IRON STAR

 

IRON STAR

By Loren D. Estleman

Forge Books

238 pgs

 

Rising western film star, Buck Jones, has convinced Boston financier Joseph Kennedy to bankroll a movie he wishes to produce and star in. The story Jones wants to tell is the last outlaw manhunt led by the legendary U.S. Marshal Irons St. John and his posse after the notorious Buckner Gang. To get the events accurate, he seeks out one of the last surviving members of that posse, retired Pinkerton agent, Emmet Rawlings; a solitary old man with only his memories to sustain him.  

That’s the basic plot of Loren D. Estleman’s latest western novel and the story goes back and forth from the early 20^th Century advent of wondrous technology ala cars and movies to the last days of the so-called wild west. As always, Estleman waste no time in stripping away the veneer of myth and sinks his teeth into the fat and gristle of what the post-Civil War west really was; a hellish stage on which thousands of Americans moved, fought, lived and died. 

What we truly marvel at in this book is the writer’s keen sense of language. It is brutally authentic and at the same time gut-punching poetry. With each phrase, we’re catapulted back in a verbal time machine giving us a small glimpse into that world buried beneath decades of myth spinning. “Iron Star” is a delight and another gift from a master storyteller. Don’t let it slip by you.

UNION

 

UNION

By Van Allen Plexico

White Rocket Books

264 pgs

 

The earth has been invaded by a confederation of alien warmongers. They maintain control of the remnants of humanity via an army of robots called Kratons. Then one day a human slave worker named Jack Gael discovers a silver belt buried deep in the ground. Upon wrapping it around his waist, he is instantly encased in an impenetrable force field. A field he can mentally command to do his bidding. That includes destroying Kratons and anything else thrown at him. Within days, Gael becomes a hero in the alien sponsored arena combats and his called the Gladiator. Could he possibly be the hero mankind has waited to for to lead a revolt to ultimately freedom?

With “Union” writer Van Allen Plexico has whipped a truly fast paced, action-adventure science fiction tale that owes it roots to the comics of the sixties, seventies and eighties. Here are echoes of Marvel’s Iron Man and Valiant Comic’s X-O Man of War; never mind Dell’s Magnus Robot Fighter. All of which the author unashamedly declares his personal inspiration for this grandiose tale. Regardless, Plexico’s inspiration takes on its own life, its own approach to the genre of superbeings versus aliens. This from his keen sense of characterization from Gael to Jack Smith, the manipulative immortal travels through itself multiple times in order to orchestrate Gael’s final cataclysmic confrontation between humans and their alien overlords. Plexico is a master at bringing his characters, no matter how fantastic, to life and we readers quickly found ourselves rooting them on.

Having won lots of writing awards in the past, this reviewer confidently predicts “Union” may be the latest to deliver him another.

MEN'S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY # 10

 

MEN’S ADVENTURE Quarterly Issue # 10

The Vietnam Issue

Edited by Robert Deis & Bill Cunningham

Subtropic Productions, LLC.

167 pgs

 

When this issue arrived in the mail, we found our thoughts traveling back in time. This July, 2024, will mark 56 years since this reviewer came home from Vietnam as a U.S. Army soldier. We were twenty-one at the time. Honestly, it seems like it was another person who experienced those twelve months that war-torn foreign land.  

Since returning, we’ve never read a single book about Vietnam; fiction or non. It just wasn’t something we wanted to remember all that much. Oh, we saw a few movies, but for the most part, they were just make-believe to us. When young American country boys went off to fight in the Civil War, they compared it to going off to the circus to see an elephant. That’s what eight million of my generation did in those short years between late 50s and early 70s. We went off to see the elephant. Thousands of my brothers never came home and that’s something we’ve never forgotten.  

Okay, so back to this review. As ever we tip our hats to editors Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham who have once again put together a great package filled with both gritty, typical men’s action/adventure stories accompanied by truly gorgeous artwork. Their zeal of preserving the Men’s Adventure Mags of a by-gone day is praiseworthy. Each of their issues provides its readers with a glimpse into a literary genre that evolved from the pulp mags and paved the way to today’s modern thrillers.

As for the Vietnam theme, it was a bit hard to read some of those stories while at the same time smile at the memories of some of the great guys we served with. Hell, even the section on the beautiful Raquel Welch and her 67 Christmas tour with Bob Hope echoes in our heart. We were part of that 100,000 military audience they entertained in Long Binh during that junket. It was truly something else. As is this issue. Thanks, Bob and Bill.