Sam

If you're a longtime Mack Bolan reader you have either learned to roll with the clichés of the series or have come to be turned off by them. After some decades of reading these things I've come to the conclusion that I'm more in the latter camp, which doesn't bode well for CARTEL CLASH. In the book, Mack Bolan is dispatched by presidential order to Texas in order to avenge the death of an undercover DEA agent at the hands of the local drug kingpin. As is the case in pretty much all of these things, Bolan quickly figures out who he has to kill and gets busy doing so. He's never in any sort of real danger, as the bad guys are complete buffoons. CARTEL CLASH goes on to suffer from Rotating Bad Guy Syndrome. This is when the first half of the book involves a particular villain who doesn't survive through to the end, thus forcing the author to begin all over, setting up a new bad guy and essentially delivering two stories and two climaxes in the course of 189 pages. Given the brevity of these things there is no time left over for niceties such as characterization, so the motivation of the villains are that they are simply bad people, so of course Bolan must snuff them out. Lest it sound like I'm completely panning the book, I should say that CARTEL CLASH does pretty much what Bolan fans expect from these books by now: lots of guns, explosions and dead bodies. The kill-count in the novel is moderate to high, though as is often the case with Bolan novels, the overwhelming majority of those killed are faceless mooks who never had a chance in hell of taking the Executioner out. The potential for a far better book exists here. An interesting female character is introduced early on, but is given an ignominious exit shortly thereafter, thus cutting her plot short. Not long after, a pair of highly effective hit men are sent out to kill Bolan and it's fairly clear that these two have a long history and some interesting character traits, but they too are eliminated from the book in short order and don't have a chance to spread their wings. I don't expect highfalutin literature from a Bolan novel and it would be unfair of me if I did. I am, however, finding the standard formula somewhat tedious. Such a shame.

Mack Bolan takes on a topical enemy in MS-13, the multinational criminal organization that got its start in the Salvadoran community of Los Angeles. The stage is set for something quite interesting, as MS-13 is a vast, decentralized enterprise with operations in nearly every state. Unfortunately the book chooses to treat MS-13 like a factory-standard street gang with echoes of the Italian Mafia. There's a main baddie calling the shots in El Salvador and a bunch of flunkies out running the streets. It almost seems like too small of a task for the Executioner, who's more used to taking on world-spanning bad guys with global reach. There's plenty of action to be had, but Bolan never seems to be in any real danger. Fans of Stony Man will also be glad to see cameos by characters attached to that organization, as Bolan works more closely here with Stony Man than he usually does. A pair of subplots never really pan out, including one about a highly trained mercenary set on Bolan's trail. This is pretty much typical of the entire book, which gets the job done, but in a decidedly unspectacular fashion.

Mike Newton turns in another in a long line of Mack Bolan novels, but this time the formula has started to become a little threadbare. Those who've read THREAT FACTOR will recognize large chunks of plot structure and even character types recycled for this, an adventure in modern Russia. The premise is a solid one: after a failed FBI attempt to capture and extradite an infamous Russian arms dealer, Mack Bolan is called in to do the job. Not kill the man, but bring him out alive. Standing between him and victory are an array of Russian mobsters, while all he has are his wits and a selection of high-powered weapons. EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION doesn't lack for action sequences and Newton does his usual fine job researching the area and rendering up pinpoint details that show off his work. At the same time, there's a sameness to the proceedings (see above) that takes the edge off what might otherwise have been an excellent outing.

A somewhat disappointing follow-up to the first installment in the ROGUE ANGEL series, SOLOMON'S JAR follows archeologist Annja Creed on an artifact hunt that spans several countries and two continents. Writing duties are handled by Victor Milan, taking over for Mel Odom. The next book would see Odom back in the driver's seat once more. The biggest problem with SOLOMON'S JAR is its over-reliance on action at the expense of character and story. The book has an almost PERILS OF PAULINE quality about it after a while, with one action sequence blending into the next. Punctuating these set pieces is a plot that draws heavily on coincidence to continue moving forward and not much else. As with the first offering, Annja Creed is an appealing lead character. She's even more video-game-heroine in this one than she was in the last, but it works for the purposes of the story and doesn't become too silly. Strong echoes of WITCHBLADE are evident, however, and could spell trouble as the series continues.

The first book in the rare launch of a new series from Gold Eagle Books, THE POWERS THAT BE isn't quite sure what it wants to be. From the promotional text, it sounds almost like it's meant to be the second coming of STONY MAN, but in execution it's something quite different. Clearly modeling itself on the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies, the book features all sorts of techno-gewgaws to put across the idea of an ultra cutting-edge espionage agency. The emphasis on gadgetry tends to be a little exaggerated, particularly when it comes to virtual reality and the ability of satellite imagery. It doesn't tear the story down, but it's clear that at times the emphasis on tech is a crutch for what is really a weak story. THE POWERS THAT BE is caught in a storytelling no-man's land: not violent enough to sate Bolanverse readers, but too unsophisticated for readers of mainstream espionage fiction. An eleventh-hour plot twist that attempts to elevate the tale above the mediocre is so laugh-out-loud ridiculous as to cripple the entire climax.

You'd think that the ROGUE ANGEL series' primary mandate — bring a Lara Croft-esque character to live sans the cartoony excesses of video games — would be an impossible one. As it happens, the first book in the series, DESTINY, reads much better than it probably has any right to. The novel wastes no time introducing us to Annja Creed, an international adventurer and archeologist whose involvement with one of those direct-to-cable "history's mysteries"-type shows has brought her to France. She's looking for answers to the mystery of the Beast of Gévaudan and quickly puts her foot right in the middle of two ongoing contemporary conspiracies. If the series had decided to just go with the adventure-story aspect it would be nothing more than a distaff (and carnage-light) version of Gold Eagle's usual fare, but there's a strong element of the supernatural introduced involving Joan of Arc's sword, a pair of seemingly immortal men tied up with that sword and Annja's titular destiny as a heroine of stature. The ending of DESTINY is a little shaky, but overall it makes for an entertaining read. Certainly it's a strong introduction to the series and worth seeking out.

Longtime Mack Bolan author Mike Linaker returns with a tale of a corrupt military-equipment contractor providing substandard gear to American troops in an effort to boost their bottom line. It's actually a timely and relevant sort of story and that helps give the book a plot that's more involving than the average. The biggest problem with SYSTEM CORRUPTION is the relative lack of direct engagement between Bolan and the enemy. Bolan kills an awful lot of mooks in this one, which works as far as that goes, but Linaker goes out of his way to introduce a clever and ruthless South African security expert and troubleshooter on the side of the bad guys and then fails to use him for fully two-thirds of the book. By the time things begin to pick up in intensity, it's very close to the end of the novel, meaning the really high-stakes stuff has been put off for too long. Of course Bolan comes out on top, but it's always better when he has some stiff opposition along the way.

A fairly action-light entry in the Executioner series, Mack Bolan travels to Japan after an American biochemist is killed by a ninja assassin. The book spends a surprising amount of time hitting the highlights of the Japanese scene -- a sumo match, a kendo practice, the bullet train -- while slowly moving forward with its conspiracy plot. If INVISIBLE ASSASSINS has a shortcoming (aside from the relative dearth of action) it's that its villain doesn't tip his hand until so late in the book that the climax seems rushed. There's a Bondian feel to the proceedings, especially when the full extent of the villain's plot is revealed, and in some of the quips tossed off by our hero. Certainly those looking for heaps of ninja action are not going to get what they want here, and neither are those who want set piece piled on to set piece. The book is a resolutely average volume with a few nice touches, nothing more.

Invisibility cloaks! If you have a high tolerance for goofiness, then perhaps LETHAL TRIBUTE is the book for you. I'm not one of those readers. From the opening sequence, when a group of Pakistani special forces are wiped out by invisible stranglers to scenes where hordes of people are sprayed with paint pellets, the book is by turns silly and messy. The MacGuffin in this particular novel are a trio of nuclear warheads stolen from Pakistan. Unfortunately the book doesn't spend a lot of time on them, choosing instead to stage repetitious fight scenes with still more invisible bad guys. By the time our heroes are using laser range-finders to pinpoint the assassins ALIENS-style there aren't enough eye rolls left. LETHAL TRIBUTE also handles its cast of characters poorly, introducing a whole slew of helpers for Bolan that largely have no effect on the proceedings. Guest appearances by Carl Lyons and Calvin James are to be commended, but not when they're left with so little to do.

As I've said many a time before, no one reads a Mack Bolan novel looking for high art. But even though that might seem like an insult, it's more of compliment directed toward the straightforward, action-oriented storytelling that brought us to the series in the first place. There does, however, have to be a minimum level of dedication to writing a good story, and that's lacking in KILLING GAME. Bolan novels that consist primarily of action scenes to the exclusion of plot development are rarely any good, and KILLING GAME is no exception. Set in France, it might as well be taking place in the Midwest for all the local detail you get. Moreover, the bits that glue the set pieces together are by turns pro forma and ridiculous. This time out Bolan is paired with recurring guest star Marynka Platinov for reasons that are never fully explicated, but she is poorly used. Anyone could have filled in the role of second gun in the shootouts that occur with metronomic regularity. It's a real disappointment.

Despite all the globe-hopping Mack Bolan does, it's kind of hard to find volumes in the series that actually provide a strong sense of place. AMBUSH ON BLOOD RIVER does that, drawing upon author Alan Bomack's experience as a journalist living in Africa to create the fictional central-African country of Kuranda. In this particular novel, Bolan is paired up with Phoenix Force. Yakov Katzenelenbogen gets a flashback scene specific both to the setting and one of the antagonists, tying him more closely to the action than even Bolan. On the trail of a South African mercenary and his KGB handler, Bolan and Phoenix Force are set to intercept the retrieval of a stolen cache of diamonds and potentially politically embarrassing documents. What follows is a surprisingly slow-burn novel that spends more time establishing its setting than it does providing non-stop action. Some might criticize AMBUSH ON BLOOD RIVER for being light on incident, but it works to the book's advantage because we really get to know WHY things are happening and not just jumping from set piece to set piece.

No one comes to a Mack Bolan novel expecting high art, but there's a certain minimum that one expects: good action, strong sense of place and plenty of bad guys being shot in the face. TUSCANY TERROR, delivers on the third count, but does little with the other two. Not that there's any shortage of action. In fact, the novel is almost nothing BUT action during it's relatively short span. The action doesn't spark, largely because the story is so flaccid. It also fails to grab as a travelogue, with the settings acting interchangeably even as the action skips around Italy. I stop short of calling the novel BAD because it did hold my attention from beginning to end, but there was nothing particularly standout about the 52nd installment of the Executioner. As an example, the highlight comes when a KGB agent is shot in the eye, not during one of the many fight scenes scattered throughout the narrative. In the final analysis, TUSCANY TERROR is essentially a completists-only volume. Don't come into it expecting too much and it will deliver on a basic level.

I read Hostaged Island years ago, but I still remember how much I enjoyed it. It causes one to wonder if such a plot could really happen. I bought it in a used bookstore after already having read the plot summary somewhere else. Great book

this was the first Bolan book I ever purchased. I really enjoyed it. The book is simply full of action and adventure, and it is a genre I have always enjoyed. The death of Sandy Darlow was truly gut wrenching, but it served to emphasize the kind of evil Mack and Johnny were fighting. I enjoyed the war scenes toward the beginning with Johnny. I liked the character Angela Marcello, and the way she bucked the male dominance of her atrocious father. I liked the pictures of the characters in the book on the front page. I personally feel that this one should be filmed for the big screen. Sam

Day of Mourning was wonderful. I followed April Rose from the early Mafia books numbered in the teens. I had become aware from other books that Bolan's vendetta against the KGB was hotly emphasized following April's death. When I learned that April Rose's death was recorded in Day of mourning, it was one that I set out to find. One of most heartwrenching death scenes ever recorded in fiction. The front cover of Day of Mourning says it all when you look at Mack's face. Fantastic!

I thoroughly enjoyed War against the Mafia. I had been reading the series for some time before I finally found War... in a used bookstore. The books I had already read explained a great deal about what spurred Mack's war on, but it was fantastic to read the beginning for myself. However, having said this, perhaps some of the sex scenes could have been left out. Did not really advance the story. Still, though, a great book for any Mack Bolan fan. Sam