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Killmaster #43
The Amazon - Killmaster
The exciting 'new' killmaster espionage adventure Nick Carter America's super spy Nick must find a small, vital, electronic brain lost in the Amazon Delta.
- GenresFiction
156 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
53 people want to read
About the author
Lyle Kenyon Engel
83 books1 followerLyle Kenyon Engel (c.1915 - August 10, 1986) was an American magazine publisher and book producer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 26, 2023
One of those Cold War winning gadgets that spy stories all revolve around is lost in the Amazon jungle (with the way America invents and captures these things, you'd think the USSR wouldn't last long enough to get to Yeltsin) and Nick Carter is sent to fetch it, with the help of the obligatory ethnic sidekick and exotic babe. As tradition dictates, Nick doesn't want help, but then she's, y'know, a babe.
("Advantage?" Nick countered. "To play wet-nurse to some mud-caked, herb-dyed, pierced-lip primitive in Pidgin English? Or maybe even sign language?")
The Ruskies and Red Chinese are also after the gizmo, but there isn't much talk of Godless commies. The various spies actually seem to have a degree of professional courtesy for each other, which makes for something of a pleasant read. For a Killmaster, Nick is pretty hep to the sanctity of human life.
The real antagonist is a local trapper out to make money off of snatching up the doodad and selling it to the highest bidder--sort of a very low-rent SPECTRE to the others' MI-6 and SMERSH. Speaking of James Bond, this has the same sort of low-key sexism, where the girl is smart and a babe and all, but if she won't listen to reason, you're just gonna have to give her a sock on the jaw in the hopes that when she wakes up, she won't be so hysterical.
("You're a product of two worlds, all right," he said. "And you've picked up the stubborn perverseness of both of them.")
Not that this stops her from succumbing to the ol' Killmaster charm in a surprisingly lengthy love scene. Gen Z, beware.
For those of you keeping track, this is probably what the cover blurb is referring to when it promises "Blood-curdling violence erupts across the tropical hell of the Amazon as Nick Carter battles a beautiful half-caste girl trained into a lethal weapon!"
All in all, a fun jungle odyssey in James Bond drag. Our heroes deal with monsoons, cannibals, swarms of warthogs, you name it, before making the world as safe for democracy as it ever is.
("Advantage?" Nick countered. "To play wet-nurse to some mud-caked, herb-dyed, pierced-lip primitive in Pidgin English? Or maybe even sign language?")
The Ruskies and Red Chinese are also after the gizmo, but there isn't much talk of Godless commies. The various spies actually seem to have a degree of professional courtesy for each other, which makes for something of a pleasant read. For a Killmaster, Nick is pretty hep to the sanctity of human life.
The real antagonist is a local trapper out to make money off of snatching up the doodad and selling it to the highest bidder--sort of a very low-rent SPECTRE to the others' MI-6 and SMERSH. Speaking of James Bond, this has the same sort of low-key sexism, where the girl is smart and a babe and all, but if she won't listen to reason, you're just gonna have to give her a sock on the jaw in the hopes that when she wakes up, she won't be so hysterical.
("You're a product of two worlds, all right," he said. "And you've picked up the stubborn perverseness of both of them.")
Not that this stops her from succumbing to the ol' Killmaster charm in a surprisingly lengthy love scene. Gen Z, beware.
For those of you keeping track, this is probably what the cover blurb is referring to when it promises "Blood-curdling violence erupts across the tropical hell of the Amazon as Nick Carter battles a beautiful half-caste girl trained into a lethal weapon!"
All in all, a fun jungle odyssey in James Bond drag. Our heroes deal with monsoons, cannibals, swarms of warthogs, you name it, before making the world as safe for democracy as it ever is.
July 31, 2021
I am interested in the Nick Carter books for their portrayal of Cold War Latin America. This has the typical "white guy fools indigenous group and is more able than everyone else" vibe that you would expect from the era. Otherwise Brazil, which is mentioned just once, disappears, perhaps in the (inaccurate) assumption that the U.S. could do anything it wanted and the Brazil government didn't care.
February 26, 2016
A nice rewrite of an old Pulp character. Recast more in the James Bond spy mode. Good quick men's adventure read. If you are looking for some fast paced action and adventure then this is a recommended read.
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May 5, 2009The Amazon by Nick Carter
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews