Green Hell

The Rat Bastards #6

by Len Levinson, John Mackie (Pseudonym)

Hell's First Team! They crawl through jungle. Claw through caves. Slog through swamps. Nothing can stop them. And every moment their minds are dominated by a single thought: kill, or die. They take the impossible jobs no ordinary outfit will touch. Because these aren't ordinary men. They're the toughest team in the Pacific War, the one the enemy fears most…The Rat Bastards.

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 17, 2014

About the author

AKA John Mackie, J. Farragut Jones, Nicholas Brady and Gordon Davis; also has ghost written as Clay Dawson.

Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Len Levinson served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1954-1957, and graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Social Science. He relocated to NYC that year and worked as an advertising copywriter and public relations executive before becoming a full-time novelist.
Len has had over eighty titles published and has created and wrote a number of series, including The Apache Wars Saga, The Pecos Kid, The Rat Bastards, and The Sergeant.
After many years in NYC, Len moved to a small town (pop. 3100) in rural Illinois, where he is now surrounded by corn and soybean fields ... a peaceful, ideal location for a writer.

Reviews

[Josh Hitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun action filled entry in this WW2 series in the Pacific. Part of the recon platoon has left their victory in Guadalcanal and is headed for a mission on New Georgia island. They are to blow up an ammo dump and to make themselves a nusiance to the Japanese anyway they can. Like usual, they are given the jobs nobody else would do.

Highly recommended, all of these are fun, and it's nice to see them in a new situation. Here, there is no American line to get to its just them with the help of a few natives against overwhelming odds. Great writing, like usual and solid character work, without slowing down the narrative.

[Dartharagorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun edition to the series. I have really enjoyed these a lot. Being a former soldier a lot of what takes place reminds me of things I did. Not so much in the combat but how the people treat each other. If you haven't tried these and you like this kind of story blood and guts and over the top men adventure type stuff. You should give them a read.

[Paperbackbooks86 · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of the Rat Bastards so far, I just wrapped up book 6. This is def. the weakest of the books so far. The first five were very action packed, this one seems to be a bit of a "filler" for the author. The recon squad finds themselves on New Georgia, attacking an ammo depot. The majority of the book, is the Recon squad fighting the elements of the jungle, which is fine, but I would have rathered more fire fights and excitement, than dealing with the terrain and swamp creatures.

We are also introduced to some new characters. To avoid spoilers, I will leave it at that. However; the storyline of the two newest characters I have a bad feeling are going to link into our Recon squad, and really diveret what the series started out as. I hope I'm wrong. It was still enjoyable to read, but very predictable this one. While, the first five books, are usually predictable, Len always finds a way to give you a good shocker. This one, he did not.

[Ted · Rating 1 out of 5]

War pulp. Very bad war pulp. For those of you not keeping count Bannon only kills one Jap.

[L J Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there were a hundred books in this series, I’d probably plan on reading them all. This series is just a load of good military action, humor and overall excitement. I’m enjoying these tremendously.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

With this book, the action moves from Guadelcanal, where the Japanese have finally been beaten, to another South Pacific island. The cream of the titular recon platoon lands on this Japanese-held island to blow up an ammunition dump in anticipation of an eventually full-scale landing of American troops.


As is typical of the series, Levinson gives us a series of gripping, intense battle scenes, interspaced with vivid descriptions of the muck, bugs and dangers of the jungle. Sgt. Butsko and his troops are landed by submarine and must push through thick jungle to reach the Japanese base. Once there, they have to come up with a plan to blow the ammunition dump despite being badly outnumbered. And pulling that off might not be the end of the mission. The sadistic and probably insane commander of the Japanese forces has taken a bunch of natives and two female missionaries hostage, so there is yet another reason for attacking the camp.

It's another strong entry in the series. Of particular note--among the action scenes is a wild sequence in which the Americans are crossing through a swamp and get attacked by crocodiles. The more of the creatures they shoot, the more blood gets in the water and the more crocs are drawn towards them. It's a stand-out scene, feverish in its expertly-described violence.

[RJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The boys push on to New Georgia after Guadalcanal WWII 1942-43.