Into The Volcano by Forrest DeVoe JR. (2004).
Totally
retro spy thriller created by a writer who tries hard to rejuvenate 60’s spy
novel (He even starts his own publishing company for that purpose only).
However,
believe or not
This
novel is what exactly it’s claimed for:
Cheap,
outrageous and totally RETRO fun.
I
love it!!
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layers. – Jack Mallory. 5’11’ with lean body and unusually wide
shoulder. He is 34 yrs old and speaks with faint Texas accent.
Ex-army with good fighting
skill and very strong mind.
Like all 60’s spy, he
is dedicated ladies’ man. Can’t stop putting his xxxx in xxxx.
Overall, he is like a
James Bond’s little American cousin. Not as cool or handsome or smart as
Bond’s, but does his job as well as Bond.
Laura Morse. Female
version of Bruce Lee.
Used to be a data
analyst, but once CIA finds out about her martial art skill, they turn her into
a field agent.
A small but beautiful
blond woman who can also become a good actress depending on the situation.
Because of her deadly
martial art skill, they call her “a ghost princess “.
Always carries a paper
book romance. Time to time, Mallory makes a move to her, but she, literary, brushes
him off with one finger even if she loves him so much, it hurts her.
One of the best and deadly agents
in Consultancy.
Gray. Boss. M’s mind and
Dr. No’s appearance. Small chubby man with a large head where a large scare
covers left half of the face.
He has a numerous
legends regarding his service for various agencies (CIA, Interpol…).
After, literary,
killing off the biggest heroin ring completely just by himself, he appeared in
New York and opened his own agency called Consultancy with very mysterious and envious “unlimited
source of capital’.
The most feared man in
the world of spy and information.
Talaat and Osman Asker. Very
royal Turkish brothers who works for Consultancy’s Turkey branch. Even if they
are young (early 20’), they are very smart and quite dependable.
Piotr Nemerov. A very
expensive Russian assassin.
A big (over 2m) and
handsome, square-jawed man who are essentially very similar to Mallory. They
are smart, fit and both love women and their jobs. Except, of course, they
belong to the exactly opposite side.
Sasha Kurski. Nemerov’s
old friend of 25 yrs.
A bony guy with a very
watchful eyes who specializes only on eliminating highly secured target.
Nothing disturbs him other than stupidity and works only for money.
Anton Rauth. A super
villain. Dr.No to Gray’s M.
Originally from very
old Prague shipping family.
A freak cocaine
accident permanently lamed his right arm and ever since, his sanity is in
question.
He builds an
organization similar to Consultancy with only one major difference: it only serves the evil with money.
One of those,
brilliant, charismatic but totally insane, so called “The Ultimate Villain” that
you always get to see when you watch 60-70’s spy movie.
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lace. –It has all the
classic location for the typical RETRO spy-book.
This book is
essentially divided into two parts.
Book 1 is located
Istanbul, the one of the most popular city for spy activity in general. I mean
you can’t find the better place to start your Spy novel than Istanbul, the city
of mystery and corruption. Also, huge part of the city is basically thousand
years old MAZE, making it even more exotic and mysterious.
Then with book 2, the
scenery is totally changed. Our agents are in He’ Konau, one tiny island with a
huge volcano located right in the middle of it.
With,
of course, secret bases under the volcano cave!
With
huge army!
With
Secret weapon big enough to destroy the entire planet!
Retro
rules!!
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lot. –This book has
everything to make it one of the best spy thrillers. No, it doesn’t have overly
complicated plot (remember this is still 60’) or gruesome genocide.
What it has is a very
solid, straight forward (simple) but interesting story line and very fine RETRO
SPY SETTING which includes ridiculously outrageous secret weapons, 60’s
space-age underground base in exotic location and hideous villains with insane
personal taste.
Here are the actual plots:
1. One of the agents from
Consultancy gets killed in Istanbul with ridiculous but cool trap. Obviously someone
is challenging the agency.
2. The Consultancy sends
two of their best (Mallory and Morse) to investigate it and all kinds of things
that supposed to happen happens.
3. In book two, the same
duo is deployed to the small island called “He’ Konau”, to gather information
about the new evil king (Rauth) and his secret base located inside the volcano
called Dragon’s throne.
4. Again, chaos follows
and All Hell Breaks Loose!! With very Bond’s like ending.
V
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erdict. – First of all, I am
not a spy book person. I just can’t relate myself to any of those cool spy
characters because they are just too far away from me. As I always have hard
time associating myself with any of spy guys and their agenda, it is kind of
hard to follow their action and to say nothing of the story line.
However, since this book is more “adventure” than “hart
core spy novel” just like Bond’s, I don’t
find any trouble reading this book.
It has perfect
combination of story, style and adventure, you will have really tough time
putting this book down.
Fan of retro spy books,
especially like James Bond Series, will recognize quite a few similar trends
here: secret bases, cool gadgets, sexy Secretary, crazy villains and a boss as cold as ice.
However, the author openly admits that this
book is intended to be a homage to James Bond, so just relax and go enjoy this
book.
You
will have tremendous fun reading this one.
They
should make a movie out of this!!
