Where Mack Bolan Loses It a Little

Boston Blitz by Don Pendleton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These 70s books remind me of bloody, brutal 80s movies (which I liked, actually, to a point). The violence in both can be shocking, especially if you let yourself believe it could really be happening somewhere. However, as bloody as it is, and despite the main character's frequent, ambivalent musings about the ethical implications of his horrific crusade, the reader feels that he is justified in everything he does. It's a black and white world with good guys and bad guys, a world where he can ambush and murder people as long as they're bad guys, and everything is just fine. They deserve it. No harm done.

That's the logic of the books, anyway, and if you go along with it, at least as part of the general suspension of disbelief, it works fine. Very fun, in fact. It's like a grimdark fantasy except it's based in our real world...

(Here's my current theory: there's an alternate world similar to ours, one where guns and explosives aren't possible, maybe where the people have evolved beyond violence, but they still like their terrifying stories, and these novels--a kind of grimdark fantasy set in an incomprehensible society where such violence is possible--were written there to shock and entertain the good people. Then copies somehow were brought over into our universe.)

(I can't prove it. It just feels true.)

Anyway, remembering that different kinds of writing serve different purposes, and that the purpose of pulp fiction is definitely to tell a brisk, entertaining story, I have to give this 4/5 stars.

Not for all readers. But if they have movies in that alternate universe, this story would be a blockbuster.

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Where I Gritted My Teeth and Loved It

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a high-powered read. Amazing.

The story of Miriam, a damaged and angry young woman who sees death everywhere, is rough, and it is upsetting at times, and it is hard to read in places. But it's hard in a good way.

Miriam is smart and smart-mouthed, coarse and off-putting and desperately self-aware, and she is a fantastic character. She's just trying to survive in a world where she can't hide from the horrible truths she sees, but she doing a bad job of it. She can't stop people from getting hurt so she just gives up. Until she can't. That's where it gets really good.

The language here is challenging, the dialogue especially filled with crudities and ugliness that would be labeled "problematic" if it were coming from a real person instead of a character, and reading a lot of it is like falling on your hands and knees in broken glass. I'm not precious or pearl-clutching as a rule, but I found myself grimacing and wincing and making faces--and it's fantastic. The prose is brilliant. F'ed up, but brilliant.

The story is non-stop, rolling along like an action movie. It's a ton of fun.

Recommended.

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Where Old Guys Kick Ass

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love the rock-n-roll cover. That's what drew me in, originally. I only held off buying because my TBR pile, and the investment thereof, was unsustainably high. Then I learned the author lived in the college town in Canada where I spent two good years, and I hadta have it.

Glad I did. (I was gonna say "By turns blank and blank," the blanks being "funny" and "heroic," but Benjamin Dreyer blew that formulation out of the water. Dang.) This novel works on many levels, particularly as a straightforward action fantasy. Old fighter dudes come out of retirement to save the adult daughter of one of the guys. They face monsters and dragons and bad guys and hazards of all sorts, getting beat up and hurt and keeping on, all of it in a kick-ass, non-ironic, heroic fashion. In this way, it owes a lot to D&D and sword and sorcery and similar books that deal with that kind of action.

It's not light, though. There is actual drama, with a number of empathetic characters. I have no doubt that Clay adores his wife and would do anything for his daughter; Matrick genuinely, deeply cares about Moog, who is still grieving a lost love; Gabriel is gambling everything to try to save his daughter. You want to see them succeed. These characters are people we care about.

But it's also funny, and it works as a comic adventure. Because the characters read as real people, not caricatures (a type of fantasy humor that doesn't work for me) the laughs come from the interactions, mostly, though there is also excellent banter. (The humor is more Deadwood than Friends--if you get me. "That's so Al!" and "Oh, Johnny!" becomes "That's so Ganelon!" and "Oh, Moog!") The laughs season what could otherwise be a pretty grim story (but, you know, in a good way), moving it along, keeping it fun, and the emotional contrast makes for a satisfying read.

The coolest thing about the novel is its central conceit, which is that bands of fighters in that world are stand-ins for rock bands in our world. They are beloved and indulged celebrities, living lives of excess while riding high and even after the fame evaporates. Young bands come up, earning praise for destroying rampaging monsters, and replace the old guys who are no long idolized. Managers direct their careers, steal their money, and earn the resentment of the bands they do it to. Kids emulate them, dreaming of someday living the same life. It's funny, but it's clever and it works, giving the story a quirky resonance.

Well plotted, nicely paced, funny and dramatic by turns (damn! I did it anyway), with wonderfully salty language, it shows an author with a deft touch and lots of creativity, and it is a great pleasure to read.

Recommended.

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