Carnage Code

Wow 3 years and 3 months since I skipped away from this series to the larger ones and what a fine title to return to, I guess I forgot how much can be packed into the smaller titles. Loved it action packed and some of the stuff the Big Guy does at the start of the title in two ambushes is classic stuff very good writing. Lots of very good characters introduced here on both sides including a CIA guy Blea who is apparently a recurring character that I am buggered if I can recall but is excellent none the less. I liked the story and the limerick and the overall make the boy into a man with the Cassetti character but had to cringe a few times when the Big Guy had no problems whatsoever having him tag along to a war zone and basically throw him in at the deep end and hope that he survives to come out at the other end. So yep go for it you should enjoy this one I reckon if you give it a go.

This book started off really well, as Bolan and Grimaldi are trading gunfire with the enemy as soon as they land in Khartoum. The plotline of some plutonium making its way into the hands of a terror group was made intriguing by a riddle Bolan had to solve. I agree with a few of the other reviews that the kid, Cassetti who gets dragged into being Bolan's sidekick was a tad annoying. The supporting characters of Blea and the local police officer (Urgomo?) were decent additions, and the action throughout was good. The female character had too small of a part, and the revelation of the riddle was nothing surprising.

A coded transmission, a limerick, is Bolan’s clue to track down a madman who is assembling ingredients for a weapon of mass destruction, a nuke. Ingredients are one thing. Components are another. Nothing in terms of who, when and where are mentioned with the building of a bomb, so this lunatic was still years away. Inexplicably, Bolan enlists a non-combatant civilian to be his sidekick for this one, basically against the man’s will based on a hunch and a need for a buddy. The Executioner attempts to train him in the ways of combat like a sage master of the combat. Bolan tries to get this civilian-journalist killed dragging him from one combat situation after another. And the combat situations are horrible, reading like live-fire shooting ranges striking down cardboard cutouts. The supposed simultaneous attack of dozens of hostile guns right at the heroes, two human-sized targets, caught by surprise no less, and absurd results follow. Twice this happens in the first half of the book. The second time, with the shanghaied rookie in tow, with more guns waiting for them than Butch and Sundance, and yet the jaw-droppingly dumb results continue. I know that these aren’t supposed to be a realistic, but this is by definition a gun fantasy that damages the quality and reputation of the title. I would not recommend this one. Some of the worst combat situations I’ve read about. I gave the author points for dialogue, literacy, prose and the puzzle of a limerick.

This was a very good book, with typical VanCook-level writing, that is, very good writing. My only complaint involves the character of the young journalist. I found his dilemma regarding his love life tiresome and contrived, his reactions towards authority figures predictable to the point of cliché, and Bolan's interest in him as a human being forced and inauthentic. What this kid really needed was a good kick in the junk rather than the molly coddling he received from Bolan. Even so, this was still an enjoyable book and well worth reading.

Hello! I just finished "Carnage Code" earlier this week. I really liked this book, and was so happy to see that this book wrapped up the whole story within the book, and didn't wait until the last page to try and tie up a bunch of loose ends. I find it kind of ironic that where as the author uses Sudan as the base of this story, and also uses Ethiopia troops and rebels as bad guys in this story, or for cover for the real bad guys. If it was me, and I wanted to be more accurate to real world situations in that area of North Africa, I would have made the Ethiopians the quote, unquote "good guys", and the Sudanese "bad guys". But besides that, this book is pretty good, and is definently worth reading. All hail Bolan! 8 out of 10. Thanks!