Douglas P. Wojtowicz

A Campaign of Shock and Awe! F'get Donald Rumsfeld. Mark Ellis is the master of shock and awe, once more flexing his mental muscles and stretching the post-apocalyptic world first invented by Jack Adrian and expanded by Lawrence James. From the in the grit world of the Deathlands, Ellis has expanded to a universe where time and space can be the plaything of a mad god, and our only hope is... well... that would be telling. This was a disorienting novel, and I kept waiting for the "intro" to be over and reality to snap back to normal time, but the whole book is the wholly satisfying and intricate construction of a world nearly 30 years after the Imperator Wars, a world full of sadness and amazement. There are glimpses of what the Cerberus exiles can do to make the Baronies and the Outlands into, and the sad outcomes of a world gone mad. Old enemies and a new enemy arrives, and I have to say, the old enemies were treats to meet, and the new enemy is wow. And as always, Kane proves himself bad ass - physically, mentally and verbally, even at age 60. I love it when Kane cuts loose. At his age, he's a man who can outplan... well that would be telling. Just read this book, dammit. Woo!

I'd long hoped for an Executioner comic, and it was great to see Don and Linda Pendleton scripting their own series, and getting the excellent workmanship of Sandu Florea on the book. Florea's art is very 70's style, reminiscent of Gene Colan, and full of detail and interesting points of view. Also, most comic book adaptations skip over important scenes, but Don and Linda, in their scripting, managed to pace the first three issues just right.

I recommend reading this book without shoes or socks on. That is, if you don't want to put holes in the building you live in. This book had the return of the infrequently seen BAD MOTHERFUCKER, the wisecracking, scary bitch fucking, high flying, wall climbing, cannon blasting, bastard pounding, clue finding, mind screwing, nail eating, world-travelled superexpert that is Mack "the Bastard" Bolan. The scene in the graveyard... I am pissed as hell that Chuck Rogers wrote that scene, because once a scene like that is written, nobody can do it again, and nobody can top that scene. That scene was just so kick ass... and soooo NOT what the series has devolved into that it made the book cooler than a lap dance with a 38DD stripper. Chuck just carpet bombed the competition with one BAD ASS BOOK!

This was Bolan at his best. He's fighting above and beyond his normal call to duty, and he just slams his way through the mob. The moment where he thought that Johnny and Val were dead, and he shut down, my heart broke, and I fell in tune with the killing machine that the Mafia fucked up and created. If they thought a cold, calculating Executioner was hell on Earth, one in berserker mode was a horror that they would beg the covering of mountains, not monuments, to die and escape.

I remember reading this one, and just recently read through Marcinko's solo-written "Violence of Action" and it seemed an awful lot like Marcinko's views and vision has been fingerholed by John Weisman. In the fiction parts, Marcinko and Weisman's Rogue Warrior character is much more self-effacing, showing himself lumps and all, stumbling and bumping his head and for all the world being a cross between Buster Keaton and Curly Howard in his near fatal or potentially crippling missteps (bit by a spider, getting his knee dislocated crossing a churning river, falling off one level of an oil rig and landing on his head almost). But, in the solo Marcinko effort after he ditched Weisman, the Rogue goes back to saying nice things about American groups other than the US Navy SEALs - the US NEST, FBI HRT, Delta, "Green Berets" US Army Special Forces, TF-160. Marcinko reserves his acid for individuals instead of painting entire organizations as incompetants and worthless. At the same time, you can see lots of other differences - Marcinko states he worked with Beretta to make sure that they could handle the kind of high pressure ammunition he loaded for SEAL Team Six. Weisman, however, an employee of Heckler and Koch, goes on to make Marcinko the poster child for HKUSA, until Marcinko wrestled back control and went about ditching most of the HK gear Weismann artificially hoisted upon him. Like Glenn, though, I really have to penalize Marcinko - not for his bravado in kicking ass in the field and being the toughest sumbitch in the world, but for being so goddamn proud of cheating on his wife and children. He lost three stars for being such a bastard with his Little Brown Fucking Machines.

This was a solid effort put forth by Dan Schmidt, and it's nice to see the aftershocks of the COMCON Wars still rumbling through the Executioner universe. Though there's no mention of COMCON, there's still crooked FEMA goons. The sequence where Mack has to fight his way through a clean-up squad and Iraqi commandos to save the wives and children of the US-based Iraqis was a breathtaking, heartstopping central action piece that was worth the price of admission. It made the final knockout for the book seem a bit of a let down.

Darn good book, with lots of educational background on India. Ron Renauld did a great job, it's just that Bolan and company seemed a little too much on the periphery, but that was okay, because Waj made a good hero, and would make an interesting part of the Stony Man crew. Not that Bolan and his buds didn't put some good foot to ass in their four action sequences. Still, it felt like an older Able Team novel come to think of it, with Bolan, Kissenger and Grimaldi taking over for Lyons, Pol and Gadgets.

This book came at a time when I had lost faith in the world of Mack Bolan, a world where innocent losses are acceptable. I was feeling sick and hollow and wondering had the Executioner become a rallying symbol of those who flocked to him for violence for the sake of violence, instead of a symbol of justice as he was when he was created in 1969. I'd been aching with the dread that somewhere, in the past ten years, the life of an innocent child, no matter what color its skin was, suddenly became as gleefully forfeit as the villains themselves. Hell, David Robbins even had Bolan kill an enemy driver and not even blink twice when the dead man's car murdered two elderly Japanese! Then Dan Schmidt comes along with a new book. I've said some bad things about him in the past, but here he writes an intelligent, fast-paced thriller with 3-dimensional villains, twists and turns, and breaking formula left and right. But most of all, on page 179, he spends 2/3'ds of the page with Bolan dreading the loss of innocent life due to the machinations of guys supposedly on the side of angels in order to take out a few terrorists. This book would have been a solid 8 stars just on how smart and attention grabbing it was - but that inclusion of the soul of the real Mack Bolan - it popped in an extra two stars.

Hey, Doug, what are your impressions about Uforce (#273)????? ACK! THVVPPPT! BLEARGH! SPIT! BAAAAAAHHH! (sound of goat getting blow-job) I can't believe the chicken choker who wrote Uforce was the same human being who wrote the awe-inspiring, return to New York City to whack mobsters and chew gum hellfire piss in an eye-fest that was the Judas Goat! This should have been renamed as a sequal to the Judas Goat, which in truth was "On Your Knees Puffing on the Lambsteak of the Judas Goat." Any resemblance between Uforce and the rest of the line of Bolan books is not only UN-FREAKING-INTENTIONAL, but it's also a spit in the eye of an undeveloped X-Files type project for Gold Eagle that got shelved, and most of the elements were taken by daddy over to another series for GE. This was just a way to take some plot elements left on an editor's desk and get turned into something that the readers might associate with the more positively received COMCON Wars by Gerald Montgomery, although that's similar to saying that people might enjoy a new turn for Bolan if he should become a hitman for the Mafia, because that's the kind of side-flipping that he did between COMCON and Uforce. Check the reviews for the book. Plot lines went nowhere. Chapters looked like introductory chapters for entire novels, and the only reason you could figure out that Mack Bolan was Mack Bolan was because the writer insisted on calling this strange pussy-whipped slave of the State Department Mack Bolan, and threw in Hal Brognola for good measure, leaving the rest of Stony Man Farm and the SOG out of the loop while they worked for the leftovers of Operation: Paperclip, the very scumbags Bolan had engaged with Chow Yun Fat glorious fury and carnage big guns blazing bodies slamming the floor satisfaction not a couple books earlier. And yes, Icewolf, it sucked THE WHOLE DAMN BARNYARD more readily, and with greater enthusiasm than Death's Head, and trust me, it's not pretty to see a small paperback sucking a rooster's rooster. Cockle-doodle-dooo!

Jerry VanCook always gives a solid performance as an Executioner author, and he's a credit to the series, Apache helicopter cockpits notwithstanding... ROBERT! :) First - we have a classic McGuffin chase that has Bolan in contention with Russians, North Koreans, Iraqis, and the Shining Path. Second - we have Bolan not only dealing with this, but having to avoid the police of two nations after getting in deep deep choo-choo with them. I love it when Bolan has to avoid the law, rather than having Hal Brognola call up and tell them to lay off. Third - If I read only Executioner novels, I'd almost have forgotten what sexual tension was by this time. Thank God that VanCook had Bolan put back together with a gorgeous babe. Granted, it's ANOTHER blonde... VanCook likes his blonde chicks. Me, I like my gals to have some color in their hair. :) Fourth - Jerry ALWAYS has some great hand-to-hand scenes. And with that hand-to-hand, Jerry often brings to the plate a cool as hell knife or seventeen. This outing, Bolan has the Keen-O Rad folding knife that goes from 3 inch potato peeler and dagger to 7 inch dismembering tool. What cost it a star though... there's a payoff you're expecting... it doesn't come. I won't spoil it, but I was let down when a certain clash of steel didn't arise. Ah well. Cool plot as well.

Hmm, how do you make a kick-ass Science Fiction series novel? Take Area 51... Add in alien sex, an APC/Jeep war, an underground battle, an ass-kicking in an elevator, samurai, ninjas, "injuns" with M-16's, rumors of dinosaurs, the alleged death of a main character, a mysterious being who can rejuvenate the ancient and crippled, a hot tub sex scene, and mix it ALL together with a little Viva Las Vegas... I think you can come close to perfection with this one. Most people talk about the middle book of a trilogy being slow or weak? This was the exception to that rule. The first book was much less full than this one, and this one had a lot of energy to it, despite all the plot points, or maybe even BECAUSE of all the vibrant energy plugged into it. Just awesome.

First, this piece of tripe should have been renamed the Ontario Chainsaw Massacre? Why? Because the folks in Editorial were too cowardly to take a fresh new direction, and demanded that anything scented of a recurring character in this series get killed off in the space of mere lines. Here we had Lauren Hunter, a great character who could have been used by any one of dozens of great authors, and she gets shot through the heart in the space of four pages from her first appearance in a wrestling match with a nameless MIB. Oh, and I think Gerald Montgomery got to say his own piece perfectly when Joe Newport died in a helicopter crash. "Joe Newport did not like his death. It came too soon." No kidding, Sherlock. Newport, Hunter, and COMCON had the potential to be a great addition to a series that was becoming a pointless "kill the rag-head/dope dealer" marathon. But no. Anything new and imaginative seems to be the death throes for an author's contribution to this series, we need just the same old technology. And to the lame-brains who considered the lighter than air craft with the "death beam" far fetched, why the hell didn't you say something about the satellite and man killing laser in Skysniper? Hello! Let's try and make your total lack of advanced weapons consistent at least! I'm at least going to write to Gerald Montgomery for a copy of the original manuscript so I can see how it was before it was attacked by Attilla the Hun and his near-sighted editorial barbarians. Here's a hint. If the type is big enough to read by moonlight, you can tell they chopped the hell out of it.

The start of the Imperator Wars promises to be an astounding two-parter with a cliffhanger that has to be seen to be believed. Plus, I'm a sucker for a book where I get so wrapped up in the characters that when one of them gets her come-uppance, like Domi gets from Shizuka, I'm having a ball. Like always, this is a thinking man's book, and if you happen to know anything about the modern mythologies of Nellis AFB/Dreamland/Area 51, or just appreciate a blend of Samurai slice-and-dice and John Woo gunslinging, you'll find this a great little series. (So where's my twenty bucks, Mark? :) ) Seriously, Outlanders is a treat in the post-holocaust genre, and the Barons are outstanding foes for any hero.

After being burned by the lackluster Deathlands (they must call it that because it kills so many brain cells), I was afraid to take a look at the Outlanders series. However, on the recommendation of a couple authors I respect - you know who you are - I picked up this and the next book. And I learned immediately why you hardly ever find used Outlanders books laying all over the place. The universe of the Outlanders is only nominally that of the Deathlands, conceived in a different set of attitudes, where three heroes fighting a geriatric Nazi suddenly becomes a thrilling unfair fight - on the part of a Benzadrine-hopping madman, and his pet Australopithicus, Jacko. And that's just the setup - We have our main hero, Kane, a man of action who takes lumps and cuts and other bangs, who can do his own research, who is the reincarnation of a legendary Celt warrior, summoned to England to prevent an apocalypse from Atlantean times. If you're looking for Mack Bolan - Man of Steel gunfights, go look at Dan Schmidt schmidt. If you're looking for some real adventure and excitement, wit and humor and fantastic mythology plugged into a dreary and wasteful genre, made fresh and new again, YOU GOTS TA CHECK OUTLANDERS! All in all, highly recommended, and it will inspire you to look up the legends of Balor and his fomori, Lyonesse, and Cuchulain, if you weren't familiar with them already.

I've given Dan Schmidt, well... Schmidt, for his previous books. Why? Because for every ten pieces of anti-Arab, anti-Russian, jingoist, Mack Bolan:Indestructable Man piece of garbage he writes, he actually can put out a solid, enjoyable, and engaging book like this one. We have Bolan, beaten to hell, and operating while hurt and queasy. We have well-rounded characters. We have enemies who actually give the Executioner a pounding, and enemies who we want to see Bolan kill, not some Tom Clancy "Op Center" POS opposition force, slime effers who murder and maim nearly a thousand innocents, deserving of the Executioner's untapped rage. Remember when avenging innocent lives was what it was all about? Welcome back, Schmidt. Now keep it solid!

This was another of the Golden Age Bolans when he hit the beginning of the 250 page books. This one had it all - a tough counterpart for the Executioner, kids to watch out for, a quiet moment of peace at the end... and oh yeah, an enemy worth smacking to hell and back at the end of a .44 Automag. Viva la Roy!

This book deserves every allocade it gets. It was the series that started this entire genre, and introduced a man of intelligence, wit and dry humor, as well as great moral strength and the resolve to do the very thing which could end his life. This is where the legend was truly born.

Normally I have a problem with the so-called stone-cold, efficient villain who takes out so many of his own henchmen that the hero walks through the cracks in his organization and just blows him away. Heine was no such animal. The Order of Thule was about the toughest, meanest, hardest to kill group of thugs and bad guys I ever saw. Heine offed dudes it would have taken Bolan an entire novel to get to and clean out. At first, I thought that Heine was thinning his own herd unnessessarily, but then, I kept reading. The Executioner wasn't having his job made any easier with Heine taking out his own failures. And when it got to the end... the final battle between the Executioner, in his physical prime, and Heine, an old frail man in his 100's... I was still on the edge of my seat going "This guy is a tough sumbish." Woo.

This is the middle part of Pendleton's opening trilogy, where we establish so much in the Executioner mythology - The Executioner is ever alone in his terrible war. The loss of his Death Squad friends cemented this in his opinion, and it was later reinforced by April Rose's death/ The introduction of what would be Able Team and the head of Stony Man Farm himself. The Executioner's outlaw status truly enforced as the police were all turned against him, although there was an undercurrent of live and let live among street-level cops. Plus, it had some great action, and even better emotion, and I loved the way the police organized against the Executioner and his buds.

I don't know what book some of the 1-star people were reading. While this wasn't Bolan wiping out entire armies with a single 20 round mag from his Beretta 93R, it was much more realistic, and much more tense a game of hide and seek than I've seen in many a year. Plus, the addition of Katz, who did have some experience in the Korean AO, and quite simply, is one of my favorite characters in fiction, was icing on the cake. Who cares about a Beretta 93R or Desert Eagle, or the paintings on the cover matching anything in the book? The only books I buy for the cover involve cleavage or naked redheads with hair long enough to cover the goodies. This Superbolan was a good change of pace from the standard invulnerable Bolan rakes in an enormous bodycount trash.

A CLASSIC! Brognola's package to Bolan. The enigmatic Raphael (I still wish he were Encizo). The Executioner's Honeywell 40mm cannon, and his first ever hell-blast with the M-16/M203 in the Mafia Wars. Also, Bolan's only outing with the Luger P.08, and the big guy, written by Don, at his best, and still being pressed by a powerful enemy who almost manages several times to kill him, and to actually kill sweet little Margarita.

I'd stated before, this book had taken some 14 years to make it into my collection. And when it did... HOT DANG! Ironman waging war down to the axe! Bolan and Encizo blitzing Little Havana! Mack and April getting some quiet time! And the Apocalyptic can of monkey-ass, manbitch stomping tail-whippin in Cuba?!? A rocking good story.

"I am the ten of wands, remember? Fire in its most destructive aspect. Saturn in Saggitarius! Well, the wind has shifted. Never can tell what this Colorado weather's gonna do, and now this fire's burning closer to home tonight. And Mom. Dad. There's someone here I'd really like you to meet." Yeah, and I enjoyed the hell out of meeting Mr. Mack Bolan again, after the last couple years of poking at international problems that the CIA is too stupid to handle and the President is too wimpy to call in Force Recon, the SEALs or Delta Force on. The villains were horrific monsters to whom even the most soulless politician turned away from. And Bolan, Able Team, and McCarter and Manning were an outstanding team. I loved the argument about having McCarter piloting. Harlan T. Garrison was a wild ride. Splatterpunk... a tribute to Universal's classic monsters, from Frankenstein to the Wolfman. But finally... there was one last unexpected confrontation I'd have never expected. It'd played in the back of my mind for a while, but to finally see Mack Bolan fight... HIM! You have to read it. You have to... Montgomery rocks!

This book was a brief glimpse back to the mullah-mauling, tango-trashing, don't stop killing until the last bad guy's final bit of quiverring corpsemeat stops vibrating from the full-blast, braincrushing autofire that Able Team had been long before. This was a good book, and I particularly liked the gritty cover to this one, and the oil-rig battle at the end was classic carnage.

The first time that Able Team took on the ARC in Cajun Angel, it was a very entertaining little book which was a nice sequel to Fall Back and Kill. However, with each passing appearance of the Aryan Right Coalition, the boredom grew deeper. These chumps were PATHETIC! Come on! A gila monster chewing on Blancanales? This piece of steaming boredom was sooooo slow and soooo stupid, and the enemy sooo pathetically weak that I didn't even finish this one. Did Able Team even shoot someone at the end of this yawner?

This was one of the first Executioner and Able Team exposures I've ever had, and it's still one of my favorite. Lao Ti has a return engagement from Death Bytes (over in Able Team), making the Bolan/Able/Phoenix continuity so much tighter and enjoyable in those days. The "clash" with Able Team wasn't the big thing everyone else stated it would be, and the real treats came from Bolan's and Able Team's solo missions and I felt a lot of empathy for Pol at the end. The German WW 1 fighter vs. the MiGs scene depicted on the cover, however, was truly worth the price of admission.

Able Team and Phoenix Force save the world all over again, and the Executioner reserves his time for fighting the menaces that only he can and should. Able Team and Phoenix Force are meant to go to an enemy of our country and open up a can of pimp-slap, and here they do it in spades. The Executioner is supposed to hunt down those who avoid justice. Able Team had a nice short little mission, and the supporting cast they had was quite fun. Linnaker allows Able to do more than just wander around and interview people. Lyons is at his best when he learns things when a guy comes kicking down a door and gunning for him. Teaming with Gary Manning and Calvin James at the end also brought Able Team back to the fore. Excellent work. Phoenix Force operating and hunting, using their own brains and making their own contacts was great too. As good as satellite intel might seem, nothing beats actual on the street detective work as they hunt their way towards an enemy. Encizo on his own was great to see, and his reunion with the Cold Steel Tanto brought a smile to my face (and he gets to take out three enemies with it... YEAH!). Encizo, the other Phoenix knifemaster, is back on top. And of course, Linnaker, being British, lets McCarter shine as the star of the last 200 pages, and the indominatable, balls to the wall Maddog Britishman goes wild. And too, the return of Dragon Slayer was just too much fun. I'd anticipated this book for most of the year, and it was entirely fun. Well worth the wait, and the new look is cool.

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.

When I first heard of this book being advertised, I was less than interested. Finally, they got around to Kosovo. Probably another Bolan/Phoenix Force air drop into a foreign country while Able Team runs around some city until they do something like push their adversary off a ladder. (Hell, their last enemy was done in by a pothole.) Then I fanned through it. No Bolan. None mentioned whatsoever. Not a single mention of the Executioner. My grin increased, my palms grew sweaty. Had the Gods finally deemed that Phoenix Force and Able Team could kick tail on their own once more? Indeed they had. Linnaker did an outstanding job where each and every member of the Stony Man Farm crew got to shine and show that they had a personality, instead of those random, card-board flavored conversations that cropped up whenever we had Stony Man Farm as the locale of a scene. Oh, and let's see what happened that I loved so much: -The return of the Phoenix Force Barnett crossbow. Sure, Manning was doing the sniper work, but hey, McCarter's in charge. He doesn't have to do sentry removal. :) -Gadgets and Pol and Grimaldi just giving Lyons their old school usual hell. Blancanales and Schwartz were up to their old antics giving their junior partner (and leader) Ironman annoying banter. Grimaldi in on the show was icing on the cake. -Grimaldi romancing and getting an action scene ALL BY HIMSELF! Finally Jack gets to save the girl! (Of course, there was no Mack around for the girl to schmooze on.) -Phoenix Force debating politics, showing they actually have a half-way decent comprehension of the situation they're going into, as well as political opinions. -McCarter drinking Coke (well, not stated as Coke, but he's popping pop-can lids). -The acknowledgement of McCarter's relationship with Katz, and an observation of David's growth as a leader. -Manning's John Woo moment, flying through the air avoiding a lethal hail, and coming up shooting. -Able Team in the biggest keg of whoopass they've been in since the Storm Trilogy. Usually Able's portion of a Stony Man ends on a sleeper note... this time they showed that the three hardcore tourists from hell still remember which end of the boot goes up a bad guy's ass. Out of a possible 10, I give this book a 20. Great job!

Finally, the storyline started in Betrayal comes to a head, and Able Team is about to go toe-to-toe with Jim Gordon... excuse me, I fell asleep there for a moment. Was I talking about something? All harshness to this anti-climactic clash of wits aside, Gordon/Spatkin was a weak enemy in this book, nothing compared to the awesome General Taibu and his Simbas, or even that scheming little witch reporter chick. The only contempt for Spatkin I developed was from the concept that "Oh... I must destroy Stony Man Farm... but I can't hurt pretty Barbara Price." Gah! That was so stupid I'd sprinkle him with the Ebola virus in suspension, and then hand him over to the Simbas to be eaten alive, and then empty an AK into the dying Simbas. And Able Team vs. the turncoat blacksuit? Don't blink, or you'll miss every single ounce of action in this one. Bolan and Phoenix's mission into the Congo was extremely good. I just wish that more had been put into Bullis' self sacrifice, maybe reminding the reader "I must destroy Taibu myself, because it was I who gave him the virus samples." Oh, and Taibu was great, even with the element of prophecy in his demise. This is fiction, so why not go with that kind of thing? I thought it was a nicely sewn up storyline. Very few villains in the Stony Man books are worth remembering, and General Taibu and his cannibalistic Simba warriors have stolen the cake so far this year in terms of power and scope and sheer grandeur. And Brognola? "We'll lose our main strike team." Right. I forget. Lyons and company are just supposed to babysit construction workers and fight lame Crocodile Dundee wannabes. Phoenix Force handles the real problems. G.H. Frost must be spinning in his grave.

Finally, the Ironman has been launched into orbit! Jeez, everybody but Katz and Blancanales get to take the ride, which makes me feel sad for those two, but it's not like Katz or Politician were sitting on their thumbs. I've occasionally busted Kasner's chops on some reviews, but this book was wholly satisfying. The Gobi mission was interesting, but the real excitement came with Able and Phoenix's orbital missions. The book as a whole was very attention getting, and riveting. I finished it in two days, even without the churning butt-whuppin' of the other books. Not that Stony Man has a low-body count mission here. Bolan and the boys executing the Chinese and their buddies for their transgressions against America and the space program was CLASSIC Stony Man. Three notes: Don always loved to say Mack Bolan was no superman at the beginning of his novels. Well, now Mack has more in common with the last Son of Krypton in terms of nuclear weapons disposal. (Read the book. :) ) The scene with Bolan looking at the Earth from orbit was yet again a return to the classic Executioner. Big heart, deep thoughts, simple soul. And between the K-1 from War Bird and the Venture Star, Jack's flying some pretty nifty damn stuff! On a scale of 1-10.... a 10.

This one took a long time to read, and after the wait for it after Edge of Night, I think the break between the two left me unmotivated to read it quickly. (Never mind the lots of books I kept picking up in the meantime.) I'll be glad when Able's given it's head in Central America by Kasner, as dealing with some of these American cult masterminds struck me as a harder road to hoe trying to wrap them up legally. I know it's hard for a group like Able to operate as "cowboy" as they did way back when (and ironically, Phoenix usually played nice-nice with local law enforcement), at least the team got plenty of good characterization. Every member of Able got good scenes, especially Gadgets and the Virgin Mary. Good book overall.

Again, the mighty mighty Stony Teams get their combat stretch and go after their enemies in indominateable style. Able Team: Gadgets' solution to the Emmanuel Zion problem was as inspired as the twenty ton fertilizer bomb he did in Columbia, and his equipment was as needed as always. Lyons blazing in with his 12 gauge was as intimidating and gruesome as ever. And Blancanales, undercover, was given much more exposure than even in the old Able Teams (which is a good thing). Able Team actually acting without saying "Mother may I" to every damn police department in southern California. Even the Schwartz/Lyons banter was on target. Highlight of Able's mission? "Take your time, Striker. There's only three of them to every one of us." Phoenix Force and Mack: Though Phoenix' role has changed from the old days, penetrating into a hostile country and taking down two nuclear targets was inspired. More direct action nowadays than actual hunters, I still see the chance for them to go hunting next novel when they hit Beirut. Hell, the first time Mack hit Beirut, the whole country bounced. And, it was good to see a return of the "wildman" McCarter. I think working alongside Bolan allows him to slip into his older, riskier gears. As for J.R. Rust, if he's not tapped as a resource for Phoenix and Stony, Hal Brognola should have his head examined. He could be the new millenium's Karl Hahn. (Now there's a dude I miss.) A good break from smacking around the Russian Mafia.

I loved this book. To say that it kicked major butt is an understatement. Not only do we have a very palpable threat, and a determined, skilled, and powerful enemy, but we have one who actually doesn't fold like origami when the Stony Men make their assaults. And speaking of which... one thing I truly loved about this book was... a) It had a complete solo Able Team adventure in it, b) It had a complete solo Phoenix Force adventure in it, c) and It had a complete solo Mack Bolan adventure in it, WITH a combined Bolan/Phoenix assault thrown in at the end to fill out the end of the book. Not only that, but Able was back in action the way I loved seeing them, working on the fringes, listening to what the cops are hearing, then stepping on toes as they charge after their enemies. Calvin James got some great spotlight time, and the assault made during a hurricane, that was magnificent. I don't see why the writer has to be such a benevolent God all the time. Throw in things that would make an assault harder. (I'd love to have Able Team stalking a desert hideout, then realize that they're plop in the middle of a rattlesnake migration. Or maybe Bolan and Phoenix tackling an enemy force in Kazikhastan (sp) when an Earthquake shakes it ALL up.) Again... great book. Can't wait for part two.

This is going to sound like I'm giving a reaming to Kasner, so let me get the good part of this novel out of the way first. The title plotline (as opposed to the cover story with McCarter and the tanks) Betrayal was a fantastic one. For a story with next to zero bodycount, just a war of nerves between Buck Greene and Aaron Kurtzman and the sleeper Jim Gordon (Holy Communist Threat, Batman!) it would have made a very tight Executioner novel. Trim it down to 250 pages by deleting the rest of the Stony crews, maybe having Bolan working his way home, making a few stop off kills to keep the Dan Schmidt fans from falling asleep, and this would have been one of the absolute best of the Executioner series. When I first got into it, flipping to the end, I felt that the traitor storyline would be kind of boring. In fact, it was the most interesting thing in the whole book. Stony Man in Russia? Don't shoot me down, but it felt crowded and impacted. The little Able Team mission in the US was thoroughly uninteresting. It seemed like padding. And speaking of padding... Bolan, Katz, Phoenix, Able and Grimaldi all together, with Belikov. Belikov and Katz were about the only people with a chance at characterization, except for James when he and Katz were discussing his plans as bait. Giving Calvin some scenes to himself was one thing I enjoyed, as was Belikov's attempt to rescue his girlfriend. But switching off between Blancanales and Encizo? Rafe goes off with the bridge team, where he does get a shining moment (yay, right Jana?) taking down some armor, but he was already involved in the mob dealings. Even Bolan- a man who's penetrated Russia on at least a half dozen occasions while Greb Strahkov was ACTIVELY hunting him- comes off as furniture. Bolan may not be fluent in Russian like Katz is (then again, few humans are as capable in as many languages as Katz was with his 40 years of experience) but he learned and studied hard enough to take on the KGB on a regular basis without being behind the language 8-ball. (A similar strategy he used with the Mafia.) I don't know... maybe if these weren't established characters, I wouldn't have felt so disappointed at the guys being thrown into the same bag to smother in. (Or more directly, if this were a Black Ops novel, then maybe some more spark would show.) As for the delivery of the heroin to the trash yard for burning... WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? (Kasner's gonna hate me for sure... but then, this novel's not his fault, he just has to fit Bolan, Barb, Hal, Aaron, Katz, McCarter, Manning, Hawkins, James, Encizo, Lyons, Gadgets - not Schwartz dammit!, Blancanales, Akira, Hunt, Kissenger and Grimaldi in,while also coming up with more supporting characters, villains, and whatnot. And not even a sign of Carmen Delahunt anywhere. If she showed, up, this book might have collapsed under critical mass and gone nuclear! It's nice that Stony Man has 18 (19 if you remember Charlie Moss) supporting characters after some lean years, just that having them all at work and devoting any time to any other characters BLEEDS energy and life from the book. Sort of like the Batman movies. Batman vs Catwoman or Penguin would have been a tight movie. Having all three simply bogged down and killed Batman Returns. That's what's happening often with the Stony Man novels.)

Man, to clear the pallette of the last mediocre reviews... this one rocked... it had everything! The Russian Mafia knowing that there's something big and nasty and out there to munch on it: PHOENIX FORCE. Katz back in the field, in the middle of the action. Able Team International! Katz and Phoenix working together again. Stony Man actually working most of the time without cooperation. I know the title reads Mack Bolan: Stony Man... but Mack could have been excised from this particular book, and his space given to Manning and Encizo, though. But, nothin's perfect. This came close though.

I found this book entirely enjoyable. Unlike some of the other books of late, the story maintained a steady head of steam. Personal favorites: Calvin James vs. the First Lady. Yo' Cal my homey out of Chi. Bolan vs. the Neo-Nazis. If I knew any better, I'd have said Bolan's actions against this racist militia was to make up for that Death Merchant book with its callousness. The discussion between Bolan and the head of the Indianna Militia. It also raises one possible Bolan plotline. An American city falls under mayhem that it's placed under martial law. But the commander of the martial forces, and the commander's almost hand-picked army, is cut from the same cloth as Somali warlords and such evil. Legally, they are the law, and "soldiers on the same side." But man... we needed to see Hawkins pawed over more by the President's daughter.

I enjoyed this one, especially considering that Able Team got a nice piece of the mission. The only complaint I had was naming the bad guy Ohara. I kept thinking of poor old Keio. :( But, nice story... they could have stretched or packed the type tighter for a more fullfilling ending though.

A great installment in the Stony Man Farm with Able Team up against an old, familiar enemy... the CIA. And Phoenix's battle in Colombia was excellent. I was particularly glad to see Bolan operating on his own for most of the book, and enjoyed El Machetero's nod to the legend of Phoenix Force. Too bad El Machetero was so easily dis-armed... he'd have been a good foe for Phoenix. As for Carl and the boys... even though they weren't kicking tail wall to wall, they were very enjoyable to watch in action. Their antics were quite fun. Made me almost feel sorry for the cartel team though. A cornered Able Team is Able at its best.

The only thing that could have made this particular adventure better would have been the Stony Crew to hire on John Trent as a local translator for the Chinese incursion. Still, Mack working with the old mobster, and fullfilling an ancient prophecy is just too darn cool. They don't make 'em this good anymore.

This was a great Stony Man novel, because hey, my two favorite ever Stony Men, Gadgets and Calvin take center stages, and Katz is still with the team at this point. That Able Team is the prime mover and shaker in this novel is a treat in and of itself, and the battles were quite exciting when they came, and the setups went nicely.

The real Phoenix Force (with Katz, not Hawkins) and Mack taking down Somalian warlords. Though Phoenix would be back later to fight in these lands in Stranglehold, this one was the book with all the oomph. I only wish Able Team was on hand as well. Bolan and Phoenix are good at taking down terrorists, but Able Team is the stone cold expert squad when it comes to slaughtering death squads. I'd say the guys who ripped apart Salvadoran facist murderers and the Tamil Tigers should have been cut loose and given a full head of steam to feast upon their Somali counterparts.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a change of pace for Newton, and a very suspensefull novel. I didn't think it started slow at all, indeed, it built up steadily, engrossing you. I did manage to skip some of the passages with the villains, but really enjoyed the fact that Calvin James had been made the center of one of the four plot threads, and it was his mind/voice which Newton had gotten into. (Especially since Calvin's the Phoenix Forcer who I can most identify with, he's a Chicagoan and a Colt Commander fan too.) And Katz, even buck naked, is a dangerous dude.

John Trent and Calvin James working with the main man himself? All of Able Team and Phoenix Force going down to Veneszuela to whup some tail alongside Mack? Only Wiliam Fieldhouse could have written a novel that could make me drool this much. One of Stony Man's finest moments... would that Karl Hahn were alive to join in on this one.

My first ever exposure to the Executioner, found without a front cover in a box, left behind as my parents and I moved into our new house. Suddenly, EVERYTHING was different, and I was a Bolan fan for life. But, if it wasn't for the promise of a helicopter gunship duel, I'd have never even have looked at it. Slow in the middle, I agree.

This has to be one of my favorite SuperBolans. Frankly, the hostage sequence ended surprisingly peacefully, but it was a nice little hunt for the bad guys as Ironman, Katz and McCarter joined in on the lethal fun and games. The final chase between Mack and the Carlos clone was a good payoff after the hijacking.

This story was so big, and so layered that it really could have only been a Superbolan. A lot of the others (except for Rogue Force, and Resurrection Day and the Stony Man Doctrine) really are nothing more than padded Bolan books. This one delivered ALL the goods.

Brazil's death squads have always been a group I'd wanted to have receive the cleansing flame of the Stony Men. Now, having Mack and Able Team combine forces to leave those who would murder and rape children screaming and dying, their bodies blasted open by Parabellum vengeance... this was one book I loved. The jungle adventure was ok... but I for one would feel that Mack would put aside his respect for the hollow, false badges of the murderers on the death squad payrolls... after all, Bolan's whacked Iranian and Soviet troops on their home turf, doing nothing more than responding to a nut in a blacksuit with a big silver magnum. But, at least Mack knew, if he was going to be fighting child-killer cops, he brought along Ironman. And having Carl Lyons and the boys along to battle death squads is just the right thing to do, and a crunchy, gory, bloody, and gruesomely brutal way to do it. I half wanted Mack to answer Gadgets' query about fighting cops like this. Gadgets:"You're going to have problems if he has cops on the scene." Mack:"That's why I brought Ironman." Carl: "Kin-A!"

This one was a long one, and really didn't come out as satisfying as I'd hoped. There were three main battles in the book, plus a lot of nice intrigue and some assasinations by one of the main villains, but then, the final battle seemed so anti-climactic. The best of the battles had to have been the fight for the island, followed by the initial Bolan blitz on the Bahamas. Each one was nice and thrilling, and yet, had a chance of going against the Big Guy and his cohorts. The battle with the Crackers just had too much firepower on hand to be interesting, and the final knockout was a let-down. No face-off with either of the lieutenants, although the final kill was interesting. In all, a so-so book.

From the very start, this book hit the afterburners, kicked the tires, lit the fires, and RAMMED non-stop action down your throat, did a tap dance, and made sure you swallowed it. Bolan's war in China against the XSEA may have been your typical smash of an organized crime setup in the Urumchi province, but it was an attack where Bolan and Cello actually were at risk. Towards the end when Bolan was facing the combined forces of the XSEA and Yan Wuan, he was bearing the scars of this battle. And... not everything went magically his way. The scene in the assault on the prison, where Bolan damn near sends himself falling three stories into a fireball was a thriller. The same with the attack on the China Sea, when Bolan and Grimaldi actually meet some stiff resistance, and then nearly get obliterated by the very explosives they put on the boat. By the time we got to the end of this bad mother jumper, we'd seen Bolan at war in two nations, an honestly earned bodycount for the Executioner (Grimaldi piloting a small helicopter without gun pods? Why some writers would have had him with an F-14 to knock out the convoy). Hell, even Jack is getting good at this, moving fast enough that Bolan doesn't have to do twice the killing just because Jack's too slow to take down a target. Several times Grimaldi gets a good score before Bolan's lead hits his target. Even the showdown between Bolan and the State Trooper was great. Somheil's quickly becoming a welcome name on the indicia page... ...even if he does wanna ruin poor Jack's teeth.

I loved this book. From the sympathetic ex-Nazi guards, Mack's compassion for an Alzheimers victim, the duel between Zhdanov, Mack and Katz being so tight and so close, especially the battles in the cemetary and the airport... and the epilogue, remembering Mack's family, and April Rose. I cried for Sharon Katzenelenbogen's loss of her beloved Yoni. I sneered with joy at Katz's speech to the corpse of Zhdanov. I enjoyed that Mack and Katz weren't armed to the toenails for combat, and that even with a small support group for Zhdanov, it was a thrilling adventure, and an excellent mystery. I wish there had been room in this book for some members of Phoenix Force, who are more Katz' family than Mack is, but then, this story wouldn't have been told. McCarter and Manning would have fit in quite nearly as well as Bolan and Grimaldi. And Encizo and James, though out of place in Europe and Russia, would have been fine additions to the crew too. (No Hawkins. This would have been a Katz family matter. And David, Gary, Calvin and Rafe are that family.) Still. This book was as near perfection as you could get. Jerry, if you're reading this review... GREAT JOB!

This was the first book I read from the latest shipment, and I'm the first reviewer... >snoopy dance.< Mike Newton revives from his slump in this one (well, I haven't read the 4 Horsemen Trilogy yet), and for the first time in a while, Bolan is actually facing foes who don't crumble with the first few whacks. The Algerian GIA has to be one of the best terrorist groups that Bolan's fought against in the past 10 years. It the standard Newton/Bolan plot: Mack smacks both sides up, and gets them fighting each other. But, this time his enemies ARE hip to his plans. Newton finally breaks his mold, and puts Bolan's butt wagging out in the middle of a classic ambush. Like I said before, the GIA didn't fold easy, which is a refreshing relief from the squirming, running-scared weaklings like Schmidt's mobsters and Russians, or the so-called deadly conspiracies where the chief bad guy kills one of his own henchmen every chapter, thus denying us the right to see Bolan kill some of their butts. And... Mack finally gets laid for the first time in how long? On a scale of 10, I give this one a 9

This is David North's last books, published posthumously, and a more stirring, more emotionally powerful book in the series is pretty hard to find. As an action book, it was staggering: the Bolan blitz was in full effect, and the Executioner's newfound allies proved their courage and worth. The villains were as deserving of hot lead spilling their intestines out as any pack of rampant, repugnant cockroaches and vermin on this planet. As a serious novel, it was also sobering, the kind of hate and venom that could exist in a nation that is almost 100% comprised of immigrants (even the Cherokee are descendants of Asians who cross the asiatic land bridge a few million years back). There seems a national blindness to the fact that people can find things a lot more productive to do than hate someone based on politics, skin or affiliation. And North didn't just paint the villains as all evil. General Lawrence is a man scarred by tragedy. Luria is a kid pushed around by people with more money, and more authority. Rankin is a victim of bankruptcy and grief for a husband turned rampaging psycho for one too many minutes. And Bolan himself is shown in all his strength, nobility, glory, and humanity. He bleeds. He limps. He's weary. And he ends tired, sorrowful, seeing no victory when so many good people died in a battle still raging. The Bolan books are going to miss North's caliber of writing. And the world should miss a man whose heart was as deep as the big guy's.

This was an interesting shipment- both Schmidt and Newton varied from their usual Bolan formulas and produced quite good books. Newton took a tried and true story: The Most Dangerous Game, and put Bolan right into it. The result is a book with Mack doing less damage to the evildoers of the world than in his usual Superbolan, but this one was truly a novel capable of keeping Newton in the top 10 Bolan writers. The real juicy part of this novel for the first half is the tension of the stalk. Bolan hunting, Chelsey hunting, Phelan leading his hunts, predators and prey circling each other. Phelan and his hunts at the beginning were exciting, and if it weren't for the concept that innocent people, defending their homes were the targets and victims of these hunts, would be an interesting concept from a heroic POV. Pay a million to bring down some truly bad MF in a safari against Khemer Rogue or Hamas hitmen. Bolan, finally being captured and stripped of everything except his wits and strength, is a great centerpiece for the final third of the book, and the hunt was magnificent. You don't need full auto weapons in Bolan's hands for it to be a dynamic duel between him and his foes. I'm just sorry Bolan didn't empathize more with Chelsey, considering both their fathers committed suicide due to pressure and guilt due to criminals.

This one was a rough one. Bolan finally faced an enemy who fought him mentally, physically and emotionally. Most of the times, the atrocities that Bolan faces are just too abstract (except for Executive Action). This time, we have Bolan in stitches, covered in bruises, bleeding and fighting every step of the way to stop a madman who has frustrated and flaunted murder in front of his face every step of the way. Gadgets had an outstanding role in this one, in not one but two great scenes. And, I agree with Hawkins on this one: "Able Team gets all the good jobs." Phoenix Force shows up in a three-way team-up, and for once just ends up sitting on its hands while Able burns with righteous fury. :) Oh yeah, and Mack did a load of butt-whoopin' with Katz by his side. Best Superbolan since Retribution!

Oh, this was a good one. Murray has an excellent talent for taking a series novel, stripping it to its basics, using loads of back continuity, and still craft an original, gripping, thrilling tale. He did wonders with the Destroyer series, and I was wondering how he'd handle the Executioner, and boy was I happily not disappointed. If anything, he wrotes Mack more like Don wrote him than Mike Newton. And that's not ragging on Mike. That's me saying how good Will writes.

Zero Tolerance was a by the book, no questions asked, classic Bolan Blitz. If anyone asks for a good example of who Mack Bolan is, and what he does, this, and Blood Testament would be two of the books which would show the Bolan Effect in it's fully glory. Further good points were the respect it showed Voodoo, and the nice characterizations. And, once again, we get to see Bolan, yes, as a killing machine, but this killing machine works well because he keeps his foes totally off balance. Bolan succeeds because nobody on hand expects him coming. The New Orleans battle in itself, given a different pica and letter spacing, could have been an ENTIRE Bolan novel. Also, I liked Tom Carlisle... this guy could be excellently groomed for one of the Stony teams, or become a member of a third Stony Man team.

I liked this novel. It reminded me of the better Peter Leslie novels like Ice Cold Kill and Anvil of Hell where Bolan has to deal with a web of intricate betrayals, pretty much on his own, and in his own indominatable style. Doctor Jest was a great opponent too for Bolan, but with the short, quick "death" of Devereaux, especially after Devereaux' stunning display of lethality against Tommy in Chapter 4, you know that Dexter will be back, badder than ever. I just really hope Dexter's sister's name isn't Dee Dee. ;) (PS: Could Peter Leslie have been a previous nomme de pen for Ellis?)

A thoroughly enjoyable piece. There's so much cool stuff going on, I was run ragged. The return of Bolan's Black Ace. Gun battles with the Rastas and Mack working WITH the Mafia. The battle for the Obsidian Princess. But Murphy said it best. "The pirates of the Carribean with ninjas thrown in. Sounds like a scene from Walt Disney hell." And from Mack Bolan heaven. The three way battle between the Yakuza, the pirates, and Bolan and the Gitmo SEALs was worth the price of admission alone. Odom is the MAN!

This one had a good build-up for the first few chapters, but then around the middle, where Bolan was yanking out the support of the Soviet invasion, it seemed kind of dry. It was only when the deadline neared zero and Resnikoff was still in action that this book picked up again. Albrecht and Fagen's mercs disappeared to quickly, and too many "good guy" Cubans went down too easy, esp: Juan Oriol. I'd have been VERY interested in Bolan working with Oriol or Perrin. In all... it was an ok book, with some good action, but the ashes left from the victory just didn't feel worth the fight. Oh, I also loved the convoy scene. "You can't expect every trick to work every time." A bright note in a depressing book.

Well, I started the trilogy because I wanted to see if Schmidt had grown up as a writer. At the start, it seemed like a whole lot of fun, with the professional soldiers providing Bolan with something resembling an honest opposition... Until they started falling like chaffe. Then the unleashing of the suicide bombers in New York was a great addition... Bolan rushing around, futilely trying to end the carnage, until he was finally stopped from further action by being arrested. Then, on the very next page and next chapter, Bolan's in the air and on the assault in Florida. Wait a minute... we have an entire trilogy here, and it's a novel, but Bolan's sprung inside of the one second needed to turn the page, and is right on the doorstep of a bad guy in Miami? The Hydra file seemed interesting. The Spetsnaz troopers were dull as hell. Bolan pulls grenade pins with his teeth (shouldn't he be drinking ensure after breaking his crowns on those damn things after 30 years of that?). Oh yeah, and Bolan uses an F-15 Eagle airstrike to wipe out an entire Colombian drug cartel who said "YUP! LET'S ALL GO TO THIS ABANDONNED LOCATION! IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT WE'RE THE ENTIRE CARTEL... NOBODY COULD KILL US ALL!" COULD SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE OUT A REALITY CHECK FOR MR. SCHMIDT? This poor goddamn idiot is in desperfuckinate need of a large reality advance. Some people like Schmidt's action, but Bolan is far too invulnerable in his books, and hardly is phased by anything. Schmidt is all body count, and he's all jingoist, racist hate. Nobody of any other nationality is anything more than a cardboard cut-out from a cheap old movie filmed on a Burbank soundstage. There's much better writers out there. Ones who don't have Bolan consider a BRITISH rock band to being traitors to AMERICA while he listens to Sympathy for the Devil playing in some bar.

With all the talk among the fans about a Bolan Protege in the message board, I now see where this idea came from. Carvaggio was an interesting character, though we didn't get to spend enough time with the dude. To me, my favorite scene was Bolan and Carvaggio's talk in the restaurant where Nick finally figures out who he's sitting across. That, and the Families remembering just what is happening as they watch the Garrison self destruct under Sienna. Gives my heart a little tingle when I read about the Mafia cringing from even a possibility that the Executioner is in the area. Now if Bolan would finally punch the tickets on that Mob army he met all the way back in Colorado Kill-Zone... As for Case Closed... Rupert Sawyer was, shall we say... and untouchable parody. :)

This was a fun book, one of my favorite books in a long time in the Executioner series, Red Horse being the only inline book which gave greater satisfaction. John Trent was only back for two chapters, and the final confrontation with the main bad guys was rushed getting to it, but it was still a great setpiece battle at the end with all the mooks (martial arts guys who get smacked easy in HK films) coming out of the woodwork for Mack and John to just kick butt on. As for the ending seeming anti-climactic... gee... we finally get the duel between Kissenger and Blancanales promised in Cajun Angel, Grimaldi actually coming to the rescue and not getting shot up or beaten to a bloody pulp... and of course, the brawl between Ironman and the Executioner. I'm sorry, but short of having Bolan with the Beretta in one fist, and the Automag (not the Desert Eagle) blazing away at the crew of hitmen present in the first scene in the Killer where Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee team up, you're not going to have a topper to that fight.

Yawn. Bolan attacks Mafia goons with a war wagon. Gets airstrike support from Grimaldi. Oh Dear, the DEA is arresting Grimaldi. Like Kurtzman can arrange an assault van and an attack helicopter, but can't let Jack know about the surveillance on a simple warehouse? Lots of explosions. Lots of shooting. Zero tension. Zero excitement. Zero worry for Mack or Jack. Zero tolerance for this piece of Dan Schmidt.

I was hoping that Gold Eagle would do something special for Mack Bolan's 250th Executioner novel. After all, 250 is a landmark milestone in comics, let alone in novel series. I wasn't disappointed. Bolan and the Stony Man teams have to deal with a dynamic crisis in Mexico. Lots of intrigue. Some great fights, and a supporting cast which actually is worth reading about, as well as villains who come in all forms of levels, from a simple waiter to banditos and Mexican devil worshippers. That Calvin got a good spotlight appealed to me too, and despite not getting some knife time, Encizo wasn't exactly thumbing his ego. (Rather, he did a nice job thumbing a sixgun. :) ) I can hardly wait for the next two.

The middle part of the Border Fire trilogy starts literally minutes after the end of the last book, and plops us into the middle of the action right away, as well as neatly sewing up plot elements from the first book. We finally get to see Able Team in action, doing their bit in Alaska before a bullet blasting and snoop and pooping night in Mexico, and finally a classic Ironman scene to cap it off, promising one hell of a splash in part three. Phoenix Force comes in (with a hoot of a cover name), and the team in force gets involved in one of the most dangerous nights of their careers, leaving one of Phoenix down, and an entire border full of smugglers spreading their powdered death ready to loom against them. And finally, Bolan. He doesn't get as much action as the others, but the big guy's brain is always fun to watch working, and yeah, he gets two great battles, and dropped into a very hairy scenario at the end. This is one trilogy that didn't put on the brakes and squeal to a stop at the end of every book, even though they had nice, concise endings. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm on my way home now, to go get part 3 out of my shipment box and start devouring it.

Let me say this. I started 252 on Tuesday. I finished it Friday at work. It so satisfied my Bolan cravings, I sent Ryan Hillis the Dan Schmidt book from my bi-monthly shipment and decided to relax with the first Harry Potter book. I was that swept away by the whole of this trilogy... if I had read all three books in a row, my brains still might be frying. What did I like? Able Team, full outlaw, and working with a crew of Texas Rangers also stepping into "cowboy" territory. (Jerry thankyouthankyouthankyou... true Able has returned! Wahoo!) Mack undercover, on the run, working on his own resources and intelligence. Phoenix Force gets a rest from hard knock action, but McCarter and Turrin truly shine, and I LOVED Toro. We need to see his big butt in action with Stony Man more. More Hix. Too bad he's getting married. He'd have proven an awesome addition to Stony Man. What I didn't like? The fact we'll not likely get to see great characters like Hix, Oliverez, and Toro in action again. Out of 10, a 9.9. :) (Damn Russian Judges!)

I know I've been chomping at the bit for Bolan to stop playing these Tom Clancy games... but if the Executioner has to go international and fight intrigue, then darn it, he's gonna do it old school Phoenix Force style! Salome was a fearsome foe, and someone who actually gave the Stony Man crew as much as he got. For every time Mack and the boys got closer, Salome hit back, and hit back hard. The guys will be licking their wounds from this fantastic battle which has all the markings of a classic Phoenix Force adventure. That, and master sniper Gary Manning finally gets to go to town with the Barrett M-85 .50. The Capoeria, the ship-killers... Chill Factor had it all, and the Executioner's definitely back in the condition which made me his fan.

I've read Bolan novels for a long time, about half of my life, so there are certain symbols and familiar turns of phrase that always ring in my ears not as a cliche, but as a part of the Executioner mythos. With this book, we have the references to the friendly ghosts, Bolan's family, and of course April Rose, even a recap of Jack Grimaldi's indoctrination into Bolan's war everlasting. It felt like pulling on a comfy old sweater. Not to say that Bolan doesn't kick more booty than Popeye on a spinach high. From the opening ass-kick to the final execution of a chump trying to get away with treason and murder, the only time Bolan takes off from pimp-slapping the bad guys is when HE'S in trouble. Jack and Juta made a fine team, and it was nice to see Grimaldi acting "solo." Someone's been listening to the fans. :)

Something told me not to trash this Dan Schmidt novel before reading it, and I'm glad that little something did speak to me. There was some bad:1) Just how many renegade, bitter, murderous Vietnam veterans are there in America? Schmidt must have killed at least 300 in his books.2) Next to no original characterization for the cardboard cut-out Palestinians.3) OSWALD! Deidrich Bader had to have been an influence on the guy on the cover. I hope the new covers don't kick in until we get Lewis, Drew and Kate. I do think Mimi was on the cover of Rolling Thunder however.The good?A dead-rock solid situation for the Executioner to be pushed to his limits. An entire city wrecked (in a much more satisfying manner than in the Hydra Trilogy's start). A tense hostage stand-off at the Aviation museum. And a satisfying end to the bad guys with a variety of intelligent points. I love how the last nuke is discovered... something truly original and yet entirely plausible, something truly fresh and unexpected from Schmidt. Bolan's taking down of the terrorists was fantastic... and not one high-powered aircraft in sight, except for the bad guys. Heck, Bolan's interrogation of the Palestinians was worth the price of admission itself. When Dan gives up his formula, he damn well rocks.

Having read Jerry VanCook's self-defense book "Real World Self Defense" just a few weeks before reading Precision Play, I caught myself laughing as I recognized some of Jerry's old friends who were mentioned in both books. The names have been changed, and there is creative license used on the men who "inspired" the EdgeQuesters. Now, one of my goals is to get in shape and attend "Riddle of Steel." You never know when you might be tasked to help the Executioner to save American freedom. This was an unusually rich Executioner novel with plenty of fascinating and enjoyable supporting characters. Maybe someone might not care for Bolan having to share page-time with sub-plots like Agent Holly (based on VanCook's son), but I for one thought it helped keep the book fresh and clean. You get tired of Bolan being the only fighting man in the entire universe, and nobody else demonstrating either integrity, honor or courage. Besides, the final fight, an "unarmed" Executioner against five armed killers was awesome. Plus, the knife battles were fantastic. By the way... Jerry himself shows up in the book, under an assumed name. (And no, it's not Jesse Oven either, Alice.)

This one shined in terms of the villains, and the supporting characters, but it also shows one glaring weakness in the Gold Eagle line of books: We got Mack stuck in situations in which he really is hamstrung to act. The Panamanian Death Squads (or even Brazilian, Chilean, or whatever) are a threat that Bolan has moral trouble with because of his sacred vow never to kill or seriously injure a law enforcement officer, no matter how cruel or brutal he is. Frankly, Brognola should have tagged this mission for Lyons and Able Team, since they not only have experience with smashing death squads, but Lyons actually feels its his duty to flush chunks of crooked badges down the sewer. Other than that, Bolan has some good fights in this one.

Bolan and Katz take on the bad guys. And man, you just can't miss with Fieldhouse helming Katz's adventures with the Big Guy. A nice rock-em, sock-em ride.

I came into 200 hoping for the best, and... well, it was ok. Blood Testament, however was a far superior novel. There wasn't any of the emotional weight of 100's Brognola and Presidential scenes in this one. Still, Mike Newton was doing quite well. Maybe Bolan acquiring new signature weapons for his 200th adventure would have been nice*. And maybe having Able Team or Phoenix Force lend a hand, and another delirious encounter with the ghost of April Rose would have made this click. Maybe for #250. (He'd still have a Beretta and a big Magnum, I always felt the Wildey .45 Winchester Magnum a more natural successor to the Automag, at least in looks.)

I was so lucky to find this particular book just a few days after Alice told me about it being a Fieldhouse Executioner book, and I was not disappointed. Fieldhouse really knows how to handle Asian cultures well, and his villains this time were an interesting combination of CIA and Thai criminals. Plus, we get to see Fieldhouse getting one of his heroes to play with the .357 Desert Eagle again! (I miss Gary having the .357 Eagle... it was good to see Mack totin' it.)

I liked this one. Peter Leslie does good suspense tales, and he always manages to put Bolan in situations that test all of his skills and knowledge. The conspiracy, the penetration of the Bulgarian secret police, and the battles on the oil rig, and Shamus O'Riley were all great parts of a nice book. Solid Entertainment.

Not only was this a great little 20th anniversary issue, not only was it Mack returning to the Automag for one last fling... but we also had Belle (of sorts) (Mack's Beretta 1951 Brigadier) as the weapon in review. Seemed like everything pointed towards making this an anniversary shot bar none. Throw in a slam-bang slugfest in a maze of deceit and violence, and you have a hoot and a holler.

Indirectly, I see this as the sequel to Death Has A Name, solely on it being the second time that April Rose has reached from beyond the grave to rescue Mack and help him continue his battle. And darned if it isn't one of the best of the Executioner novels. From 91 to 103, we had some of the best of the Executioner books, and darned if this didn't make the longer novels seem so satisfying. This was one of Mack's golden ages.

Now, I know I've thoroughly trashed, stomped, and otherwise bad mouthed Dan Schmidt's books to the point where if he were online, he wouldn't read one of my reviews for a million bucks.Shame too.Devil's Horn was not only my favorite book written by him, it is one of my favorite Bolan novels of all time, and the endcap to my favorite run of Bolan books starting with Defenders and Believers. Big praise and mad props to Schmidt on this one.Let's cover why:1) Bolan is not some indesctructable god swooping down from heaven. Oh, when you see Dragonslayer, you expect him to strike like Thor from his chariot drawn by Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher. But he's shot down, captured, and nearly killed.2) The villains aren't idiots who kill their henchmen left and right. They reserve their homicide for people we actually care about.3) Schmidt's calling Bolan a Pollack got me to look up what Bolan means in Polish: Pain. Nice little literary trick.4) By the time Schmidt DOES get around to his airstrike, it's NOT the boring overkill of other books... it's the cool venting of rage and vengeance you got from such classic movies like Blue Thunder or more recently Jon Guenther's airstrike in War Bird.5) I miss Bolan's signature "Little Lightning" mini-Uzi. I mean, the Desert Eagle is more practical since it uses more readily available ammo... but Big Thunder and Little Lightning and Belle... it gave some "props" to those who came before with their signature weapons... like Nick Carter (who even named a gas grenade fer crissakes)and Kenneth Robeson's The Avenger. Bolan is as much a pulp hero as he is a military action/adventure hero. I wish Schmidt wrote more great books like this one.

I came away from this one thinking that most of Bolan's efforts were wasted. His allies all died, save Grimaldi, and the hostages were all murdered. Everything was just Bolan sweeping everything under the rug... and was totally dissatisfying as a chase.

I must confess, while I spent some time searching for it, this book sat forever on my bookshelf waiting to be read. I guess I wasn't too interested in the affairs of the Philipines as opposed to the other locales that Phoenix had been to. (That's why I also liked Able going international too. This way, we'd see Sri Lanka and the Carribean at the same time on bookshelves.)However, finally getting to it, it was great.There were hints about McCarter's taking command of Phoenix in this one, even if it was out of continuity. I'd guess that both Missile Menace and Search and Destroy had been penned just before Fieldhouse did Firestorm, thus making Linnaker seem a little behind.I loved seeing a book that actually delved deep into KGB history, complete with Mahmud, references to previous books and especially one of my favorite Phoenix books Tooth and Claw, where the KGB discovered who Gary Manning and Yakov Katzenelenbogen were. Sadly, we never got to see a return engagement with the main KGB villain, which is too bad. I'd love to maybe see a rematch someday. (And yes, this means another Stony Man where they take on ex-KGB Russian Mafiya members. Screw repetition! I wanna see Phoenix take down one or two last old enemies once and for all!)Awesome setpiece action sequences, even with DragonSlayer (God I miss that old bird now). The end sequence, with a half-strength Force hunting through an abandonned building to stop Remsberg's Raiders was worth the price of admission alone.

Phoenix Force faces it's greatest threat and enemies, and suffers it's second greatest loss ever. The death of Karl Hahn affected me more than Keio's, simply because I hadn't read more than a couple of stories where Keio appeared in at the time I read Firestorm. Karl was more a personal friend, and quite frankly, I was disappointed that Karl and John Trent would never combine forces with Phoenix Force on one super-mission.However, the double threat, a nuclear warhead, and the kidnapped President and Soviet Premeir quite simply made this a high stakes book like no other. Between Weep, Moscow, Weep, and Firestorm, Phoenix Force has literally saved the entire of humanity twice over. Oh yeah, and that little China Syndrome problem in the Tigers of Justice...Too bad Phoenix doesn't blaze this brightly anymore.

This book confused me at first until the appearance of Karl Hahn. After all, the references to the usual Phoenix gear was about ten books out of continuity, and Karl died in Firestorm, Super Phoenix #1. I thought this was odd of Wilson to write this story now without even a little note.Then, years later, I learned the author I mostly read was William Fieldhouse, and this guy who wrote Fieldhouse like Phillip Jose Farmer writes Kenneth Robeson, William Burroughs or Harlan Ellison, was a guy named Mike Linaker. (That's a compliment.)As it was... it was great to see Britain written about in an adventure setting by a Briton. This is worth rereading, especially for the sake of seeing Encizo and James on their own solo mission and Karl back alive.

This book had so much good going for it...One of the best covers in the series,Great city to tear up,Interesting twist to the hostage friend situation,Plenty of ass, plenty of kick. Much meeting of said ass and kick.Phoenix gone outlaw, again (how come Able never went outlaw? It's like Brognola somehow knew just to point Lyons in a direction and let him destroy stuff)Neumann was on top of his game with this one.

Hmm, let's see, what do I love about this book? The fate of John Trent after Hostaged Vatican. John Trent STILL helping out the team. Phoenix Force teaming up with the KGB. The return of TRIO (too bad Mack Bolan and Phoenix Force never had a chance to team up and go against MERGE). A swathe of Phoenix flame stretching from Mongolia to the South Pacific with a stop off in Hong Kong... and the end, where Katz and the KGB official walk away in an unofficial truce. That, plus a dynamic cover (Phoenix in SCUBA gear and armed to the gills atop a surfacing sub), this is one of my absolute faves.That, and Weep, Moscow, Weep has to be a great, expressive title.

Karl Hahn's introduction as Phoenix's reserve member in this tale was a fantastic scene, worth the cover price alone. I especially enjoyed reading about Karl trying to figure out what the hell Shakespeare was saying. The battle with the Red Army Faction was, as usual, dynamic Fieldhouse action.The South Africa story was a nice one in itself, especially since it showed an unusually sympathetic view of South African politics. Apartheid may have sucked big time, but it was better than wholesale slaughter. Fieldhouse, however, was fair to all sides in the debate, and showed just how far Calvin was out of his element in condemning the situation without knowing all the facts.Still, it was good seeing Cal just plain go berzerk and beat the living hell out of the racist cop.The rest of the action was interesting, and I'd have to say this was also one of my absolute favorite Phoenix Force covers.

This was the first Phoenix Force book I ever read... and it's still my favorite. The Force, up against a wall, has to deal with a force of 200 highly trained killers. Against those kinds of odds, I was simply drooling. While I liked Able Team, I only really identified with Gadgets on that team, Gadgets being a super-nerd super commando. Meanwhile, with Phoenix Force, I had so much more to identify with. Katz is left-handed, Calvin James is from Chicago, McCarter's a bit of a nut. Plus, some of the action sequences are among the best I'veseen in any action novel, from the battle at Manning's cabin, to the midnight warehouse battle, to the final conflict in the Montana Mountains... and never mind another of Phoenix Force's cooler titles (No Rules, No Referee and Welcome to the Feast being my other faves), and that beautifull wraparound cover painting... man, I miss Phoenix Force.

This was an odd one for me. I finally learned the history of Manning's love of his life. And it was an interesting tale, if not what I considered a classic Phoenix story. Color me prejudiced towards the Fieldhouse stories, but Ramirez and Rex formed an odd combination that just didn't read completely right.However, Manning's being taken hostage, Phoenix's act of mercy, the FAV, and the relentless race against time between Phoenix and the Blood Doctor's troops was a fantastic story.If there had been more emphasis on things going on back at Stony Man Farm, and better communication, this would have read like a Kasner Stony Man novel. But, unlike Gunslinger, I don't consider this a standard story. And it's a shame that the writers have forgotten Manning's devotion to Nemtalah, if the man himself hasn't.

Mack's final vengeance for his beloved April is the heart and soul of this entire novel. And the scene where Tanya, after being ambushed, looks up and sees the impassive form of the Executioner, brandishing Big Thunder against a Soviet Armored Troop Carrier was as classic an entrance as you could ever get.

This was when Mack was at his peak. Working with Johnny, and fighting a battle in which he faced his most difficult trials, nearer to death than he'd ever gotten before, this is the Executioner's finest moment. Bolan's near defeat being averted by the "return" of April Rose, and his own arising from the ashes, with his brother Johnny also having been reforged by the loss of a true love, this book was one of the best emotional roller coaster rides in the series. It's my personal favorite of the Executioner series.

When I finished reading this one, I felt upset, hurt, like a house of cards had collapsed within my soul. This book was so painfull to read... and going into Terminal Velocity as the middle chapter... I got really annoyed that they sent Mack off to Russia on some shullbit run mission when there were people in Washington who needed to die screaming as the flesh burned from their hides... This one is definately a classic book, and a heart tugger. The only problem I had was a slow, disjointed, and very unsatisfying opening.

The last chapter just felt anticlimactic. Everything leading up to it was awesome, the return of the Executioner, and Mack Bolan reclaiming his name... but the last chapter, where he finally does in Farnsworth... it seemed so painless. So cold and detatched. Not even a sickening crunch, or a choked off shriek of terror as Farnsworth felt unspeakable agony. And... not even the war journal. This book needed Mack's war journal, dammit.

The first Mack Bolan book I got after Terminal Velocity (my first ever exposure to Mack), and BOY can you say that this one had me totally hooked now. Never mind that Mack was avenging 240 dead Marines, never mind that he was going after Strahkov who killed April, Mack was there fighting all the savages in the Beirut conflict. The cover said it all. Mack, blazing away, hauling a defenseless kid to safety.

This happened to be one of my favorite Mack Bolan books, and my absolute favorite Peter Leslie book. Nobody does a story with Mack being besieged on all sides by cunning, persistant and brutal enemies. Mack's battles with the Soviet Military machine and the KGB were fantastic. In fact, the lack of Mack's signature weapons made this book even more dynamic. I always liked the early hand-to-mouth days of Bolan's Mafia Wars, and this particular mission accomplished that feel exactly. Leslie is one of my favorite Bolan writers, and he delivers quite well, going with the old Chandler standby... "If you're stuck with where to take a story, have some guy with a gun come through the door." Slightly less formulaic than Newton, but both Leslie and Newton deliver nice, rousing, and lusty action packed slammers of novels.

The Libyan Connection was the first of the "New War" books I'd managed to locate in my early days of Mack Bolan reading, and what better one to start with than this one? Bolan's quest to find a loved one, and what he discovered was a stunning display. And Mack's goodbye to Eve was heartbreaking indeed.

A truly... different book. For some reason, the Terrorist Wars books always felt odd to me. Stephen Mertz does ok in this one... the battle scenes are interesting, and I liked the unusual nature of the final battle, with Bolan having to fight with two hostages slung on his body. The villains, however, despite Mertz' build-up, weren't much to crow about. As well, the journal didn't sound quite right. Mack was more eloquent in the Libyan Connection. And the epilogue? Please! One real bonus to the book, however, was the Guns of Colonel John Phoenix.

This had to be one of my favorites of the earlier Bolans as this was the book which darn near could have been the last of Mack Bolan, ever. Well, ok, we got that Jim Thompson piece of crappola, but we'd have been subjected to some really ugly and stupid garbage. The ending was a cliffhanger... and really, that cliffhanger picked up as the wounded Mack ended up in Jersey Guns. Plus, the battle with the Sicilian army, and taking out the Black Ace was sheer brilliance.

I remember freshly as if it were yesterday the bitter stench of disappointment in this cow-pie novel. The back cover announced a return to the good-old days of Able Team, battling head-to-head with the Salvadoran Secret Police and the KGB, with nuclear weapon smuggling terrorists thrown into the mix. Add in the opening scenes gave me the hope to see a few Coyotes (illegal alien smugglers) get wiped out for brutalizing helpless indigos...And what does it all turn out to be? Let's play "mother may I" with the Border Patrol, forget about slamming the El Salvadoran death squads in the chops just like old times, and "who the hell really cares about a few wetbacks getting waxed?" On top of that, the only way you could recognize Ironman, Gadgets and Politician was by the names Lyons, Schwartz and Blancanales tacked onto some three generic macho idiots. Cain should have stuck to writing his own characters, or gone to chasing cretins across rooftops with his P226 before he dared ruin the good name of Able Team.

This one had such nice moments when it truly could have shined.Able Team aboard the space shuttle for their first time (too bad we had to wait 10 years for them to actually go orbital). Gadgets and the lady Blue Beret commando. And lots of palpable tension and paranoia (with Able even acting like the fabled Red Cell in infiltrating NASA security).However, the jeeps and M-60 battle against the pitiful KGB mole crew was so overblown. Someone needs to remind authors that battles can be just as exciting, if not even more so, when it's man-on-man, a brutal gruelling chase without the spitting flames of M-60's ripping up an entire house. At least the KGB could have forked over some more manpower for crissakes. This was an attack on NASA, y'know? Something that would have made the final battle challenging and as exciting as anything from earlier in the series.

This one was a particularly good Able novel. Not only did Renauld give us a good look at Blancanales' life and background (between this, Cajun Angel, and some other Ables, it seems Pol is Ron's favorite member of Able), but it gave us a set of villains I so wanted to see die slowly and painfully. Nan and Veronica's deaths were uncommonly upsetting and moving to me, and I wish that Claudette hadn't died with a headshot, the one weak point of the novel.A gutshot with a .45, like at the end of I, The Jury, would have been more appropriate for Claudette, and the manners of Able Team.

Yes, I have opinions on many Able and Phoenix books. :)This one is a nice little knock-down, drag out brawl. But the price of admission (anybody remember $2.25 for a paperback?) was more than made up for the simple fact that one of Able Team's rival forces was... the A-Team! C'mon... Cannibal Jones? B.O.? Everyone during this period who read the covers chided me on the A-Team, so, seeing Able whup their pale competitors was a joy. Wide open conflict with the KGB also helped put some meat into this book.

I don't know, but this might have been the beginning of the end for my enjoyment of the Able Team series. Subsequent novels had Able becoming more and more official, however, Fall Back and Kill is one of my favorites simply due to the fact of Gadgets and Pol's humorous attempts at learning to be cops (I still chuckle at the mental image of Gadgets miming hosing down a perp and then shouting "Freeze!") to the finale, where Lyons and company are cut loose to shoot and loot as only Able Team can... it's a classic, but looking back now, I cringe at how much Able has been put to working more with cops, instead of raising hell from Tierra Del Fuego to Alaska.Come to think of it, Land of Fire does sound like a kickin' Able Team title. :)

I always liked Tom Arnett's books. First, Tom was never afraid to make an interesting supporting cast. And second, he was never afraid to have the boys break 15 laws, and wipe out a force of 40 bad guys in the climactic battle. While there wasn't the cruise missile problems that were promised on the cover illustration (the DEFINITIVE Able Team cover if there ever was one), it's also hard to draw an angry killer microbe.Lao Ti was featured in this one, and she's always been a favorite of mine. I wish Phoenix Force, Able Team or even Mack himself tap her for more missions, even as a non-combatant. (The first time I saw her was in a Mack Bolan novel... and it was love at first sight - War Games I think.)Politician and the hackers was a great scene too. Though he seemed older than Katz in this one by the book's end, he was still a fistfull of chuckles.And, of course, the Able Team/CIA feud begins. (To be continued in the Iron God.) Oooh, books like this make me miss the good old days when Able REALLY gave Brognola a reason to chew cigars and suck antacids.I'd love to see Barbara go from supermodel to Cloris Leachman on a steady diet of "Oh, Barb, Ironman and the gang just raided MI5, drugged half the staff and borrowed back our laptop," and "Barb, we had an oil freighter registered to a renegade Japanese corporation disappear in a flash of brilliant light that just registered on the Richter scale... coincidentally where Ironman, Gadgets and Pol went to take surfing lessons..."(Review rant off.)

Oh, oh oh... Able Team in Sri Lanka, taking on Tamil Tiger death squads, with hits on the local cuisine? The scene with Ironman in the bathroom, his stomach on fire, then having his modified for silence Colt Government model ready to whack the Koreans coming to kill him? Or Gadgets' trip to the Sri Lanka markets...And the scene with the Elephant House Beer and Lyons sneaking up on Gadgets on the beach... This was my absolute favorite case for Able Team. I wish they'd go international like this some more. :( Heck with being limited to the US... we could use Able Team as a more agressive version of the Navy SEALs Red Cell. Diplomatic nightmares, but getting the job done, rough and ready, rootin' tootin'! MAKE ABLE INTERNATIONAL AGAIN! 'KIN-A!

This one was literally a sequel 10 years in the waiting. But dot hamn, this was worth the wait. Especially since it set the seeds for the Ironman trilogy of 19-21. Early Able Team was the best.And this is the proof.

My first ever Able Team book, and it's the team at their best. In a foreign land, betrayed, and surrounded by enemies, they have to outgun and slaughter every foe possible. And against the genocidal forces of Unomundo's troops, it's a non-stop blast of warfare. I still dig this book, and for years sought out Into the Maze.

Ahhh, this one was a good one once I finally tracked it down. This book was a serious case of what I mean about Able Team at its finest. Phoenix Force, to me, was more along the lines of an actual spy team, who investigated, and then made their surgical strikes. With Able Team, you could have a battle erupt anywhere, and when Lyons, Pol and Gadgets went at it, you knew there'd be hell to pay.One particularly funny thing now, in retrospect, is that the US Armed Force's SOCOM pistol follows almost the same attributes as the Colt .45 that Konzak designed for Ironman. Silencer. Extended magazine. Tritium night sights. Indeed, the Konzak .45 is an improvement even over the HK Mark 23 SOCOM in that it has the 3-round burst mode. Still, it'd be nice to see Lyons going to work with an HK, after having Kissenger tune it up for 3-round bursts and locked-and-cocked only, natch.