Blood of the Lion

Nup not for me with this one. The plot was ordinary at best and confusing on top of that. The cast of characters introduced were mainly all boring with none of them doing anything which will remain in the memory. Again with this authors titles it appears that no one can just actually die from a gunshot wound. Anyone who cops it will have their head explode or their stomach/intestines etc. blown out of their bodies chests disappear with regular monotony as does the number of limbs which are blown off of course the mandatory rivers of blood on the walls and floors is again in full vogue. Massive over use of grenades and the big 50 mm machine guns once again to enable even more graphic descriptions of bodies being blown apart. I am stunned at how long it took me to finish this gem and after finishing it can only say thank goodness that is over and done with. Not a title I would recommend.

This book was overall a good read. No slowing down points. The author did a better than expected job of duplicating the Bolan character,and brutal humor than I had expected. Better than expected for my first non Don Pendleton book. Been a long time but the scene sets where the action took place seemed a little flat, or lacked lively and real description. The actions in these scenes lacked the reality portrayed by Don Pendleton. This could be just me after 26 years for my first Bolan book. One last point. In Don's books the terms involved with organized crime are fully defined. In this book unfamilier terms about the terrain are left for you to know or find out. These are spanish or portuguise terms. A Good B Rated Book,

I probably bought this one because of the cover -- which is pretty much why I bought most of my books back then. But that's another story. On with the review. There's not much about this book that strikes me as plausible, but that's not why you read this stuff. You read it because it's off-the-wall, violent ridiculous fun -- and because it was way more entertaining the most of the crap on TV at the time. But I'm digressing. I liked the story line with the five assassins. They probably could have been a lot scarier as villains go, but it worked for me. (it did when I was 14 anyway) There was a plot twist toward the end of the book, that brought Bolan and one of the heavies from South America all the way to Washington DC, that seemed like it didn't have enough room to work as well as it could have (within the context of the story) and came off as rather awkward as a result. For whatever reason it just felt out of place to me. Other than that I liked it.

Not a great read, and it felt very dated, even set in the late 80's. All of the villains seemed to be vain idiots. Each and everyone of them - and there were a lot of them - had identical personalities. And all were very dull and not much of a challenge for Bolan, even with all the hype of the "5 of the worlds premier assassins". The plot was indeed vague, as already pointed out. From what I could make out, Alchupa wanted to be a drug king, but seemed to be dealing in peanut quantites and everybody wanted in. This didn't quite add up. Plus Alchupa decides to have Bolan assassinated before Bolan can poke his nose in a ruin everything, except that if Bolan hadn't been targeted then there wouldn't have been any threat to these backwater peanut dealers. That is not to say that Dan Schnidt didn't have an idea of what he was doing, the ideas were there, but they needed further developing. Oh, and to top it of, everyone and his dog knew the name of Bolan / Executioner and everyone knew what he looked like and everyone knew what he had been doing for the ast few years. Alchupa even had newspaper cuttings all over the wall, covering the Executioners exploits. So it could have been a lot better had more effort or thinking been put into it. (and is it really possible to snipe with a Mac-10?? I doubt it, but Bolan seems to manage!)

Clarence the head of a clandestine DEA SOD wanted what? I knew he was a bad guy but I was not sure if he was in league with Alchupa or not. Did Viper act on his own or with Clarence? Schmidt did not do a good job explaining this. I noticed that all those who could identify Mack were killed off except for Atright but then he came clean at the end. I also hated the scenes with the arab mercenary. Lets see he wanted to make a name for himself and get power back home by killing Mack. Yet when he was about to confront him he decided to play games? That made utterly no sense. Schmidt should have picked one not both. A mercenary with any brains is far more practical then this and would not survive long just playing games. I also would have liked to have seen more scenes with the mongol mercenary. He seemed like an interesting character who yes a merc but also one of honor. Alchupa was your garden variety bad guy with a Bolan obsession although they never crossed paths before. I did like the concept of an evil Phoenix Force but never really jelled that well. The action scenes were fantastic and Schmidt writes very good ones without being confusing or unrealistic. Very good desscriptive writer. Note to bad guys - if you capture Mack just a bullet through the brain in the first 30 seconds. Not play games and lug him around. Overall just a 6. I was a bit confused with what was going on and what Clarence wanted and lets face it if there is confusion with the plot and purpose of what the pivotal bad guy is doing the story does collapse. I consider Clarence a rather pivotal bad guy..

This is a action packed thrill ride all throughout. I like the setting for this book, Mack rules any part of the world he ends up in.

Not the best entry in the series. This book was far too confusing to earn a good review. The plot was vague at best, and then the double- and triple-crosses made you unsure who was trying to do what. Action scenes were well-written, but the overall plot was too vague to make a good read.

A definite read & a keeper. This book has it all!!

Awsome entry to the series. Non-stop action. I really liked the part about the assassins being hired to hunt Bolan.

HARD CORE EXCITEMENT AND SUSPENSE TO THE BONE. ONE OF MY PERSONAL FAVORITES.

A kick ass entry, wall to wall action. A must read for bolan fans.

Yea, Dan Schmidt! Another winner!