Customer Reviews

Serpent's Lair (Executioner)

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Executioner back in the land of the Rising Sun or Bolan #327 with the Executioner in the middle between the Yakuza, mercs, and a black clad serpent cult, Burakku Uwibami, which has ties to medieval Japan. Since I had once lived in the Tokyo-Yokohama area of Japan for close to two years, I had great interest in this book, but it generally did not deliver what I expected.

All the action takes place in a very small wooded amount of acreage near Tokyo, with kidnapping and blue prints involved. All sides eventually want those blue prints and square off using a combination of modern weapons and traditional style Japanese weapons.

An interesting sub-plot in the book focuses on a 400-year battle between the original Zakoji leader of the Serpent cult and a dark clothed stranger. So at story's end, when the latter day Zakoji and black clad Bolan square off, the saga comes full cycle. And as anyone with knowledge of Japanese will recognize, the 'ji' at end of a word generally indicates a temple, shrine, or religious site. So, Zakoji is therefore a symbol of sorts to his black clad followers as something more than a mortal figure.

There is almost non-stop action and violence, to a point that it is not only difficult to keep up with who is doing what to whom, but trying to believe Mack Bolan single-handledly, for a while at least, can hold all these groups at bay is difficult, especially when he is generally unarmed. He can only gain weapons from the men he kills, all the while slowed down as the protector of the young lady, Honey, everyone wishes to kidnap. In this book Stony Man, Phoenix Force, Able Team, Grimaldi, etc., are all AWOL, with Bolan out there strictly on his own.

As with all GOLD EAGLE adventure books, this is still a worthwhile read. Too bad the author did not interweave more culture of Japan and a peak at modern day Tokyo. Anyone reading this book will learn little of modern day Japan or Tokyo. Too much violence dampens a good tale.

Semper Fi.