Mykal Banta

The United States of America has developed a super guided missile which runs on plasma fuel and travels at such high speed it is absolutely unstoppable and can hit any target, anytime, anywhere in the world. In fact, this new weapon can actually travel completely around the world. But, the first time this super-secret technology, is tested, a highly-trained team steals the entire cache of super missiles right off the aircraft carrier, destroying the ship and killing all the crew into the bargain. Naturally, Mack Bolan is called into this desperate situation. How desperate? Pretty desperate, to put it mildly. Once armed with nuclear warheads, this cache of stolen super missiles has the capacity to reduce the United States to a flat, charred and radiated wasteland from shore to shining shore. So, Mack Bolan is called to put on his black suit and arm himself with his beloved Beretta 93-R and his massive Desert Eagle one more time. First, what I liked: The villain, General Soong Tsanghsien, a Chinese Nietzschean superman, over 6 feet tall and greened eyed, is a well-drawn character. I find often the best parts of a Bolan book are the bad guys, and War Load is no exception. General Tsanghsien can trace his warrior lineage back 2,000 years before the birth Christ, and he considers no man his equal. Particularly not the current crop of politicians that run modern China, who seem only interested in forming a fruiteful, peaceful allaince with the hulking but dim-witted American giant. Not so for the General. Tsanghsien hates the USA with a bitter, white-hot fury that seems to burn rather than simmer. His Narcissistic rants and maniacal ego make him an interesting character. Consider, he has not captured the world-destroying technology to negotiate with America (or the world), perhaps thereby reducing the United States to a lesser power. No. The Gneral simply wants them to destroy the USA, to send every man, woman, child, animal, building and plant into the blazing pit nuclear destruction. There is a purity about the General's insanity that makes him - well, admirable is not the right word. Perhaps simply interesting and very entertaining. Now. What I didn't like. Let me preface my comments here by stating up front that, while I am aware that best-seller writing 101 demands a "love interest" for the protagonist, I am nearly always disappointed when I encounter this in an action novel, particularly when it feels as tacked-on as it does in War Load. In War Load, the birds-n-bees theme is presented in the person of female Chinese agent Kerri Tanaka, who is teamed with Bolan simply because she speaks Chinise and will help Mack navigate his way through the interior of China to the General's mountain stronghold. To put it bluntly, Tanaka is a poorly-realized, shallow, catastrophically annoying token romantic character that is simply off-the-chain unrealistic. The (of course) fabulously beautiful agent spends the entirety of the novel whimpering and whining, angry with Mack for not admitting his true feelings for her, throwing herself at him at moments of incredible crises, stamping her feet and generally acting like a 15-year-old in the throes of her first crush and disappointed she didn't get asked the freshman barn-dance. I did mention that America, that is the entire continental United States and every living creature on it, is at stake here, right? Still, Ms. Tanaka is in full flirt and dramatic hissy-fit throughout. And the worse part? Mack doesn't ever simply shut her down. This is not the Mack that we faithful readers know and love. This is not the eternal warrior laser focused on crushing evil upon this fallen world. No, this is a conflicted Mack that makes a brittle resistance that, really, is no resistance at all, not with what all is at stake. And it is a sad and sorry spectacle to see. Still, all in all, Author David Robbins is able to develop just enough anticipation for the final confrontation between Mack and General T wo have kept me reading to the end.

Killing Range is a solid outing for veteran Bolan scribe, Mike Newton. As per usual, Newton’s Mack lives in the grit and grime of the very real, modern real world, political warts and all; but there is also the noble potential that lies at the iron core of humanity’s ethos, underlying Mack’s course through the world. When guided by author Newton’s pen, Mack’s compassion (never true empathy – that is for living saints) is always guided by a barometer set on simple equity and fairness. And Mack's fairness barometer is certainly challenged in this one as Mack takes on the White Wolves of South Africa post the fall of apartheid. The Wolves want to bring apartheid back, and then some. Mack is determined to stop them and destroy the Wolves, not just take out Willem Grub, the Afrikaner white supremacist who leads the White Wolves. It comes as no surprise to Mack that the corruption has depth behind Grub, including corrupt police and politicians, as well as an ex-CIA covert agent, Arnold Schuster (who is slick as a wet ice cube and just about as difficult to pin down). Author Newton does some tremendous plotting in this one, as well as some top-notch character development. Brought to vivid life are Kebby Seko, oft-tortured native South African who becomes a very potent sidekick for Mack; and Ralf Janek, the dangerous and toxic White Wolves second-in-command. The mark of a good writer is that all characters have dimensions, including the villains of the piece. Newton brings Janek, ex-security police during apartheid, into the light, revealing the paths of this thinking, allowing those loathsome trails to speak for themselves. This book was published in 1994 – and I have just read it in 2021. I found it refreshing to read a novel in which the Executioner sets his sights on white nationalists, considering the current re-emergence of white nationalism on a global scale.

I thought Leviathan was a very unorthodox but enjoyable outing for the soldier. Mack is called upon to investigate a mammoth oil rig in the North Atlantic – a rig so large it has declared itself a sovereign nation, not answerable to any law but its own. Thus, the Cassiopeia Platform is secure in its pursuit of not only oil production, but incredible levels of Meth production as well. It seems everyone has a piece of this pie: The mafia, rogue CIA agents, and a bizarre cult that worships the giant squids that roam the nearby ocean depths. And that is where this Executioner adventure veers into some very unusual territory. Mack and all have to battle squids so huge and ravenous these pages read more like an adventure from Jules Verne than typical Executioner fair. I have not read to many Executioners from the pen of Gerald Montgomery, but I enjoyed this unusual effort a great deal. I thought the descriptions of Man Vs. Squid were thrilling. Yes, it veered at times into near science fiction, but I didn’t mind at all.

Cold Fury is a taut, exciting entry into the Executioner series; with Mack and crew locking horns with a Russian ring of illegal organ harvesters who are transporting a host of live “samples.� The human cargo imagines they are being freed from the Russian Gulag, where in reality they are simply being led to an unspeakable slaughter. A wrinkle appears, the “cargo’ have contracted the Bubonic Plague, so Bolan needs to thwart the Russians to save immediate lives, but also to prevent a worldwide epidemic. Author Michael A. Black does clean, efficient work here, quickly drawing some excellent character portraits of the bloodless Russian Mafiya leader, Nikoloz Rokva and his brutal sidekick, Sergei Dankovich. Brisk and well-down backstory establish the bond between the two men, making their devotion to one another believable. Along for the ride is Russian agent, Natalia Valencia Kournikova, supplying additional thrills. Everything we love about Mack Bolan is here in spades: A well-told story with no filler, great villains, and always an indomitable Mack. A "thank you" for the Admin of this great site! Thanks for keeping it going.

Trial by Fire is a great Executioner title, full of action and suspense. It kept me turning pages until the very end. Chuck Rogers does a wonderful job throughout, particularly in some fine plotting and characterization. A plane full of American military cadets has been shot down in the Congo, and Mack has been sent in for an extraction (a senator’s son is one of the cadets, which is the reason the flight survivors rate a covert, Executioner operation). Bolan must battle two forces, both vying for the survivors: Of immediate concern are the forces of the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by religious madman, Julius Caesar Segawa – a Congo native and cannibal who believes in “a heady blend of traditional African religions, spirit-medium mysticism and Apocalyptic Christianity.” The second force Mack must deal with are the Arab operatives who shot the flight down, hoping to gather the senator’s son for a hostage leverage. Through in a hulking war criminal in exile from the Serbian Army, and you have a cast of characters worth reading about. As I say, these two enemy forces give Mr. Rogers ample room to create some fascinating characters: For example – Mama Waldi the flesh eating priestess/mystic and right hand of Caesar Segawa – who loves the taste of white children and has had her teeth filed to points!

Overall, I liked this one a great deal, largely due to the strength of its story concept. China has masked its plot to take over the island of Hawaii, thus gaining a foothold into America, behind the activities of the New Hawaiian League; an organization interested in Hawaiian independence. There plot involves a complex web-like system of communications jamming which will jumble any possible defense by government authorities to the island's takeover from hostile forces. I felt this was a great, thought-provoking concept, and the author, Phil Elmore, made the most of it, bringing it to life. I thought, perhaps, there were too many villains in this one, which is my only criticism, and they did blur a bit. However, the leader of the Hawaiian rebels, Bando Kapalaua, the huge, hulking man child, was a standout and very interesting. All in all, a worthwhile adventure for the soldier. I give it a 7 only for the jumble of bad-guys that all seemed a bit similar. Other than that one small flaw, very, very readable. –Mykal Banta

Mission to Burma is an excellent entry into the Executioner series. The plotting is very interesting, with several teams and players battling through the jungles of Burma, all looking for a laptop containing secret, classified, and potentially very lucrative, information. What makes this one special is the very fine characterization done by author, Charles Rogers. Mack picks up help from many government assets and soldiers along the way, my favorite being Fat Sho Nyin, a pudgy, bucktoothed agent from Burma, who may look like a bad joke but proves his mettle many times over during the course of this adventure. He is, as delivered by Mr. Rogers, very, very capable and a great, humorous character. Sikander Singh, the big, tough-as-nails Indian soldier is also a wonderful character, and the professional respect and near-friendship that develops between Singh and Mack is very well done and is very moving. There is also a host of great Villains in this one, which is always necessary for a really great book, the most lethal being Captain Dai of the Chinese Army. This murderous, communist soldier is one of the scariest enemies, as well as the most dangerous, Mack has faced for while, and the author develops him very well. You will not be disappointed in reading this one. This one gets a 10. –Mykal

A solid outing for the Soldier. What I liked about this Executioner was its dense plotting and large cast of characters. In truth, I felt the complex and well-peopled plot might have been better served as a larger Super Bolan title. Be that as it may, the characterization was the great strength Mr. Tresslar's "Firestorm." I particularly liked the ex Serbian military thug, Milt Krotnik, and CIA freelancer, Albert Bly. The novel is stuffed with traitors and mercenaries of every strip, and it was clear the author enjoyed bringing them to life. SPOILER: Like another reviewer, I was disappointed that the incredible, secret weapon (Firestorm) didn't play more of a part at the conclusion. The author skillfully wetted the reader’s appetite throughout the book, giving only glimpses at the thing's size and power. Then, in the end, he never allows the reader to really see it in action. A deftly written scene with action packed descriptions would have made a whale of a wind up. A fascinating concept, though, this Firestorm. This would have been a great first novel in one of the older-style Executioner "trilogies." I hope to see this weapon, so rife with potential, used again in another Bolan adventure. --Mykal Banta

I thought this Executioner title had a lot going for it. First and foremost, it had a ton (even for an Executioner title) of action. The action was extremely well done, with Bolan mowing through his enemies in typical fashion. I also loved the description of the water city of Kampong Ayer, where a critical scene is set. I had no idea such a place existed, and the author really made the place real for me. I gave it an eight instead of a higher rating only because I felt the story lacked character development, particularily regarding the main villain, Zamira Loebis. Loebis was basically a name only (although a great name for a bad guy). But I do recommend this title and I enjoyed it a great deal for its nearly non-stop action and its great settings. --Mykal Banta

Another rabble-rouser from Mr. Wojtowicz. I enjoyed this one from start to finish. The action is well paced and the technological hardware is very well done and a real thrill to read. Sometimes I’ve noticed with the Super Bolans, the constant gunfights can get somewhat, well; overdone and repetitious if the book is not well plotted. I have often believed that Mack is best served in the shorter, Executioner titles. But his one didn’t bog down at all and kept me turning pages all they way through. The great strength of this novel was the villains were great characters: the hammer-force team of mercenaries, Dark (a lethal killer for hire that refers to civilians caught in his slaughter as “useless eaters,”) and Adonis (a towering blonde killing machine, capable of such rages that he tears machineguns right off their helicopter mountings and throws them at missed targets). Also, it was great to see David Kowalski (the former op that helped Bolan out in “Hard Pursuit” Executioner #307) make a re-appearance. Kowalski is a great character in his own right, and it was great to see he wasn’t a one shot. --Mykal Banta

This one was a bit slow for me. I felt that too much of the book was taken up with the lengthy chase of the stolen secret weapon. Mack was forced to team up with to agents after the same objective in this adventure, and the chapters just felt a little repetative to me. On the plus side, the two-man team of agents that bolan works with through most of the book were interesting and memorable, but the end of the book kind of felt like a fizzle. No interesting bad guys in this one either. All in all, not one of my favorites. Not terrible by any means - just a little flat.

The is a top-notch Super Bolan adventure. As usual, Dan Schmidt brings to life some truly memorable bad men - in this case members of a super secret, super elite covert force code named Alpha Deep Six. Long thought dead, this band of hard cases rises again from the ashes to attempt the biggest bank heist in world history (and in the process putting the world in a continuous state of chaos and war). The team leader, Crammon (all the Alpha team members are named after death-dealers and demons from mythology and religion), makes a terrible mistake, though: Barbara Price, Stony Man’s Mission Controller, is kidnapped for use as a bargaining chip. . What I love about a Schmidt adventure is the scribe always thinks big and isn't afraid to put forth some over the top writing and characterization. My favorite Alpha team members were Thor, the axe-yielding juggernaut that in one thrilling sequence puts Jihad suicide bombers to shame; and Chambliss, the ex-Marine sniper with the exposed head plate, carrying enough physical and physiological scars for ten Greek tragedies. There are several interesting elements that make this one a winner. First - the storming of the "Bank of Islam" is one of the best prolonged action sequences in recent memory, and the destruction of the Islamic cities jumps of the pages with a Biblical weight. Second – Barbara Price gets to stretch out of her mission controlling role a bit, making her into more of a rounded character. One of the strengths of the Bolan series in general is that Price has never been relegated to simply Mack’s "Miss Monypenny," and here she really gets to shine. And lastly, Mack is not in every scene dealing death. In fact, the best action scenes in the book, Mack is elsewhere, trying to catch up. I found this kind of a nice change-up. While Mack should never, ever be a "sensitive" or "vulnerable" character, it was nice to see him slightly less super-human.

Bolan veteran, Mike Newton, is at the helm for this one, and it hums right along. Mr. Newton has peopled this Executioner adventure with a host of bad guys and some unusual good guys that keep the pages turning. In “Hour of Judgment, “ Mack is sent deep into the Borneo jungle to extradite a devoted missionary and his wife who are being held hostage by the terrorist group, “Sword of Freedom.” I liked the pace of this one a great deal. While sacrificing the blistering action pace of most Executioner titles, Mr. Newton chooses to build suspense through some clean and quick characterization and the slow but sure meeting of several contingent forces. When things come to a head near the close of the book, I was racing through the pages to find out the fate of all concerned. My favorite character in the book was rebel leader Gurada Malajit, whose messianic rages made him a very interesting wild card throughout. My only complaint of the book is the way the missionary, Amos Claridge, was handled. Men of God are somewhat difficult for a writer to handle these days (maybe they have always been tricky). The writer must make a stand: are they truly men of God, or are they false prophets? Without giving a spoiler, I thought Mr. Newton hedged his bets a bit with this character. Still, taken as a whole, this is a great Executioner adventure with the final action scene a real humdinger. I mean, really, what reader can resist a vision of the apocalypse?

I enjoyed this Executioner a great deal and thought author, Tim Tresslar, did a nice job of boiling down a very large cast of bad guys into a punchy storyline. The basic premise was very interesting: Nikolai Kursk, an ex-KGB assassin and world-class weapons merchant, is planning to steal a highly secret airplane that will change the balance of power in favor of whoever owns it. There were several characters in this one that made an impression. First and foremost, of course, was Natasha Rytova, the disgraced Russian agent hot on Kursk’s tail in a mission of obsessive revenge. But for me, the most interesting and scary character, despite a brief and savage appearance, was the legendary CIA rogue, William Armstrong. He comes off as kind of a king spook, moving and crushing from the shadows, and this huge, pale killer really makes the blood chill. My only minor complaint is that the final wrap up felt a tad rushed. But then, with this many great characters, maybe it was wise to want us wanting more.

In "Lockdown" Mack is embroiled in a science fiction scenario closely resembling (if not identical) to the circumstances of the "Resident Evil" franchise of both the video game and movie fame. The first have or so of the book sags a bit, but then the second have really takes of into action most readers will have to read straight through to the end. I will have to admit, this was not one of my favorite Executioner’s, however. There was no real villain to latch onto, save the somewhat clichéd-prone characterization of the industrialist, Luther Harkin. Also, several promising characters sort of fizzled into a somewhat fizzled and very sudden ending. Still, though, it was worth reading for the teaming of Phoenix Force’s David McCarter, who in many ways emerged the hero of the book. All in all, worth reading but not a top page-turner.

"Soviet Specter" is a bit of a departure for the Executioner Series, and that’s not a bad thing sometimes. Author Jerry VanCook spends a good bit of time for character development and plotting, as Mack goes undercover to destroy a international web of drug smugglers masquerading as art dealers. Mack also plays body guard to a beautiful Russian art dealer entangled in the deadly web. As I say, the action takes a back seat through most of the novel as plot and character are explored. VanCook chooses to build slowly to excellent actions scenes instead of piling them one on top of the other, which is what most Bolan fans expect. I like Bolan books either way, and I must say it was nice for a change of pace to see Mack display his intelligence and investigative skills as well as his awesome physical talents. There are some wonderful creations here: Johnny Seven, the hard-core cop who is drafted by Mack to be his partner throughout, is extremely well delivered. He is just a tough, good cop that is cool under pressure, and VanCook really brings him to life. And of course, no reader will soon forget Maulid Akhmatov, the psychopathic, sadistic Russian hit man with a taste for Nietzsche and cannibalism. As one character in the books puts it when asked of the hit man's whereabouts, "He’s probably living in the woods someplace with a pack of timber wolves and they’re all screwing the sheep before they kill and eat them." A very satisfying read.

This Bolan adventure is a non-stop knockout. The action is incredible as Mack and two recruited FBI agents stalk escaped terrorist, Ahmur Ibn Laud, headman of the Divine Sword of Allah terrorist group, across the Egyptian desert and beyond. This one has some intricate plotting and a large cast of characters, which author Doug Wojtowicz handles very well. I always look forward to a Wojtowicz Bolan adventure because it is always jammed packed with military weaponry, all realistic and expertly handled, as well as realistic depictions of military and agency related paraphernalia. In fact, one of the things I like best about all the Executioner books is that a real effort is made to keep the weaponry real, which comes as a relief from a lot of mainstream thriller writing where much more well known authors seem completely ignorant of the realities of firearms. If you like your books with a Clancy-like attention to realistic detail, at about three times the action pace, read this one!

This Bolan adventure is a winner from start to finish. The story concept is excellent: A network of traitors and an elite group of rogue French Legionnaires have gained control of a missile launch at a remote facility in French Guiana. There are several aspects that make this one a real page-turner. First, author Charles Rogers has an excellent hand with realistic dialogue and intimate scenes. Mack has never seemed more suave than in the chapters with french agent, Jolie Erulin. Rogers certainly doesn’t skimp in the action scenes, either. In the chapters that have make fighting for is life in the Rain Forest, the pages raced by; and rarely has Mack Bolan been so severely tested physically. Lastly, the novel had fantastic characters and villians. The two brick-hard French Intelligence agents, Roland Aretos and Alan Reno, were especially well drawn and a lot of fun. Just a great adventure for the Soldier.

Mack goes against black op agents, the mob, and drug lords, who have all joined forces in selling a super deadly toxin to terrorists. As this outline suggests, this is a very dense plot to weave together in a single adventure, but veteran Bolan scribe, Dan Schmidt, pulls it off in grand style. The author does a great job in describing the myriad characters that flow in and out of this book, merging smoothly from describing the character of a CIA agent on the take to a senior Mafia hit man turning stoolie. The action is a little sparse for a Mack adventure (yet still plentiful enough to be satisfying), but the strength of this book is the inner dialogue of the characters. Characters make very brief appearances, but the author does a great job in explaining their motivations. It takes a great deal skill for a writer to give dimension to a character that sometimes is only in the story for a page or two. Hats of to Mr. Schmidt!

This was a seriously action packed Bolan adventure. I thought the events were a little scrambled at the beginning, but the book finished very strongly. One thing I enjoyed tremendously about “Agent of Peril” was the accurate use of a wide variety of military firearms, fighter jets, weapons systems, and tanks. Mr. Wojtowicz did his homework on this one (or else has a military background himself). The action scenes, particularly at the conclusion of the book, were real edge-of-your-seat stuff. My only complaint is that the book’s villain, General Idel, was not given enough page time. He was a very interesting character, truly menacing an odd (he is afflicted through much of the book with lockjaw), and I would have liked to get more of him. On the other hand, the relationship between Bolan’s sidekicks, Alessandro Kalid and Tera Geran was on the money and very well written. All in all I good outing for the Soldier.

I thought this was a fine Bolan adventure, with good research into the Voodoo culture without being sensationalist or condescending. There was also some fine characterization in this one, particularily DEA Agent, Tom Carlisle. His moral problems with throwing away the rule book to pursue justice was nicely handled. There is a great riff on vigilanteism on page 59-60, as seen from a black American's point of view. I do wonder why the author kept refering to a gun used by Agent Carlisle as a "Browning Autoloader". Why not just refer to it as a 9mm Hi-Power?