terry

Another well-done book by Kasner. Even if you never looked who wrote this one, you would know it to be a Kasner book pretty quickly as within the first few pages a senator really gives someone a good chewing-out. :) Anyway, this is also a good one to read because the farm is undergoing a move and a lot of good farm description is put forth. Highly recommend. For the action-fans, though, this one is pretty tame...

Picked this up in the bookstore here in San Diego while vacationing and finished in less than a day! This is definitely different from the other Bolan books out there, like it or not. I thought it was much more raw, had much more politics than other Bolan books, had Bolan portrayed more realistically than most Bolan books (with all the backup he calls in, and he even gets shot!): so it all depends whether you like Bolan books being portrayed like this. Personally I do. It was not the most action-packed book I ever read, was a bit too much politics for my taste, but it was a very entertaining book that kept me turning the pages right up to the explosive ending. In my opinion, that makes a 10-star book. Great job Gerald. I will be actively looking for the next 2 in the stores.

I agree - I remember this one being the weakest in the trilogy but still part of a very important storyline.

Definitely not very action-packed. But a MUST read as its a big event in Bolan's War Everlasting. I still found it a great read.

By this point in the trilogy, I was anxious for the score to be settled and I can remember reading this one late into the night. When I first picked this one up in the bookstore (after waiting for it very impatiently!) I remember being blown away by it. The gold foil lettering again, the picture of Bolan and the Corvette (I'm a *big* Corvette fan) and the promise of major Bolan fury. . . .

Any Bolan fan should find this book at all costs! It is packed with important information, from weapons, to maps of Stony Man Farm, etc.

An important book - should be a must read for any Bolan fan. Its been awhile since I read it, but I remembering being deeply affected by it and found it hard to wait to read the rest of the trilogy. My copy was loaned out to numerous friends (who eventually became hooked to the series) and now is one of the most mangled books in my collection because of it.

Wow. Fantastic book - finished this in 2 days myself. I can't really add much to what Doug said, but I think it would make a great book to give to a non-Bolan fan to hook them in to the series. It has great adventure, some mystery, some high-tech, some spaceflight, a relatively-low bodycount, and a plotline that drags the reader in - a real page turner. I got a kick out of the first time the location is stated as "Space". Brought a smile to my face. As Doug said, Mack's reflection as he watches Earth was great - but I also enjoyed Grimaldi's reminiscing about his spaceflight afterwards as well. And of course I loved the few scenes were the Stony Men chewed out some of the NASA boys and the Astronauts. Kasner has definitely perfected the chew-out scene. :) A must read. This is one slam-bang adventure, sure to please everyone.

Whats up with the Kawasaki on the cover? Reversed the picture accidentally?

I agree. This one was a very satisfying conclusion. When reading Kasner books, the reader tends to just learn a lot of little tidbits about EVERYTHING that really make it intriguing as well as very exciting reading. In addition to Kasner's top-marks action scenes (even an awesome dogfight!), I found the Grimaldi/CAG chewout scene to be the funniest Stony Man scene I ever read. :)

WOW. Thats all I can really add to Alice's excellent review. I found this book EXTREMELY exciting. Probably my favorite Kasner novel thus far. Took me awhile to get to it, but once I started it was a quick 3 night read for me. I found the Pakistan scenes to be particularly exciting and the Rust character very interesting. The preparation scene between Rust and Hawkins near the beginning was memorable - never saw Hawkins give someone such a hard time - it was great. :) I must object, however, to the multiple references to Californians being a bunch of whackos (it must have been mentioned at least 3 times throughout the book!) :) Not all of us are that bad! :) I am eagerly awaiting the finale.

Overall, I thought it was a decent entry. It seemed like two complete storylines going on simultaneously. The blacksuit story was pretty entertaining because I learned a lot more about blacksuit life. The russian story was pretty good, but not as strong in my opinion. I thought the bridge scene was amazing though! Brought some tears to my eyes when it finally went! This one had a great ending too. . . :)

GREAT STORY! A sure classic. Be sure to pick this one up and read it - one of the best. I thought the Mother Site was awesome! What a great finale. Ironman really is one scary dude. . . . There also was no ending on a dime with this book - great character development and some incredible sleuth work and firefights. But. . . was there a nuke at the Mother Site? A desperate nuke-attempt at the end mighta topped it all - but still I can't complain. This was a more than solid entry. Great job!!!!!

This was an excellent story. Great character development! Able Team and Phoenix Force members really got some good action and their personalities and specialties were really shown. Even all the Stony Man Farm members got some action! There were tons of cliff-hangers while the author jumped from one group to another. It took me about a month to read this one because of my busy schedule lately but I still found it very exciting and interesting. In a shorter sitting, its probably even much better. 2 Gripes: This ending-on-a-dime thing just doesn't agree with me. And, whats up with the cover? I was all psyched for a NYC subway scene that never occured. That IS a NYC subway on the cover. Oh well. It's a cool picture anyhow. I still recommend this one. Great fun.

The scene depicted on the cover is supposed to include a Land Rover, not a Jeep!! :)

Great read! This has got to be my favorite so far since I've restarted taking up the series. It was a fast, fun read. The characterization was excellent. The plot excellent. The action intense! Grimaldi had some great action in this one as well as Able Team. I'm starting to really like Able Team now!! The Stony Man Farm group had a lot of good action as well. A longer standoff with the ATF would have been a little nicer at the end, but a small suggestion. Otherwise, I was very very pleased with this installment. My favorite scene was probably the one with Grimaldi taking out the mercs with his hopped-up chopper.

I thought this one was kinda dragged out. It could have easily been compressed into a normal Executioner-sized novel. All of the hits tended to be similar to the rest for the most part. But I really enjoyed the character development and the hunt. My favorite scenes were the museum scene - it was great having the Stony Men's plan fail and have them improvise on the spot! :) I also liked the adrenaline rush as they charged Vasiliev's estate at the end of the book. I could just picture the Stony Men rushing from the safety of the woods onto the wide open expanse of lawn as RPGs sail around them. Great imagery!

Well, I thought this had some good action and some good bad guys. My complaint, however, is that it seemed less like a Bolan novel. It seemed sometimes that Mack was just thrown in so that we could see the action between the Camorra and the Mafia thru his eyes. Mack had very little action himself. Though it wasn't too bad, because the bad guys were pretty good and Mack did get some action in - its just it felt like he was a 3rd wheel in most of the scenes. I enjoyed the Mafia commandos - they really gave Mack a run for his money.

Great book! I was incredibly impressed with the nonstop action in this one. I finished this book in 2 days - it was a real page turner for me. I thought the bad guys were incredibly formidable - although I would have liked a more protracted final scene with the 2 main bad guys. I thought the helicopter scenes and sleuth-work were top notch, though I found it rather unbelievable that Garth would use such easily-decipherable names for his dummy corporations considering how intelligent and cunning he is with everything else. Though I still found this one to be of the highest caliber. The author also threw in a lot of little things that go wrong during the course of events (like forgetting the suitcase) that really added flavor to the story as well. Nice job!

I found this book to be a letdown in the trilogy. I thought the trilogy was going full steam until I hit this book. I think a lot of the personal side of the vendetta was removed and while the stakes were higher in this one, I found it more of an empty battle. Bolan wasn't battling face-to-face with people he gained hte trust of anymore - they were just faceless cultists. I think it could have ended with the second book quite easily. It was an explosive ending. In this one, I did think the helicopter duel with pretty awesome though. Otherwise, skip it.

This one wasn't quite as intriguing as the first one, but its the middle book so I guess the story is continuing. There's a lot of sleuth work and expaining being done by Bolan in this one to prove that he's still in with the gang. I found the description of the cult and how they continue to convince themselves of their beliefs to be very interesting. But everyone should read this book for the last subway scene - UNBELIEVABLY COOL!! Talk about fast action. I don't want to say too much about it because it deserves to be read but it kept me breathless until the final pages. All I wanna add is: Morrell kicks major butt in this one. Enjoy.

Wow. This one puts the Super back into Super Bolan. I haven't read a SB book this good in a LONG time. Definitely pick this one up. Bolan has a great undercover role in this fast-paced adventure. I *can't wait* for the 2nd part to arrive in the mail. Excellent job, Mr. Newton. I hope the remainder of the trilogy carry on with this kind of intensity and interesting plotline.

I thought this was an excellent entry. It had some good action, some good sleuth work, and top notch shootouts and escapes by Bolan and his prey. For the most part Katz had some great action and moments, but towards the end I'd have to agree with Echoes in that he was asking Bolan advice on EVERYTHING. I also liked the idea of the Stony Man Farm "hello" phone lines that are mentioned. Cool!

I thought this book had lots of action. My only complaints were that it featured the FBI too much. Not enough Bolan for my tastes. What happened to the Seattle reporter at the end? I thought that plotline kinda dissolved. While this entry had lots of action and was a decent enough read in my opinion, I thought it wasn't nearly as powerful as Kasner's "Reprisal".

Overall, I found this to be a very entertaining book. I thought the 2nd half of the book was better than the first half. The part in China tended to drag a little bit more in my opinion than the fast-paced Texas part. It was great to see Jiahua in the action again (first appeared in #215). In my opinion, its always cool seeing a woman kick ass against Animal Man. Also I liked how her past was vaguely hinted at (perhaps she was abused?) - we gotta see more of her; her character seems like it has great potential. I had never (in recent memory) seen Grimaldi in the thick and dirty, fighting on land by Mack's side, that was OK, but I think I liked Jiahua by his side more. I DID, however really like the helicopter fight. That really kept the energy flowing. The plotline with the cop on stakeout in Texas kinda fizzled out. I was sure Bolan would somehow end up working with him or at least meet him. I got a kick out of the sub-notebook computer that Bolan used on his flight from China.

I agree with gunslinger. Some of the best Bolan - highly recommend.

I agree with Alice - this book was a lot of fun. It was LONG, which was really great compared to the other comics. The art and story was beautiful. Really captured the time period well too I thought. Too bad it wasn't color, but the black/white did add a "film noir" look to it. :) Definitely pick up a copy of this if you can find it.

I found this comic to be very fun. I liked how it was definitely based on the Pendleton Bolan. They didn't try to make it modern or anything. Only wish it was longer.

This one was kind of a dud for me. Again, I was pretty busy so I couldn't read this one in one or two sittings. I found myself quite unmotivated to continue reading this one, but I did. I thought it was well-written and had some good action scenes in it as well as some great description, but I just found the characters and the whole idea of the story itself rather uninteresting.

Very good book! I enjoyed it more than Somheil's #215 "Fire Hammer". I visited Egypt a few years ago so I recognized all the locations. I liked Bolan on his own on this one. . . My favorite scenes were the car shootout when the terrorists were trying to take out the tourist bus (the one with the convertible that gets taken out) and the scene at the tourist site where the terrorists were going to mow down the tourists with the machine guns at the tourist site (can't remember the name). Bolan rushes up the stairs (too late to save about a dozen of them) but takes out the terrorists, and saves about 30+ lives. Great scene! I found this book to be especially timely with the recent terrorist attack against tourists in Luxor last November 97.

I agree with Dave. This was a very good story. I think I prefer the tight, focused stories like this one - ones that take place on streets of America, involving only a few key characters. A lot of fun. Bolan has quite a few good lines in this one and some good wording. I especially liked various allusions to "hunting Red Horsemen". :) I think the cellar scene that Dave was referring to was a little hard to believe (but still very exciting).

Nice. After a slight disappointment with #215, I was very happy to read this. I could relate to Bolan's characterization very well. All of characters seemed to have a personality. The author's experience in writing Bolan novels is apparent. I could visualize all of the scenes clearly. I really enjoyed the restaurant bathroom scene in the beginning of the book, and the highway assassination scene really got to me. I find myself looking around a little more nervously during my bumper-to-bumper commute home every night. . .

Nice story. I like all the history on Voodoo that was explained. It wasn't just the average shoot-em-up. Clear reasons were explained for why characters acted as they did. The first scene was especially frightening. I almost wish the scene in the swamp (the danger, the gators, snakes, etc) were exposed more. That was a frightening scene in and of itself, it could have been explored a little more. But overall, a really good story.

While reading the beginning I thought it was going to be an average adventure. In many ways it was. It seemed like the characters weren't developed as fully as they could have been. There was some good action sequences. I loved Bolan's capture and containment on the ship - and then his eventual escape. Fun stuff. I wasn't too crazy about the way this one (as quite a few others do) just ended on a dime. Right after the last guy is killed, there are two sentences and thats it. I want to be let down from the action a little easier. The highlight of the book, however, was the jungle navigation scene towards the end - when they were on the boat. The Caimans were frightening!! I was completely riveted to the pages during this scene. I thought David Robbins did a great job describing this particular scene and keeping my interest (and the characters!). It was a dangerous location and we believed it!

I read about the first 70 pages but couldn't get into it. Flowed really slow and a bit stilted. . .

Overall, a pretty good read. Had a lot of different forces at work: Bolan, Mercy Hastings, Alonzo Aguillar (leader of the Shining Path), Padilla (bad cop), Chavez (good cop). It all culminated at the end in a pretty exciting showdown. One of my favorite scenes was on pg 175 with the description of Mercy Hastings wiping her hands clean in front of her father. Great description!

Pretty good reading. It was a fast-paced uncomplicated mission. It was very much like watching a movie. There was nothing new to this book, but I didn't mind too much. The action was intense, the characters (though fairly run-of-the-mill) were good enough, and I had some good fun reading this. The ending was somewhat unexpected - hope to see more Executioners from this writer.

Another good entry from Ellis. I especially enjoyed this one, since it dealt with Germany, and real problems resurfacing there. I found the bad guys to be quite evil and dastardly and the story itself enticing - kept me interested, though it took me a couple weeks to get through this one. There was a bit of investigation and plenty of good action for my tastes. The last few lines from Heine were great. And it doesn't QUITE end on a dime like others. :)

This one was okay. First off, I'm not terribly big on the trilogies. I thought at the beginning that Bolan really had met his match when the professional soldiers were storming the estate at the beginning and I thought this was gonna be really good. But as the story wore on, the bad guys became more of the same and lost their edge it seemed. I probably won't read the rest of this trilogy. . . . I did think the bombings in Manhattan were cool. Kinda reminded me of the movie "The Siege".

I really enjoyed the attack of Able Team upon Stony Man Farm! The intense matchups between the various members was truly exciting. It was cool having John Trent in on the action at the end, but I found the plot after the Able Team attack to be anti-climactic. (But what can be expected after Lyons and Bolan duke it out!) A very solid entry overall. A quick read for me.

I must agree - this is shaping up to be a good trilogy. I thought the author did a masterful job of description in this one. Highlights were his description of the Witch's dwelling (you could almost smell the blood!) and the classic description of the seedy bar in Mexico that Bolan met the 2 Phoenix Commandos in. As was mentioned by someone else, I also liked the tunnel scene and the knife fight the most, but I found this to be a very good read. Rather than sticking to the main storyline, the author allowed the chracters to get sidetracked (the knife fight being the culmination of one of those sidetracks) - which I fully enjoyed. I did find it rather odd having 2 way-out-there seemingly-totally-unrelated storylines hanging separately though (the one with Hix and the Witch). I'm sure they will be tied in during the later books, but it seemed rather odd to read a whole book with these extra storylines then having that weak tie in during the epilogue. Though I found the epilogue to be a nice wrap up of the action so far. And that last line about the Executioner being alone as he always is, was great. If there was one disappointment, I think it had to be the end of the scene with the captive woman grabbing the gun and successfully disarming the bandit leader temporarily. That seemed kind of cheap after the action that preceded. I was waiting for the guys to come up some ingenious plan rather than relying on lady to get them out of the situation (didn't fit how her character had acted in previous scenes). I found myself saying "aww man!" as I read that one. Otherwise, though, I found this book to be top-notch.

A good solid middle to the trilogy. I found it did drag a little compared to the first, but I guess I could expect them from the fact that its the middle book. I thought it was a great that Able/Phoenix were brought in (gave the book a StonyMan feel). I thought it was a nice touch including the character of Chris towards the end to show that not everyone is fearless in combat. McCarter handles his fear with sensitivity - that was cool. It sounds like Part III is going to be pretty cool - there was a lot of setup going on in this one for a nice comfrontation (especially with some of Bolan's finds in his room!) I was a bit disappointment we didn't see more of Hix. I thought his character was cool but he was only mentioned like 2 or 3 times it seemed. I guess since he's captive there's not a whole lot of story going on anyway. . . . Is it just me or did anyone else notice a lot of spelling errors in #250 and #251 - not a big deal for me but I did notice more errors in these ones than in others. Can't wait for Part III!

While this book was wall-to-wall action, I thought it didn't have enough room for the characters to breathe. Bolan seemed to have little personality and the other characters in the story seemed kind of lifeless.

Brought this one along for some good reading over the weekend vacation (had to admit that gunslinger's review made me read it). I must say that I agree wholeheartedly with gunslinger's review. My favorite plots are the simple ones like this book: get off the island alive with the two targets. Hordes of enemy patrols helped too. :) As efficient at Bolan is in seek-and-destroy missions, I think I enjoy it more when he's reacting to situations rather than creating them. Though its a close call. Anyway, this book positively rocked. Nothing too complex or brain-draining in plot. Just simple enjoyable Bolan buttkicking. Check it out.

To me, this is as close to perfect as Bolan could get. He starts off on the run, vulnerable. We see Bolan is not some invincible superhero. He takes refuge in a town with a doctor who is debating whether to turn him in. He has to convince her to keep him in hiding for the time being, pretty much justifying himself to her. Anyway, the bad guys roll into town and things really start heating up. We see the bad guys preying on the innocent townspeople and we see the townspeople fight back. Interesting alliances are founded between Bolan, Johnny, and some of the townspeople. I like this book because it takes place in a small dying town that hardly seems worth protecting - yet the proud townspeople take up arms against the invading drug dealers. The human spirit is alive and well, even in this dilapidated town. I love the epilogue of this one too. This story doesn't just end on a dime like the newer ones tend to. It closes with an examination of the healer's life and the warrior's life - very cool. It closes, then, with: "The enemy was waiting for Mack Bolan, and he did not have to ask about the setting of his next campaign. The goddamned war was everywhere."

Great Book! This has got to be one of my favorites!