Gilbert M. Stack's Blog, page 56

Review: The Games of Super Villainy by C.T. Phipps

The Games of Super Villainy by C.T. Phipps

Merciless returns to earth after a month on the moon to discover that the zombie apocalypse has overrun his home city. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, his beloved wife has been kidnapped by a rival supervillain who is challenging him to a showdown to decide which of them gets to be top dog in their town. And that’s just the opening chapter. A sorceress cult is looking to bring about the end of the world (and the zombie apocalypse suggests they are succeeding) and death (yes, the grim reaper herself) wants Merciless to come be her henchmen. And that’s still not everything that’s happening.

 

Whereas the first book was very much a supervillain versus superhero novel, this one is all about the black magic. There are zombies, sorcerers, death, a Cthulhu-like being, vampires, and need I go on? The series takes a dark turn in this novel, but it never loses its peculiar sense of humor. The only real question is how a bright guy like Merciless can still argue with a straight face that he’s a villain, not a hero.

 

C.T. Phipps’ knowledge of the superhero genre was quite impressive in the first book of this series. Now he dives in deep to the magical side of the genre, managing to both parody the medium while still producing an exciting plot with characters you love.

 

 

Review: Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines

Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines

In comic books, it’s common for heroes to have an alternate earth adventure in which the bad guy has won, or the apocalypse has happened, or zombies have overrun the planet. That’s what we have here in Ex-Heroes, except that this is Clines “real” world. The zombies have come, basically won, and now the few remaining heroes are just trying to help everyone else survive. However, their problems are greatly magnified over the challenges of survivors in shows like The Walking Dead because there are still super villains out there and the zombies haven’t altered their plans to take over the world—they’ve just given them new tools to use to further their dreams of conquest.

 

The story advances both in the “present day” and in occasional chapters that detail how the zombies rose and destroyed civilization. Lots of people die, including my favorite hero. Because it’s a zombie story, it should not be a surprise that many of them return fighting for the other team, so to speak. Over all, I did not find any surprises in this tale be it the origins or the super villain plans and powers, but it is still a very good story. After all, everyone knows what Galactus is going to do and yet there are still many good adventures featuring him.

 

If you want a new twist on the superhero tale, Ex-Heroes offers an interesting mix of genres that provides a fresh setting.

 

Review: Destroyer 45 Spoils of War by Warren Murphy

Destroyer 45 Spoils of War by Warren Murphy (Ghost Writer: Molly Cochran)

This was another weak book in the series. A charismatic minister is taking over army bases and turning the soldiers into his own army and no one can figure out what’s happening to the soldiers. No, that doesn’t make sense, and neither did this novel. Remo and Chiun come in to fix things, get attacked a few times, and finally figure out what’s going on. There’s really nothing to write home about here.

 

The only truly good thing about the novel is that Remo passes another phase of his Sinanju training, having a dream about dying. I didn’t think this boosted the story very much, but in the larger scheme of things as Remo advances toward being a master, it’s worth noting. I also wonder if Chiun’s former pupil, Nuich, passed this stage.

 

Review: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This is quite probably the bestselling mystery novel of all time. It’s a psychological thriller. Ten people have been brought together on an island under mysterious circumstances, anonymously accused of horrific crimes, and are being killed off one by one. Figuring out who is killing them (and whether or not that person is one of the guests) forms the basis of a gripping tale. As the number of guests dwindle, the pressure goes up, You start to like a couple of the guests. You wonder who the killer is and you feel the sense of horror grow page by page.

 

That being said, the solution of the problem while satisfying, does require a strong suspension of disbelief. Bullets are messier than Christie would have us believe and I for one do not believe that you could carry a “dead body” about and not realize it is not dead. That being said, Christie takes some real gambles and is willing to risk making the audience unhappy. The play did not have her courage and changed the ending. In many ways I like the play’s ending better, but I don’t want that to detract from Christie’s great novel which has inspired so many imitations.

 

Review: War Against the Mafia by Don Pendleton

Executioner 1 War Against the Mafia by Don Pendleton

This is the book that launched the Executioner series. Mack Bolan is a sniper in Vietnam when he learns his father has murdered his family and committed suicide. Only his younger brother has survived. He’s offered compassionate leave to come home where he discovers that his father went crazy because he was in debt to the mob and they had started prostituting Bolan’s sister. Bolan decides to get some straight-forward revenge as only a sniper who cut his teeth in Vietnam can.

 

Frankly, while I enjoyed the story, I was less impressed with the early Bolan than I expected to be. He starts out strong, but he plays a lot of games with the bad guys that I really didn’t think were necessary. Pendleton does a nice job with a homicide detective who figures out what’s going on and tries to steer Bolan out of what he views as a suicidal direction.

 

Overall, I think that anyone who has enjoyed an Executioner novel, or one of the later spinoffs like Stoney Man or the Super Bolans, should read this book. It’s nice to see how things began.

 

Review: Risk by Dick Francis

Risk by Dick Francis

This is one of the best titles for a Dick Francis mystery. We’re all familiar with the normal risk in his adventures—the racing related risks and the mystery-solving risks. But this time, the whole thing revolves around accountant risks. Didn’t think that accountants take a lot of risks? Read this book and you may just change your mind.

 

Roland Britten, our accountant hero, wakes up to find he’s a captive with no clue in the world as to why anyone would want to take him prisoner. This is a tense and scary way to start the novel and it only gets more so as we learn more about Roland’s predicament. True to Francis’ heroes, Roland is clever and brave and he figures out a way to escape his captors, but things only get worse from there. They keep coming after him and he has no idea why.

 

We the reader are also perplexed by Roland’s troubles, but Francis plays fair with us just like we were reading an Ellery Queen mystery. The clues are all there, but when he finally figures out what’s going on, Roland doesn’t handle the situation the way that most of us would. And that leads to another thing Dick Francis does better than anyone else on the market—write about pain.

 

This is one of the better Dick Francis novels. I’ve read it at least three times now over 25 years and I would not be the least surprised if I read it again someday.

 

Review: You Can Thank Me Later by Kelly Harms

You Can Thank Me Later by Kelly Harms

If you’re looking to get into the mood for Thanksgiving this year, this short novel by Kelly Harms is a great way to start. It traces a family through several Thanksgiving dinners, moving from tragedy to anger and finally to healing. The great strength is that Harms has created a family you will feel that you know. They’re instantly likable and very empathetic—which is important since you’re about to spend three Thanksgiving dinners with them.

 

The tragedy of the novel is the death by cancer of the protagonist/narrator’s best friend, who also happens to be her sister-in-law. When her brother begins to move on, the narrator is not ready to let him do so. This must have been the toughest part of the book to write because the new girlfriend (who admittedly has a laundry basket full of problems) is clearly trying hard to make a good impression and everything she does becomes another stroke against her in the eyes of our heroine.

 

Rather than make things come to an easy conclusion, Harms ratchets up the tension considerably, even as she cleverly lays the groundwork for the eventual coming together of the once-happy clan. It’s quite likely I’ll read this book again next November.

 

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

 

Review: Balance of Power by Warren Murphy

Destroyer 44 Balance of Power by Warren Murphy (Ghost Co-Writer: Molly Cochran)

The best thing about this weak Destroyer novel is the foreword by Warren Murphy in which he gives some insights into his partnership with Richard Sapir in writing the books and sort of explains why Sapir has disappeared from the covers. Sapir then writes his own forward which I hope was meant to be humorous but makes him look insane.

 

The story is not actually much of a Destroyer novel. It’s really about an aging CIA man named Barney Daniels who has lost himself in a bottle and is both outing the CIA and killing people. Much of the novel is dedicated to finding out how Barney got this way and seeing if he can pull himself back together. I suppose it was an okay story, but it wasn’t what I look for in a Destroyer novel.

 

Destroyer 43 Midnight Man by Warren Murphy

Destroyer 43 Midnight Man by Warren Murphy

Murphy slides back into science fiction for this tale about Elmo Wimpler, a man who invents an invisibility paint. Notice that Murphy wastes no time with subtly here. Wimpler, as the name suggests, is a total wimp. He’s the kind of guy that used to get sand kicked on him at the beach in those old Charles Atlas advertisements. He’s wimpy enough that the reader’s sympathies are strongly with him, until he’s pushed over the edge and becomes a homicidal murderer at which point we can’t wait for Chiun and Remo to catch up with him and put him out of his misery.

 

Interwoven around Wimpler’s tale is the story of a monarch based on the Shah of Iran in exile. He’s the target for the new homicidal maniac who is in quest of a new profession as an assassin. He’s portrayed highly sympathetically, but one suspects all is not well at his home in exile.

 

As Remo and Chiun try to protect the dying monarch while catching Wimpler, new assassins, apparently connected to the monarch’s household start coming after them. These combats between the Masters of Sinanju and these highly trained soldiers are the highlight of the story, for they show once again how superior Remo and Chiun are. The problem of dealing with an invisible opponent is also well dealt with. Overall, this is a good one.

 

The Case of the Haunted Haunted House by Drew Hayes

The Case of the Haunted Haunted House by Drew Hayes

It was an utter delight to see Sherman Holmes and Watson back in the pages of another novel. Watson is still trying to help Holmes learn to process the world after his exposure (detailed in the first novel) to a mysterious drug that turned him into a genius—for five minutes at a time. Sherman, trying to follow in the fictional Sherlock’s footsteps, has opened a consulting detective practice and he and Watson are hired to find out who is messing with a “haunted” house. The building in question was the home of a genius, but paranoid, inventor and is rumored to have a great treasure hidden somewhere within it. Unfortunately, it’s also filled to the gills with deathtraps. The current owner has disabled many of the traps and is trying to turn it into a tourist attraction, but things are not going smoothly.

 

There’s no question that this is a fun novel with great puzzles and fabulous banter between Sherman and Watson (and Sherman and the world, for that matter). Unfortunately, I also felt that it dragged at times. There is a lot going on, but the pacing wasn’t always quick enough to keep me satisfied. That being said, I’m still looking forward to the next book.