How unengaging is this book? I've carried it in my shoulder bag for almost a year trying to read it...and haven't gotten past page 40 until today...when my office computer crashed and I had to find a way to kill 3 hours while it was fixed. The other reviewers have already pretty much listed this book's shortcomings.
The only reason this is a Bolan novel is the author typed that name instead of another name. A quick search/replace and you wouldn't really know this was a Bolan book...aside the presence of a Beretta 93R, Big Thunder and a Weatherby. The characters are not those from the BolanVerse...they are B-movie stereotypes and act accordingly. I'll add to the critiques by asking just how poorly armed was Bolan going into such a critical mission? He never seems to have an assault rifle or SMG on him...he's always picking up the guns of fallen foes to stiffen his firepower. Rented cars and intel for where his foes are falls like rain...but Mack never can get access to a serious weapons-locker to outfit himself with??
Not a book I expect to reread. Hopefully, the next Bolan I carry is more engaging...it would be hard to be less.
This is a book I've had trouble finding, always wanting to read due to the cover illustration by Cohen, but must admit the book reads as a '5' or '6', I too was disappointed.
I agree with most of what has been said here in other reviews, however, the one element that stands out above all others, is when Hal tells Mack he doesn't know Eli and that no one else is working the field, when in fact, as he later admits, Eli is one of our own working with Mack, but unknown to Mack. I found that not only very strange to the Bolan-Brognola relationship but terribly out of character for Brognola. Bad move Charlie.
Though the book did not reach my expectations I give it a 6 rating. As long time readers will know, the earlier Bolans were shorter with less padding, but when Gold Eagle decided to increase pages in the 80s, they also increased the 'padding' for each book. Recently due to cost they are starting to decrease the pages, which I hope will lead to less padding.
Well I know it's not a good way to begin a review, but this book wasn't as bad as I expected.
I'm not a big fan of McDade's novels, especially not his convoluted Superbolans, so I went into Meltdown with a little apprehension. I got better than I expected, but this is still a book with some major flaws.
The story has a Russian villain deciding to dismantle America's nuclear program by staging an incident at one of our reactors. He has help in the form of a mercenary killer and a clueless anti-nuke crusader. He has an enemy in Mack Bolan, and two Mossad agents who may or may not be working for the CIA.
The plot moves fairly well, although it is sufficiently padded with useless scenes. Including a completely unexplained assault on a munitions depot and a safehouse for the villains. How did Mack know about these seemingly unrelated locations? The reader won't find out, the throw-away excuse being that there was some "intel". Intel from who? Brognola presumably, but as I said, these scenes are useless.
I bet the main story could have easily been wrapped up in 190 or 200 pages. Instead, we get over 250 pages, and most of the middle is fluff to pad it out between the good beginning and exciting ending.
Mack is handled very well, even if some of his actions are highly suspect. In one scene, it is implied that he is aware of three terrorist attacks the Russian plans on unleashing. Does he stop them? No. Does he even try? No. The Executioner is nowhere to be found! And I found it highly unlikely that Mack would let innocent people, including several cops, die without a fight.
The villains aren't bad, but like all the characters in this story, they get thrust out of the spotlight real quick. The quiet mercenary? We see him in the beginning, being quite chillingly violent, and then don't see him as anything but a gofer for the rest of the novel. Glinkov, our KGB baddie? A schemer and manipulator who doesn't become truly threatening until the end.
And what of our allies? We've got a female ('natch) former(yeah, right) Mossad agent helping Mack in the first couple chapters. Guess what happens to her? Yup, she gets kidnapped. How original. And we're asked to care about a woman who appeared three times before she was captured and had maybe two lines? Sorry, not me.
Eli Cohen, Bolan's other mysterious partner, who has some shadowy reasons to be stopping Glinkov, is much more formed and I actually enjoyed reading the scenes with him and Mack.
The other character I had problems with was Brognola. I always like the dialog between him and Mack, since they know each other so well it makes for an interesting dynamic, but here he seemed more like M. from James Bond than the hard-hitting fed I know and love. He kept information from Mack like a second-rate spy and mostly gave tidbits while sitting behind his desk. Definitely the wrong characterization to use!
The main action scenes were great, especially the slam-bang ending, but some of the smaller, more filler-like, scenes lacked punch and ended in a heartbeat. McDade has always impressed me with his sense of action, and he's in mostly fine form here.
Since I hate how McDade tends to get convoluted and silly, making most of his Bolan novels a game of spy vs. spy, I was pleased to find this one was more smooth. His prose is still a little troublesome, almost as though he's trying for a Raymond Chandler/James Bond hybrid, but here he's tolerable. Not great mind you, but a notch above average.
