Bolan, bereaved and all but beaten, stands in the shambles of Stony Man Farm.
The legendary warrior, whose sacred mission began in the jungles of Vietnam and who came home to battle the savage Mob in the urban jungle, now faces an even deadlier enemy.
A brilliantly conceived KGB trap lies in wait for him. The CIA has orders to kill him. Betrayed and alone, Mack "The Bastard" Bolan has no choice but to rise above all sanction.
Don 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.
A disappointing sequel to Day of Mourning. This seemed like three incomplete Bolan stories were hurriedly thrown together and loosely connected by the death of April.
Terminal Velocity is the middle book of an important transitional trilogy in the “Bolanverse” and is the first of the “Super Bolan” books, a whopping 380 pages, more the twice the size of a traditional Mack Bolan book. I was dubious that any author, Alan Bomack - a pseudo for Davide Wade in this work, could pull off an action/adventure book of this length but he handles it with aplomb, weaving three stories into a seamless tale of international espionage. The major plot arc tells the story of Bolan stealing a prototype Soviet helicopter in Afghanistan and the KGB effort to successfully frame the big guy for a high-profile assassination, stranding him overseas, on the run from the law, alone in his effort to clear himself, and still reeling from the devastating attack on his home base in the first book of the trilogy. A fine successor to the excellent Day of Mourning.
I read this when it first came out, while I was in high school. It has less of a body count than the standard Mack Bolan fare, and it made for a good adventure story.
Day of Mourning left us reeling as Stony Man headquarters was invaded and Mack’s love, April was left to die in his arms.
Terminal Velocity, the second Bolan standalone, sees Bolan trying to mourn his woman’s passing, while at the same time performing yet another mission for his government.
There was a lot that Velocity had going for it. Bolan severed from his secret base, fighting with a chip on his shoulder, questioning his role as democracy’s avenger, all in a novel that’s about twice as long as a typical Executioner novel.
The issue is that the plot quickly becomes muddled and confusing as we go from a mission to steal a secret Russian helicopter to body doubles and an act of revenge. Both parts are decent in and of themselves, but together it feels like 2 totally unrelated stories that might have served better as single Executioner novels…but we’re smashed together to keep the fall of Stony Man prevalent as a plot device. Yeah. Kinda confusing.
It’s also not nearly as action packed as many of the books in this series so while is moderately fast paced, it just never really seemed to get going or grab my attention like previous entries have.
Maybe closer to a 3.5. I do like Alan Bomack's writing though I believe this one is just a tad long, lots of dullness to sift through. Reads more like a bloated modern spy thriller than a man's adventure novel. This is also the second book in a trilogy that starts with Executioner 62 and ends with Executioner 64. Its a new chapter for Bolan he is back on his own after being set up by the Russians with a look alike of himself. He is now wanted in America and everywhere else, so he decides to take the fight right back to the Russians.
Recommended in that it is an important part of the Bolanverse in setting up the next phase of the Bolan character. Though again its a slog at times.
Diabolical! Bolan has not even had time to grieve the death of April Rose before he's back in the thick of it. Evidently, he has a Russian doppelganger who has set him up as the assassin of a high profile political person. It is definitely about to get real ugly indeed! What a ride!
This was the second of the Super Bolans and was actually the second one I read. It is a typical mega Bolan story but for what ever reason at the time I could not get into it as I did the others.
It is certainly readable and has its share of action, it also I felt has some dry spots and loses momentum at times.
I do not like to give this book such a low mark as I am a big fan of the Bolan series.