Customer Reviews

Blood and Thunder

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of the Nate Heller books are good. This one is very good. I enjoy the characters and the ties to history. Basically, a Forrest Gump/Spencer type of read.

It was an excellent book. A little bit too much language. It got crazy on pg. 140 (read that page). It had a whole bunch of explosive sex. And a whole lot of bloodshed.

I'm a years-long fan of Max Allan Collins' Nathan Heller novels. I can't and won't place Collins in the same league as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross Macdonald, but I love the way he melds actual historical personages and events with fictional ones; wonderfully imagined and executed.

My only objection to these novels pertains to Heller's gratuitous and tiresome sexcapades. I'm not a randy teenage boy, and I would prefer not to be distracted by the jejune and irrelevant. Also, there are a couple of issues specific to "Blood and Thunder". On page 70: "There was no time to bathe; I threw some cold water on my face, quickly shaved, nicking myself a couple times, threw my things in my valise, got into the white suit, snugged on my Panama. Within three minutes of Seymour's call, I was at Alice Jean's room, knocking." Bushwa. Also the fight described on page 305 is poorly choreographed and described. While tied to a chair, Heller slams forward into one thug, then rams backward into another. Really? Moreover, Collins suffers from amnesia when writing this section. Although the chair to which Heller had been bound was broken to pieces, Collins makes clear that Heller's hands are still tied behind his back. Yet we read on page 308 that Heller lost his balance "and fell back splatteringly into the water, arms waving." Hmmm.

I'm harsh, I know. Still, I'm happy to acknowledge that Heller's adventures make for enjoyable reads.