Too Many Targets

The Avengers

by John Peel, Dave Rogers

British secret agent John Steed is forced to reunite with his former partner, the formidable Emma Peel, to track down a murderous double agent who is terrorizing London. Reprint.

Genres: Adventure, Espionage, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Media Tie In, Tv

214 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avengers Assemble! Oh wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m a huge fan of the various audio-dramas from Big Finish Productions. Sure, sure they are not all spectacular triumphs, but the successes do far outweigh those that don’t quite work. Far outweigh. So when I decided to give the Big Finish Avengers range a shot I got the promotional release of The Norse Code and was not overly impressed. But that was just fine, as it would save me the money of collecting the other releases. But then, fairly recently, I found this one with members of the Avengers from all over the years. And that brings me back to Avengers Assemble! How could I not give this one a try with John Steed, Carol Wilson, Tara King, Cathy Gale, David Keel and, of course, Emma Peel, all coming back for one last reunion mission? Well, I couldn’t. And it’s certainly a lot of fun. A classic Avengers romp that even brings back some classic villains. Sure, sure, the voices are not those we are familiar with from the TV series. But the characterizations are quite well done. So, now I’m going to have to decide if I’m going to give the other releases a chance.

[Adam Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too Many Targets is the equivalent to a reunion television movie for the classic British TV series The Avengers.

The story is very typical of the series and also features all of the main characters from the nine series of The Avengers as well as some familiar foes from the series.

This is very much an example of fan fiction written by professional writers who are also fans of the series in question. This wouldn’t be the sort of book that you would read if you were not interested in the characters that this book features and I doubt you would get very far through the book if you had not at least seen a couple of episodes of the television show either.

As a fan of the original TV series I quite enjoyed this when I first read, but not as much when I read it again recently but maybe that it because when I first read it I had been watching the series not that long before which I haven’t done in many years.

If you like The Avengers then give this a whirl; if you have never heard of the show or are expecting to read about Marvel superheroes instead then I wouldn’t even bother.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

From the opening chapter the writer has the atmosphere and sense of absurdity that was common to the avengers television series.
The mixture of the straight thriller and fantasy genres does work very well for the most part.
From what I can remember of the avengers novels published in the 1960s they were more straight thriller than this novel.
If anything the one weakness is the requirement to include all of Steed’s partners and superiors, which does mean the chapters jump around localities and characters slightly too much. This part of the story would work better as a mini series on tv or graphic novel perhaps.
Considering the success in ‘channelling ‘ the spirit of the tv series it is a pity that no more novels were forthcoming from the writer.

Overall recommend for fans of the series and characters.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is average at best and poor at worst but the story and dialogue feel about right. If you are an Avengers fan you take what you can get these days so it is worth a read. Just don’t expect too much.

Given this appears to be a one-off and not the start of a new series I take it that it did not sell that well which does not surprise me.
My preference would be for the owners of the book rights to follow the James Bond Ian Fleming series. Get some quality authors to write new books, not someone who churns out vast quantities of books for whoever asks (and pays) as the passion is clearly not present.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the opening which beautifully captures the essence of the TV series as a gorilla chases and kills a man and a signpost reads London 27 Miles, this homage to The Avengers works perfectly. Steed, his original companion, Keel, as well as Cathy Gale, Mrs. Peel and Tara King are involved in a plot focused on the revival of a new generation of Cybernauts. Set in the late-1960s, the 1990 publication date allows some fun with subsequent inventions but it’s the quintessential spirit of the series that shines through.

[Karen Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avengers assemble! (I am not sorry for borrowing this!) John Steed's former partners, Dr. David Keel, Cathy Gale and Emma Peel, along with his current partner, Tara King, are lured into an insidious plot of revenge by an old enemy.

This short novel has everything a fan of the tv show could ask for, with plenty of references to events of the series and a pair of authors who seem to care deeply for the characters. Five stars doesn't seem enough for this book, having grown up watching Steed and Mrs. Peel do battle with villains who dare to cross their path.

[Jeff Correll · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I did like the book, I thought the story was weakened by including all of Steed's past partners. Having to give all those characters their "time in the sun" just diluted the story for me.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent adaptation of John Peel's novel. While most of the characters sound off in various ways, the actress playing Cathy Gale evokes Honor Blackman perfectly enough to be spooky.

[reveurdart]

audiobook

[Peter Dixon]

I listened to the Big Finish audio version, the first half of which was superb. There was a bit too much going on in the second part for me to enjoy it fully

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skupina válečníků v bederních rouškách, vyzbrojených oštěpy a štíty bojuje s obří gorilou. Jenže od gorily se oštěpy jen odráží, aniž by ji jakkoliv zranily. Bojovníci bohužel tak nezranitelní nejsou. Za chvíli jsou dva z nich mrtví a zbytek peláší, co jim bosé nohy stačí... až k ceduli s nápisem Londýn 27 km, kde nechali odstavené auto a civilní oblečení.
Střih. Pronásledovaný agent prchá ulicemi před neviděným protivníkem. Konečně najde telefonní budku, vytočí číslo, oznámí, že v organizaci je dvojitý agent... ale než stihne říct jeho jméno, je zabitý.
Střih. Pronásledovaný agent prchá ulicemi před neviděným protivníkem. Konečně najde telefonní budku, vytočí číslo, oznámí, že v organizaci je dvojitý agent... ale než stihne říct jeho jméno, je zabitý.
Ne, to není chyba tisku. To je prostě román ze světa starého televizního seriálu Avengers. Stojí za ním lidé, kteří do té doby psali různé průvodce světem Doctora Who, Avengers či Prisonera, takže mají k tématu opravdu blízko. A rozhodně se nebrzdili, umístili do děje snad všechny Steedovy parťáky. Doktorem Keelem počínaje, přes Cathy Galeovou, Emmu Peelovou až po Taru Kingovou. A samozřejmě i pořádné padouchy - kromě gorily dojde i na nálet andělů a nějakou tu pomstu z dávné minulosti.
Jedním problém knížky je to, jak má spoustu postav, tak je tam hodně času věnováno představování a seznamování a nacházení stop, který by konečně všechny svedly dohromady. Ale jasně, autoři si chtěli užít a stvořit opravdový fanouškovský opus. A přijde mi, že to vystihli celkem dobře. Jak bizarní nebezpečí, tak blazeované dialogy s padouchy.
Tahle knížka vznikla až v roce 1990, dávno po skončení seriálu - a je to fakt příjemný návrat ke klasice.

[Robert Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

To any original Avengers fan this book is quite fun and I found it worth the time spent. It made me miss the show and get out the DVDs to watch again. The book does start off a little slow having to reintroduce all of the main characters from the whole history of the show. Once the characters start to team up the book really starts moving along. It felt to me that the chapters tried to evoke the style the show had that the characters came from, the more spy thriller of the early episodes with Cathy Gale and Dr. Keel. Creepy situation and witty banter of the Emma Peel episodes, and the outlandish scientists and wacky situations of the Tara King years. The only drawback was that with so many good characters in the book some were fairly underused. Which makes the title very descriptive of the book: "Too MANY Targets"

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book featuring a team up of all the members of the Avengers. Would have made a good movie or TV special.

Cathy Gale and DR. Keeler get the least amount to do, which is a shame as I've never seen any of the TV episodes with them and they both seem like decent characters.
The team of Steed, Mrs. Peel and Tara was fun. As was the background on some of the characters.
There's lots of action, humor and nice bits of Avengers history.
Shame they didn't do more books after this one.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odd addition to the odd Avengers universe

[Jamie Rosen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is light years better than the Patrick Macnee-penned Avengers novel I read earlier this year, and really captures the feel of the series.

[Rus Wornom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun...really takes me back to the Steed & Peel era.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasant read .Peel captures the tv show well, better than anybody so far .