The First REAL Avengers

Coming in late August to Amazon Kindle eBooks...

Corporal Thomas Lynch won fame at the Battle of Arras, and felt the shame of defeat at Dunkirk.  A year later, as a member of Britain's elite No. 3 Commando, Lynch wants nothing more than to go back over the Channel and kick open Hitler's Fortress Europe, guns blazing. 

Introduced by his commanding officer to the enigmatic Lord Pembroke, Lynch is offered a chance to be part of a special team of hand-picked Commandos.  Their assignment: sneak into occupied France and ally with the French partisans to fight back against the Nazis. 

Lynch readily accepts the challenge, but when the mission goes awry from the very beginning, and the motives of the partisan leader become suspect, the Commandos begin to wonder about their role in the mission: trusted allies with the partisans, or worms dangling as bait for a much larger fish?

Summer Action Adventure Movie: Rain Fall (2009)

While on vacation last week I found myself browsing Netflix's instant queue, and I came across Rain Fall.  I knew that Barry Eisler's first novel had been turned into a movie at some point, but that the movie hadn't made it onto the big screen in the States; it appears that it was only shown in commercial theaters in Japan.  Curious as to how Eisler's noirish assassination thriller had been adapted for film, I fired up the movie and sat back to watch.

And by watch I mean, I spent about half the time reading my Kindle, looking out the window bored, and contemplating if I was wasting time that could be better spent writing.  The film is a serviceable thriller, with the usual government conspiracy, some techno-thriller bells and whistles, some gunplay, some knifeplay, some karate or judo or whatever it's supposed to be, and some other boilerplate moments here and there.  Gary Oldman does his best to play a barking, frantic CIA supervisor running this little operation, but in the end it feels like he's just redressing his character in The Fifth Element with a pair of glasses and a cheap suit, but without any of the flash or quirk that made Zorg a fun villain. 

The biggest flaw in the movie is that it really has very little to do with the book itself, and more importantly, it is missing the "soul" of the novel.  Eisler, for all his "I was in the CIA and I learned about self-defense from a guy nicknamed Animal and I get romance writers to rubber-stamp my often creepy sex scenes" nonsense, is able to capture a very surreal vision.  His characters operate in the Shadow World of espionage, assassination, mercenary operations, and other highly illegal shit, but at the same time, they have relationships, enjoy good music and drink great single malt whisky.  Eisler's books are one of the reasons my collection of single malts has been maintained so well over the years, and the image of the lone wolf assassin chilling in a dark, smoky Japanese jazz club, sipping an eighteen year old single malt while ready to kick ass at a moment's notice, just plain works.

But the movie adaptation has almost none of this cool.  There is about fifteen seconds of jazz in the whole movie, the character lacks any kind of panache or style at all, and in fact, the movie makers completely change the character's identity and background.  John Rain in the novels is in his fifties, wears glasses, was a Vietnam veteran and carries with him an older man's sensibilities, style, and sophistication.  He's careful, cautious, and deliberate, well aware that most of the men who hunt him are almost half his age.  The experience and gravitas that the novel's Rain carries with him allows him to turn the tables on his more aggressive, reckless opponents, and seeing this play out is very engaging.  On the other hand, the John Rain in the film is just another "highly trained operative" blah blah blah.  He's a two-dimensional, cookie-cutter character that adds nothing to the film and takes away so much of the spirit of the book that it is, in fact, embarrassing that this fate could befall such an excellent novel.

So although this is a "movie review", I actually recommend people skip the movie completely and go read Eisler's book (the Amazon link above takes you to the novel, not the film).  Although it has its faults, I still think the John Rain series is one of the best modern espionage thriller stories of the 21st century.

Book Review: An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson

For the last couple of months, I've been saturating myself in "all things World War Two".  From watching HBO's The Pacific and re-watching Band of Brothers to reading E.B. Sledge's With The Old Breed, through movies and pulp novels and several Fairbairn manuals as well as an ever-growing pile of Osprey books.  Much of this is both self-education and refreshing my knowledge of the war, as well as research for my next big project, but it is all fascinating and entertaining, if at times shockingly grim.

My latest WW2 read has been Rick Atkinson's An Army At Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943.  This rather massive volume (the paperback runs 768 pages) is a very engaging, almost literary look at the Allied invasion and eventual conquest of the North African theater of World War Two.  This is a part of the war that I was not terribly familiar with, except from some of the early battle scenes in Patton and in playing through the early British missions in Call of Duty 2, so this was going to be a great education for me.

And what an education it was.  In 1942 America had just thrown its hat into the ring after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but our military might was less like Captain America and more like shrimpy Steve Rogers, pre-transformation.  We had some pluck and a resolve to take the fight against the Axis, but our military was woefully obsolete, not only in terms of much of our equipment, but in our training methods, our officer corps, and most importantly, our manpower.  America was 17th in terms of the world's armies as of 1939, but in six short years we would come to dominate the globe.  That enormous transformation has its genesis in North Africa, and Operation TORCH. 

But TORCH was definitely an ugly baby.  Reaching Atkinson's book, it is a miracle the Allies were able to win in North Africa; no one had the foggiest notion of how to launch amphibious assaults with a modern combined arms army, and not only were we fighting against the Germans, but the Vichy French were duty-bound to defend their African colonial territories against "Allied aggression".  Friendly fire casualties were enormous, hundreds of men drowned before they even made it to the beaches because no one knew how to get them ashore correctly, and once ashore, no one had prepared supplies and logistics to take modern combat operations of this nature into account.

And even when men made it onto the beach and eventually took the ports, there was the actual conquering to be done.  As is noted by Atkinson and other authors, our soldiers in North Africa "had not yet learned to hate" and hadn't yet learned the "profession of killing".  This is nowhere more true when reading about those early armor battles; pitting Stuart tanks and their 37mm "squirrel rifles" against German Panthers and Tigers makes for some really cringe-worthy reading, and in many places you simply have to put the book down, take a deep breath, and reassure yourself that it all works out in the end.

On another note, this was the longest e-book I've read, having purchased and downloaded the volume onto my new Kindle.  Although the merits of a e-reader vs. a simple paperback can be debated ad nauseam, the Kindle is far, far lighter and more compact than the roughly pound and a half of the paperback version of the book.  Virtually "shrinking" big, heavy books like this into a slim, lightweight package is clearly one of the advantages of the Kindle.

In conclusion, if you are looking to begin a well-researched, well-written account of the American experience in WW2, this is the place to start.  Atkinson's "big picture" concept behind writing his Liberation Trilogy (of which this is the first volume) is to show the growth and evolution of the Allied forces in general, and the American Army specifically, from a largely incompetent train-wreck into a massive war host capable of defeating two of the largest, most aggressively militant nations on Earth...at the same time.  I think with An Army At Dawn, Atkinson has succeeded in the first of his objectives.

Joe Kenney is a God Among Mortals

Why is this book-reviewing machine made flesh a resident of the divine realm?  Because he finds and reads - nay, devours - such delightful trash as David Alexander's Phoenix #1: Dark Messiah.  You all really need to go over to Joe's blog and read this review ASAP, because Joe considers this one of the most over-the-top action pulps he's ever read.  And considering he's read titles I've never even heard of, that is a gold-leaf seal of approval from deep in the heart of Texas.

Joe was the fellow who brought us the review of Penetrator #1: The Target is H, which appeared in Hatchet Force Journal #1.  He's got dozens of amazing reviews up on his blog, Glorious Trash, and since I have been following his reviews, I see now that I must really step up with my A-Game if I'm going to compete in the pulp review arena. 

Joe points out in his Dark Messiah review that the five novels in the Phoenix series are now available as an e-book compilation.  One of the most awesome (in my mind at least) aspects of the new e-book revolution is the e-pubbing of titles that have been out of print for years or even decades and lack any real justification for a new print run.  After all, what 21st century publishing house would print this stuff and distribute it to brick & mortar bookstores? Sadly this won't be possible with every series (although, Gold Eagle Books, if you released your old Able Team and Phoenix Force titles as e-books you would make bank), but for many this would be a wonderful occurrence.

I just picked up the Phoenix Rising e-book compilation, and if you like lurid post-nuke trash as much as I do, you should too.

Book Review: THE DEAD MAN #5 The Blood Mesa

This time around, Matt Cahill finds himself in the American Southwest, trudging through New Mexico.  While hitching a ride, Matt notices a blood-red mesa off in the distance, and feels a now-familiar calling to go investigate.  Walking on foot, he encounters a man and a woman with a broken down flatbed truck.  The woman is pretty and friendly to boot.  The man is quarrelsome, suspicious, and to Matt's eye, half his face is falling away from the evil rot Matt is able to see.  Much adventure ensues.


The Blood Mesa is not an extraordinarily complex story.  In fact, I would say it's the most linear and straightforward of the DEAN MAN stories so far.  But this doesn't make it bad, or detract in any way from my enjoyment of Reasoner's yarn.  Cahill journeys with his new acquaintances to the top of Blood Mesa (can anything good ever come of going to a place with the word "blood" in its name?), where an archaeological dig is taking place, examining an abandoned Anasazi village.  The Anasazi, as anyone who reads weird adventure stories and creepy folklore can tell you, disappeared very suddenly from the southwest with no real reason that anyone can pin down - the Roanoke settlers of aboriginal American tribes.  What makes the Anasazi even more ripe for weird/horror story fodder is the archaeological evidence found around some of their abandoned camps; namely human remains that appear butchered with tools and gnawed upon by human teeth.  Yes, that's right - the Anasazi are suspected of being cannibals.

All of this, as well as the appearance of the diabolical Mr. Dark early on in the story, and you've got a nice recipe for trouble.  Matt's axe comes into play in a big way over the course of this adventure, one of the most brutal and violent entries in an already brutal and violent series.  The story riffs off of some creepy western themes, with a hefty dose of cannibalism, whacko/zombie-movie mania, and did I mention there's a few sticks of dynamite thrown in for good measure?

I have recently read a couple of James Reasoner's novels, and I consider The Blood Mesa another excellent yarn from the Texan author - it is highly recommended.

Book Review: The Hunted by James Reasoner

A few months ago, I bought and read James Reasoner's long-lost, but recently e-published novel Diamondback.  I will review that book here shortly, but suffice to say that it was good enough and piqued my interest enough in Reasoner's work that I went out and bought his 1997 novel The Hunted for the Kindle.  It was actually the first book I read on my new Kindle, and while I'll have a short article soon about my impressions of the device, I will say that it was a pleasure to use.

The Hunted follows the adventures of Evan Littleton, a Confederate soldier who has spent two years in a Yankee prison camp until the end of the Civil War, at which point he is turned loose and walks all the way back to his home in Texas.  Or what used to be his home - he discovers that a lot has changed in the four years since he has been gone, and now Evan must range across much of West Texas in order to find his children and bring them together again.

Trouble seems to rear its head wherever Evan goes, and the former soldier finds himself pitted against the Texas State Police, squatting carpetbaggers, outlaws and bandits, marauding Indians, Mexican renegades - a whole rogue's gallery of ne'er do wells and scoundrels.  At the same time, however, Evan also meets and befriends a number of honest, compassionate people who help him in his quest.  The story shows you the best and the worst of human nature and how Evan handles both extremes is both entertaining and heart-warming.

While I have seen my fair share of western films, I haven't read many novels.  These days, the Western is a mostly forgotten genre (and according to John Locke in his kindle publishing "how to" book, the western is the worst-selling fiction genre on Amazon).  But it wasn't too long ago that many of our culture's most profound and engaging stories emanated from westerns fiction.  There is something so perfectly archetypal about a Wild West tale that you can't help but be pulled into these stories, and yet, not all of it is fiction; there were gunfighters, marauders, bandits, noble farmers, drunkards and whores, fortunes made and fortunes lost.  The Hunted isn't an epic story, but in a way - sure it is!  You can see a touch of The Odyssey deep down in there, mixed in with a number of other classic "quest" stories.

As an aside, coming from a background of almost twenty years playing pen-and-paper tabletop role-playing games, I find it curious that while the Wild West is the archetype frontier environment upon which Dungeons and Dragons was built, there have only been a tiny handful of Western-themed role-playing games, and none of them have really been extraordinarily popular.  I guess it is a credit to the genre that so many of its themes are, instead, ported to other places - fantasy worlds, science fiction and post-apocalyptic settings - where the themes work just as well.

So if you're looking for a fast, fun, easy read, and you've been intrigued by the western genre but haven't yet dipped your toe, give The Hunted a try.

Hatchet Force Journal #1 Receives Warm Reception

My new action-adventure e-zine, Hatchet Force Journal, went live on Amazon.com a week ago.  I've been averaging a few sales a day, enough so I know it's not just a handful of loyal readers who're always commenting on this site.  It's an exciting but nerve-wracking feeling to know that people you've probably never even corresponded with are now buying your product, but that's what happens when you take the Big Leap and click "Save and Publish".

So far the responses I've gotten have been great.  Jim Cobb over at Survival Weekly declares that HFJ is "...awesome drenched in win".  Jim makes an especially insightful comment about my essay, The Children of Vietnam, noting how I discuss "...the interesting dichotomy of being part of a generation who grew out of the hippy and counter-culture movements, yet became fascinated with violent movies, gory books, and really what should be considered to be the early days of torture porn."

Adventure and westerns author James Reasoner writes over at Rough Edges that HFJ is "...a fine piece of work".  James was, as best as I can figure, the second person to purchase the Journal, and he was kind enough to give me a lot of good advice in private about what can be done to make it better.  I'm currently reading one of James' e-book westerns, The Hunted, and it's a lot of fun.

Special Forces veteran and weapons expert Jack Murphy, who can now add "Self-Published Badass" to his resume, gave a review of HFJ over at Reflexive Fire, noting "Overall, Issue One is a solid effort and much more worthy of a periodical reader’s time than what is frequently available on physical news stands".   Jack's new paramilitary action novel Reflexive Fire  went on sale the same day as the Journal, and if you're a fan of action, intrigue, and conspiracy, you need to check it out.

Paul Bishop over at his super-cool blog Bish's Beat put up a promotional post, and over at Amazon he was kind enough to give me a concise and almost embarrassingly good review.  Bish says HFJ "...kicks off a whole new world, not only for Men's Action and Adventure novels, but for the whole concept of fan-type zines for niche interests. That said, The Hatchet Force Journals is one of the most professional entries in the field. Good articles, great interviews, and strong reviews".  Bish has just re-released a couple of his own book as e-books, namely Hot Pursuit and Deep Water.  Do the man a solid and check 'em out.

I've received a number of other positive responses, both public and private, and they have all been very encouraging.  I've requested from a number of professionals that they give me an "extraordinarily blunt" critique of the first issue, and even when there were a number of suggestions for improvement, as well as praises for what definitely worked, all have said they thoroughly enjoyed the Journal's debut.

With Issue #1 barely out the door, I'm already planning #2.  From here on in, every issue is going to  have a featured theme, plus a number of regular columns focusing in various topics.  The theme for Issue 2 is going to be "21st Century Action & Adventure" and will focus on movies, books, and other adventure media from the last 10 years.  I'm aiming for a release date some time in the second half of August.

Thank you all again for your support!