Terminal Option

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.

This book started off so well. Within the first 50 pages I was pretty engaged. It had a good premise. But eventually it just turns into a mess. I found it quite bland and honestly poorly written. Well, it's possible it was the result of editing and not Mr. Schmidt's writing, but it just came across as disjointed and sloppy. The middle section was absolutely mind numbingly dull. The whole "We're working together, but we're withing holding tons of information from each other" schtick got old pretty fast. It did have some highlight: the opening of the novel and the major battle on the glacier. But all in all this is a below average novel in the Bolan series.

I must admit that I am finding hard to review this book. I found it so nuetral that I neither liked it nor disliked it. There were some good points, like the ones that Terry mentioned in his review, as well as some good locations, and not to forget the whopping battle on the glacier. But the book felt so bland. Bolan was an automaton, following other people around blindly rather than leading. Other characters were cardboard, both the good guys and the bad. The body count was so far over the top that it was just boring. And then there is Frogman's point. Stony Man have never heard of The Council. And yet every Tom, Dick and Harry in India had. I found that a little hard to believe. What I also found hard to believe was that all eleven of the Council leaders would be hanging around a base in the middle of nowhere just waiting for something to happen, such as the far fetched 'take over the Kremlin and we will control all of Russia' plot. So all in all, just plain, just average. Dan Schmidt has written worse, but he has written far better.

Wow this title is over the top for violence and bloodshed. The body count of this one title would rack up favourably with the entire first section of the original titles written by Don himself. And from memory Miami massacre, Chicago Wipeout etc. gave some good body counts. Nothing wrong with the book by any means as it reads well and is an enjoyable read but hmmmmm Gee I'd like to read another title where Mack goes up against a mafia family and lets the terrorists alone for a short while. Surely one of the families could have got itself together by now ???????

This Bolan book had a neat premise that fell flat upon it's execution....pun intended. I found this one hard to believe, even in the usual suspension of disbelief mode. Bolan has been all over the globe, fought all kinds of wars, but never once heard rumors of 'The Council'.....come'on The body count was through the roof. It seemed like this was a trilogy butchered down to just one novel. Seen better Bolans!

This is the most blood filled Executioner book that I have read yet. But not very believeable. Mack Bolan just can't die.

wow, is this the begning of a new executioner saga? exellent action scenes! Awsome firefights! an over all great book. But why have we not heard from these rough agents any more, bolon seemed to think that he had not seen the last of them at the end.

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. . .