Hellbinder

Overall this was a great standalone adventure. If you didn’t know much about the character and just picked up a book this one would work. There are errors in the writing At times like when the bad guy Goes into the only room in the house without windows and pours a drink and looks out the windows at the search lights outside. And I will agree with the reviews that some of Bolans strategies are a bit far-fetched. But I did enjoy the authors attempt at a James Bond/Ian Fleming style story. The hero is broken and bloody by the end. Also an alias that Bolan uses is Maxwell bond and I can only think that is another bond reference. And for that I give the book extra points. I did not find this one hard to read and it was action packed.

This book was awful. It was hard to finish it. It was too over the top. Everyone Bolan meets is a KGB operative, then every friend or ally he comes into contact with has instant trust in Bolan sharing with him all the secrets. I didn't care much for the plot or the actions sequences. Not a good read from me.

Shocking The previous two reviewers said it all this is a very ordinary title. As mentioned the Big Guy seems to have been transformed into a Super Hero this time around where mere bullets are not enough to take him down and seemingly a short respite from losing his vision from "red clouding" ? in front of his eyes he is up and ready to go again. Every now and then you come across a title like this one which is just so hard to read for so many reasons it is a real grind to even finish it off. Finish it I did eventually but this could not be recommended in a mad fit steer well clear of this one.

If my memory serves me ( and it may not on this one ) but I thought Bolan got shot early on in the shoulder from an AK, then again he takes a 50 cal round to the shoulder. Wow, impressive - then has a hand to hand battle with some dude near the end --- arghhhh !! I don't expect super realism from a Bolan novel, but I ain't that gullable - this one was a bit on the painful side - much worse than a a 50 caliber round to the shoulder !

"Hellbinder" follows Mack Bolan as he stumbles around after some KGB goon and his allies who steal nerve gas from a U.S. storage facility. There is some laughable action to begin the book and an equally comedic bit of follow-up before the Executioner leaves the U.S. of A. for El Salvador. Another bit of action there that isn't really too bad and then a trip to Syria. The story goes to sleep here for a while but unfortunately it wakes up long enough to showcase Mack Bolan as imbecile in a reprise of his clown act from the first chapter. A big action climax starts off OK but the big guy turns into Super-Bolan near the end and giggling is unavoidable. The author fills the book with stuff like this: "He was what commanders called a 'natural' fighter, using instinctively what other men had to develop slowly." The character he presents though seems to have learned all of his strategy from the films of Mel Brooks and every bit of his tactics from watching Yosemite Sam. Don't believe it? In the first chapter, inhabitants of a house fire at Bolan, throw a grenade at him, he shoots two of their sentries dead and chases away another one. At this point he figures he'll wait to take out the house: "Tomorrow night, or perhaps the next morning." In chapter 5 the "natural fighter" misses taking out the bad mens becuase they don't just sit around at the same location and wait for him to come back with more firepower. Go figure. And what a plan of attack it was! "He figured it would take three shots (with a Redeye on the house)...Then he would charge with assault fire, storm into the place with the Childers slamming death pellets into anything that moved." When Bolan does finally get around to hitting the house "His M-16 on automatic, he charged down the hill, running now, the Sixteen on his hip chattering off 3-round bursts of assault fire as he went." What Bolan might have been assault firing at is unclear since the only 2 folks left at the house were inside when he rocketed the joint and ain't exactly a threat. Or standing. Showing a keen ability to not learn from his mistakes, Bolan goes to a Syrian military airfield in chapter 16 on a "soft probe" to make sure the nerve gas is there before the Mossad attacks the following night. His idea of a "soft probe" is apparently pretty elastic. He garrotes one of many guards outside the target hanger and "dragged the body behind the small building", "surged through the darkness, cane in one hand, rifle in the other" to the side door of the hangar, enters, kills an officer that gets the drop on him, guns down two more soldiers with unsilenced automatic weapon fire, and then heads back, wounded, after a job well done. Only the incredibly poor quality of any opposition and his own superhuman toughness could allow him to succeed here. Fortunately the book contains both of those in spades. I call attention especially to Bolan's heroic fighting actions after being struck in the shoulder by a heavy machine gun bullet: "Damn fifty caliber smashed an arm all to hell." Indeed. Guess he's just lucky they didn't shoot him with a howitzer, it might have made him pass out or sit down. Plot exists and isn't too bad as long as you don't think about it too long. A couple supporting characters are OK but nobody is going to be remembered after the last page is turned. 2 stars for a bit of decent action writing in the El Salvador bits.

The action and adventure never stop in this one. I like the stories that keep up the pace through the whole book and build to an exciting conclusion.

A GOOD ENTRY IN THE SERIES. WELL WRITTEN THE PLOT KEPT YOU INTERESTED THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH IT.

NOT ONE OF THE BEST BUT FAR FROM BEING ONE OF THE WORST.

A good one.