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Able Team #8
Army of Devils
As incidents of frenzied murder and mutilation terrorize Los Angeles, police chemists discover a new drug sweeping through the gang subculture.
"Crazy dust" - a variant of PCP one hundred times more addicting than heroin - creates inhuman monsters willing to go to any extremes to finance their addiction.
Drugged gangs wander neighborhoods. Crazed punks besiege police stations, ambush narco strike squads with automatic weapons. Only Able Team has the guts - and the firepower - to combat a Soviet plot to destroy democracy with a proxy army of drug-mad devils.
"Crazy dust" - a variant of PCP one hundred times more addicting than heroin - creates inhuman monsters willing to go to any extremes to finance their addiction.
Drugged gangs wander neighborhoods. Crazed punks besiege police stations, ambush narco strike squads with automatic weapons. Only Able Team has the guts - and the firepower - to combat a Soviet plot to destroy democracy with a proxy army of drug-mad devils.
- GenresAction
186 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 23, 2023
Assault on Precinct 13 meets 28 Days Later/The Crazies, but as written by that one relative you no longer have any contact with other than the deranged racist emails they unfortunately persist in forwarding; contains some entertaining barrages of carnage, but the impression that this is the work of someone who currently believes vaccines and critical race theory are the chief weapons of the antichrist make it difficult to enjoy even as a guilty pleasure - only recommended for those who want to a read a book where a communist stand-in of Geraldo Riviera gets dismembered by machete wielding maniacs, or anyone inordinately fond of the phrase 'ComBloc'.
April 22, 2018
This book has a reputation as one of the most over-the-top Action novels ever written so I knew what I was getting into when I started it, and although I found the blatant reactionary politics and the stupendous amount of gore distasteful, the book is in general an engaging and entertaining read. The violence and carnage are so extreme that it reaches the point of self-parody for the genre. The romance between alpha-male Lyons and his DEA agent girlfriend Flor is a strongpoint and it elevates the story above most typical Action fare. Much like sleaze and noir books it manages to be both offensive and entertaining which is a combination that I seem to be drawn to.
January 22, 2023
This book was gonzo. A variant of angel dust turns street gangs into psychotic zombies who go kill crazy. The Able Team wades into the mayhem. From 1983, over the top violence and gore. My mom would hate it. I liked it.
May 9, 2016
The first Able Team novel I read. I read it back in September 1983. Able Team consists of Rosario "Politician" Blancanales, Herman "Gadgets" Schwartz, the two surviving members of Mack Bolan's original A-Team during their stint in the Vietnam War. Their first appearance was in The Executioner #2: Death Squad. The final member is Carl "Ironman" Lyons, a former L. A. P. D. officer, who decided to help Mack Bolan in his everlasting war against organized crime when he decided that Bolan and his Death Squad were attempting to do the very thing that the police and courts could not or refused to do because they were taking Mafia pay-offs.
The reason for the high score is that's what I would have given it back in my teenage years. I was a big fan of shows like the A-Team and movies starring Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson.
The reason for the high score is that's what I would have given it back in my teenage years. I was a big fan of shows like the A-Team and movies starring Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson.
August 12, 2024
This was the first novel in the Able Team series I ever read, 36 years ago at the tender age of 12. The over-the-top blood & gore left quite an impression.
Re-reading it all these years later, it still leaves an impression. The anti-American, pro-communist ideology, racial identity politics of the villains are eerily prescient. But man oh man, what a damn depressing ending.
Re-reading it all these years later, it still leaves an impression. The anti-American, pro-communist ideology, racial identity politics of the villains are eerily prescient. But man oh man, what a damn depressing ending.
July 31, 2016
More pedal to the metal action from Able Team. A crazy new drug turns, mostly minorities, turns them into unfeeling, uncaring maniacs. All brought to you by your friendly KGB and Cuban secret police. The shoot out in an office building was explosive. This is almost like Able Team vs the living dead.
The downside of this, and a lot of the Gold Eagle library is that it waves the flag a bit to much. Everything is black and white, ie; good guys good. Bad guys bad to very bad. No inbetween. This book took advantage of the early 80's anti drug and paranoia of people unlike you.
Still the action makes you feel like you are watching a b-movie made for video. Pizza and liberal amounts of beer are requiered.
The downside of this, and a lot of the Gold Eagle library is that it waves the flag a bit to much. Everything is black and white, ie; good guys good. Bad guys bad to very bad. No inbetween. This book took advantage of the early 80's anti drug and paranoia of people unlike you.
Still the action makes you feel like you are watching a b-movie made for video. Pizza and liberal amounts of beer are requiered.
February 13, 2024
Actual rating would be 3.5 stars, but I rounded up because hot damn! This wild little slice of extremely violent and paranoid 1980s pulp was entertaining as hell to read.
So, the obvious draw, for two fisted tough guys with iron stomachs like myself, is the extreme, over the top violence. Yes, that is entertaining. But, where the book really impressed me on another level was the extreme Cold War Reagan era paranoia. As a fairly liberal and progressive guy, I couldn't help but be impressed by the deeply ingrained right wing paranoia on display here. The heroes beat the crap out of some reporters, one of them calls them "the local Commie news station" or something to that effect. Sure enough, in the very next chapter, we see the "Commie news station" is actually a straight up Marxist, Communist news station, with the call letters KMARX. And they support drugged up African American and Hispanic gang members who go on a drugged up rampage, slaughtering sorority girls, immigrant families, including babies. It is absolutely insane.
Where "Dick Stivers" actually GH Frost, got me though, was in some of the descriptions of the back story of where these teen gang terrorists came from. He seems to acknowledge the fact that yes, the African American and Hispanic population of Los Angeles in 1983 is impoverished and disadvantaged and that yes, there are hundreds of years of oppression and systemic racism in America. And I think that is where he actually really pulls the whole book off. The true villains are those who would seek to gain power and wealth from exploiting the disadvantaged, even if they do so from a "Socialist Commie" position. Interesting stuff. A blood soaked little chunk of paranoid 1980s pulp, with maybe just a hint of social commentary almost hidden in it, like a gore soaked Easter egg.
So, the obvious draw, for two fisted tough guys with iron stomachs like myself, is the extreme, over the top violence. Yes, that is entertaining. But, where the book really impressed me on another level was the extreme Cold War Reagan era paranoia. As a fairly liberal and progressive guy, I couldn't help but be impressed by the deeply ingrained right wing paranoia on display here. The heroes beat the crap out of some reporters, one of them calls them "the local Commie news station" or something to that effect. Sure enough, in the very next chapter, we see the "Commie news station" is actually a straight up Marxist, Communist news station, with the call letters KMARX. And they support drugged up African American and Hispanic gang members who go on a drugged up rampage, slaughtering sorority girls, immigrant families, including babies. It is absolutely insane.
Where "Dick Stivers" actually GH Frost, got me though, was in some of the descriptions of the back story of where these teen gang terrorists came from. He seems to acknowledge the fact that yes, the African American and Hispanic population of Los Angeles in 1983 is impoverished and disadvantaged and that yes, there are hundreds of years of oppression and systemic racism in America. And I think that is where he actually really pulls the whole book off. The true villains are those who would seek to gain power and wealth from exploiting the disadvantaged, even if they do so from a "Socialist Commie" position. Interesting stuff. A blood soaked little chunk of paranoid 1980s pulp, with maybe just a hint of social commentary almost hidden in it, like a gore soaked Easter egg.
August 9, 2022
Hints of a thrilling action story with plenty of splatter. There is a lot of heads being shot off and the drugged up gang members taking bullet after bullet and they just keep charging. But the main villains aren't threatening and their army of zombies are just that: zombies without any strategy or cunning which makes the action less interesting because they are basically brain dead and can't effectively bring a brutal fight.
February 23, 2020
This was a fun read maybe not that well written but still enjoyable. Reads like a zombie novel in parts since the addicts are basically zombies with no regard to safety or pain.
Pretty mindless but would recommend to fans of the series (not the worse I've read in the series) and to fans of men's adventure in general.
Pretty mindless but would recommend to fans of the series (not the worse I've read in the series) and to fans of men's adventure in general.
January 21, 2023
Maybe I’m getting old Riggs, but this one was just too much gore too soon for me. I just wasn’t in that mood so I had to give it away just under half way in.
January 25, 2016
A spin off series from his Executioner books. This series follows several secondary characters that band together. Recommended
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews