Stony Man · #78

Maelstrom

by Jon Guenther · August 2005

6.3 / 10 average from 4 rated reviews

Bound by loyalty and patriotism, the men and women of Stony Man don't think of themselves as heroes, just dedicated Americans willing to do whatever it takes to protect the inalienable rights of freedom and justice. No matter how difficult the mission, how fierce or dangerous the enemy, the cyber team and battle-hardened warriors of America's most sophisticated, action-ready defense unit are willing to sacrifice everything in the name of duty, honor and country. An advanced weapon prototype is hijacked by an unidentified group of mercenaries and followed by a wave of massacres in the streets of America's cities. The torch of anarchy and hatred has been lit, and waves of destruction have begun to spread across the globe. A crisis has erupted as angry radicals are poised to become deadly freedom fighters so powerful that not even the superpowers can oppose them. Stony Man's only chance-America's only chance-is to strike first, strike hard, strike now..

Reviews (4)

Carboni 6/10 April 8, 2009

A bit boring, centering around a weapons system never to be seen (or remembered) again. The description of such weapons were deliberately vague, until the ending, when Phoenix Force is trained with their use. I don't know if it should be read as a parody or what, but the ending was a little more weird than the typical faire. This entry does point out what should have been obvious to me some time ago: One of the reasons that Phoenix Force and Able Team survive all of these gunfights is the fact they often have the technological advantage over their adversaries. In "Maelstrom", this advantage is no longer there and regaining this is critical.

ice_cracked 8/10 January 27, 2009

Okay I open the title to start it and the prologue's location is Adelaide Australia. So this is a cinch for a ten rating before I read another word ;-) Then I read it and it's not a ten but I enjoyed it and reckon an eight rating here. The plot involves the theft of some prototype futuristic weapons by an Israeli terrorist group who are going to incite the Palestinian and Israeli peoples around the world to eventually result in an all out war with the Arab nations. The overall plot has been done many times in these series but with the inclusion of the prototype weapons the author keeps the reader interested and includes some fine action scenes which I thought made this title very readable. Have to agree with previous reviews that the terrorist leader is a bit weak I mean come on since when did one of these psychos care at all about what any of their underlings thought at any time. I enjoyed the read and hope you do too if you decide to read this.

Gunslinger 6/10 July 10, 2006

After having loved Guenther's work up to this point, I was looking forward to this one. It was good, but it didn't capture me like some of his monthly books have. Both teams were used effectively, and Lyons was right on target. The battles were decent, but I guess I wasn't blown away by the weapons system described in the book. Able getting another finale scene in Soldier Field was a plus, but the overall confrontation was weak.

Eric Troup 5/10 October 7, 2005

Well, this book is pretty much a paint-by-the-numbers Stony Man novel. Maybe I've just read too many of these books, but by about page 250, I was bored ... and with about a hundred pages to go, that's saying something. I think part of the problem was that the prototype weapons were talked about, but it took too long to actually see them in action. That, combined with the fact that the main villain of the book just wasn't very interesting to me, made for a story involving body count more than anything else, and ... well ... by the middle of the book, it had just gotten to the point that I just didn't care anymore. It wasn't a *bad* book necessarily ... it just wasn't really that great either.