Dark Truth

Well not as good as his last two in this series but still quite readable. Lots of characters introduced and maybe a couple too many as has been previously reviewed some of them hardly rate a mention of introduction. Some very good action scenes and overall I liked the plot even though it has been flogged to death. Certainly not the best title in this series to read BUT there are MANY far worse than this. I liked it and would suggest you could do worse in this series.

I found myself both liking & disliking this book on many levels. It kinda made me think Bolan had encountered an X-Files type plot with '24' framework/format woven in. The diner ambush scene was way too long and showed itself for what it was - filler pages to make this a Super-Bolan. That's what cost this book some points IMHO. I liked how they hinted at the experimental ant-gravity tech being otherworldly in a subtle manner without making it too far-fetched. The bad guys were your typical MIB's but with a back-stabbing twist. All in all it made for a average Bolan entry.

Wow this was Schmidts very worst novel. The first 94 pages were basically set in a diner. I couldn't help but think of the start of Flight 741 in which both books were set in an environment considered overall safe and yet chaos erupts with bad guys. Mack also felt rather safe. 741 book did not jump from one useless character to another. The biker and accountant had way too many pages devoted on their backstory. Both also bought it. Even the dumped wife didn't need that huge of a backstory. Her story, the accountant's and biker's stories could have been told via dialogue with Mack or when Thorton tried to hire the bikers and mafia. I also was confused about what was going on at Area 51 that was never fully explained. Why did they have antigrav equipment? What kind of a nuke was that? It would have been also nice having another phone call between Mack and Hal to see what Hal was doing maybe provide some background. The action scenes were barely ok. The fight with the bikers was ok probably the best one. Also wasn't Area 51 destroyed in the book in the 270s? PRetty fast construction workers. Cromman never really jelled as the main villian. Sure he was deformed from an accident but so what. I couldn't really figure out what made him a leader. If you need to read a Schmidt novel from this timeframe read Blood and Sand. Far better.

When the opening scene takes all of 100 pages, with a lot of switching back and forth between character viewpoints, and not a lot of action, I figure the book is in trouble. I thought the plot had potential, but it didn't live up to my expectations. Schmidt's other X-file like book--the Stony Man novel was executed much better. There was action throughout this one, but the characters didn't interest me.

this book was a bit out there with star trek are we finding it hard to write about things closer to home for mack in stead of putting him in with mulder and sculley the book was okay not one of the best but as i come from england i would like to see mack hit Europe a bit more plenty off unrest for him to aim at anyway keep them coming i still think they are the best read out there

Do the titles Iron Fist, Freedom Force, and UForce ring any bells to any other Bolan fans out there? How many different times does Mack have to discover evil government happenings at Area 51, or in the entire state of Nevada for that reason? Don't get me wrong, this was a pretty good book, but Iron Fist and Freedom Force were better. Gerald Montgomery was the man!

This book took a long time to set up, with the main action finally starting near page ninety. So many pages devoted to the development of the diner patrons, yet several other minor characters,#Seventy-One and Jordan, barely had a paragraph or two to describe them. Cromman and Thornton's histories were minimal at best. Disproportionate attention to detail at the beginning made the last 150 pages seem to be rushed. I felt the book needed to be another pages long just to balance it out. One glaring editorial goof though was how did the Jordan know that Bolan had the disk on page 221? Blan never said he had it to Jordan but Jordan told Thornton on page 238 that Bolan told him to tell Thornton he had the disk. Did it happen off-camera or did he see it on the row of tv monitors in the giftshop? The backup hitters near the end didn't have much history, only a few lines about their impending arrival. When they finally showed up Bolan just began to take them out. I would have given this a higher score if not for the spotty character development and unbalanced pacing of the story. Could have been tweaked a little more.