Skysniper

A cool premise of a laser technology used to destroy satellites in orbit. Bolan is tasked with finding the source of the problem and eliminate it. The expected action packed adventure begins, with much world hopping from place to place. There are characters from earlier in the series that show up here and Bolan teams up with these allies as well as a few random members of Stony Man. The action ends up in Congo Africa with some intense battles in the jungle. A good adventure, with some standard villains and nonstop action cover to cover, this is another worthy entry in the series.

This was a great read. The action read well and lots of Mack’s team were in the story supporting him. Working with Russia seemed a bit weird. I really enjoyed all of the traveling and the pace of the story.

Another one of those plots with a killer device turns out quite nicely. Bolan is after a Serbian terror group which is using Russian technology to deploy a laser weapon. Action aplenty as Bolan teams up with a Russian ally as they evade ambushes left and right. Lyons and McCarter lend a hand, too. Best scenes were the trip down the river in the Congo, facing off against patrol boats, then a riveting final battle to destroy the laser, with Mack and Co. getting beaten, bloodied and battered.

I'll start off in saying that i didnt hate this one. it was deffinatly not up into my favourites but hell a Bolan book is a Bolan book! it kinda was scattered all over the place, it didnt properly introduce characters.

Other reviews have knocked this book for some lapses in technical details but I will not. This is a clear foray into science fiction and so my suspension of disbelief was in full effect and I never once minded that you could see the beam of the laser. Then at the end I realized why it was important. When the Skysniper is employed as an anti infantry weapon it is important to see that flash of blinding light as it is searing through and exploding people or decimating the African jungle. It made the fight so much more visceral and brutal. Speaking of visceral and brutal I am reminded once again why Rodgers is praised as one of the best Bolan authors. He gives us a dirtier and grittier Bolanverse then the Beretta wielding, blacksuit clad paladin that Bolan can sometimes become. My only problem with the characterization was Bolan’s seeming lack of tactical ingenuity or regard for the welfare of the Spetznaz commandos at the end. It is difficult to tell which Bolan is lacking in the third act of the story. He sends the Russians headlong into overwhelming odds, knowing they will get slaughtered and, of course, they do. What ever happened to Sergeant Mercy? Bolan has been shown countless times to care for the well being of allies and incredible tactical cunning but as the end draws near both seem to leave him for a time. It was just strange. On the whole Skysniper was a superb book and a powerful attempt by Rodgers. It stands well above the bulk of the Bolanverse books as a seminal action piece and even stands on it’s own outside of the fan base as a powerful and well crafted novel.

Well done Chuck Rogers yet another cracker. Completely original plot which grabs you from the opening pages and doesn't let go until the last page. I wonder if this title gave Nick Pollotta any inspiration to write his excellent Stony Man title Sky Killers a couple of years later ? America is being forced to agree to terrorists demands, with the destruction of a number of their satellites and evidence any space launched objects can easily be destroyed by the bad guys with an earth based laser things are looking grim. Anyway after some classic action scenes which assists to set the storyline space shuttle Atlantis is orbiting and about to deploy yet another satellite and what happens has chilling consequences. So where could such a weapon originate from ? (no prizes for second guesses.) So Mack is in Russia and enter Valentina Svarzkova of the GRU (one star added already one of my favourite characters of the series) and General Uri Ozhimkov is also back. What follows is classic story telling which will keep you turning the pages but hard to say much here as it would spoil it for you. Suffice to say the story has quite a few surprise parts contained in it. The final assault on the weapon is rivetting stuff and told from various viewpoints and the ending is classic. What else to say the start is terrific, the middle is terrific and the ending is terrific. The parts between these sections is terrific I loved it and would highly recommend this title to any reader.

I’ve been reading Mack Bolan novels for about five years now, and almost since I started I’ve listened to Bolan fans tell me how much they hated Skysniper. So when the opportunity came to pick up the novel last week I didn’t have high hopes for it. Imagine my surprise when I finished it and found that it had earned a place among my top four favorite Bolan books! The main reason I loved Skysniper was the main villain, Nemanja, who was a refreshing change from Bolan’s usual foes. Rather than being ruled by his emotions and prone to fits of fury that led to his subordinates’ deaths, he was calm, collected, and rational; in those ways I saw him as an opposite number to Bolan. Rather than executing his underlings for failure he accepted blame for the missions he organized when they failed, and he was actually able to make a good show against the Executioner in final combat, which was a radical shift from most of the big villains I’ve seen in Executioner novels. There was also a level of loyalty among the bad guys that’s a rare sight in a Mack Bolan story. Rather than constantly thinking of how to backstab one another for personal gain, the foes of democracy are trusting of one another and don’t end up gunning each other down, which I also like. I have to admit being afraid that this wasn’t going to hold true at the end of the novel, and it was going to slip back into the usual “no honor among thieves” code we see in Bolan novels, but Mukantabana’s reaction to his disloyal troops saved that portion of the book for me. I also liked the plan of Nemanja and his allies. It had a level of subtlety to it that you usually don’t find in a Bolan novel, and that impressed me. The way Rogers wrote of the injuries and bad climate at the beginning of the book really impressed me as well. To be honest, whenever I’ve read an Executioner novel in the past I’ve never really worried about what sort of harm befell Bolan, as I knew he was the title character and would be fine in the end. The opening pages of the novel, where he suffers from hypothermia and injuries actually drew me in, and for a bit I found myself actually worried about the Executioner’s safety. I never had that happen before, and was impressed Rogers was able to do that. Oh, and a novel where Bolan has no problem at all working with the CIA? Huzzah! Finally, I also thought the humor in it was sparse but good. All of it made sense in context with the rest of the book, and didn’t break up the serious tone of the story, as it has in some other Executioner novels. I must admit the CIA agent with the bad knee getting his leg blown off at the knee later on was a bit of perverse humor I enjoyed. All that being said, there were a few flaws in the book. The author does an excellent job of having things happening “off-camera”, with characters learning of these developments later on. However, sometimes he focuses on characters and then skips some needed description, with them standing at one place at the beginning of a paragraph and then having them have walked a fair distance or grabbing cover that was never mentioned before at the end of the next paragraph, with no description of them having taken those actions. Similarly, his descriptions (or lack thereof) of the enemy camp at the end also led to some confusion for me. And, to be honest, I had no idea Burton was black until near the end of the book, so when it was mentioned he had darkened this skin to match the natives I had this disturbing image of a white man going around in blackface makeup like an actor in the 1920s. I’m also a bit perplexed regarding Nemanja’s ability to ID the satellite sent to flush him out as a “top secret U.S. observation satellite” from information on the internet. While I understood from earlier in the book that amateur astronomers had been tracking “secret” satellite launches and listing their orbits online, the idea that there was an easy-to-read handbook ID’ing each satellite’s true function was a little hard to swallow; I assumed the satellites destroyed at the beginning of the book were ID’ed by the Serbians’ Russian allies, and thinking they were just ID’ed by a complete list on the internet took away from the story for me. Another problem with the book was the editing. There were some typos that were funny (like reading Stealth planes are invisible in daylight and that it’s an “Alpha” Romeo, a spelling error that’s in every Executioner I’ve read with Alfas) but there were some gaffs that left me wondering how they got in there, such as when the Serbian troops commander Professor Macs’ van and Bolan and Svarzkova don’t notice that fact, that left me feeling a bit shaky on the editing. And it wasn’t even until I started writing this review that I realized Stasny’s final fate is never mentioned, or if Bolan and friends ever learned of his existence. Was there a planned sequel novel to Skysniper where he was to meet his final fate, was a portion of the book involving him cut due to length of the story, or did the author just forget about him? Despite these flaws I feel this is one of the best Bolan novels I’ve read. I was hovering between giving this book a nine and a 10, but after recently reading a few books from another long-running fiction series that shall remain nameless that have had some horrible editing, I can’t really bring myself to give this book a nine for a few minor flaws. I highly recommend it, and ignore anyone on message boards who rips it down!

Outstanding!!!! Great mix of techno-thriller and touch of the old days with the chainlink fence,especially liked that touch.

I liked this story, but not as much as previous ones. The typos were unpleasant, and it did seem like at the end the bad guys were just waiting to be dropped in on by the good guys. Other than that, I found this to be a nice read. Okay, let's end the discussion: yes, the technology may have been skewed but who really cares if the facts aren't completely accurate? They're close enough and it doesn't subtract from the story! Finally, the reason Lyons brought wire link fencing is because it goes back to the days of 'Nam and it was Bolan's request. There you have it. Thanks for another good read!

It was difficult to decide what number rating to give this book as it is the second Executioner I have read. The first was the issue before this one, Trigger Point, and I was not at all impressed by that one. Skysniper, though, was leaps and bounds better than Trigger Point. I understand that the author, Chuck Rogers, usually writes a gritty Bolan. I rather like that style. The story, in fact, reminded me of early Bond adventures, but without all of the pretense. The beginning had that "cold opening" feel that Bond films use. Bolan gets beat up pretty good, and considering what he goes through each month you'd expect at least bruises. In this adventure he is put to the physical test. The dialog was fairly realistic, even wry in a few places. Not Steinbeck-level sophistication, but a step up from a lot of the currently running action series. The action was quick and well thought out. It seemed to follow logically. And it wasn't slowed by unnecessary ordinance descriptions. Despite the luke warm feeling I got from that first book, Skysniper has encouraged me to read more Executioners and even some Super Bolans. These editors, though, have to take better care with their work. There were nearly a dozen typos that were very distracting. Several times "to" was used instead of "too" and once a she was referred to as a he.

This was a throughly enjoyable tightly written adventure. The villains were not over the top megolomanics and the locations, especially in the former Yugoslavia were excellently described. I especially loved the description of Americans on page 55. However, I did have one major problem with this story and by the end of it I was left with more questions than answers. The major proble is identical to the last Chuck Rogers book that I read, Chill Effect. It is one of distance. Once again Bolan flits all over the place with out any regards for how long it takes to get from A to B. The most ludicrous example of this is having Bolan go all the way from Lithuania to Germany and on to Silicon Valley just to ask a former Russian scientist a few questions on the scientist's front lawn. We learn that Manning, McCarter and Swartz are in the area, so why was Bolan needed? Bolan then leaves for the Congo, giving him a round journey of what, 12,000 miles? Just for a few questions that any FBI agent could have asked? Like Chill Effect, the bad guys just wait around for Bolan to stop globe trotting so they can take a few pot shots at him. As for unanswered questions, firstly, Bolan is under orders and he is on too seperate occasions worried about being ordered off the mission. Since when has Bolan followed orders? I thought he had an understanding and an alliance where he could pick and choose missions. Secondly, since when have the Serbians managed to control the former KGB so effectively that they can order KGB agents and resources around in Moscow? Thirdly, how did the oh so poor GRU get so many mini subs all the way into the Congo Basin? But apart from these descrepancies, I still enjoyed this story. Oh, and by the way, Carl Lyons brought the wire fencing to the apartment, not Mack Bolan. Of course, how they knew that it would be needed remains a mystery to this very day...

Another action-packed, globe hopping Chuck Rogers Bolan adventure. A very good entry into the series. You know when it's a Rogers Bolan book Mack is going to take a physical beating. My only complaint is how easily the CIA accepted Stony Man working this op. I remember the old Bolan books where the CIA would flip out when told to cooperate with the mystery man named Belasko. All in all a good Stony Man version of a techno-thriller. it had a more human feel to it than one of Clancy's over-drawn out tales.

I personally felt this was a good book the beginning was a little strange for my tastes but you can't have everything. I thought the idea of the laser was quite interesting ialso liked the lst battle scene that was totally awesome really a great read.

Rogers, as always handles Bolan quite well, making the Tom Clancy stuff palatable and approachable to fans of old school Executioner fans who feel the task of Justice-made-flesh is not wiping the bum of the CIA when it poops itself. The science was interesting, though again as mentioned before, highly skewed. Real LADAR is sent through light pulses invisible to human eyes, like IR or UV frequency. Otherwise, guys in the field who are lasing artilery joints would be in a world of trouble once a sentry noticed little red fireflies all over their hardpoints. Turning the LADAR to a frequency that would harm human eyes would mean totally changing the type of LADAR pulse projection. If it was visible light, then like the other guy said, sure, the Russians would have been in trouble, but the atmosphere would have provided protection for satellites... barring the fact that Nemanja wasn't just smart enough to give the LADAR "Kentucky Windage." The one real problem I had was: Just how did Bolan know to bring wire link fencing to an apartment building in time to ward off an RPG attack? That scene blew a lot of the enjoyment of the book for me, simply because it made less sense than a one-legged man on a unicycle. And, I'm pretty sure Rogers forgot to tell us that Burton was black until the very end. It doesn't matter to me that a brother's a brother, but a little extra hint never hurt... I'd even forgive someone saying African-American. Which was a shame... it was fun seeing Ironman in action.

Overall a well written effort. This story's biggest failing is in the LASER technology. A low power LASER such as the one used for LADAR will propogate through the air and diffract as it passes from the atmosphere to a vacuum (space). A high power LASER will displace the air, therefore it will move through a vacuum at all times. This means that there will be an error of a few degrees between the LADAR and the weapon. No problem over a few miles, but with a range of 22,500 miles this is a miss of over 100 miles. Also, you cannot see a LASER beam in space. There is no air to diffract the beam. Other than this it's a great Bolan.