Hour of Judgement

I pretty much enjoyed this one. A bit of a change of pace where there are only a few action scenes to be had with the majority of the title having the Big Guy and his SEAL companion making their way through the jungle searching for the two kidnapped missionaries. Although the lack of action scenes may be a red flag to some readers I found that there were no long sections where I became bored whilst reading it. The ending section was done pretty well and everything turns out for the best at the finish. Good read.

After reading the plot, it sounded fairly interesting. I was hoping Bolan and the SEAL would go wading through the scum of the earth like a whirlwind. Well, not really. This plodded along as Bolan inserts into Borneo, then evades patrols. Not completely boring, but not terribly gripping prose, either. When he does hook up with Claridge, he's sort of a whiny brat...for a SEAL, although he settled down. Towards the end, the gun battles were good, and the two Claridge elders were decently drawn characters. So, just a run of the mill book for Mr. Newton.

I really enjoyed this book. Many of the things which the first reviewer criticized were the very things I enjoyed about the book: There really aren't many action scenes, and while on first impression that might seem off-putting, I can assure you the book is never dull at all. To me, the Executioner is a much more enthralling series when it focuses on suspense and intensity rather than straight body-count. Michael Newton tightens the screws with each chapter, so that when the final action sequence does occur, it's quite intense and full of suspsense, even though we all know Bolan will live to fight another day. I didn't notice the instance where Jason Claridge referred to Matt Cooper as Bolan, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least; lately, Gold Eagle's editors have been taking too many coffee breaks. "A"s, "the"s, and other words are commonly missing from sentences, and on numerous occasions you can see where a word-choice was changed, but they forgot to delete the original. I don't fault the author; these things should've been picked up in the edit. As to the ending, without giving anything away ... I too would've liked a bit more closure. That's why I rated it a 9 instead of 10. Having said that, I also can appreciate the fact that Newton doesn't feel compelled to do all our thinking for us, and lets us decide for ourselves how certain things non-essential to the story turn out. Yes, I'm wishy-washy. What of it? All in all, a definite keeper.

let me begin by saying that this was not a bad book. the character was Bolan and acted like him, the writing was good and descriptive. but there are a few negative points id like to bring up. 1: there were only around three action scenes in the whole book, making the rest of it just the thoughts and some dialouge from the people involved. 2: the cover was terrible since it shows a car explosion that never happens and more explosions by helicopters that also dont happen. there arent really that many explosions in the book, only about 3. 3: "a mission into Borneo takes an evil turn". the problem there is, it doesnt. this time, the mission pretty much goes as planned. there are no evil turns. 4: i wouldve liked to see more from Jason Claridge at the end, like if he gets kicked out of the SEALs or not. 5:there is one sloppy point where, in Jason's perspective, he refers to "Bolan" instead of "Cooper", and hes not supposed to know bolans name. 6:I wont spoil it now, but the end action sequence isnt that exciting. other than that id like to point out that it was pretty good, but not at all great.

Bolan veteran, Mike Newton, is at the helm for this one, and it hums right along. Mr. Newton has peopled this Executioner adventure with a host of bad guys and some unusual good guys that keep the pages turning. In “Hour of Judgment, “ Mack is sent deep into the Borneo jungle to extradite a devoted missionary and his wife who are being held hostage by the terrorist group, “Sword of Freedom.” I liked the pace of this one a great deal. While sacrificing the blistering action pace of most Executioner titles, Mr. Newton chooses to build suspense through some clean and quick characterization and the slow but sure meeting of several contingent forces. When things come to a head near the close of the book, I was racing through the pages to find out the fate of all concerned. My favorite character in the book was rebel leader Gurada Malajit, whose messianic rages made him a very interesting wild card throughout. My only complaint of the book is the way the missionary, Amos Claridge, was handled. Men of God are somewhat difficult for a writer to handle these days (maybe they have always been tricky). The writer must make a stand: are they truly men of God, or are they false prophets? Without giving a spoiler, I thought Mr. Newton hedged his bets a bit with this character. Still, taken as a whole, this is a great Executioner adventure with the final action scene a real humdinger. I mean, really, what reader can resist a vision of the apocalypse?