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Mack Bolan the Executioner #49
Doomsday Disciples
Using the American tradition of freedom of religion as a smoke screen, a cultist group had gone mad in the streets of San Francisco. People were being slaughtered in the name of a bizarre new sacrilege, The Universal Devotees. Killings were random, senseless. . .
Mack Bolan quickly identified the devil incarnate - Nguyen Van Minh, a stateless Asian refugee who had mastered mind-control on a massive scale.
Bolan smelled KGB. Evidence grew that the killer creed was a Soviet weapon for wholesale butchery. When a senators lovely young daughter was sucked into its ranks, The Executioner launched the one deadly brand of combat - firestorms of glory that scorch yet revive the earth - that could crush Minhs blasphemy at its accursed heart.
Mack Bolan quickly identified the devil incarnate - Nguyen Van Minh, a stateless Asian refugee who had mastered mind-control on a massive scale.
Bolan smelled KGB. Evidence grew that the killer creed was a Soviet weapon for wholesale butchery. When a senators lovely young daughter was sucked into its ranks, The Executioner launched the one deadly brand of combat - firestorms of glory that scorch yet revive the earth - that could crush Minhs blasphemy at its accursed heart.
- GenresFiction
183 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1982
2 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Don Pendleton
1,517 books188 followersDon Pendleton was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, December 12, 1927 and died October 23, 1995 in Arizona.
He wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, suspense, short stories, nonfiction, and was a comic scriptwriter, poet, screenwriter, essayist, and metaphysical scholar. He published more than 125 books in his long career, and his books have been published in more than 25 foreign languages with close to two hundred million copies in print throughout the world.
After producing a number of science-fiction and mystery novels, Don launched in 1969 the phenomenal Mack Bolan: The Executioner, which quickly emerged as the original, definitive Action/Adventure series. His successful paperback books inspired a new particularly American literary genre during the early 1970's, and Don became known as "the father of action/adventure."
"Although The Executioner Series is far and away my most significant contribution to world literature, I still do not perceive myself as 'belonging' to any particular literary niche. I am simply a storyteller, an entertainer who hopes to enthrall with visions of the reader's own incipient greatness."
Don Pendleton's original Executioner Series are now in ebooks, published by Open Road Media. 37 of the original novels.
Wikipedia: Don Pendleton
He wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, suspense, short stories, nonfiction, and was a comic scriptwriter, poet, screenwriter, essayist, and metaphysical scholar. He published more than 125 books in his long career, and his books have been published in more than 25 foreign languages with close to two hundred million copies in print throughout the world.
After producing a number of science-fiction and mystery novels, Don launched in 1969 the phenomenal Mack Bolan: The Executioner, which quickly emerged as the original, definitive Action/Adventure series. His successful paperback books inspired a new particularly American literary genre during the early 1970's, and Don became known as "the father of action/adventure."
"Although The Executioner Series is far and away my most significant contribution to world literature, I still do not perceive myself as 'belonging' to any particular literary niche. I am simply a storyteller, an entertainer who hopes to enthrall with visions of the reader's own incipient greatness."
Don Pendleton's original Executioner Series are now in ebooks, published by Open Road Media. 37 of the original novels.
Wikipedia: Don Pendleton
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 4, 2023
Viscous random murders committed across the country seemingly linked to a strange cult. A senator’s daughter trying to escape their bizarre influence. The KGB and a dangerous Soviet weapon capable of death on a grand scale. All this with Mack Bolan in the middle trying to calm the firestorm of destruction about to sweep the nation. Another raucous entry in the Executioner series that will have you rapidly flipping pages to the very end!
August 4, 2021
These books are my junk food.
September 13, 2024
3/5
This was much better than the last bolan book. This time Mack goes up against a cult that has kidnapped a senators daughter.
We get a look at Mack’s view on religion and how it can be used to create monsters out of men. He takes the cult apart in the span of 6 hours.
Compared the one before this, it was a fun ride. Lots of great Bolan moments and even a cameo from an Able Team Member.
It wasn’t boring and kept my attention. Check it out.
This was much better than the last bolan book. This time Mack goes up against a cult that has kidnapped a senators daughter.
We get a look at Mack’s view on religion and how it can be used to create monsters out of men. He takes the cult apart in the span of 6 hours.
Compared the one before this, it was a fun ride. Lots of great Bolan moments and even a cameo from an Able Team Member.
It wasn’t boring and kept my attention. Check it out.
March 25, 2023
When multiple random murders begin popping up all around the United States and a senator’s daughter suddenly goes missing, it’s up to Mack Bolan and the Stony Man team to put two and two together and bring the reign of an insane death cult leader to an end. It’s not long before The Executioner finds himself in San Francisco, going toe to toe with a violent dictator set on bringing the American elite to their knees.
If this sounds like yet another recycled plot from previous Executioner books, you’d be 100% correct (this is the 49th story afterall), but somehow Michael Newton takes one of the thinnest plots of this entire series and makes it one of the best reads so far.
Doomsday Disciples is easily the most action packed and non stop story to date. It’s 188 pages of pure adrenaline that never slows down. If you took the hard assed revenge moments of Death Wish, couple it with the extreme stylized violence of a John Wick film, and then throw in the relentless pacing of The Gray Man or Extraction you might get an idea of just how relentlessly awesome this particular installment of The Executioner is.
For example Bolan manages to get into not one, not two, but THREE separate car chases, each more frenetic and tense than before. He leads a bunch of evil dudes to a blind alley and blows them all to hell with pre-planted plastic explosives. He shatters skulls at pointblank range. He gets into multiple firefights. He also employs some of the most brutal firepower we’ve seen yet, not limited to Uzis, M-16s, Walthers, and his own silver .44 Automag that he uses with brutal efficiency, mowing down dozens of baddies in gratuitous and glorious gore. No joke, the body count in Doomsday Disciples has gotta be in the stratosphere after Mack Bolan mops up.
I’m not being facetious when I say this is probably my favorite Executioner novel since Terrorist Summit. Even with its tired plot that borrows heavily from Pendleton’s original ideas (hell, even the setting in San Fran mirrors most of what happened way back in 1972’s California Hit and the main antagonist being just a replacement of some of the mafia “dons”) Doomsday kicks major ass.
Like any over the top blockbuster or cheesy action flick, everything about this one delivers something awesome on every page and keeps the reader entertained from cover to cover.
If this sounds like yet another recycled plot from previous Executioner books, you’d be 100% correct (this is the 49th story afterall), but somehow Michael Newton takes one of the thinnest plots of this entire series and makes it one of the best reads so far.
Doomsday Disciples is easily the most action packed and non stop story to date. It’s 188 pages of pure adrenaline that never slows down. If you took the hard assed revenge moments of Death Wish, couple it with the extreme stylized violence of a John Wick film, and then throw in the relentless pacing of The Gray Man or Extraction you might get an idea of just how relentlessly awesome this particular installment of The Executioner is.
For example Bolan manages to get into not one, not two, but THREE separate car chases, each more frenetic and tense than before. He leads a bunch of evil dudes to a blind alley and blows them all to hell with pre-planted plastic explosives. He shatters skulls at pointblank range. He gets into multiple firefights. He also employs some of the most brutal firepower we’ve seen yet, not limited to Uzis, M-16s, Walthers, and his own silver .44 Automag that he uses with brutal efficiency, mowing down dozens of baddies in gratuitous and glorious gore. No joke, the body count in Doomsday Disciples has gotta be in the stratosphere after Mack Bolan mops up.
I’m not being facetious when I say this is probably my favorite Executioner novel since Terrorist Summit. Even with its tired plot that borrows heavily from Pendleton’s original ideas (hell, even the setting in San Fran mirrors most of what happened way back in 1972’s California Hit and the main antagonist being just a replacement of some of the mafia “dons”) Doomsday kicks major ass.
Like any over the top blockbuster or cheesy action flick, everything about this one delivers something awesome on every page and keeps the reader entertained from cover to cover.
February 18, 2023
It was fine if very typical of the series. It starts well and Newton has the Pendleton style down flat. However the enemy he is fighting just seems off. Basically it's a stateless Asian that fought on the Northern side in Vietnam. He fakes his credentials as a refugee to get into America where he starts a cult, with KGB backing, to brainwash (somehow) devotees to attack random targets in suicidal style attacks. This so-called refugee has dozens of so-called elders that are just gunmen, basically to give Bolan a body count. Bolan is tasked of course to take the leadership out at all costs.
Recommended with reservations, it does read like a Pendleton written one which is nice but it really doesn't do a whole lot with the plot or enemy. It's just a hit at the Mafia at their hard site without the Mafia story.
Recommended with reservations, it does read like a Pendleton written one which is nice but it really doesn't do a whole lot with the plot or enemy. It's just a hit at the Mafia at their hard site without the Mafia story.
May 6, 2015
My Rating Scale:
1 Star - Horrible book, It was so bad I stopped reading it. I have not read the whole book and wont
2 Star - Bad book, I forced myself to finish it and do NOT recommend. I can't believe I read it once
3 Star - Average book, Was entertaining but nothing special. No plans to ever re-read
4 Star - Good Book, Was a really good book and I would recommend. I am Likely to re-read this book
5 Star - GREAT book, A great story and well written. I can't wait for the next book. I Will Re-Read this one or more times.
Times Read: 1
One of the first series I read consistently. This series and the Destroyer series are responsible for my love of reading and stories.
Characters - Looking back to my younger reading days, I loved Mack Bolan and thought he was one of the coolest characters in history. 30 years later, I realize that the characters were pretty stereotypical, but I still love him.
Story - The stories are average and fairly typical. Bad guys going to kill or hurt, Mack is going to kill them or die trying. Not much in creativity but it really worked for me as a male teenager. I wanted to own guns and protect the world just like Mack.
Overall - I started reading these when I was 16. I enjoyed them up until about age 19. My tastes changed from Military intrigue to Fantasy / SciFi. I would recommend reading these especially for younger males.
NOTE: I am going to rate these all the books in this series the same. Some of the stories are a bit better or a bit worse but I can't find one that I would rate a 2 or 4.
1 Star - Horrible book, It was so bad I stopped reading it. I have not read the whole book and wont
2 Star - Bad book, I forced myself to finish it and do NOT recommend. I can't believe I read it once
3 Star - Average book, Was entertaining but nothing special. No plans to ever re-read
4 Star - Good Book, Was a really good book and I would recommend. I am Likely to re-read this book
5 Star - GREAT book, A great story and well written. I can't wait for the next book. I Will Re-Read this one or more times.
Times Read: 1
One of the first series I read consistently. This series and the Destroyer series are responsible for my love of reading and stories.
Characters - Looking back to my younger reading days, I loved Mack Bolan and thought he was one of the coolest characters in history. 30 years later, I realize that the characters were pretty stereotypical, but I still love him.
Story - The stories are average and fairly typical. Bad guys going to kill or hurt, Mack is going to kill them or die trying. Not much in creativity but it really worked for me as a male teenager. I wanted to own guns and protect the world just like Mack.
Overall - I started reading these when I was 16. I enjoyed them up until about age 19. My tastes changed from Military intrigue to Fantasy / SciFi. I would recommend reading these especially for younger males.
NOTE: I am going to rate these all the books in this series the same. Some of the stories are a bit better or a bit worse but I can't find one that I would rate a 2 or 4.
February 1, 2017
Better than the last few Bolan books in the series. Mike Newton always seems to breath a bit more life into the series. This outing has Mack on the trail of a brain washing cult leader from, wait for it, yes, Vietnam. He's turned a Congressman's daughter to his side. Yes, Bolan is not gonna let this hapen.
The ending is a little docile for the series. The up side was the trap that Mack walks into at an apartment in Haight Ashbury. There is a rolling gun battle that keeps you on the edge of your seat. A nice quick read for the action set.
The ending is a little docile for the series. The up side was the trap that Mack walks into at an apartment in Haight Ashbury. There is a rolling gun battle that keeps you on the edge of your seat. A nice quick read for the action set.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews