What do you think?
Rate this book
Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 1
"This book should not be purchased by asthmatics or heavy smokers as it leaves a fit person breathless with excitement." ***** Crimesquad.com
37 Action-packed Pulse Pounding Tales!
That's exactly what you get in this collection of action stories from top thriller authors Stephen Leather, Matt Hilton, Zoë Sharp, Adrian Magson, Steven Savile and many more, including stories from exciting up-and-comers.
Think back to the days when heroes were heroes and the action was furious and full-blooded. When often as not, the hero was quite the opposite: an anti-hero - but he needed to be, to bring the kind of violent justice to villains worse than him. When political correctness took a back seat, even as the bullets and karate chops were flying. Basically it was good old harmless fun. It was a case of disengaging your moral compass and getting down with the hero as they took on all comers, and they did it with balletic grace and uncompromising violence. Gratuitous? Mostly. Realistic? Not always. Great fun? You betcha!!!
Then fast forward to the here and now: What if the current action and thriller authors set their minds to bringing back the action genres of old?
Well, that question is answered here.
Within these pages you will find secret agents, vigilantes (both just and insane), cops, villains, soldiers, veterans, gangsters, swordsmen, privateers, Ninja and even a crypto-zoological beast you might recognise. Some of the tales are delivered with shocking realism, some as lighter entertainment, some on the grittier side, but each and every tale included in Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 1 is sure to get your heart racing.
Kick back and enjoy the ride!
Contents:
Introduction by Matt Hilton
Strangers on a Train by Stephen Leather
Satisfaction Guaranteed by Matt Hilton
Valley of Death by I S Paton
The Real Deal by James Oliver Hilton
Jingle Bells by Adrian Magson
Death By Licence by Joe McCoubrey
The Night Butterflies by Zoë Sharp
Gallance by Col Bury
Battle For Baghlan by Matt Hayden
The Stranger by David Barber
Expiry Date by Gavin Bell
A Most Honorable Death by Jochem Vandersteen
Jack Be Nimble by Steven Savile & Steve Lockley
At Close Range by Ian Graham
Cutter's Law by James Hopwood
Angel Tough by Absolutely Kate
On Her Majesty's Bloody Service by Iain Purdie
The Legend of Jimmy-The-Gimp by Keith Gingell
Blood Moon of 1931 by Terrence P. McCauley
Skinner Alive by Daniel Moses Luft
Jobs Taken by Asher Wismer
The Handler by Gavin Hunt
Blood on Their Hands by Les Morris
Issa's Island Prison by Graham Smith
Eastern Fury by Andrew Scorah
The Liberator by Paul D. Brazill
The Tower of Marnir by Paul Grzegorzek
Bit Part Player by Theresa Derwin
The Judgment of Jean Lafitte by Evan Lewis
Avenged: Sixfold by Natasha Marie Thomas
Man or Mouse by Mark Dark
37 Action-packed Pulse Pounding Tales!
That's exactly what you get in this collection of action stories from top thriller authors Stephen Leather, Matt Hilton, Zoë Sharp, Adrian Magson, Steven Savile and many more, including stories from exciting up-and-comers.
Think back to the days when heroes were heroes and the action was furious and full-blooded. When often as not, the hero was quite the opposite: an anti-hero - but he needed to be, to bring the kind of violent justice to villains worse than him. When political correctness took a back seat, even as the bullets and karate chops were flying. Basically it was good old harmless fun. It was a case of disengaging your moral compass and getting down with the hero as they took on all comers, and they did it with balletic grace and uncompromising violence. Gratuitous? Mostly. Realistic? Not always. Great fun? You betcha!!!
Then fast forward to the here and now: What if the current action and thriller authors set their minds to bringing back the action genres of old?
Well, that question is answered here.
Within these pages you will find secret agents, vigilantes (both just and insane), cops, villains, soldiers, veterans, gangsters, swordsmen, privateers, Ninja and even a crypto-zoological beast you might recognise. Some of the tales are delivered with shocking realism, some as lighter entertainment, some on the grittier side, but each and every tale included in Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 1 is sure to get your heart racing.
Kick back and enjoy the ride!
Contents:
Introduction by Matt Hilton
Strangers on a Train by Stephen Leather
Satisfaction Guaranteed by Matt Hilton
Valley of Death by I S Paton
The Real Deal by James Oliver Hilton
Jingle Bells by Adrian Magson
Death By Licence by Joe McCoubrey
The Night Butterflies by Zoë Sharp
Gallance by Col Bury
Battle For Baghlan by Matt Hayden
The Stranger by David Barber
Expiry Date by Gavin Bell
A Most Honorable Death by Jochem Vandersteen
Jack Be Nimble by Steven Savile & Steve Lockley
At Close Range by Ian Graham
Cutter's Law by James Hopwood
Angel Tough by Absolutely Kate
On Her Majesty's Bloody Service by Iain Purdie
The Legend of Jimmy-The-Gimp by Keith Gingell
Blood Moon of 1931 by Terrence P. McCauley
Skinner Alive by Daniel Moses Luft
Jobs Taken by Asher Wismer
The Handler by Gavin Hunt
Blood on Their Hands by Les Morris
Issa's Island Prison by Graham Smith
Eastern Fury by Andrew Scorah
The Liberator by Paul D. Brazill
The Tower of Marnir by Paul Grzegorzek
Bit Part Player by Theresa Derwin
The Judgment of Jean Lafitte by Evan Lewis
Avenged: Sixfold by Natasha Marie Thomas
Man or Mouse by Mark Dark
428 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 2, 2012
5 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Matt Hilton
86 books239 followersMatt Hilton worked for twenty-two years in private security and the police force in Cumbria. He is a 4th Dan blackbelt and coach in Ju-Jitsu. He lives in Cumbria with his wife and son.
Matt is the author of the best-selling Joe Hunter thriller series, as well as standalone horror thrillers and short stories that have appeared in a number of collections and anthologies. Matt's first novel - Dead Men's Dust - was a Sunday Times best-seller and was shortlisted for the ITW New Novel Award 2009.
Matt is the author of the best-selling Joe Hunter thriller series, as well as standalone horror thrillers and short stories that have appeared in a number of collections and anthologies. Matt's first novel - Dead Men's Dust - was a Sunday Times best-seller and was shortlisted for the ITW New Novel Award 2009.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 23, 2012
An amazing collection of short stories that leave you breathless and full of energy. enough to get your blood pumping. a real kick back to the feel good action books/movies that we all remember from our childhoods. Matt Hilton has exceeded himself, along with all the authors work, to bring a great collection to read anywhere. the stories are like an adrenalin shot to the heart. get it. you wont be disappointed!
September 5, 2012
First off, it has to be said... $1.50 for over four hundred pages of entertainment? That's just insane value right there.
Action: Pulse Pounding Tales, Vol. 1 from editor Matt Hilton, best known as the author of the Joe Hunter series of action novels brings together 37 short stories of action and adventure.
These tales are all bound together with the unapologetic tradition of drugstore book rack pulp - and they deliver exactly what the reader expects. Bad guys with guns are hunted down and given their just deserts by even badder anti-heroes with even bigger guns.
That's not at all to say that you won't be surprised and transported by the stories and the characters - only that "entertainment" is the watchword here, and it is delivered in a 428 page bucket.
Some particular standouts are "Strangers on a Train", by Stephen Leather in which a band of "Hard Boys" from London meet their match when they pick the wrong subway car to rob. For pure, gritty revenge fantasy, "Gallance" by Col Bury is possibly the best example among several choices in "Action"; and Adrian Magson's "Jingle Bells" brings an unexpected and very welcome dose of heart to the mix.
Just as the "lone wolf with an agenda" (be they cops/agents or soldiers of fortune) begins to get a little thin, the second half of the book kicks in, and presents stories of Swords and Sorcery, like the excellent "Issa's Island Prison" by Graham Smith, and the rollicking pirate tale, "The Judgement of Jean Lafitte" by Evan Lewis.
The collection finishes off with a bang, collecting a group of stories under the subtitle "The Grittier Side", where everything that has gone before gets ratcheted up to another degree, and the violence and misery are elevated to a point that some may find uncomfortable, but that others may find the best in the book. Richard Godwin's "Savage Sun" is a prime example of this principle, playing with the idea of how much revenge is just too much.
All is not perfect in this collection, however. Sometimes, in smaller, self-published anthologies, the editor needs to rely on the writer doing a lot of their own "clean up" work; and there are a few of the shorter stories where typos and homonym errors add up to some unwelcome distraction.
Among 37 stories, however, I can say that there are only about four or five that didn't grab my attention, and of those, there are just three that may have been better left out. (One story was a write-off as my Kindle (on Android) chopped up the letters and every third line was blanked out, so that one is no fault to the writer!)
I'll end the way I began- at $1.50 for over 420 pages of some of the most fun, action-packed, entertaining stories you're likely to read this year, this should be your next Kindle read!
Action: Pulse Pounding Tales, Vol. 1 from editor Matt Hilton, best known as the author of the Joe Hunter series of action novels brings together 37 short stories of action and adventure.
These tales are all bound together with the unapologetic tradition of drugstore book rack pulp - and they deliver exactly what the reader expects. Bad guys with guns are hunted down and given their just deserts by even badder anti-heroes with even bigger guns.
That's not at all to say that you won't be surprised and transported by the stories and the characters - only that "entertainment" is the watchword here, and it is delivered in a 428 page bucket.
Some particular standouts are "Strangers on a Train", by Stephen Leather in which a band of "Hard Boys" from London meet their match when they pick the wrong subway car to rob. For pure, gritty revenge fantasy, "Gallance" by Col Bury is possibly the best example among several choices in "Action"; and Adrian Magson's "Jingle Bells" brings an unexpected and very welcome dose of heart to the mix.
Just as the "lone wolf with an agenda" (be they cops/agents or soldiers of fortune) begins to get a little thin, the second half of the book kicks in, and presents stories of Swords and Sorcery, like the excellent "Issa's Island Prison" by Graham Smith, and the rollicking pirate tale, "The Judgement of Jean Lafitte" by Evan Lewis.
The collection finishes off with a bang, collecting a group of stories under the subtitle "The Grittier Side", where everything that has gone before gets ratcheted up to another degree, and the violence and misery are elevated to a point that some may find uncomfortable, but that others may find the best in the book. Richard Godwin's "Savage Sun" is a prime example of this principle, playing with the idea of how much revenge is just too much.
All is not perfect in this collection, however. Sometimes, in smaller, self-published anthologies, the editor needs to rely on the writer doing a lot of their own "clean up" work; and there are a few of the shorter stories where typos and homonym errors add up to some unwelcome distraction.
Among 37 stories, however, I can say that there are only about four or five that didn't grab my attention, and of those, there are just three that may have been better left out. (One story was a write-off as my Kindle (on Android) chopped up the letters and every third line was blanked out, so that one is no fault to the writer!)
I'll end the way I began- at $1.50 for over 420 pages of some of the most fun, action-packed, entertaining stories you're likely to read this year, this should be your next Kindle read!
November 3, 2012
Don't generally read short stories so this was a bit of a change from my usual reading habits.
A mixed bunch of stories, mostly hits I would say (yours being one of them Iain!) but a few misses too, with a couple I had to skip as I struggled too much with the author's writing style.
Liberal amounts of violence, bad language, political incorrectness, male chauvinism (apart from the odd female lead), guns and action.
The stories which I enjoyed most I found myself wishing that they were full-blown novels.
Still, on the whole, I probably enjoyed this collection more than I should have!
A mixed bunch of stories, mostly hits I would say (yours being one of them Iain!) but a few misses too, with a couple I had to skip as I struggled too much with the author's writing style.
Liberal amounts of violence, bad language, political incorrectness, male chauvinism (apart from the odd female lead), guns and action.
The stories which I enjoyed most I found myself wishing that they were full-blown novels.
Still, on the whole, I probably enjoyed this collection more than I should have!
November 3, 2014
Not biased as my story is one of those within the pages, but I really enjoyed this. I've only heard of two of the authors (Matt Hilton and Stephen Leather) but there are others I'll be keeping an eye out for based on their short story writing.
Ideal for a quick read on the train or before bed, there's plenty of variety. Most of the stories are contemporary, though there are also a couple of medieval stories and a bit of cowboy action.
Decent stuff all round and dirt cheap on Amazon (£1.96 at the time of writing). Definitely worthwhile if you like your action bite-sized!
Ideal for a quick read on the train or before bed, there's plenty of variety. Most of the stories are contemporary, though there are also a couple of medieval stories and a bit of cowboy action.
Decent stuff all round and dirt cheap on Amazon (£1.96 at the time of writing). Definitely worthwhile if you like your action bite-sized!
November 7, 2014
Wow what a sensory overload of action and mayhem! I read this compilation continuously but I think that was my mistake. To keep the action fresh I recommend reading this book in between other things. Assorted writers showcase a deluge of assassins, vigilantes and hard men. I especially liked the sword and sorcery stories and the bonus western tale Trench Warfare. To summarise this compilation offers an excellent way to sample various writers you may not have come across before. What more can I say? At this price this is a steal as there are some real corkers in this collection.
September 20, 2015
If you are a fan of stories with more action than anything I have ever read before then this is the book for you. The book is a collection of well rounded and developed short stories by different authors
November 3, 2014
One of the best anthologies I have read in a long time.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews