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.
The Stony Man series replaced two individual titles: Able Team and Phoenix Force. The individual books were pretty good, but the Stony Man books are hit or miss. There are just too many characters to pull everything together every time.
This entry is pretty standard, with the Maguffin (person, place or thing) being introduced, usually with a lot of bloodshed. This sets up the story and shows the readers just how horrible the situation is for the country and the world. What else can the President do except call in Stony Man?
Each team member is a force unto himself, but put together, they can do some incredible things. A short bio (2 or 3 paragraphs) is given for each character, but if you get really interested, you need to track down the half dozen books of the two original series.
Recommended for fans of Men's Adventure, Military Adventure, and old school Action (think A Force of One with Chuck Norris).