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Mystic Rebel #1
Mystic Rebel
HE IS THE ANCIENT HOPE, AND THE PROMISE OF DOOM
It was duty that first brought CIA operative Bart Lasker to the mysterious frozen mountains of Tibet. But a deeper obligation made him remain behind, disobeying orders to wage a personal war against the brutal Red Chinese oppressors. And now the renegade American is alone, a marked pawn for the KGB, dodging bullets from a crack Company assassin, and targeted for death by a beautiful but bloodthirsty female warlord.
But Destiny has other plans for Bart Lasker. There are age-old prophesies to be fulfilled, prophesies of destruction and of a world reborn. The legend from time immemorial to be, at long last, realized, of a fearless avenger from out of the West, transformed from mortal man to MYSTIC REBEL
It was duty that first brought CIA operative Bart Lasker to the mysterious frozen mountains of Tibet. But a deeper obligation made him remain behind, disobeying orders to wage a personal war against the brutal Red Chinese oppressors. And now the renegade American is alone, a marked pawn for the KGB, dodging bullets from a crack Company assassin, and targeted for death by a beautiful but bloodthirsty female warlord.
But Destiny has other plans for Bart Lasker. There are age-old prophesies to be fulfilled, prophesies of destruction and of a world reborn. The legend from time immemorial to be, at long last, realized, of a fearless avenger from out of the West, transformed from mortal man to MYSTIC REBEL
- GenresFantasy
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
6 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Ryder Syvertsen
16 books7 followersAccording to FantasticFiction.co.uk this is a Pseudonym for Ryder Stacy. Actually it is the other way around: Ryder Stacy and John Sievert are both pseudonyms for Reidar Otto Syvertsen.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 14, 2014
The Mystic Rebel series is one of those hardly-known but surprising gems you might find in a dusty corner of the used bookstore shelves. This is the 1980's equivalent of a pulp dime novel; exotic locales, dangerous women, supernatural forces, evil cults, and bone-crunching action. The protagonist, Bart Lasker, is a CIA agent who crash lands in Tibet and, upon finding himself in a Buddhist-like temple, discovers that he is the reincarnation of an evil mystic warrior. As this ancient soul tries to take control of Lasker's body, his plight becomes reminiscent of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde... though instead of a split scientist/monster, he is one part Indiana Jones, one part deadly mystic assassin. Fun stuff.
August 25, 2014
Bart Lasker, a down on his luck pilot, accepts a contract from the CIA to smuggle gold to rebels in Tibet. He's shot down by a Chinese missile and is rescued by some monks and Tibetan freedom fighters. This is the first 200 pages. The late 80s were a rough time for men's adventure.
Do you like scenes where the hero passes or is knocked out, wakes up being cared by strangers, and is told he's been out for x number of days? You better love them, because it happens like seven times.
The third or so time this happens, Lasker wakes up in a mysterious temple, where he learns that he is the reincarnation of Raspahloh, a Bonpo assassin that had assassinated a previous Dali Lama. In the world of fiction and conspiracy theory, Bon is the evil, human sacrificing, satanic precursor to Buddhism in Tibet. In real life, not even close, and I can't find where people even got that from.
Like kung fu training scenes? Too bad, we're going to skim over that part, but Lasker's body is now capable of performing Raspahloh's kung fu magic. There's a necrophilic orgy to give Raspahloh full control of his body, but Magic Buddha rubs his belly or whatever and Lasker takes full control.
Like kung fu fights? Too bad. Lasker escapes the temple, dispatching six guards on the way, in half of a sentence that's shorter than this one. 384 pages and here's where Syvertsen decides to be brief. He escapes into the snow and the temple disappears because it's like that thing in Iron Fist.
Where am I? You've been asleep for three days. Now it's time to get trained by good guy monks. He gets locked in a cave with a sassy hermit who teaches him telepathy, astral travel, and other stuff we're not going to tell you because we haven't figured out what he'll do in other installments yet.
We also learn about the Celestials, I mean Cultivators - aliens from another dimension that crash landed on earth and humped monkeys. They might have done some other stuff, but mostly monkey love, which is where people come from. There might be good guy Cultivators and bad guy Cultivators, based on how much monkey love they got, and it looks like Buddhism is based the bad guys. Again, we're just going to leave that open, we might want to get back to it in book four or something.
Lasker vows to use his powers to help Tibet, so he sneaks into an ancient temple which is now the headquarter of a sexy female Chinese officer. He confronts her and uses his telepathy to discover a plot to sell nuclear material from Smoke Mountain, mined by slave labor, to a Middle Eastern power. He also discovers that she is a virgin and is terrified of being raped. So, in the name of Buddhist compassion, he rapes her.
Well, in text he uses his Buddha love magic to make sweet, tender, painful, blood splattered love to her, but whatever. He breaks into her bedroom, restrains her, threatens her, does the deed, and she's crying and screaming rape afterwards. All the justifications Syvertsen adds work about as well as the excuses of a fratboy after a kegger.
So, off to Smoke Mountain to put an end to the scheme, only to be attacked by a Chinese Red Army strikeforce, which for some reason has two ancient Japanese samurai working with them. Yep, after several hundred pages of authenticish Tibetan culture, we get "Asian fighty time, whatever" for our only fight scene in the entire book. Which is promptly cut short by a sedative blow dart.
Where am I? Lasker wakes up to being tortured in Smoke Mountain. He possesses a vulture, and from there raises a Zombie army to destroy to complex and free the prisoners. Evidently Tibet has Zombies, and they're called Zombies just like the the voodoo ones. Not that I'm going to complain - as jaded as I am on the Zombie glut of the last decade, this was pretty cool.
But we're not done. Lasker has to get out Tibet, which involves a lot of walking, a lot of riding, a lot of pages, and a couple more trips to unconsciousness.
He hangs out with the Dali Lama a bit and threatens his CIA contact for his money, because Buddha gets paid, B. There's a hint earlier that Raspahloh may try to regain control of his body, which I'm guessing happens in later issues. I'm also guessing the KGB and CIA hitmen in the back cover are for a later time, because they sure weren't here.
For being a padded out travelogue for most of the page count, it actually went by pretty painlessly. The zombie attack almost saved it, but it really needed like ten times more of "stuff happening". Later issues reportedly focus more on the spirituality of the rapist thug that worships alien monkey humpers, so yea for that.
More reviews at http://trashmenace.blogspot.com/
Do you like scenes where the hero passes or is knocked out, wakes up being cared by strangers, and is told he's been out for x number of days? You better love them, because it happens like seven times.
The third or so time this happens, Lasker wakes up in a mysterious temple, where he learns that he is the reincarnation of Raspahloh, a Bonpo assassin that had assassinated a previous Dali Lama. In the world of fiction and conspiracy theory, Bon is the evil, human sacrificing, satanic precursor to Buddhism in Tibet. In real life, not even close, and I can't find where people even got that from.
Like kung fu training scenes? Too bad, we're going to skim over that part, but Lasker's body is now capable of performing Raspahloh's kung fu magic. There's a necrophilic orgy to give Raspahloh full control of his body, but Magic Buddha rubs his belly or whatever and Lasker takes full control.
Like kung fu fights? Too bad. Lasker escapes the temple, dispatching six guards on the way, in half of a sentence that's shorter than this one. 384 pages and here's where Syvertsen decides to be brief. He escapes into the snow and the temple disappears because it's like that thing in Iron Fist.
Where am I? You've been asleep for three days. Now it's time to get trained by good guy monks. He gets locked in a cave with a sassy hermit who teaches him telepathy, astral travel, and other stuff we're not going to tell you because we haven't figured out what he'll do in other installments yet.
We also learn about the Celestials, I mean Cultivators - aliens from another dimension that crash landed on earth and humped monkeys. They might have done some other stuff, but mostly monkey love, which is where people come from. There might be good guy Cultivators and bad guy Cultivators, based on how much monkey love they got, and it looks like Buddhism is based the bad guys. Again, we're just going to leave that open, we might want to get back to it in book four or something.
Lasker vows to use his powers to help Tibet, so he sneaks into an ancient temple which is now the headquarter of a sexy female Chinese officer. He confronts her and uses his telepathy to discover a plot to sell nuclear material from Smoke Mountain, mined by slave labor, to a Middle Eastern power. He also discovers that she is a virgin and is terrified of being raped. So, in the name of Buddhist compassion, he rapes her.
Well, in text he uses his Buddha love magic to make sweet, tender, painful, blood splattered love to her, but whatever. He breaks into her bedroom, restrains her, threatens her, does the deed, and she's crying and screaming rape afterwards. All the justifications Syvertsen adds work about as well as the excuses of a fratboy after a kegger.
So, off to Smoke Mountain to put an end to the scheme, only to be attacked by a Chinese Red Army strikeforce, which for some reason has two ancient Japanese samurai working with them. Yep, after several hundred pages of authenticish Tibetan culture, we get "Asian fighty time, whatever" for our only fight scene in the entire book. Which is promptly cut short by a sedative blow dart.
Where am I? Lasker wakes up to being tortured in Smoke Mountain. He possesses a vulture, and from there raises a Zombie army to destroy to complex and free the prisoners. Evidently Tibet has Zombies, and they're called Zombies just like the the voodoo ones. Not that I'm going to complain - as jaded as I am on the Zombie glut of the last decade, this was pretty cool.
But we're not done. Lasker has to get out Tibet, which involves a lot of walking, a lot of riding, a lot of pages, and a couple more trips to unconsciousness.
He hangs out with the Dali Lama a bit and threatens his CIA contact for his money, because Buddha gets paid, B. There's a hint earlier that Raspahloh may try to regain control of his body, which I'm guessing happens in later issues. I'm also guessing the KGB and CIA hitmen in the back cover are for a later time, because they sure weren't here.
For being a padded out travelogue for most of the page count, it actually went by pretty painlessly. The zombie attack almost saved it, but it really needed like ten times more of "stuff happening". Later issues reportedly focus more on the spirituality of the rapist thug that worships alien monkey humpers, so yea for that.
More reviews at http://trashmenace.blogspot.com/
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2022
I read the Mystic Rebel series back when I was in the Army during the late 1980’s. It drew me in immediately. The store transported me into every aspect of the story. I could visualize what the author was trying to convey. I feel it was definitely a heavily slept on series. I am surprised it was never turned into a movie.
August 15, 2020
Read long ago now again
I enjoyed this book over 40 years ago. I have reread it now and still find it very good
Great
I enjoyed this book over 40 years ago. I have reread it now and still find it very good
Great
December 6, 2023
Great Read
Read this book 30 years ago! Still a good book to read. Time has a habit of making things clearer.
Read this book 30 years ago! Still a good book to read. Time has a habit of making things clearer.
January 23, 2011
Bart Lasker does a job for the CIA that ends up with him shot down in Tibet where he finds out that his soul is the reincarnated soul of an ancient, and evil assassin.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but the series as a whole went on to develop the new age religious themes more than the adventure/assassin story, and I lost interest.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but the series as a whole went on to develop the new age religious themes more than the adventure/assassin story, and I lost interest.
December 24, 2008
Another one of those that I wanted to like more than I did. Still, this was good enough so that I will eventually try another in the series.
March 4, 2014
Like an action movie.
February 5, 2016
A good adventure/action series with everything you need in one book. You get a spy thriller heavily spiced with mystic martial arts and Tibetan Buddhist supernatural flavoring. Recommended
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews