a bad guy from an earlier book is resurected to fight Bolan another round. First appearing briefly in Council of Kings, Vince Carboni ends up getting burned and left for dead in #88 Baltimore Trackdown. Newton must have got inspiration from the Nightmare on Elm St. movies, with the burned and scarred Carboni returning from the dead complete with missing fingers, leaving a claw with thumb and finger, in stead of Freddies claw glove. Mack pulls a great classic role as Omega, in some of the best manipulation of the mafia goons I've read since the Pendleton books. This is what the Executioner does best, and Newton does a great job, I was entertained. With Val captured, it sets Bolan on another of his blitz modes, looking for the man who wants revenge on him, using Val as a lure. The final confrontation with Carboni was a little too brief, but I still rate this story a 9.

Villains as well as allies from earlier PF stories by Linaker make another appearance in this fiftieth entry in the series. I would suggest reading both #44, and the super PF Search and Destroy first, to get the back story on these characters. This book is crammed full of blazing firefights, the force kicks big time butt in here, and ends with a bloody battle aboard a cargo ship at the end. Katz is the only one that doesn't get shot up in this novel, the other four take a beating in the battles, and Encizo even had to sit out the final attack on the ship. This book is pretty much by the numbers, nothing really new, but another quality book in this great series. The KGB wants revenge against the force, and lure them to france to try to kill them. The Force then discovers a ship commanded by Libyans on its way to destroy a U.S. military base. I was really confused to find a complete turnaround involving a former ally. His character wasn't even hinted at being suspicious in the earlier novel, and there didn't seem to be much explanation as to why he was so cooperative the first time, and yet was really a spy all along. It would have been better to make this a surprise in this novel, but that was revealed at the start of the book. It was a missed opportunity for a mystery and a surprise revelation later in the story I thought.

This is really a different AT book in the series. Mainly concerning the type of villain AT is up against. A genius calling himself "the Gamesmaster", who was involved in the death of some college students years earlier, wants revenge against Carl Lyons for putting him in prison. The plot is a little bit hokey, with the Gamesmaster threatening to kill millions of people with his toxin unless Lyons plays his games. However, considering the many weak AT novels late in the series, I thought this book was entertaining, the pacing was very good, and the author captures the humor and banter with the Able members very well. Plenty of adventure and action for my taste. S P O I L E R S P A C E One thing about this book though, is that I think the writer had planned to write a sequel to it. The Gamesmaster gets away in the end, and the book ends with the hint that there is going to be a rematch for Lyons and the Gamesmaster. The AT series had pretty much ended about the time this book came out, so I figure the author had planned, but never got a chance to write a sequel for it. Maybe not the best villain for an AT novel to have, but it would still be cool to see the loose ends wrapped up. But I guess we will never know.

I got the impression that this book was a SuperBolan compressed into a regular size story. In addition to the usual huge cast of characters found in a Furst novel, there was more globetrotting in this book than I think I've ever read in any Bolan book before. Bolan was everywhere, flying from place to place, in Europe, in America, sometimes in two different place on the same page. Same for the villains. One page they're in America, next in another state or country, France, Germany, Egypt , Syria, or wherever. Sometimes it seemed rediculous to have a paragraph where Bolan and Brognola are meeting somewhere, then later they meet in another part of the world. It didn't seem as though Brognola needed to physicly be there. Bolan and Brognola talked on the phone several times too, they could have just done that more. The plot is basicly the villains planning to get what they want by poisoning rivers with radioactive substance, and hoping the US would meet their demands or the poisoning would continue. Pretty scary stuff, but the plot got a little redundant by the end of the book. The story kind of wandered a lot. But despite this book being rather un-executionerlike in many ways, it was still entertaining, had enough action, I liked it, but it could have been so much better. It would have made a good SuperBolan, with the scenes more fleshed out. One odd thing was Bolan's "force 90" group he put together, just didn't seem sensible to get a group of people together from different countries for his allies at the end, he could have used Able Team, or even some or all of Phoenix Force instead.

Early in the book it isn't a very explosive read, but Odom always brings his own style to the series, and Wild Card has the usual great scenes I like from this writer. The plot is pretty good, the characters have good depth to them, and I found myself getting more absorbed in the story the further I read on. Bolan has some good undercover scenes, I liked the one where he took the prisoner away from the police and then drove off in one of their cars. Classic role camaflage I always liked in this series. The ending was done very well, tense action, very suspensefull, and it went down to the very last sentence. Not in the top level of books, but I liked this one, I recommend it if you like Odom's books.

Bolan is in London, where the entire story takes place, and while on some minor mission for Brognola, Mack finds himself distracted by some violence at the airport, and finds himself getting involved in another mission of his own. It was refreshing to have Bolan take on a personal mission, which was one of the positives of this book. I liked the allies Bolan had, they seemed to be regular people, not super commandos, they just wanted to fight for the innocent, and Bolan taught them the use of firearms and tactics. The Stamp character was one tough sob. It's a shame though that they didn't find the girls they were looking for, that loose end was hanging at the end of the book. On the whole however, this novel was a little too average, a thin plot, and there was no perspective from the bad guys at all, no getting into their heads, or details on what their scemes were. But the biggest problem I had with this book was the poor writing. Many of the action scenes were rather clumsy and awkward, and in particular, the writing was bad in the opening two chapters. It just seemed juvenile to me. But the writing did seem to improve as the story went on. This book is an average story at best, but considering the lame writing in parts of the novel, I'm shaving two stars off the rating. The author has potential, and maybe if he wrote another Executioner, the writing would hopefully improve. Passable material if you plan on reading all the books in the series coming out, but if you're choosy, you might want to skip this one.

An excellent debut in the series from Tim, I would put it on par with Cutting Edge and Blood Trade, two other great debut novels I've read recently. This story is not only full of action, but has a great balance of focusing on the good guys and the bad guys. A large cast of characters are woven into this book. The scenes with the DEA and police were all done very well. A good amount of interaction between the various drug dealers in their sceming and background to the characters, tense scenes, good dialogue, and much more. Jack Grimaldi gets in on the action, as well as a great undercover role Bolan has alongside Pol Blancanales. Carl Lyons is in here too! Another good writer to keep this series alive and kickin ass.

Another solid PF read from Fieldhouse. The writing is crisp from beginning to end, the usual formula is there, but the story is still unique and full of information about the political and military situation in El Salvador. Rafael Encizo gets more of a focus than the other members, and the photographer he rescued from #39 Jungle Sweep returns and they have a brief romantic fling. This sets up some good drama between Rafael and her, as well as with Katz, it added some spice to the book. The main villain is known to the reader right from the start, and the force does the usual mystery unraveling, finally going after the villain at the end, leading to a good showdown between him and Encizo. A good compelling action packed novel.

This book has good plot ideas, and a fair amount of conspiracy. Another new writer joins the AT writing crowd, and did a good job concerning series continuity and the character backgrounds. I wasn't too thrilled by this novel however. It's hard to put my finger on just what the problem was, but it just didn't seem very compelling reading, the action scenes were dry, the storyline was more complicated than it should have been, and the whole loose end with Ruiz was left hanging at the end of the book. The ending was anticlimactic. The writing style was too Clancylike for my taste. The scenes where Able Team wasn't around were the ones I liked best about the book. Some good parts here and there, but on the whole, I consider this a below average book.

I am impressed with this debut novel from VanCook. I thought the author did a good job with it. The story takes place in many locations, in Arizona, a couple places in Mexico, in Columbia, in the Florida keys, and finally near Cuba. I liked the suspense in some of the scenes in the story, the character of Bolan was accurate, and the pacing was nonstop. The only problem I had was I got a little confused with the plot near the end of the book, but overall a very solid and entertaining novel. There is even a tense face to face showdown between Mack and Fidel Castro himself! This is another book that has Bolan flying a plane. I liked the scene aboard the plane with his unwanted sidekick and the captive. The book didn't end with a blazing shootout, but there was plenty of that sprinkled throughout the adventure. I liked it just enough to give it a 9 outta 10.

Now this is an Executioner novel. Bolan is in Boston taking out a gang of arsonists running rampant in the city. Almost all of the action takes place in cars on the streets of Boston. This book is like Mack Bolan meets Grand Theft Auto! The action grabs you from the beginning and never lets go. Having a road map of the Boston area would be a help, a lot of street names are mentioned, but Murray does a good job of describing the area so I didn't get lost too much. This is a book that reminded me of the Executioner of the Pendleton days, Murray is an outstanding writer, and it is unfortunate this is the only Bolan book he has written. I enjoyed the hell out of this one, this is a book you don't want to miss out on. I highly recommend it, the last Bolan fan to read this book is a rotten egg!

This is an outstanding novel in the PF series. Linaker's writing style is one of my favorite to read, and he tells a good fast moving story with lots of the action and ass kicking the Force does best. Jack Grimaldi is in this book, I enjoyed his role, showing he is more than just a flyboy, but can be another member of the force if he wanted to. Manning's capture and escape was done very well, and the book ended with a great rescue as well as recovery of the russian jet. The ending with McCarter flying the jet was awesome. Dragonslayer also gets some action. I highly recommend this entry in the series, one of the best in my opinion, and I look forward to more of Linaker's books. Great stuff!

After a great start, this novel kind of went downhill. I was disappointed with it. The action scenes were ok, but this novel doesn't stack up to this author's earlier books, White Line War was a far superier novel. Bolan investigates corruption in equipment for military aircraft, involving selling secrets to the soviets, while dealing damage to U.S. equipment at the same time. A decent plot idea, but the story at times seemed to jump around too much, the whole mafia angle didn't seem to be necessary for the plot to work fine on its own. I didn't care much for the female assasin, her role could have been greater, and making a challenge for Bolan, but she turned out to be a brief annoyance that was no problem for Bolan to deal with. She wasn't very smart. I like this writer, but this book kind of lost my interest a little, but it does have a lot of action, not a boring book, a slightly better than average yarn overall.

And what an assault it was. The first half of the story deals with Bolan's blitz in New York, and on to cyprus for a beatdown there. The second half takes place in the Bekaa valley in the Syria/Lebenon area. This second phase deals largely with introducing a leader of a band of rebels, and Bolan's war gets help from these rebels for the final assaults there. One nitpick I had with this part of the story was the scenes involving the rebel camp were to similar to the same found in Hatian Hit. Even the helecopter attack on the camp was almost identical. The plot was kind of simple also, with Bolan knowing who to hit and where they were from the beginning, and the novel centered mainly on taking out the bad guys in one blitz after the other, hence the book's title. However, the action scenes are great, and easy to follow, Bolan in his classic attack mode. This book is not Newton's best by far, if it was a smaller book maybe a 7, but it read well for a 350 pager, crammed with great action and adventure. And well, I'm a Newton junkie anyway. Flesh and Blood was a better Newton Superbolan but I'm still giving Assault an 8.

Another Leslie yarn that contains more of what you can expect from this writer, not his best work, but I found this to be very entertaining. You never know when someone is going to jump out and assasinate Bolan at any given moment in a Leslie novel, and Battle Lines is par for the course. Plenty of cloak and dagger, relentless action and of course, the mystery Bolan needs to solve. Good underwater scenes at the oil rig, and once again Leslie brings in one of his trademarks, the hanglider, in the final assault on the rig. The action jumps around a lot in the area of Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Black Sea. I wish that the mole in the story had been given a bigger role, I had to reread parts of the book to refresh my memory on some of the characters, there are a lot in here. I liked the O'Riley character, the author hints at him returning in another story. I hope he does.

A thrilling entry in the series. Some scenes were a little similar to scenes found in earlier PF novels, but the whole book was very well written and exciting, with bad villains and great firefights. The fight in the ballroom was the best of the action scenes, with a gory battle involving Katz in the kitchen. The final assault was unusual with tanks being used, kind of cool, although it was sort of a cakewalk for the force. Another good book from Fieldhouse.

This book started out like it was going to be a good one. Until the author started on his habit of repeating sentences. There was plenty of action, and the plot was interesting, but the story didn't work out as well as it could have, as well as being bogged down by those annoying repeated sentences. Also,the characters in the story suffered from cookie-cutter personalities, as a result of this problem. Able Team seemed to become more and more as just a cog in an army toward the end of the novel, rather than the independant team they should have been. The book had potential, and I liked the conspiracy of the generals, and the Harwood character was well done. But too many problems here, so a 4 rating is the most I can give this novel. Very disappointing.

A good action thriller by the Outlanders writer, Bolan tracks down a villain that was the mastermind behind Hitler and the Nazis. Bolan has dealt with getting shot at with all kinds of weapons, but in this book he almost gets microwaved to death! A truly scary and horrifying weapon. When the book kicks off with a very exciting chase through a jungle with a helicopter on his trail, I knew I was in for a great read. Plenty of action and a well thought out plot make this an enjoyable book.

These super PF novels are very good, and Cold Dead is the third of only four that were ever written. This book takes the force to Antarctica, where they kick ass there, then to New Zealand, where they kick more ass there, and to Australia, and some Islands in the Indonesia area, where they, you guessed it, kick some more ass. The book gets better as it goes along, and it has great one on one fights at the end, including Katz taking on another guy with a hook for an arm also. And Calvin James taking on the last guy. An awesome action filled novel, if you can find these monster sized PF books... GET EM!

The first half of the book is pretty good, but it things just didn't go right after that. This book would have made a good Nick Carter novel, rather than an Executioner. The book loses a star there. I suspect some editing may have loused things up in this book. Two scenes that made no sense whatsoever occurred in this novel. One where Bolan and another guy leave a car on foot, while no mention of what the driver was or wasn't doing. When Bolan and his sidekick are on their way back to the car, a van drives by and some people throw a body out the back. No mention weather the guy is alive or dead. And apparently it is the driver. The scene ends. Later the guy shows up in the story, so he must have lived. The scene still makes no sense, and had nothing to do with the story. The second nonsense scene involved Bolan on a patrol boat off the coast of England. Suddenly a rifle bullet almost hits him and another guy. They act as if nothing really happened. The scene ends. Wierd. There was another scene, which was pretty good, involving Bolan's sidekick only, and I thought that Bolan himself could have been used here instead. The book had a decent enough plot, but Bolan didn't do enough ass kicking, especially at the end. This book had too many drawbacks to give it any higher rating than a five.

This is an average entry in the series, not really a great book, but not bad either. The plot is wrapped up ok by the end of the novel, but along the way it is mostly a mystery that Bolan tries to unravel, playing the part of a justice investigator more than anything else. There were a few parts of the story that really shined, but overall I enjoyed Ice Wolf much better than Devil Force. One CIA character from Ice Wolf also shows up in this book too, it was interesting to see a tie-in there.

I really couldn't get into this novel, not to say it is bad, there are several good moments in here, but overall it didn't seem very gripping or exciting. It seemed that there was some padding in this book, which I usually don't see in a PF novel. And there were too many cop/investigator/SAS type of characters working with the force than should have been neccesary. The action scenes are decent and some humor sprinkled here and there, and the setting is cool, but I thought this book could have been better.

An excellent story, with full tilt action from cover to cover. Bolan not only kicks serious butt in this book but again shows how sly he is by infiltrating a mafia gang, going right up to being the top security man for the mafia don in Miami. Then playing two sides against each other; the mafia and the Columbia cocaine gang. Jeez, what a body count in this book. I liked the ending to the story, with a confrontation with the villain in a fun park. I like this author, the writing is smart and fast paced, and is a much better novel than Sudan Slaughter. Good read all around.

Knockdown is a sequel of sorts to Furst's previous mafia story, Dead Line (#130). The top level mafia guys along with the assasin sent after Bolan return in this excellent SuperBolan. A very fast paced story, with a lot of mob family wars, with Bolan along to help with the chaos. A large part of Bolan's war is with an ally at his side, who even dresses up as a woman several times so he and Bolan can sneak around the mafia goons. I was thinking Leo would have been a good choice for a sidekick, but this guy was cool. I enjoyed this one very much, but just a couple minor issues keeping this book from being a tenner. Scenes jumped around a lot, Bolan would be here, then he would be there, then here again. Same for the mafia guys. Kind of hard to keep track of where people were sometimes. Also, the writer added a little too many characters in this novel. I would recommend having a pad and pencil handy before beginning to read this one. I got through it ok, but I had to stay on my toes to remember who was who, and who they worked for, who they were allied with, who died, and all the plotting and backstabbing and doublecrossing between the five mob families of New York was difficult to keep track of. But this is a great story, Furst is good with mafia stuff, I liked it a lot and look forward to reading more books by him.

Leo Turrin and Johnny Bolan appear together in this book, the first time they met each other. This is basicly a chase story, with some ambushes here and there. The villain was kind of easy to figure out, but overall it was a pretty good book. A lot of editorial messups in the book, more than I've seen in a Newton book before. The shootout at the end of this novel is very well done, one of the better ones to end a book in a while, so overall I think this book is just good enough to rank in the 8 star range.

A good read, not as exciting as most PF novels, but the usual quality writing from Fieldhouse. And I liked the hand to hand combat between Calvin James and the villain at the end of the book. This is the first book in the series that didn't go into detailed intro on each of the PF members.

I found this to be a rather refreshing AT novel after reading the last 3 or 4 monkey sploodge novels in this series. Not the best, but a very good one, with a couple good shootouts, and a nice storyline with a complex plot and interesting characters. The writer did a good job with the AT characters, very accurate and three dimensional too.

This book was an ok story with some good scenes here and there, but the pacing of the novel was very slow. I don't know if it was really that slow, or it just seemed that way because after reading #131 Ice Wolf and then The Big Kill, the pacing difference between the two was like going from riding a ferrari down the Autobahn to riding a scooter through a lake of tar. Also, when Bolan shot the guy outside the hospital, he just left the guy dying as he searched the van gathering weapons and taking them to his blazer and then went inside the hospital. The real Bolan would have put a mercy round in the guy right away. The ending wasn't as good as I had hoped either, bringing this snail of a novel to a abrupt unsatisfying conclusion. Not a book worth hunting down if you don't have a copy yet.

It wasn't easy to rate this one, it is a rather strange novel, with two writers at the helm, it was obvious that there was a writing style change here and there in this book. The beginning started with lots of action, although the writing wasn't top notch. One part I was confused was why the girl who was running away from Bolan at the cabin, why didn't she just jump in the land rover and drive off instead of putting on skis and trying to run off that way?. A few other spots where the action was questionable, but as the book went along, it got better and better. This book really goes off in some unexpected directions, with Bolan hopping all over the globe, and settling finally with the action in South America. Some good twists and turns in this novel, and some good suspense too, and people whos side you wondered were they're on. The ending was rather brief, but despite the books flaws, I think this one was entertaining, and worth an 8.

This one is notable for the introduction to John Trent. A likeable character, he is sort of a replacement for Ohara, bringing back some martial arts action to the force again, this time to fight a new enemy called TRIO. A good read.

This is one of the more enjoyable of the earlier PF novels, I like the villains in this one, and of course loaded with the usual Fieldhouse action. A book worth adding to anyones collection.

This story is faster paced and more action oriented than Death Wind was, Odom again displays times where his writing is as good as the best of them, a great read, with some minor flaws mentioned already by MaxDanger's review, but definitely a book worth grabbing, I liked it.

This one is one of those books where you love it or hate it, but it's worth checking out. The action is plenty from cover to cover, moving at a fast clip, the writing style is unique, I admit, but very enjoyable.

A very well done Mafia story. Carl Furst seemed to be in the zone when he wrote this one, it was much better than #127 by him. The pacing of the novel is very good, no part of the book is boring, has lots of action. Bolan is in Boston for much of the novel and goes to California at one point. The Mob sends out many hitmen to foil his plans, and the one that gets away is actually a chick that is hinted to be returning in a future novel. Not the best book, but very well done. I liked it a lot.

A good solid PF adventure, with the Force dealing with tracking down a guy to his castle base in Germany. Lots of the usual action, and a good battle scene at the castle.

Doug is right, this novel is a cow pie, and I stepped right in it. Good thing I got this book as one of the "four free books" from GE a while back, this novel is worth what I paid for it, lol. Night Heat squeezes a second star out of its ass only because the first third of the book isn't too bad, and I got a couple chuckles from some of the banter between the guys. But the mess starts getting bad. Able Team's intelligence drops more and more as the pages go by. Cain's plot development sucks. Able Team spends more time beating off as the border patrol does most of the work, which isn't much more than going scene to scene looking at dead bodies that have been shot by some people with guns. Almost no perspective from anything other than AT. Which is too bad because they don't do much. No "nuke packing terrorists out to destroy America" as stated on the back cover. Cain continues to screw with the readers mind by anticipating something about to happen, but then nothing. Again, and again. Gadjets sneaks up to a building containing bad guys. A gun is placed at the back of his head. But never mind, just the Border patrol beating off, and tells Gadjets the guys have left the building. Just one example. Again, as in Kill Orbit, Cain has unknown people shooting guns somewhere, then they leave. AT is rarely if ever involved. Gadjets screws a chick that has betrayed them, and screws her later on, never mind she's a bad guy. The banter gets old. The action is missing. The plot goes nowhere. The book could only be improved if Lyons were to grab an Atchisson and blow the brains out of Gadjets, Pol, Brognola, all the border patrolman, the cops, the mexicans, women, children, babies, puppies, kittens, doves, your grandma, and then turned the gun on himself. It wouldn't matter because this isn't really an Able Team novel anyway. Just a big cosmic cow pie. From a cosmic mad-cow diseased bull. MMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Another typical Obstfeld tale, with interesting characters along with the goofy names. I liked the first half of the book better, I liked the prison scenes, It was interesting to see how Bolan would handle being in jail. I agree with Glenn, I think the plot should have been revealed sooner, but the book was entertaining.

I liked this one, Bolan uses his Omega black ace cover to infiltrate the Mafia again. It's like vintage Pendleton stuff in parts of this book. This novel starts off kind of slow, but it gets better as the story moves along. Newton is good with the dialogue with the Mafia guys, good classic Bolan reading here.

This book deals with a loose end from the thrilling PF novel Slow Death. General Chang makes the mistake of drawing Bolan's attention and he finally gets a long overdue beatdown in this novel. Carl Lyons and Calvin James, as well as Katz, get some time in here, something that is rare in any Bolan's I've read so far. And Grimaldi, along with Dragonslayer too. Doug proves he is worthy of being the latest Bolan storyteller, as Blackstone and Mark Ellis explain in their reviews. Doug seems to have injected the blood of Don Pendleton and William Fieldhouse into his veins, he really has a good grasp of the nucleus of Bolan's character, the Mack Bolan in here is more accurate than some "Bolans" in this series. The action goes full throttle, with one action scene after another, no part of the book is boring. With a little more seasoning of experience, this first time Bolan writer should only get better. Great job Doug, good to know someone from my age group can write a kick butt Bolan novel!

Pant Gasp Wheeze Sorry, after reading so many low on action AT novels recently, the cobwebs and rigor mortis that set in my brain wasn't prepared for 350 pages of blazing buttkickin action. Ken Rose brings back the three men I remember reading from the good old days like Army of Devils or Tech War. Many triggers are pulled and many bad guys get the boot up the rear. Rose isn't the best writer, he tends to repeat sentences, I don't know if it's his writing style, or if he was increasing his word count, but it's good to know he can write an AT book. I like a quote from Lyons at the end of the novel: "I've dealt with a lot of scum in my time. In fact, you might say I got something like a PH.D. in scumology"

Bolan finds himself caught up in a maze of mystery taking place mostly in the city of Hamburg. This book is a gas, Bolan is caught up in one predicament after another, while unraveling a conspiracy involving different gangs and doublecrossing allies. This story is written only the way Peter Leslie can write them, however, one problem is Leslie stretches the Bolan character a little too much. Some parts I was thinking Bolan wouldn't have done this or said that, but the book was very entertaining, I liked it. The ending was a letdown though, I wasn't too impressed with it, and along with the character stretch, Blowout deserves nothing more than a 7 from me.

This story was written before the gulf war, and takes place in the small countries in that area. Fieldhouse did a good job with describing the Islamic fanatacism that leads to freaks like Bin Laden. This book packs more of a punch now than it would have if I had read it when the novel first came out. Full of the usual PF action, the force and some arab allies mop up the fanatic terrorists that follow the Bin Laden clone in this story. And it has a funny Moment when Manning realizes he is eating a pidgeon. A solid all around PF novel, even though it has some editorial gaffs here and there I'm giving this book an 8.

The pile of Able Team pig vomit novels grows larger. *sigh* Nicolas Cain enters another phase of lameness to this series. Folks, there is a reason this series was canceled. In this book, there is an interesting briefing from Brognola about satelites, but that was the highlight of the novel. This book doesn't offer much else. Aside from action being sparse, the author manages to make a simple plot complicated, some of it made no sense, and the action scenes were often stupid and unbelievable. I hope Ken Rose can write a book, or else I'm gonna stop reading this series.

This is kind of an oddball novel, with a plot that seemed to jump around and a lot characters show up in here, some of which weren't really neccesary, I thought. A decent book, but not real great, I liked the ending, it was a good finish to the story.

Nothing much to add to the reviews posted for this one. I thought the joining of Bolan and Able Team together was more to promote the spin off series than anything else, I wasn't sure if it was really neccesary for AT to be in here, but the book overall was pretty good, and had lots of action.

I found this to be quite diferent than most Bolan stories, as it started out as the usual, but then evolved more and more into a military war novel. Bolan spent more time leading Sudan's rebel forces than his usual lone wolf stuff. Which was ok but I wouldn't want to read to many books like this. The battles usualy involve assaulting 1 base after another, with Bolan sneaking in to rescue hostages or to find secret documents in between. Lots of action all throughout this novel. The writer did a good job of depicting how twisted the villains were in this novel, some of the nastiest freaks I've found in this series in a while. Some parts here and there were a little questionable for the believability, but the book was a entertaining read with all loose ends tied up nicely by the end.

This one is a good all around story, but not a real spectacular entry in the series. A couple cool scenes in here like Bolan blowing up a Libyan patrol boat from a rubber raft using panzerfausts. And the end he uses a cool sniper rifle to pick off some guards at the island base. I wish I had a map of southern France to look at, most of the action takes place in that area, with a lot of towns mentioned that I never heard of. A decent book from Furst.

This is another one that has John Trent helping out the Force, this time in China. Some of the action is kind of rehashed from Ninja Blood, with lots of hand to hand combat, and Trent having a sword fight at the end. Another battle filled novel from Fieldhouse, the action grows more intense as the story goes along. The book has good descriptions of China, I got the impresion that the author has actually been there. A good actioner worth reading.

I enjoyed the earlier Ables from Renauld, but the previos one wasn't all that great, and then Renauld hits rock bottom with his last Able Team. Dead Zone must be in reference to the lack of action in this yawner. Too many places where there should be an action scene, instead was just padding. Furthermore this wasn't Able Team at all. This was more like the title should be "Care Bears and the mytery of the dead prospector", or "Get-along gang goes to colorado". The writing was good for the most part, but some lack of detail in this book was annoying. For example Lao Ti flies to colorado to meet Able team, and not long after Kissinger is with them doin something, so I guess he must have come with her. Another time, in one of the few action scenes, Pol and Gadjets get shot off the road and crash the car down a hill. Then they see Lyons and Grimaldi (or was it kissinger) get out of their wrecked vehicle behind them. Oh really? I guess they must have been following them, and then they also got shot unrealisticly off the road in the same unrealistic way. The villains were so patheticly weak, I don't know why Able Team needed the help of Lao Ti, kissinger, Grimaldi, and a bunch of military personnel, with several helicoptors and whatever else. Instead of kicking ass, Able Team just dicked around and were boring. Instead of blowing someone away they would say Freeze or something like that. I was expecting Roscoe p Coltrain or Enos to show up in the novel anytime. Or Longarm. Or Archie and Jughead. Or the Hardy Boys. Or care bears. Barny. Bobby Trendy. Rediculous.

This one started off kind of so so, with a couple different things going on, with kgb agents in one story and Bolan playing private eye in another. Of course these 2 come together later on for a decent but not too spectacular conclusion. The writing at times was very good, and at other times not so good. The high point of the novel is Bolan's gun battle on a freighter, and the hold of the ship, as it is sinking, but most of the rest of the book isn't all that exciting. The plot concerning the kgb agents was well done, I thought, but the villain's death wind plan was lame and unbelievable. And Bolan doesn't even kill the top guy he's looking for, so this book overall is 6 star grade at best.

This one is pretty good, there is a lot of conspiracy in this novel, not a whole lot of gun battles, but a complex plot with a big cast of characters. This is the way a Superbolan should be, it had more depth than a regular size book, with a little, but not too much padding. Carl Furst did a good job, and he seems to have a decent grasp of the Bolan character. The things keeping this from a 9 star rating are that Furst isn't gifted at writing action scenes sometimes, I thought they could have been done better, and with more descriptive detail. All in all this book was a great read, it is worth tracking this one down.

This is one of the shortest Bolan stories, but it has an entertaining little story at the end, like in Royal Flush and The Viper Factor. Not one of Cunninghams better books, but still fun to read. I like the cover art, I like how the older books show Bolan in an actual scene in the story. I get tired of all the poses that have exsisted since Gil Cohen left the series.

This one is typical McDade stuff. It has lots of action, it was enjoyable as I was turning the pages, but the plot was dull, and when the book was over, there didn't seem to be much that was memorable about the story. It's a decent read for a rainy day.

I'm giving this one 8 stars even though in my opinion, it was the weakest book in the number 90's. That shows you how good these books were at this time period. This book isn't as explosive as most books, but it is fast paced, and deals with subject matter that is unique from other titles in this series. Good writing that makes you cheer for Mack as he helps these kids.

An excellent entry in the superBolan series, this has a lot of action and conspiracy going on. These writers did a good job, I'm looking forward to reading Blood Fever written by them.

This is a story that brings Bolan into the Mafia stuff again, it's a good book, It would have made a good early Mafia novel like the old Pendleton days.

I thought this was a well written book, but I didn't enjoy it as much as McQuay's other Bolan novels. It's well worth reading though, but I'm not too crazy about the way Bolan's head was painted on the cover.

This one was a surprise for me, I found this to be much better than Blood Testament. More great stuff from Newton, this one has ties to War against the Mafia, it's highly recommended you read that book first, it makes this book much better. I love the cover art for this book, it looks cool, and is a good idea by the artist.

This is a good one. Very well written, lots of action, and Grimaldi gets his new toy, Dragon Slayer, a high tech helecopter, is introduced in here. The story is pretty simple overall, goto the jungle find the base and destroy it, but the writing was well done, and the Force kicks the snot out of the worst scum on the planet, Nazis. The book gets an extra star for that, I'm giving Amazon Strike 9 stars. Put this one on your must read list.

The title of this book should of been "What Fire". Renauld's books are usually low on action, but balanced by a well plotted, entertaining story. This book seemed to be just no action, and little else. There were times where things could have been going on, but didn't, and other times where nothing was happening that did. There were a couple of good scenes, but most of the book was just dull. And near the end, when things were starting to get good, the conclusion just kind of limped into yeahwhateversville. This is another of those Able Team novels you might as well skip.

This book has all kinds of stuff going on. Bolan is runnin, swimmin, hanglidin, car stealin, escaping, castle stormin, gunblastin, chandelier swingin, rope swingin, crane climbin, window bustin, more swimmin, more car stealin, bomb difusin, car wreckin, mystrey solvin, gets captured a few times , gets doublecrossed, goes through a mirror house, a hedgemaze, castle cellars and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, and still finds time to get laid. Lots of adventure from Leslie, as he kicks his storytelling into overdrive, but sometimes the book seems like a train wreck between a James Bond movie and a Hardy Boys book, and Bolan doesn't kill some of the top bad guys along the way, leaving the end of the book sorta incomplete, so I give this book 8 stars.

The Force does some searchin, and a lotta destroyin in this novel. Katz is left out of most of this book, the other four members do a lot of base wrecking and bad guy blasting in a fast paced actionfest. This one is an extended version of a regular book, with some extra firefights added. Not up to the level of quality that Firestorm was, but a pretty good book overall.

Very well done. This is great sci-fi stuff. This book makes more sense if you read the first few Deathlands books, but it's not a problem if you haven't. Mark Ellis, writing as James Axler, tells a good story full of action, adventure, X-files like conspiracy, and characters you really come to like. If I had more time, I would get into the outlander series, If you like futuristic sci-fi fantasy stuff, this is the stuff you need to read. Another great Gold Eagle series. Monsta Mack reaches for Mike Linaker's Search and Destroy...

Hey, I get to be first reviewer for a change. This is better written than Streib's other PF story. Has some suspenseful moments here and there, with the Vice President kidnapped in the city of the dead. The story moved kinda slowly, with some boring parts now and then. Some editorial slips show up now and then too. An ok story but a far cry from the Fieldhouse novels.

I agree with the review from sarge. This book has some good conpiracy, backstabbin, and doublecrossin stuff that makes a story interesting, some suspense, and just enough action to keep it from getting dull. A whole different type of AT from the G H Frost era, but change happens in time one way or another.

This one was a real surprise. The title seemed kinda dorky, but this book turned out to be one of the best books in this series. I loved it. The cover art is explosive, and even has Encizo 2 fistin it. A must read for PF fans.

Just when I was really liking Ohara more and more, he gets killed , but at least he went out in awesome warrior fashion. This book is 7 star quality, but I'm giving it an extra star for adding badass Calvin James to the team. He's a real cool dude!

Another one set in central America, where I like to see AT fight. Not one of the better books, but still a good read.

This is a solid 7 star novel, I miss Able Team fighting in this part of the world, They were at there best here. I think this is G H Frost's first Able Team, it seems to be his writing style.

I disagree with Gunslinger , I thought this book had lots of action. Not as good as #15, but another good G H Frost romp.

No more Gil Cohen AT art after #12. sob, sniff. Oh, well, Wilson is pretty good himself, and this cover is great, but carl lyons head is stupid looking. This is a decent entry in the series, I liked it.

With a cover this cool, it just has to be a good book. And it is, a sequel to scorched earth, I enjoyed this one a lot more.

This is more of the great stuff that made this series worth reading. A good one to grab if you're lookin for old Able Team books.

I always liked the Carl Lyons from the Pendleton days better, but this book really brings back the Lyons I like. This is one of the best books in the series. For any fan of Carl Lyons, this is a must read for you.

One of my favorite Gold Eagle covers, this book is really good, one of the better novels in this series.

Classic AT action. The book moves along real quick, a fast exciting read.

More G H Frost carnage. This is the type of Able Team you want if you're gonna check out this series for the first time. I wish I had a huge poster of the cover art for my room, it rocks!

This is classic G H Frost carnage. This is one of those books in this series I always associate the Able Team series with. They don't write them like this anymore.

This one isn't as good as the first Ramirez book, Atlantic scramble. Compared to Fieldhouse's books, this one just isn't up to par with most of the series. A good read overall. Another great cover by Gil Cohen.

A decent entry, kind of average adventure. I like the cover art.

The series started slow, the Able Team books at this time were better. Then book #3 picked up the pace. And suddenly in book #4, we are introduced to William "kick yer can all over the place" Fieldhouse! An Action packed thrill ride from a writer that was born to write Phoenix Force.

This one is much better than the first 2 in the series, and is the best of the Ramirez books.

This one was a disappointing entry in the series, kind of bland. Not real bad, but there are many better PF books out there.

I love the cover on this one, It's one of the coolest PF art from Gil Cohen. Karl hahn steps in for Encizo, and the force doesn't lose a step. A solid entertaining entry from fieldhouse.

One of the best in the PF series. The assault on the vatican is one of Fieldhouse's best action writing. I loved the scene where Encizo and James escape from the torturers, one of the coolest moments in this series.

This is a good one, the best book since Power Gambit. Rafael deals with his brother, basicly a sequel to Nightmare Merchants. I was surprised at how it ended, kind of sad, but a great read.

This one had enough action and stuff but I'm not too crazy about this writer. It wasn't very well written, I had to reread paragraphs to figure out who was who, who was doing what, and who was talking. By the end of the book, I had a headache. I was glad when it was over.

Doug's review pretty much says it all for this one. A good book, but not as good as I had hoped, being the biggest book in this classic trilogy.

This one is kind of disjointed, the story bounces around sort of like terminal velocity. A good book, I think I would have enjoyed it more, but I remember the ending being too similar to the ending from Hellfire Crusade, which I had read just before this one.

This is another good one from Leslie. Been a while since I read this, but I remember it being loaded with the fun adventure I like from this writer.

This is the biggest PF of them all, I loved this book. Fieldhouse is a great writer, I was pleased that this wasn't just a padded regular PF story, it was good from start to finish, lots of action, and more suspense than I see in most of the smaller books. The best PF I've read so far.

This is a book that sticks to the action all the way through, Not the most memorable Bolan books, but it kept me entertained enough to get through what is probably the largest Bolan story ever written.

I really enjoyed this book, I kept turning the pages to see what would happen, I couldn't put it down. I really thought Bolan had a daughter, it was a well written plot.

I loved this book, this is the kind of writing that keeps me wanting to read more Bolan stories. Good stuff from Mike Newton.

This is a story with more depth than the usual shootem ups. A great one from Newton, some parts were a little slow, but not too boring, the book was worthy of the #100 milestone. If I remember right, the second gunman behind the grassy knoll shows up in here, making an interesting addition to the book.

Standard Newton fare. A solid Bolan romp. I miss how the covers depict actual scenes from the book, like this one.

This is a decent book, not as good as most of Cunningham's novels, but is entertaining enough.

This one is a reference tome, rather than a novel, although there are a coupla short stories in here. I remeber using this quite often back then, a great companion to the series. I wasn't happy that it was included as part of the series, it should have been seperate, like the original war book. Terminal Velocity should be the real #63. This one is good if you wanna read the books from #39 to #62, AT #1 to #9, and PF #1 to #9. Shows diagram of stony man farm too.

This one kind of starts off slow and builds more and more up to the explosive conclusion. Excellent writing by Mertz. This book changes the series in a new direction, this is one you don't wanna miss.

I love the cover, and it's another entertaining book from Obstfeld. Kind of a quirky bunch of villains, the author writes some interesting stuff.

For a short, fast book, it was full of a lot of action and adventure, I enjoyed it very much.

This is great stuff, I always found Mertz, along with Newton, to really get the real Mack Bolan character down the way Pendleton created him. I feal like I'm reading the original when I read books by these writers. This book is on of the better terrorist war stories.

I'm not a big fan of this writer, but this book rocks. Lots of good action, an enjoyable anti terrorist Bolan romp.

Enjoyable, not outstanding, but pretty good. It was interesting to see Bolan back in the jungle again.

I liked this one, a good solid all around adventure, with good action. My friend didn't like it, I don't know why, I thought is was great, but you be the judge.

This is the first one not written by Pendleton. I enjoyed the book, it was action packed, never boring, a good read. The problem it has is the guy in here is a Bolan impersonater, not the Mack Bolan we know. The writer didn't do a good job of getting the character right, so the book gets docked a couple stars.

This is onother good one, the action kept a steady pace from beginning to end, I enjoyed it.

This is one of the very good ones. The books are really exciting around this time period because he's well known and on the wanted list everywhere from what he's been doing up to this point, this kind of adds a tension that most of the books today don't have.

I agree with the review by Frogman on this one. I think Bolan used the automag for the first time in here.

This is a good one, and with a bunch of classic characters in one book, it is one that shouldn't be looked over. Seeing what happens between Bolan and Hal Brognola was exciting, I thought it was the most memorable part of the book. And Grimaldi for the first time was very interesting. Read it if you haven't already.

The beginning and the end of this one are great, but the middle of the book was kinda boring, so I give it a 6 star.

Better than #5, but not a top book in the series. I like Bolan fighting in America better.

A decent book, worth reading, but a long way down from the awesome first 4 books. Average Pendleton stuff.

This is one of the top books in the series, Bolans' war kicks into high gear in one of the most classic beatdowns in the mafia days.

This one wasn't as good as the first one, or Battle Mask, but it is one of the better ones in the series. I was surprised that Bolan's buddies bit the big one so easily, I thought they should have kicked more ass before they croaked. At least 2 of them survived to fight to this day.

Everything has been said about this one, and it deserves the 10 stars it gets. I'm not surprised this book has spawned the hundreds of books we see today. Anyone who hasn't read this book is missing out on how it all started, as well as one of the best books ever written in the series.

I read this one Dec. 1, 2002, finally reading Mike Linaker for the first time. I was pleased with the level of talent he has, I would say he is as good as Fieldhouse. The story moves along smoothly and rapidly, with lots of action, and everything you could expect from this series is here.

This one was slow to get going, I yawned several times during the first half of it. (really, I did). The plot was a complex one, with new characters introduced every few pages, in addition to most stony man farm personnel. It read at times like a Tom Clancy novel. The action was missing from most of the book, and the story wasn't as interesting as Renauld's earlier Able Teams, so I give it an average grade. Not the authors' shining moment.

A pretty decent story, but the writing was clumsy at times, and the writer didn't seem to get the characters very accurately. He even has Manning guzzling down coke, instead of McCarter. It didn't read like a true Phoenix Force. I did like the scene where Katz was on the balcony of the tower and dealing with the 2 dudes there, a tense moment, but the book overall was not the PF I'm used to. If I was to let a friend borrow one in this series to check it out, I would hide this book.

This is a quick read, with one blazing gun battle after onother. If you like lots of these kind of scenes, than this is the PF for you. I was Disappointed that encizo got hurt by a no name gun toter, instead of the main villain or some other promanent figure in the story wounding him in some great final showdown. Just getting dinged by a bullet while going up some stairs. But the book was very exciting, a good read.

This was a shorter book than most, but it crammed a lot of entertaining action between the covers. Not as good as Libya connection, but pretty fun.

I agree with Doug's review on this one, I was dissappointed that the climax of the week went down instead of up for this one. A decent but not gread read.

This one isn't as good as the first 2 of the final week, but it is satisfiying enough.

this one continues the blitz very well, the action and the tension are maintained throughout.

This one introduced some tension that had been missing in the series in recent titles. An urgency to get one more week to kick mafia butt. A great start to the week.

This is a must read in the series. I was impressed with it, it was well written from cover to cover, it sets up some of the changes taking place in Bolan's world to come.

The Artwork was better than the book, I thought this one was kinda blah. Nothing really exciting happens in here.

A good entry in the series, it had some good moments, but it doesn't stack up to the earlier books in the series. Well worth reading though.

Another great one from Pendleton, I was pleased at how well this one went. I heard that Mike Newton and Steve Mertz got there start working with Pendleton on this one. Great stuff.

Pendleton gets back to his good writing, after the lame Dixie Convoy. I liked this one a lot, it kicked ass.

I just didn't get into this one at all. Didn't have any plot that I could find, and the action was sparse, I don't remember much from this one.

A decent entry, but not great. I love the artwork on the cover, I bought this one at a garage sale in 1981, the first Bolan I owned, but never read it until 85. The artwork sold me on it, I miss Gil Cohen's art, he was the best ever on this series.

I enjoyed this one very much, the best story since Jersey Guns, this is one of those must read mafia war books. Pendleton was kinda inconsistent around this time, this is one of his best ones.

I give this one a 6 star because of the action, but otherwise this book wasn't all that great because there just wasn't anything I could remember about this when it was over. No scene in particular really stands out, so I guess it wasn't as good as most of the Mafia books.

This one concludes sort of a trilogy to start off the coolest series ever, and it's a great one. I loved the undercover role bolan uses to infiltrate the mob, and this book has some of the best of that stuff. Loved it!

After reading the first 2 books in this series, #3 is kind of a letdown, but that doesn't mean it sucks. Actually it is a pretty good one, but compared to the first 2, not much better than average.

This is as classic an AT as you're gonna get, it was a great start to the series, a fun filled thrill ride.

This book is all right, lots of action, especially at the end, but overall i didn't think this one was as good as #11, which I gave a 6 star. The villain comes back in #32, but I don't really care much for her, she's too cartoonish.

I give this one 6 stars mainly because the action was relentless, although some times it was hard to follow. Not the best AT by far, but a decent read.

This book concludes the Unomundo saga, and I must say it ended pretty satisfactory. Good battle at the end, too bad no more G. H. Frost, I miss his books. I enjoyed all of the AT by him.

This one's not bad, the action was great. The chess player thing isn't the most exciting subject matter for an Able Team, but the author makes it work. I liked the ambush scene near the end, and the underwater river action was exciting.

I was enjoying the first half of this one, it was like a G H Frost novel, but the second half was more like... well, Chuck Rogers. So all said and done I give this one an average grade.

This is one of Arnett's better books, along with Iron God and Death Ride. I really liked the shootout at the end of this one, the action was better written than some of the cartoonish action found in some of Arnett's books.

This one started off kinda slow, but once it got going, it was pretty good. It was enjoyable, and had some good humor, but it could have benefited from some more action. This one is kind of a sequel to Final Run, with the Villian who got away being the main villain in Red Menace, and he gets canned in the end after a suspensefull ending to this story.

This one starts off kinda slow, then lots of blazing action towards the end. This book is standard Fieldhouse formula, readers not used to PF would like it more than I did, but it didn't offer much new to put it up there with most of the writers' better books.

This is my kinda stuff. Not a whole lot of action, but a good story from Renauld. The brainwashing tactics used by the freaks in this book are pretty accurate to what really happens in a lot of religious fanatic cults in this country. Not the best of Renaulds Able Team books, but well worth reading, if you like his stuff.

A decent entry in the series, some parts were boring, but the battle with the zombies was really creepy, something I never expected to read in a PF book. The action scenes were well written, overall a pretty good but not outstanding book from Fieldhouse.

This is top notch writing from Ron Renauld. I loved this story, the only thing keeping it from 10 star material was some of the action, particularly the end of the book was brief, but the whole book was great, I was really into the story, highly recammended for readers lookin for a well written, well plotted book.

A solid action thriller from Nueman, he writes a lot like Fieldhouse, these guys made a good writing team.

I was very pleased with this book, it had what I expected from a Big Bolan story. This is Cunninghams' best Bolan, and I still think this is one of the best superbolans after all these years.

I really liked the way the villain meets his demise at the end of this book, this one is worth reading just to see what happens to him. Too bad Cunningham wrote his last Bolan, I like his stuff.

I like Ray Obstfelds' books a lot, I've read some of his other stuff, his books are worth checking out. This is his last Bolan, and it's his best one, not the best book in the series, but it's better than most.I really like stories that are unique, this one stands out from the rest of the pack because it is well written, entertaing, as well as going in a new direction from the usual plots.

Great title, great cover, great story. One of my favorites from Newton, this is a kick butt nonstop page turner. This book reminds me of Command Strike, it involved wasting several of the top mafia goons in one strike.

This one has an interesting twist at the end, this book is kinda similar to Appointment in kabul, but not quite as good , but it's worth reading.

Typical Newton stuff, this book is better than average, but not really up there with the best stories, a satisfiying read.

A great one from Mertz, Bolan works with the warriors from Afganistan, he shows how well he can lead people in combat no matter where he is, a well written story, lots of good action.

A good book to go along with the excellent cover art. A solid, entertaing read.

The cover on this is awesome! I read this after reading #65 by the same writer, but it wasn't as good as that one, Tiger War has a lot of action and adventure, but overall it seemed kinda flat to me, I was disappointed with it, but only because I had really high hopes for it. A decent book worth reading.

The review from Addiboy for this one pretty much says it all for me. Not a bad story but average material, not living up to the hype this book got back then.

I remember this as being one of the better mafia books, I think it's a lot better than #8, #9, and #11. Lots of action and adventure in here, no part of this book is boring, this is the kind of Pendleton writing I like.

This book is great! One of Fieldhouse's best stories, everything you could want in a PF book is here. Great action, with KGB spies, a snow covered setting, and an intense moment with Encizo and Manning battling for survival in the harsh Finland tundra with a pack of hungry wolves! I was glued to the pages, couldn't put the book down. I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Fieldhouse keeps getting better as a writer.

This book doesn't set the world on fire with blazing action, but it is entertaining enough, with decent action scenes interesting locations, and a look at Pol's family, with his dad getting into the firefight! A pretty good Able Team worth reading and it makes you wonder if Lao Ti was gonna die in this one.

This is the prototype get in find the target kick butt and get out operation that this series is known for, and it's a solid exciting read. The thing missing from this book was including some kind of intro to stony man farm and all that, it just kind of jumped straight into a mission from the start. A good start to the gold eagle lineup.

I give this one 7 stars even though the action isn't much, because the author did a good job of introducing us to the new guys. It was entertaining to see them meet together for the first time, it was well written and a good start for the series.

A decent entry in the series, a little above average, there is lots of adventure in here, I liked it, but it's not super good.

The action scenes were well written, and there were many of them, and seeing Bolan AT, and PF in the same book for the first time was exciting. However, overall this book just is NOT worth the 10 star everyone is giving it, I agree somewhat with Gerald Montgomerys' review, although I think he was being overly critical of it. Not the best book storywise, but if you lookin for a lot of explosive action, this book really delivers.

Wont be reading this one for a coupla years, but I gotta say something about the new cover. The design overall is decent, and I like the black cover, but what the hell is the deal with the 50 cent piece size left for the artwork??? This sucks. I wanna tell the designer that he (or she) screwed up what was a cool lookin cover for stony man.

Havn't read this yet, but I gotta say what the hell is the deal with leaving a small strip for the cover art? Dangit, the covers from #110 to #128 were pretty good, why the F*CK did they have to switch to these covers???

A really good one from Schmidt. The book was enjoyable, and it's nice to see Grimaldi get into action once in a while. I like the new cover style for the series starting with this one, too bad it didn't last long.

Can't really add much to the review from Max Danger. I did like the setting for this one, I could feel the desert heat as if I was in the action. Better than average book, but not by much.

This book doesn't have anything spectacular about it, but what I liked was it was a good entertaining story that always kept to the action and flow of the story from beginning to end. Set in the jungle, Bolan is in his element, and kicks butt as usual. Good writing.

The first half of the book is a lot better than the second half, it should be the other way around. Overall it ends up as an average read.

Bolan returns to kickin mafia butt in here, and I must say Newton can write the mafia stuff as good as Pendleton did. A great story and I like how the cover art shows a scene that actually happens in a book, unlike most Bolan covers.

Leslies' Books are always entertaining, and this book has its' moments, but overall it just didn't stack up to his usual stuff, or to other books written at this time period, for that matter. I consider it average material, but a new reader to the series might enjoy it more than I did.

This was a very fun, entertaining read from Newton. I was pleased that it was good because Newton writes so many books, I sometimes worry if some are going to be below average, but this book was well above average. Keep it up Mr. Newton!!!

A great action packed book, I would rate it higher, but for one problem. The battle scene on the mountainside was just too long, too complex, and too unbelievable for my taste. It seemed like there was a bad guy generator spitting out endless gun toting bad guys for Bolan to shoot, it was the only lame part of the book. Still, this book is worth getting, and is one of the writers better earlier books.

I read Mike McQuay's stuff before and was happy to see him write Bolan. I was in for a surprise, this stuff is better than his previos work I've read! He truly is a gifted writer, this is one of those Bolan books you must read if you havn't already. I liked the setting in this story, and it's always good to see Johnny in a book. Great stuff.

This is my favorite book from McDade. I really liked the underground tunnel action in here, it was a exciting entertaining read from cover to cover.

I agree with frogmans review for this one, I was really impressed with this book, I enjoyed every moment of it, great writing from Newton.

This is a fun read, good action and rises to a exciting conclusion. The jet in this story is really cool. The writer didn't do any more stories, unfortunately.

I didn't see what other reviewers did on this one. A disappointing end to the mafia wars in my opinion. The action was almost non existant, and the way it wrapped up the conspiracy of Bolans' demise and the rise of John Phoenix could have been done a lot better. It was kind of brief, as well as confusing, my expectations were pretty high for it, but it was a letdown.

This book has some explosive action scenes and lots of action, but not much better than average overall, I liked Mountain Rampage better.

This was my fourth Bolan read, and I was really impressed with the story. I wasn't even sure at the time if it was written by pendleton or not, later finding out he pretty much left the stories in other writers hands by this time. Mike Newtons first work is great, the action never lets up, I was kept turning the pages in this early gold eagle thriller. Good to see the writing talent that continues the best action series ever, Newton is still one of the best.

I remember this being just an average Bolan story. Nothing to really put it above what I expect from these books. I never was impressed with Paradine, he seemed to be uninteresting as a villain to me. I was even disappointed to see him come back in #55. The writer has Bolan muse on his war and what he's about, which is fine, it is only the second book in the gold eagle series, so it kind of sets a precedent for his thoughts and stuff. However, I thought it paused the action too long in a book that wasn't to great anyway, so I give this book a 5 star. This same writer wrote #47, which is like reading the boring part of #40 from cover to cover, that book sucked. Still, this book is worth reading, if you're looking for the early terrorist books.

This was a good ninja actionfest set in Japan. The TRIO dudes finally got canned in this one, but I was disappointed that the guy from sea of savages didn't put up much of a fight after the cliffhanger from the end of that book. But the ninja action was exciting, and the ending tied some loose ends from earlier books.

I really like the cover art on this one, its one of the best Able Team covers. And it's a great book too. Some people like Renaulds' books and some people don't, I'm one of those who do, after finally reading one. This is a good well told story centering around the stony man weoponsmith, giving some background on him, which is interesting. One problem is obvious though. The writer made a major blunder in this book. After leaving Pol and cowboy in Alabama, Lyons and Gadjets go to New Orleans. During a lobster dinner Gadjets magicly transformes into Pol!!! The Gold Eagle editors musta missed it too, I guess. I wonder what was in those lobsters...

This book rocks! The last PF from Neuman, and it's his best. I really enjoyed the book from start to finish, especially the battle at the bullfight ring, and the way the one drink guzzling bad guys' world started falling apart was amusing. One of the best PF books in the series, this is one you wanna read if you're lookin for some older PF stuff.

I agree with gulf vets review on this book. This one seemed like the author was throwing something together to meet a contract deadline. It was like reading a rough draft insome places. I often was confused about what was going on, the writing in some of the action scenes was sloppy and/or unbelievable. The villain in this story was too micky mouse for my taste. Arnett wrote some of the best Able Teams, like Iron God, WW III Game, and Death Ride. Firecross was too tedious to enjoy much, however, considering the action overload combined with sloppy writing just turned it to a mess. I hope Ron Renaulds' books are good, because I'm about to start on those.

Wow, I actualy liked this book. Not one of the best Able Teams, but for Chuck Rogers, it wasn't too bad. It has a decent plot and the ending is satisfactory.

I was really impressed with the ending in this book, Katz's battle in the hospital room was some of Fieldhouses' best writing. The leopard men were kinda hokey though. All in all another good PF story.

Another good PF book from Neuman. The hostage exchange scene was really intense, it was a great ending to the story.

As I advance through the series, these books remain well written and enjoyable to read, unlike the Able Team dung heaps written around this time.I liked this book a lot, I was kind of disappointed that Encizo's brother played such a small role in this book, but the ending indicated he will return in a later book.I can't wait to see what happens with him. Definitely one of the PF stories you wanna read.

Blechhh!!! More vile swill from Chuck Rogers. This book had some funny moments at the beginning, but after that it just got worse and worse. Able Team only killed one guy in the first 207 pages! and after that the action wasnt much.Still even then Carl Lyons manages to get shot.Not once. TWICE!!. good grief.A terrible ending to a lame book.Thank God this is'nt the same Chuck Rogers writing Bolan books these days. This Book inspires a poem. it goes like this: Old Chuck; you suck. Back to Phoenix Force I go.

A good solid read, another good PF book.

Like The Iron God, the author packs more action than you can shake a stick at in this book. One of the better books in this series.

The only reason this boring slop of sewage rates a 2 star is because it's better than #47 Renegade Agent, the only book in the bolan universe at 1 star material. Avoid this yawner at all costs. I think I'm gonna skip AT #30 and #31, those were written by the same writer. The A team meets miami vice artwork on the cover is kinda cheesy too.

This was a quick read, not as much action as I'm used to from AT but the story builds along the way to a good finish. I think this was a 188 page book stretched to 220 pages to meet the bigger format, but is was a decent entry.

Holy action Batman, check out this one! This book packs a lot of stuff in a 220 page book, if your looking for a good able team, this is one of them.I really liked how AT tweaked the CIA's nose in this story, and the bike race was an interesting scene. Good stuff.

If I said this book was written by an 8 year old on acid, I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. It started ok but 2/3 into the book it just got dumb. Not a good representation of the Able team series of old. It gets 3 stars because it made me laugh. At it.

I would give it a 7, but it gets an extra star for the unique villain in this one. One of the must reads if you like PF.

Overall a pretty good book, not as good as hostaged vatican, but i enjoyed it.

I really liked this book. one of the best in the series so far. This is a good example of PF being a superior series to Able team.A good action packed well told story.

Back in early 84 I was drawn to a cool piece of art on the cover of #61 tiger war. it was the first bolan that I saw in a grocery store rack that i picked up and looked at. Coupla months later in the same place I found myself looking at Dead Man Running.I thought, COOL!. I told myself then that I had to read one of these. A month later I bought #65 and read it, and well now i'm up to my neck in Bolan books wonderin where to put them all! I wish I wasnt so far behind. I'm about to start Tightrope now. #64 is one of the best books, well living up to the great cover art.

I tried to think of why I would rate this less than 10 star, but I couldn't think of any. what a unique story! Newton really shows what he can do in this book. I don't care if some books are low on action as long as there is a good plot, suspense, and good characters and dialogue. This book has all of these qualities and good action at the end.

Another Peter Leslie thrill ride. One of the wierder pieces of art for the series, but its good. The last adventure before Bolan goes to jail!

For anybody who hasn't read the old Pendleton books, they are missing out. Not all of them are as good as this one however, but I would say Pendleton was at the top of his game when he wrote this awesome story.

The action and adventure never stop in this one. I like the stories that keep up the pace through the whole book and build to an exciting conclusion.

I had mixed feelings about this one. Randle is one of the vietnam: ground zero writers. Those are great books, but before that series started there were about 4 books taking place before Vietnam: Ground Zero. these were called The scorpion squad, and the first of them was called Body Count. If you can find a copy of that masterpiece, it is the best war story ever told, I can't say enough good things about it. So when that writer wrote a Bolan book, my hopes were up pretty high. Warriors revenge is a well told decent story, but it was kind of a let down for me, but its worth reading if you can find a copy. I like the cover art on this one.

This is an explosive rockem sockem buttkickin Bolan adventure. This is classic Mack beatdown. I would have givin it a 9 star, but it too closely resembles the The New War.

This book had me on the edge of my seat at the beginning. the first 3rd of the book was awesome, but it kinda ran out of gas.I would rate it a lot higher, but it was too inconsistent overall. It was like Newton was writing a smaller book and had to stretch it to make it a superbolan. The ending was great though.

This book is a masterpiece! It's definitely one of the best 3 or 4 Bolan books of all time. I liked the look in the past to see some of the death squad in action in Nam. A good prelude to death squad or the whole series for that matter. This is a must read for any Bolan fan.

This is one of the best in PF series. I really liked the new guy in here, Karl Hahn isn't just a run of the mill good guy with a gun type, he really is a dangerous guy with any kind of object nearby.

This is one of the best of the Able series. It's told in a flashback style but it really was a well written book, if you havn't read much or any Able Team, this is worth finding.

I am currently reading #23 , and after all the Able books I've read, I think this was the best overall. This book has all the action that is a trademark for the Able series. I liked the suspense of the house to house search in this one.

An average Bolan entry. I thought the potential for this book was never reached, my hopes were up for it when I read the back cover but I was kinda let down. It's not bad, but it puts an end to the longest streak of way above average books in the series. (86-101)

An above average story from a new author. The action never lets up and provides an entertaining read.

This is a action packed thrill ride all throughout. I like the setting for this book, Mack rules any part of the world he ends up in.

I like how the author picks interesting subject matter for many of his stories. The ones that don't usually end up being run of the mill.This one is a great story and deals with some really creepy subject matter. Bolan kicks some butt on these freaks.

This is classic Newton action. I was kept turning the pages in this well written story. A good indication of the quality of writing seen in the 9o's books to follow.

I had to give this one a 10 because after so many books, Pendleton somehow manages to come up with a super great story from beginning to end that makes you think he started all over again refreshed and new. If anybody wants to find an older mafia book to check out, this is one of the best 2 or three from the mafia wars.

Cunningham always has something innovative in his books, and this one has nonstop action from start to finish. A fast enjoyable read.

I really liked this one. Ray Obstfeld's books add a spice to the Bolan series. Gold Eagle should get him to write a Bolan now and then these days. After reading paramilitary plot, then this, I was surprised how two different writing styles can both tell a great Bolan adventure. great stuff.

I suspect the Author is a pen name made from jumbling the letters in Mack Bolans name. Or maybe coincidence.Anyway I would say this book is a good story, I don't care if the body count is low, I like a good story and this book delivers. Anybody who might not like the body count style books as much should pick up a copy of this one. Its good.

This was a fun read for me.After reading superBolan Dead Easy, i kind of thought the ending in that book was a ripoff of the ending in Hellfire crusade. Oh, well I guess those things sometimes happen. This book is a better written book than the previous Bomack novels.

I'm a Leslie fan, but this one was kinda weak.If it was the first Bolan I read, maybe I would have enjoyed it, but it was below average compared to the series in general.

This book is getting bad reviews, But I remember this being an action packed adventure that was pretty good, but not standing out from the pack. The authors writing style is a little strange, maybe thats why some people didn't like it, but I thought is was a decent book.

Just finished this book oct 1 2002. A longtime reader from mid 80's. after some time off ( a few years ), I am back into this series bigtime. Mike Newton was always one of my favorites. He impressed me with this one.i sometimes am worried that the books he writes will be run of the mill, some of his are, but this one is definitely innovative. A cool story, I like how the preachers world collapses on him at the end. I like heavy metal myself , so it was an interesting subject for a Bolan story.

I was wondering if this new author was up to snuff. I put down the series for a few years (and got waaaaaay behind) and finaly started up again with number 122. I just read war born and I would say that yes, Odom is up to snuff. complex plot, but a great read. Good job.

A good book overall, I would have givin it a 7 star, but the part where Bolan survives a plane crash with hardly a scratch made my jaw drop and go HUH?? Bolan isn,t Clark Kent the last time I knew. But the story is full of action and had a good ending i thought.

I always have fun reading Leslie's books. This is no exception. Lots of adventure and twists and turns.Some things seem to be major coincidences in the book, but that is Leslie's Bond movie style of storytelling.Good fun.

This book is bland. I can't think of another word for it. It seemed too run of the mill to me. Schmidt is capable of much better.

This one was different. In a good way. Mike Mcquay is a talented storyteller. The group of misfits in this book make it entertaining and a break from the usual slaughterfest found in some of the run of the mill stories. A great read.

I just gotta give this one a 10. Newton is at the top of his form here. I always thought when he is good is GOOD!. Not all his novels are like this though.

I think this is one of Newtons better ones. It's been years since i read this but if I remember right, this one has a dream sequence in it. unless that was another Newton book. Anyway I remember thinkin Newton would make a great horror/suspense writer if he wasn't writing Bolans. I would certainly buy them if he did.

I read this after taking a coupla years off to read other things.Oh my God! This book punched me in the gut and put me through the wringer! A very dark story, Schmidt makes you hate the bad guys like never before and shows again that when he wants to he can write as good a Bolan as anybody has.

This book caps the 90's books the way they started. Very good! I rate it 9 1/2 star. An Excellent Mcquay novel,it was very entertaining, the trick with the tires was kinda strange, but I loved the gondola scene, it made me laugh. I wish this author wrote more books than he did.

I totaly loved this book! I was very impressed with the authors' first entry in the Bolan series. None of Schmidts' novel I've read since come close to this one unfortunately IMO, but he shows here how good a writer he can be. One of the best Bolan books ever.

One of the last Mertz novels, its one of his best.I really liked the gas in the briefcase trick, its one of the more memorable scenes from the book. Whatever happend to Mertz?

Wow! Newton reasserts himself as my favorite writer after this one.A nice change of pace from the usual when Bolan finds himself in a place where he's stuck in place and surrounded by bad guys trying to execute him.This one is a classic.

I thought this one wasn't as good as the previos Newton books.Maybe it was because i had high expectations of it, after being blown away by numbers 41,45 and 49.After reading many great Newton novels since, i still think this is one of his weakest ones.An average Bolan at best.

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.

This is probably my all time favorite so I had to say someting here. If you can look past the bad choice of art for this book and the corny way the bad guys always seemed to catch Bolan again and again so easily, this book was the most fun I ever had reading this series.With lots of acion, plot twists and thrills and spills this is the book i think would be best to hook a friend into reading Bolan books. Great job Peter Leslie!

I really enjoyed this one.It takes a break from the usual and shows a more human vulnerable side of Bolan instead of a kill everybody and not get scratched type that most stories have.You just knew that even wounded in bed he was still the most dangerous man around for any bad guys. Arnett really tells a great story here.

Of all the 140 plus Bolan books I have had the pleasure of reading so far, there is still only one book I hated. This is it. I dont't know how anybody can rate this boring piece of crap more than a 1 star.NOTHING happens in this terrible excuse for an action book.I can't believe this was written by the same guy who wrote Terrorist Summit.That book was loaded with action and Mack kicked butt from start to finish. Not here. I couldn't even fall asleep because it took too much energy plodding tediously from word to word in this stinker. Nice cover art though.

After reading this thrilling book, i suspect that the author missing from the credit might be Peter Leslie.I could be wrong but the writing style seems to be consistent with his. This is the first book i ever loaned to a friend, And he loved it, so it's good enough to introduce to new people.

The first Leslie book was a great read.He kind of brings a Bond style into his books,which is good, I'm not a fan of every author trying to write the same style.Lots of action and adventure here.

This was my very first bolan ever,way back in May of 84. I loved it!.I had never read such cool stuff before. It still remains as one of my favorites of all time. Of course its not the best example of a classic Bolan, it was written with a different style than the rest of the series, but we all liked the first bolan we ever read, even though later on it wouldn't stand out from the pack. I would definitely recammend it to anyone who hasn't read this book.

I read this book during a time when i was reading a bolan novel a day.I wish i had the time these days to do that again! I blew through this romp in about 2 hours, by far the fastest read for me and it was like a thrill ride on a kick butt rollercoaster.Not the best book but i rate it a 9 star because it was a great almost realtime Bolan beatdown.After reading Violent streets, Paramilitary Plot, and this, Mike Newton became my favorite author.At least for a while.

I am from the seattle area , so i was hoping this was gonna be a good one but I was very disappointed with it.The action seemed to be missing from most of this book, and by the end I just didn't care. After readingabout 140 bolans as of this review this book still remains as one of the 5 or 6 books that I could say I didn't enjoy. =(

I wish more of the books in this time period were written as good as this one. I enjoyed every moment of it.

This is one of my favorites from Pendleton. It was a great read from start to finish and is the best of the final week of the mafia wars.

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.