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The Penetrator #27
The Animal Game
Book by Derrick, Lionel
182 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Lionel Derrick
63 books6 followersLionel Derrick is the house name, or pseudonym, for Mark K. Roberts and Chet Cummingham while writing the Penetrator series for Pinnacle Books. Roberts wrote the odd books and Cummingham the even ones.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 28, 2008
The fact that a book references two competing adventure series doesn't exactly inspire confidence, especially when the copy writer can't even muster the necessary hyperbole to lift this one any higher than the others. It's as though he skimmed the pages and had to admit to himself, "well, it isn't _more_ exciting then The Executioner. Maybe if I say it's _as_ exciting, they won't notice until they start reading it..."
Why's he called The Penetrator? As near as I can see, at the time, all adventure novels revolving around lone-gunman vigilante types need some kind of dangerous-sounding nickname. For reasons of his own, the author came up with "The Penetrator". Damned if I know why. He doesn't do any penetrating. Unless you count his love interest, that is. *rimshot*
Regardless, it is a ridiculous, uber-phallic title that got big laughs when I mentioned it at lunch. And let me tell you: it's worth it to watch someone snarf on a tater tot.
So, what's happening in the 27th adventure of Mark Hardin, The Penetrator?
The Penetrator, by the time of the novel, has crushed a heroin ring, destroyed a major Mob family, halted terrorists from unleasing some kind of gas plague upon America, rescued supermodels from some bizarre plot involving cryogenic storage, and on and on and on (some of which may involve penetration, but I can't say for certain). In this book, he tops them all by ending a rash of petnapping along the Eastern seaboard. I kid you not.
In summary, after 26 books, Lionel Derrick ran out of story ideas. A brief search reveals that the series extends to about 53 titles, which only begs the question: how could he possibly follow this act?
Beyond the bare-bones description, it does get better, meaning worse. The stolen pets are sold to research laboratories for animal testing, and the corpses are then sold to a food processing plant, to become tinned stew. And because even that expanded description wouldn't fill the necessary page count, Derrick threw in a gratuitous bank robbery that The Penetrator finds himself in the midst of (and once handled--penetrated?--it is never mentioned again). And then, because the book apparently still wasn't thick enough, he added a ninja assassin out to penetrate the Penetrator. Derrick doesn't say what the ninja's cool nickname is, but I'd like to think of it is being "The Perforator".
That's what passes for a plot in these here parts.
The writing is workmanlike, with a weird, almost fetishistic eye for detail regarding the weapons favored by The Penetrator and the ninja assassin. It's not enough that The Penetrator has a pistol: he has to have a Detonics .45, which has a three-inch rise when fired one-handed and is loaded with dum-dum bullets. Similar creepy gun-nut details are lavished on the Sidewinder assault rifle and various other toys. Even worse, consuming a whopping twelve pages at the end of the novel is the "Penetrator's Combat Catalog", which reiterates everything said in the text about the various weapons and vehicles, ties in an actual review (from whose perspective I don't know... the author, maybe?) and, get this, adds the street price and place that an interested party might obtain such hardware.
My theory is that Mr. Derrick has issues. Possibly penetration-related.
In short: a stupid name, a weird plot, plenty of padding. Nice cover, though.
Why's he called The Penetrator? As near as I can see, at the time, all adventure novels revolving around lone-gunman vigilante types need some kind of dangerous-sounding nickname. For reasons of his own, the author came up with "The Penetrator". Damned if I know why. He doesn't do any penetrating. Unless you count his love interest, that is. *rimshot*
Regardless, it is a ridiculous, uber-phallic title that got big laughs when I mentioned it at lunch. And let me tell you: it's worth it to watch someone snarf on a tater tot.
So, what's happening in the 27th adventure of Mark Hardin, The Penetrator?
The Penetrator, by the time of the novel, has crushed a heroin ring, destroyed a major Mob family, halted terrorists from unleasing some kind of gas plague upon America, rescued supermodels from some bizarre plot involving cryogenic storage, and on and on and on (some of which may involve penetration, but I can't say for certain). In this book, he tops them all by ending a rash of petnapping along the Eastern seaboard. I kid you not.
In summary, after 26 books, Lionel Derrick ran out of story ideas. A brief search reveals that the series extends to about 53 titles, which only begs the question: how could he possibly follow this act?
Beyond the bare-bones description, it does get better, meaning worse. The stolen pets are sold to research laboratories for animal testing, and the corpses are then sold to a food processing plant, to become tinned stew. And because even that expanded description wouldn't fill the necessary page count, Derrick threw in a gratuitous bank robbery that The Penetrator finds himself in the midst of (and once handled--penetrated?--it is never mentioned again). And then, because the book apparently still wasn't thick enough, he added a ninja assassin out to penetrate the Penetrator. Derrick doesn't say what the ninja's cool nickname is, but I'd like to think of it is being "The Perforator".
That's what passes for a plot in these here parts.
The writing is workmanlike, with a weird, almost fetishistic eye for detail regarding the weapons favored by The Penetrator and the ninja assassin. It's not enough that The Penetrator has a pistol: he has to have a Detonics .45, which has a three-inch rise when fired one-handed and is loaded with dum-dum bullets. Similar creepy gun-nut details are lavished on the Sidewinder assault rifle and various other toys. Even worse, consuming a whopping twelve pages at the end of the novel is the "Penetrator's Combat Catalog", which reiterates everything said in the text about the various weapons and vehicles, ties in an actual review (from whose perspective I don't know... the author, maybe?) and, get this, adds the street price and place that an interested party might obtain such hardware.
My theory is that Mr. Derrick has issues. Possibly penetration-related.
In short: a stupid name, a weird plot, plenty of padding. Nice cover, though.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2016
Another men's adventure series from the 70's. Pretty much standard action, violence and sex. However a good standout is that the hero is healed and trained by an old Cheyenne Indian in the ancient mystic warrior ways of the Cheyenne. Recommended
Read
September 26, 2011it is a kind of story that interested to me to read it
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