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1.0 out of 5 stars
One Of The Worst Novels In The Series, December 21, 2003
This review is from: Warrior's Requiem (Executioner) (Mass Market Paperback)
There's no excuse for the poor quality of this book. No, pardon me, not poor quality, that's too kind. Utter absence of quality would be a more honest description. In the past, Mike Newton has written some excellent installments in the Executioner series, but this book just really and truly sucks.
I'll admit it, I'm a Katz fan. A big Katz fan. But the pathetic, anticlimactic handling of Katz's death is not the only problem with Warrior's Requiem. No, it's just the saddest and most glaring problem. Take Katz's death out of the equation and this book is just a big freaking snooze from beginning to end. I could barely make myself finish reading it.
There is very little plot here, mostly just bland action scenes extended to ridiculous extremes to fill out the page count. The book's villains are limp, lifeless, stereotypical non-entities that truly pose little threat to our favorite heroes and offer absolutely nothing of interest to this loyal reader.
Then there was the total lack of characterization. Mack Bolan was about as interesting as toothpaste in Warrior's Requiem. David McCarter displayed all the personality of an overripe turnip. And Katz was treated like a disheveled, senile escapee from the No Longer Considered Relevant Or Hip By Gold Eagle Retirement Home. His behavior was ridiculous, embarrassing, and totally out of character---as was the way he was treated by Bolan and McCarter, who, in the past, never thought they were Katz's freaking nannies.
Indeed, in the past, both Bolan and McCarter had great respect for Katz, for his military skills, for his uncanny leadership abilities, and for his overall brilliance. In fact, I'd say McCarter looked up to Katz more than any other person in the world and Bolan respected Katz more than any other warrior he's ever known.
And what was all this self-righteous indignation displayed by Bolan and McCarter over Katz disobeying orders from Hal? Good God, how many times have Bolan, Able Team, and Phoenix Force disobeyed orders from the Farm? How many times have they gone behind Hal's back? A hell of a lot of times. And you know what? They're almost always freaking proud of themselves for doing it! But in this chunk of bound poop, we're led to believe that Mack and McCarter would be willing to gun down Katz if he gets in their way---I mean, shoot, the daft old bugger had the audacity to cross that freaking sacred invisible line and disobey Hal, hell, might as well kill the senile old coot.
Oh, and don't even get me started on the absence of Rafael Encizo, Gary Manning, and Calvin James from this novel---like they would just sit home with their thumbs up their rears when Katz is missing! Right! These dudes would scorch the freaking earth to find Katz...their absence smacks of laziness to me. Or perhaps authorial convenience. Maybe Newton just didn't want to have to juggle a larger cast of characters. Whatever the reason, the absence of this trio from Warrior's Requiem shows an utter disregard and lack of respect for this series' readership.
I'm disgusted I paid good money for this wretched book. I'm sickened that Mike Newton was paid money in good faith to write what should have been a pivotal book in the series and then churned out this abomination.
This book makes me ill and I just can't write about it anymore...One star is far more than this soulless hackjob deserves.
Don't believe this worthless piece of trash, people!
KATZ LIVES!!!!!!
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