Phoenix Force #13: Harvest Hell

Phoenix Force #13

by Gar Wilson

The KGB is ready to sow a deadly crop. Seeding the air over the cities of the Western democracies with the Proteus Enzyme, which eats its way through the victim's stomach wall, the Soviet terror machine plans to spread mass malnutrition. their insidious mandate: to starve the citizens of the free world into submission.

The five battle-hardened men of Phoenix Force track the Russian death merchants to a tiny Greek island, where the Stony Man warriors plan to reap their own harvest.

Hell will look like paradise by comparison.

Genres: Action

Paperback

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

Phoenix Force is a series of action-adventure novels first published in 1982 by American Gold Eagle publishers. It is a spin-off of the Executioner series created by Don Pendleton.

Phoenix Force is one of two neutralization teams working for Stony Man, a top-secret anti-terrorist organization. As with The Executioner, the Phoenix Force novels have been written by a succession of authors under the pseudonym Gar Wilson. In 1991, Gold Eagle combined Phoenix Force with another Executioner spin-off series, Able Team, and launched the Stony Man book series, which is still being published as of 2005.

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russia's puppet government of Bulgaria has sent some of it's best people to an isolated Greek island owned by a rich Greek businessman. They have created a virus, that when inhaled makes the victim malnutritioned. They can't digest food. They soon die a horrid death. They make the mistake of infecting a friend of the Phoenix Force's leader. So the team goes in to action. Full guns blazing.

The reason these books are always 4 or 5 stars, in my opinion, is that William Fieldhouse wrote a lot of the early books in this series. He knew how to balance plot with action. Not to mention the graphic violence. He has to be one of the better action writers of the men's adventure genre.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a 3.5 but rounded up, its an above average book in the series. Plenty of action and an easy to understand plot, basically kill the bad guys. Having a gas that could make people sick and not be able to digest food was an interesting set up.

Highly recommended for fans of the genre, would be fine as a stand alone. Does a nice job of explaining the team with short bios for new readers. Also the few details that are nice to know from earlier books are sprinkled in as needed. Well written probably better written then it needed to be.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than you would expect to see in a series like this. I agree with other reviewers that the characterization is poor, but that is not what this series is about. The storyline is good, it is an interesting premise. I read this as a teen, and found it just a few years ago, and still enjoyed it. Plus, at under 200 pages, it is a short book, and is written to be a quick read.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this one a 4, mostly because it has a neat story line. In fact, it's another one of these books where you think "you know, with a little more character building and suspense, I could see this as a movie". Written by William Fieldhouse, the dialogue and other information is somewhat stronger than what we'd seen in a few of the earlier books.

Overall, it's a pretty good book and one worth reading in its own right if you're not committed to reading every one in the series.

I do have to mention one glaring technical flaw from the last battle scene: a submachine gun does not lose power in full auto mode - no firearm loses power [other than perhaps a completely insignificant amount due to a small amount of gas expended cycling the mechanism] based on whether it's single shot, semi-auto or full-auto. Perhaps the author was trying to suggest that the weapon is more difficult to control on full auto and therefore the effective distance was reduced, but it doesn't read that way at all.

[Sierra Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the team was split and Katz, David & James didn't get a lot of action, the scenes with Encizo and Manning were well written. Good book.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A spin off series from his Executioner books. This series follows several secondary characters that band together. Recommended