Wow, this book both sucks AND blows.
I began the final installment in this story in anticipation of a great reading experience to bring this trilogy to an exiting, action packed finale, with all the setup in the first novel coming to fruition and a continuation of the outstanding second book.
Instead what I got was a turd. I guess every author, even the great ones write a novel once or twice in their career that just sucks. This novel, in my opinion, has to be Mike Newton's turd.
I disliked many portions of the book, not only in the way the story played out, but also the aweful pacing. After a clunky start, the book started to take off, but then it just collapsed into monotany. Newton just couldn't seem to get his narrative rambling out of his system. This is something that plagued some of his earlier novels like Flight 741. It was: ramble, ramble, brief action, ramble, ramble, brief action, ramble, ramble, brief dialogue, then back to rambling. There were times when I had to put down the book and stare at random objects in the room for a bit.
But this wasn't really the biggest problem with this book. It was just the fact that it wasn't very good. Able Team is set aside in book two, but gets minimal exposure at the beginning of this story. Leo Turrin is just a body along for the ride. Lyons really has no role at all.
And "the spider", who's part in this whole trilogy was botched in more than one way, was dispatched in an unsatisfactory scene, with potential for a better involvement in the novel gone out the window.
The capture of Franco's widow and daughter was too contrived, and didn't bring a gripping element to the story like it should have. Many positive things that make Newton's novels good seemed to be absent from this novel.
Action scenes overall were stale and uneventful. PF was involved, but with the Canadian troop along for the ride as well, most of the characters were left in the background, doing what, I wasn't always sure. The final thirty percent of the book involved Bolan's trek through the jungle to Costanza's home, where the final battle, if it can be called that, takes place. The action there was unsatisfactory, the conclusion of a complex and lengthy trilogy ending with some shooting at Costanza's supposedly strong and outnumbering forces, then Bolan literaly walks in the door which was "left unlocked", shoots a few hardguys in the kitchen and then its out to the helipad to confront Costanza himself in a brief scene. Blah. Mercado and Rodriguez died in another unsatisfactory scene.
There is more to gripe about but I have said enough about that, as far as what sucks.
Oh, and as far as what blows about this novel, here are a couple other things. Costanza has a zoo at his place, which is the same kind of thing another bad guy in the same part of the world had in a PF novel I read recently. Anyway, while Bolan and a couple canadian allies walked through Costanza's door, what was PF doing? their action was an afterthought, but I know what Calvin James was doing. While Costanza's goons are shooting all around them, James is going around cutting all the monkeys and zebras and tigers loose. Just plain silly. Maybe after the battle, but I don't see with the limited personell to attack the house, that one of PF would be relegated to that task during the fight.
But what I really thought was dumb about this book was the volcano. All through the second and third volumes, the earth would rumble periodicly, from the volcano located near Costanza's property. I began to think by the end of this clunker that "no way, this CANT work out the way I think it will".
It did.
The timing of this volcano that hadn't blown in who knows how many centuries to blow right when Bolan assaults Costanza's base was just plain dumb. Peter Leslie already pulled off a similar stunt in Sunscream, and that kind of thing can sort of work once, but it just turns out dumber the second time around. Especialy in a book that isn't all that great anyway.
After a promising, entertaining, and well done trilogy going in the first two volumes, Message To Medellin brings the trilogy to a grinding halt and falls flat on its face.
Bolan and Phoenix Force are moving towards the conclusion of their blitz against the Columbian cartels. While Able Team wraps up in Miami, Bolan and friends finish up their jungle hunt.
This one was a good book. The plot lines tie up nicely. Able Team's mission, after being MIA in "Evil Kingdom", resumes in time to wrap up here. The main plot line, though, follows Bolan and Phoenix Force in Columbia. The action scenes are well-written, and the pacing in very good.
A complaint with this book is that Bolan doesn't seem to accomplish much. This is a knock on a lot of the books -- how many times has Bolan blitzed the mob only to have them survive?? -- but in this particular book it was more obvious. While the author was probably trying to make the point that life goes on in Columbia, in came off as feeling that Bolan and his allies wasted 10 days there.
Overall, though, the book was a good read and a satifying ending to a good, if slightly dated, trilogy.
