Rebels and Hostiles

Super Bolan #59

by Don Pendleton (Series Creator), Michael Kasner (Contributor)

As tensions rise between American militia groups and the U.S. government, the Justice Department sends Mack Bolan undercover to defuse the situation. Before long, Bolan has infiltrated the Brotherhood of Patriots and is sent on assignment to collect a weapons shipment and raid a National Guard armory. But as he works to discover the strategist for the militias, Bolan knows that he has precious little time to complete his mission--or be asked to prove his allegiance by committing a violent crime.

352 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

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.

Wikipedia: Don Pendleton

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book for me. It started off pretty slow, but then picked up about one-third to half way through. I was kind-of surprised at some of the "stuff" that happened in the book, to be honest; I was not expecting some of the 'events' to go down the way they did. The character development was so-so for the 'guest stars' of the book (the secondary characters and the villains, that is). I did find it funny on the cover that the woman who I assume is Samantha Whiting had blond hair instead of the red hair; for some reason, I had the impression she had red hair. It takes some time for the story to build up; there are some moments where it felt like it might take off, early on, but those moments were more setting up things for 'later' in the book.

I could not quite decide how the author felt about the various militia groups in the United States. The way the book is written, I felt like it was more 'supportive' of militia groups than unsupportive or outright opposed to them. In any case, I felt the author did an excellent job at portraying the various opinions and beliefs of different characters. There were some characters who were diametrically opposed to each other, and I thought the author presented their viewpoints in a manner that 'accurately expressed' their views without making them or turning them into caricatures. That being the case, it still felt like the author was more supportive of militias, especially considering some of the blunders the FBI makes throughout the case/story. People die, private property is destroyed, and the FBI even 'withholds/hides' "key evidence" in order to not look bad and to present their case in the best light possible. I would say the FBI was portrayed in a light that was not very positive. In any case, the ending did not quite go down the way I thought it was going to go down in terms of Mack Bolan escaping from his unexpected captivity and 'imprisonment' by the militia group he had joined. It was due to the fortuitous interference of some Cubans that he was able to escape and turn the tables on his former captors and get away.

There was at lease 'one loose end' hanging from this book. Well, maybe two. A reference was made to two other militia groups ready to go 'active' and begin 'terrorizing' their parts of the country; I thought one was around Salt Lake City and the other was in California (of all places!), but I could be wrong on their locations. The other had to do with various jihadist terrorists who had entered the country. The 'Cuban connection' had been killed off by the end of this story, but the Islamic terrorist and his men were still 'in country' and striving to stir things up in the U.S. of A. It would be interesting to know if Mack Bolan "takes car of him" and his ilk in a later book.

I also felt the author did a 'good job' in 'revealing' how heavy-handed the Federal Government can be, at times, even when it is not necessary. I do remember vaguely reading about how some U.S. government agencies had acquired aircraft that could quickly be modified back into being 'attack aircraft' back when, so it was interesting to see that taking place in this book. Reading this book also reminded me of some of the 'mild outrage' over how government agencies and even some police departments were starting to look like military soldiers, what with all of the military tactical gear that they carried and used. I do remember people complaining about how the Federal Government is creating its own 'private armies' via its different agencies in order to avoid having to use the U.S. Army and take a chance that the U.S. Army would refuse to follow orders whereas these government agencies and their soldiers are not under the military's chain-of-command and not answerable like U.S. soldiers and other military personnel are for their actions.

As much as I liked the book, overall, the ending was kinda . . . 'weird.' It just seems to abruptly end. The book is moving in one direction, and then it suddenly changes. It goes from more of a 'big picture' kind-of-story to something more personal and focused. From there, it becomes even more narrow in its focus, and then it ends. I was "what?!?!? That's it?!?" when it was over. I did not really see it coming (other than knowing I was getting close to the end of the book and wondering if the author was going to 'tie it all together' or end it with various loose ties; he ended it with other loose ends that may or may not have been picked up in subsequent books).

In any case, I am glad that I read the book. It was loaned to me by a co-worker to try out, and I am glad that I did. I would rank it 2.7 -3.1 stars, overall, rounded to 3 stars.