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The Shattered Men: A Wild Incorporated Adventure
To the world at large, Wild Incorporated is an unusual and mysterious organization whose origin is shrouded in secrecy and lost to human memory. To the members of this strange group - six of the most singularly unique and expert intelligences ever assembled - it is a sacred trust, a lifetime's mission dedicated to the extermination of criminals and evil-doers the world over. Together they form a team of unstoppable heroes whose fantastic exploits are unequaled for hair-raising thrills, breathtaking escapes and pulse-pounding excitement!
THE SHATTERED MEN: Harry Calhoun is a reformed small time crook trying to stay out of trouble, but on a trip to New York trouble finds Harry in a big way. Men are literally falling to pieces. They melt. They shatter like glass, or dissolve into clouds of dust. As a witness to one of these bizarre deaths, Harry becomes a wanted man, on the run from the police, the mob and two strange characters, all of whom want to know what Harry knows. Desperate and alone, Harry soon comes face to face with Morrigan Wild, the leader of an extraordinary group of heroes known as WILD INCORPORATED.
THE SHATTERED MEN: Harry Calhoun is a reformed small time crook trying to stay out of trouble, but on a trip to New York trouble finds Harry in a big way. Men are literally falling to pieces. They melt. They shatter like glass, or dissolve into clouds of dust. As a witness to one of these bizarre deaths, Harry becomes a wanted man, on the run from the police, the mob and two strange characters, all of whom want to know what Harry knows. Desperate and alone, Harry soon comes face to face with Morrigan Wild, the leader of an extraordinary group of heroes known as WILD INCORPORATED.
- GenresPulp
196 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 5, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 19, 2024
Harry Calhoun's day wasn't starting out great. Already late for a meeting, he and Sarah had taken a detour to advoid some type of trouble on the street ahead. But what looked like a simple adjustment of plans and directions, ends up with the two being witness to a murder of such unimaginable horror occurs and brings with it the death of one and a life unthought of to the other. And while, the loss of lives mount in even more gruesome and mind-shattering ways, the world is about to change completely for one Harry Calhoun.
For those of us who cut our pulp baby teeth on such adventures as Doc Savage, the Spider, the Shadow, G-8 and so many others, author Jack MacKenzie channels a LOT of those edge-of-the-seat hair-raising adventures that gave us mad scientists, criminal masterminds, unheard of horrors, death's by the handful, and more ways to do away with the citizenry of a city then there are leaves on trees. A change of note, all of those stories, and many of the new-pulp being created today, focus --- for good reason --- on more distant settings in time. 30s and 40s New York tends to allow for more bizarre happenings, then a more contemporary Big Apple with its hi-tech capabilities. MacKenzie manages to set his story in the current time and still give it that pulpy feel, and perhaps that is helped along by the shifting of the story to another setting that has a much more older and timeless feel to it. MacKenzie has kicked off with a good, storng first story of Morrigan Wild and her crew WILD INCORPORATED and looks to be entertaining going forward as a 2nd story has also been published. More Fun!!!
The only one criticism I have (and thus the 4-star rating) is that there are a few easily corrected typos that should have been caught during any proofreading session along with one strangely weird slight continuity error that doesn't ruin the story but kind of makes me as the reader go..."Wait...What?"
For those of us who cut our pulp baby teeth on such adventures as Doc Savage, the Spider, the Shadow, G-8 and so many others, author Jack MacKenzie channels a LOT of those edge-of-the-seat hair-raising adventures that gave us mad scientists, criminal masterminds, unheard of horrors, death's by the handful, and more ways to do away with the citizenry of a city then there are leaves on trees. A change of note, all of those stories, and many of the new-pulp being created today, focus --- for good reason --- on more distant settings in time. 30s and 40s New York tends to allow for more bizarre happenings, then a more contemporary Big Apple with its hi-tech capabilities. MacKenzie manages to set his story in the current time and still give it that pulpy feel, and perhaps that is helped along by the shifting of the story to another setting that has a much more older and timeless feel to it. MacKenzie has kicked off with a good, storng first story of Morrigan Wild and her crew WILD INCORPORATED and looks to be entertaining going forward as a 2nd story has also been published. More Fun!!!
The only one criticism I have (and thus the 4-star rating) is that there are a few easily corrected typos that should have been caught during any proofreading session along with one strangely weird slight continuity error that doesn't ruin the story but kind of makes me as the reader go..."Wait...What?"
July 23, 2020
The Shattered Men, a ~50k word novella length story by Jack MacKenzie.
Let me start by saying this: I love Heroic pulp stories. I cut my teeth on Doc Savage, The Shadow, the Spider, et al, when I began reading as a small boy. Needless to say, when I heard about a new book series that was in that same vein, I rushed to pick it up and placed it high on my tbr pile. A couple of days ago I was finally able to get to it, and looked forward to rollicking action and characters of the same (or close) stature of Doc and the Fabulous Five or The Shadow and his agents.
Perhaps I set my hopes too high. I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, it fell short.
Let me start with the premise. A petty crook trying to go straight witnesses a crime and is spotted, just as one of the assailants is killed by being turned to black dust.
So far so good. Nice opening that sets up a super-science type menace worthy of Doc Savage or the Avenger.
This witness, Harry Calhoun, is then on the run for most of the first half of the book. The mobsters that were in the midst of perpetrating the crime give chase through the concrete canyons of New York City, though Harry manages to give them the slip.
Until he doesn't.
I understand that coincidences happen. They've been used as a hook to drive plot since story telling began, I would presume. So having Harry bump into the people chasing him and be captured once, is fine. Have it happen three or four times (I actually lost count) begins to stretch credulity. It was repetitious and made me groan, 'Not again'.
At this point you might be asking yourself about the titular heroes of the tale. I was too. Harry does bump into a couple of the hero's agents/teammates/employees(?) early on, but it was more of a teaser than an actual introduction. During one of Harry's escapes, we do meet the presumably, star of the show, Morrigan Wild, in one of the most action driven sequences of the narrative.
But then the focus shifts back to Harry.
At this point I realized that this wasn't going to follow the 30's pulp formula of surrogate hero gets in over his head, meets the hero, and then fades gently into the background so that said hero(es) take over. Instead, the focus remains on Harry for almost the entirety of the book, with the occasional chapter shining a spotlight on the Wild Incorporated heroes. It felt like you were reading half the story and missing the interesting parts where the hero starts to put things together, come up with a strategy, and then work through to the solution until the big reveal at the end. You know, the good parts, or at least the parts I enjoy reading. Here, we are looking through a lens, seeing only what Harry sees, for the most part. It felt like I was missing out on the juiciest parts of the story.
In my mind, I retitled the book, "The Shattered Men: A Harry Calhoun adventure, with Wild Incorporated".
So who is Morrigan Wild and the Wild Incorporated? I can't tell you. Not because I don't want to, but because I don't have enough information to make that determination.
So what do I know about them? Morrigan Wild is the leader of the group. I make this inference only because her orders are never disputed. She uses a pair of guns, which she wields masterfully, and because her name is in the subtitle of the book.
She appears to head a company situated in a famous building in NYC, but whether this is an actual corporation or something looser, like the Avenger's Justice Inc., I can't say. She has a group of people who are either employees or aides, similar to the Avenger and Doc Savage's crew. Again, not enough information is provided to make a determination.
Unfortunately, we learn precious little about these associates and while the author does attempt to give each a character hook, it's not enough to turn them from two-dimensional characters to fleshed out protagonists.
So, we have Eagle Philip, a man of American-Indian descent that seems a bit dense and has no directional sense whatsoever.
Chaplin, a woman who...I don't know. She appears competent in what she is sent out to do, and is handy with a gun, but beyond that...? She and Eagle do have a Monk and Ham type of banter going on at times, though not as vicious.
Fergus, an African-American lawyer, who is a bit of a lady's man and a very smooth operator.
Bulldog, a British man of large stature.
Genesis, a young woman with a variety of degrees and skills, from office management to computer hacking.
And that's it. By the time I got to the end of the book, I knew nothing more about these characters and the organization they work in. The villains were more fully fleshed out and interesting to read, each with a unique voice that made them easy to recognize and follow.
I found doing the same for the heroes to be a missed opportunity. Unless future takes in the promised series is to continue to revolve around Harry Calhoun, spending some additional chapters on who these characters are, what their connection is to Wild, and why they happily enter into dangerous situations, would go a long way to sell the series, at least for me.
Now, before you think the book is all bad, I can happily report that the author knows how to keep the story going. I can honestly say that I was never bored, the action was well written, and it did compel me to turn the page to see what happened next. The author does attempt to end most chapters with a cliffhanger. For a pulp novel, you really can't ask for better pacing. In this respect, the novel shines.
Lastly, one final knock against the book from a technical point, and the one that is stopping me from purchasing the hard copy (I purchased and read the Kindle version) - the editing.
The editing in the first half of the book is fine. I only noticed a couple of times when a comma was used instead of a period. I chocked that up to a migration error from whatever the author used to write the manuscript to e-book format. However, the second half undermined that assumption.
Look, I understand we're all standing on the cusp of the book revolution, where anyone can be published through the joy of Amazon's indie publishing tools, but for pity's sake, please have your manuscript edited. Even if it's just Uncle Bob being asked to proofread it. Even Word or Grammarly would have caught many of the errors. The most egregious ones include transposing the name of one character for another (Chelsea instead of Chaplin), word usage (suite instead of suit), and the failure to capitalize words and proper names in a sentence (harry rather than Harry). Are these earth-shattering grammatical errors? Contrary to my 3rd Grade teacher, no, but they did pull me out of the narrative, which is something an author really shouldn't want to happen.
The book ends with a preview of the next adventure in the series, which is a nice touch.
Bottom line: The Shattered Men is a serviceable pulp inspired tale set in the modern era with a plot that rockets along, but lacks enough depth and characterization to make it a stand-out novel. It's a quick read that I enjoyed enough to give the next book in the series a try in the hopes that the shortcomings of this debut novel are corrected.
Let me start by saying this: I love Heroic pulp stories. I cut my teeth on Doc Savage, The Shadow, the Spider, et al, when I began reading as a small boy. Needless to say, when I heard about a new book series that was in that same vein, I rushed to pick it up and placed it high on my tbr pile. A couple of days ago I was finally able to get to it, and looked forward to rollicking action and characters of the same (or close) stature of Doc and the Fabulous Five or The Shadow and his agents.
Perhaps I set my hopes too high. I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, it fell short.
Let me start with the premise. A petty crook trying to go straight witnesses a crime and is spotted, just as one of the assailants is killed by being turned to black dust.
So far so good. Nice opening that sets up a super-science type menace worthy of Doc Savage or the Avenger.
This witness, Harry Calhoun, is then on the run for most of the first half of the book. The mobsters that were in the midst of perpetrating the crime give chase through the concrete canyons of New York City, though Harry manages to give them the slip.
Until he doesn't.
I understand that coincidences happen. They've been used as a hook to drive plot since story telling began, I would presume. So having Harry bump into the people chasing him and be captured once, is fine. Have it happen three or four times (I actually lost count) begins to stretch credulity. It was repetitious and made me groan, 'Not again'.
At this point you might be asking yourself about the titular heroes of the tale. I was too. Harry does bump into a couple of the hero's agents/teammates/employees(?) early on, but it was more of a teaser than an actual introduction. During one of Harry's escapes, we do meet the presumably, star of the show, Morrigan Wild, in one of the most action driven sequences of the narrative.
But then the focus shifts back to Harry.
At this point I realized that this wasn't going to follow the 30's pulp formula of surrogate hero gets in over his head, meets the hero, and then fades gently into the background so that said hero(es) take over. Instead, the focus remains on Harry for almost the entirety of the book, with the occasional chapter shining a spotlight on the Wild Incorporated heroes. It felt like you were reading half the story and missing the interesting parts where the hero starts to put things together, come up with a strategy, and then work through to the solution until the big reveal at the end. You know, the good parts, or at least the parts I enjoy reading. Here, we are looking through a lens, seeing only what Harry sees, for the most part. It felt like I was missing out on the juiciest parts of the story.
In my mind, I retitled the book, "The Shattered Men: A Harry Calhoun adventure, with Wild Incorporated".
So who is Morrigan Wild and the Wild Incorporated? I can't tell you. Not because I don't want to, but because I don't have enough information to make that determination.
So what do I know about them? Morrigan Wild is the leader of the group. I make this inference only because her orders are never disputed. She uses a pair of guns, which she wields masterfully, and because her name is in the subtitle of the book.
She appears to head a company situated in a famous building in NYC, but whether this is an actual corporation or something looser, like the Avenger's Justice Inc., I can't say. She has a group of people who are either employees or aides, similar to the Avenger and Doc Savage's crew. Again, not enough information is provided to make a determination.
Unfortunately, we learn precious little about these associates and while the author does attempt to give each a character hook, it's not enough to turn them from two-dimensional characters to fleshed out protagonists.
So, we have Eagle Philip, a man of American-Indian descent that seems a bit dense and has no directional sense whatsoever.
Chaplin, a woman who...I don't know. She appears competent in what she is sent out to do, and is handy with a gun, but beyond that...? She and Eagle do have a Monk and Ham type of banter going on at times, though not as vicious.
Fergus, an African-American lawyer, who is a bit of a lady's man and a very smooth operator.
Bulldog, a British man of large stature.
Genesis, a young woman with a variety of degrees and skills, from office management to computer hacking.
And that's it. By the time I got to the end of the book, I knew nothing more about these characters and the organization they work in. The villains were more fully fleshed out and interesting to read, each with a unique voice that made them easy to recognize and follow.
I found doing the same for the heroes to be a missed opportunity. Unless future takes in the promised series is to continue to revolve around Harry Calhoun, spending some additional chapters on who these characters are, what their connection is to Wild, and why they happily enter into dangerous situations, would go a long way to sell the series, at least for me.
Now, before you think the book is all bad, I can happily report that the author knows how to keep the story going. I can honestly say that I was never bored, the action was well written, and it did compel me to turn the page to see what happened next. The author does attempt to end most chapters with a cliffhanger. For a pulp novel, you really can't ask for better pacing. In this respect, the novel shines.
Lastly, one final knock against the book from a technical point, and the one that is stopping me from purchasing the hard copy (I purchased and read the Kindle version) - the editing.
The editing in the first half of the book is fine. I only noticed a couple of times when a comma was used instead of a period. I chocked that up to a migration error from whatever the author used to write the manuscript to e-book format. However, the second half undermined that assumption.
Look, I understand we're all standing on the cusp of the book revolution, where anyone can be published through the joy of Amazon's indie publishing tools, but for pity's sake, please have your manuscript edited. Even if it's just Uncle Bob being asked to proofread it. Even Word or Grammarly would have caught many of the errors. The most egregious ones include transposing the name of one character for another (Chelsea instead of Chaplin), word usage (suite instead of suit), and the failure to capitalize words and proper names in a sentence (harry rather than Harry). Are these earth-shattering grammatical errors? Contrary to my 3rd Grade teacher, no, but they did pull me out of the narrative, which is something an author really shouldn't want to happen.
The book ends with a preview of the next adventure in the series, which is a nice touch.
Bottom line: The Shattered Men is a serviceable pulp inspired tale set in the modern era with a plot that rockets along, but lacks enough depth and characterization to make it a stand-out novel. It's a quick read that I enjoyed enough to give the next book in the series a try in the hopes that the shortcomings of this debut novel are corrected.
January 21, 2024
Essentially an update and genderswap of Doc Savage. It's pretty good. Our Doc Savage stand in, Morrigan Wild stays offscreen for most of the adventure which is told mostly through the eyes of Harry, a bystander from the beginning. That reminded me a lot of the Harry from the first Shadow novel, in which The Shadow is a mostly unseen enigma.
It's really hard to update the pulp tropes and Jack MacKenzie does that pretty well by just ignoring how the real world works. Which is totally legit, since the old Pulps did much the same. A good entry in the new pulp oeuvre, I'll be hunting up more of these.
It's really hard to update the pulp tropes and Jack MacKenzie does that pretty well by just ignoring how the real world works. Which is totally legit, since the old Pulps did much the same. A good entry in the new pulp oeuvre, I'll be hunting up more of these.
June 21, 2020
Pulp-worthy update to The Avenger with a twist of Doc Savage. Looking forward to more.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews