Hostaged Vatican

Phoenix Force #26

by Gar Wilson

The well-aimed 7.65 mm slug delivered more than one message. It signaled an end to the daily pilgrimage to St. Peter's Square, and it sparked an international incident that shocked the world's religious and political communities.

The Vatican is being held hostage, and the terrorists intend to succeed even in defeat. It's a no-win situation for the men of Phoenix Force, and the enemy is more than willing to give the American commandos their last rites.

219 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

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

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might stab my eyes out with a dull ice pick if I read this book now, but twelve year old Greg thought this was great. I don't know why this cookie-cutter action novel in particular sticks out for being so great. I think maybe a main character or two died in this one. I liked when main characters died in series stuff, because they normally didn't do that. Twelve year old me read a lot of crap like this, but Phoenix Force took the cake for being my favorite . This was sort of like the A-Team, but run by a one armed Israeli commando, who used an Uzi, and who could have eaten the A-Team for breakfast and still toppled a third world nation before lunch. Awesome stuff for a preteen growing up in Reagen's America.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

These type of books make you suspend belief throughout. Like when the five commandos charge head first in to an army with every type of weapon aimed at them and they kill them all and only have a slight nick to their little finger. Well this time out you have to look the other way when extremists some how, it's not really elaborated on, take over the Vatican. Not only that, but the group is made up of mostly Iranians with other Middle Easterners, Basque separatists that are made up of strong Catholics. Why then join Muslims that hate Christians? Finally, they join with Ninjas. Yes Japanese Ninjas.

All of that still can't tarnish a great action book. The team launch a counter attack right off the bat. No dicking around here. They are joined by their own Ninja. We don't spend to much time planning the raid. They just go about it. Most of this outing takes place inside the walls of The Vatican, so it's damn near non stop action. The ending is a bit of a shocker too. By the way, this one was written by William Fieldhouse. Also the fourth five star Phoenix Force book by him so far.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one, William Fieldhouse, the ghost writer of this volume, was one of the better Bolanverse writers. The Cuban memeber Rafael Encizo is back after his injuries and missing a few missions which is nice. This mission starts when a eclectic group of terrorists consisting of Iranian Muslims, Basques, even hired mercenary ninjas, and being led by a greedy Syrian, take over the Vatican. They do this to steal all the expensive artifacts supposedly to fund more terrorist activities but really the Syrian just wants the money and conned the other groups (other then the Ninja). Also since Ninja are on the evil side, the Force brings in their American Ninja friend John Trent to bolster their roster. Of course the Force takes on all comers and also have to deal with hundreds of hostages and a bomb which is claimed to be able to start an earthquake since its in a fault line.

Highly recommended, no slow parts in this one and it has a fun story.

[Sierra Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best by William Fieldhouse in this series. It was excellent in the action area. The terrorists were a splendid mixture and handled well. This book, while no main character deaths occured, James and Encizo were captured and tortured in a well-crafted scene that was dealt with without being over-the-top.

Now, the one thing that may seem a little silly would be inclusions of ninja. While they threw an extra element into the badguy mix they weren't really needed except to allow the writer to bring in a man who had helped them before, John Trent.

To this day it still sticks out as one of my favorites.

[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

[Ron Terpening · Rating 1 out of 5]

Inept writing, marred by horrible dialogue attribution.