Face of Terror

Well it is a nuke of the month story well actually two backpacks but don't let that turn you off as it is quite a good read. I liked the story where the action is limited but the author makes up for that with a good storyline and characters introduced. The main bad guys were different and the leader and his second in charge the standouts also a couple of characters introduced on the good guy's side which were also interesting. Probably as has been already mentioned the last third or so of the book falls away a bit where the events fall in to a predictable finish which is a little disappointing. Now there is a section in this title involving two planes a female hostage a parachute and the Big Guy. This section would be one of the most adrenaline pumping exciting stuff I have read in these combined series and is worth of the purchase price by itself. Probably an Able Team title where Ironman does something similar and it ends at a baseball stadium is the only thing I have read which comes close. One star added for the above section it is so good, apart from that quite a good title to read in these series you could do a lot worse than reading this one.

I thought the story of this book was written very well. It might have been better had they not revealed on the cover that the bad guys were American soldiers. But, even though action was sort of secondary, the few scenes were good. The high point was Bolan free-falling to rescue a state senator's daughter in mid-air. Having the supporting cast (bickering FBI/DEA agents, and a linguistic expert) also added to the pluses. A weak part of the plot I thought was the president's personal aide being indirectly involved in the proceedings. But, if you want a good story and less action, it was a good read.

I'll be echoing what most of the reviews here have said--in fact, I hesitated in posting the review because of that, but then I remembered that when I look at reviews, I look for common bits among the "best-thing-ever"/"Worst-piece-of-crap-to-hit-the-streets-since-paper-was-invented" polarization which seems so prevalent in internet public opinion. I want to add my weight to those common bits. The first two-thirds of this book were great--particularly the sequence wherein Bolan deals with rescuing a kidnapped hostage--but then, the big reveal was (at least to me) pretty predictable, and the resolution a bit ... lacking somehow. Spoiler below. I will be the first to admit that I'm rather ignorant about nukes and military weapons and things; I've learned most of what I know from reading these books, and realize that's no way to possess any kind of knowledge. Having said that, I should think that a nuclear bomb, even one small enogh to simply obliterate a small island, would have radiation aftereffects that would affect at the very least that part of the world for years and years ... The cavalier nature of how they just left a nuke ready to explode really bugged me, to say nothing of the end, when a nuke is allowed to detonate, rationalized by the fact that it was underwater. Am I missing something warranting a big "Duh" to be stamped on my forehead? Ah well. A fun read, if a bit less than it could have been--and no, I don't mean it needed more action. I thought in that sense, it was quite well-balanced.

I've never cared for Jerry vanCook's Executioner novels and this is no exception to that, though the first two thirds kept my attention and he had a good opening. The scenes from Bolan and Company's perspective were nice, the kidnapping sequence was decent and kept me reading. The parachute rescue has been done by other heroes (Bond, UNCLE) but what the heck, it worked. Flaws? The bad guys were just another bunch of frothing at the mouth gunslingers. Could we have just a little development of their reasons why and maybe even some physical descriptions so they don't seem like vague outlines? Why did Bolan take everybody and his brother with him on this job? There was no reason for the DEA guy to be there, for sure. Why were some characters described and some not? Anyway, I reached the last third and stopped reading. Wasn't a bad way to spend a Saturday but I've read better.

The drawback to this one, in my opinion is that Bolan decides to drag along every person he runs into on this mission. Old men, incompetent agents, the list goes on. Other than that little part, I really liked this one, it was great. The action is kinda limited but who cares, the author keeps things moving along real good, a real page turner (sorry for the cliche)The airplane sequence was classic !!! Check it out !

Spoilers! This book started out very well. The action sequence with the yellow hummer was pretty exciting I thought. After that, all the action sequences were kind of disappointing with the exception of the part where Bolan jumps out of the airplane to save the girl. The plot was still very good though, still making the book an exciting read. I liked how Bolan stayed on U.S. soil and took on American soldiers posing as an Arabic Terrorist cell. Overall a very good read.