The United Americans have achieved some relative stability and decide it is time to seek some much needed justice. They raid Bermuda where the traitorous Vice President still runs the New Order regime. Brought back to the states a huge trial is put on in Syracuse. There Hawk Hunter and others under hypnosis have told their stories about their experiences during the war. Hunter is the main character and starts out on Christmas Eve at Cape Canaveral where he has just been accepted to the space shuttle program. Only a surprise gas attack on Western Europe cuts his training short. Joining his friends at Rota, Spain they wage a brutal air war with the forces of the Warsaw Pact. A war that is eventually won but a stab in the back by the traitor VP sees America defeated and her forces destroyed.
The trial is interrupted by the Soviets who demand the return of the VP. They have now rebuilt their nuclear capability and as a demonstration detonate a nuke over Syracuse. Now Hunter must fly a mission to the Soviet base in Kazakhstan in a souped up B-1 bomber. This mission will determine whether America is free or the Soviets dominate the world.
This installment of the series is a prequel of sorts that shows us what happened during the initial opening of WWIII. An epic fight that sees Hunter in these massive air battles. The goal to distract the Soviets enough for them to use these super hi-tech weapons against the invading army. It you want a realistic depiction of a Soviet invasion you should read Harold Coyle, Tom Clancy or Larry Bond. If you just want an over the top fun battle that sees A-10 Thunderbolts and AC-130 gunships sink an aircraft carrier. Massive air battles involving all types of fighters under the sun. Goofy types of advanced drones taking out entire divisions then this is the book for you.
This was the last hurrah for the Soviets as the enemy of Hunter and the United Americans. After this they ceased to be a threat. The new threats after this were Nazis, KKK, Asian Mercenary cults and submarine Vikings.
I got to watch a Rifftrax this Tuesday. It was supposed to be broadcast last year but you know what happened. So this is the first time I got to a theater and it was fun. The show started off with a short called Life in Medieval Times. Some dumb peasant kid named Otto has to take a cow to town to sell for a pair of shoes for his lord. To tell you the truth it was interesting and I learned a lot about live in those times. Apparently the Seneschal the lords second in command wears a green rag on his head and a pair of shoes cost a cow.
Dolt of a security guard who is the first to die.
So the movie starts on an abandoned movie studio. There are two security guards and the younger one who always wears his walkman has just been hired. The old guy warns him not to go into a part of the building which he ignores and finds a vault. He gets an illusion of him being a rockstar and somehow that ends up killing him. The old guard finds this and just closes up the vault. Nothing to see her.
Old guard showing off the pistol. Probably used it to shoot Archduke Ferdinand.
Well apparently they require two guards for this abandoned studio and he hires another young guy. This one is much more enthusiastic. He goes home and we meet his friends which are just pure eighties. There is his girlfriend who always rags on him about how much of a wimp he is. There is this guy in purple shorts who is addicted to phone sex.(This was those primitive times before the internet.) A slutty girl who can’t wait to get it on with her boyfriend returning from the army. Oh and the boyfriend has to embarrass the hero by kicking his butt in a rake fight to show how inept he is.
Big fight with rakes. Thank God the Soviets didn’t invade because if this is what was in the army we would have been screwed.
Well one night at work some guy in a leather jacket tries to break in. Thankfully they have a pistol to chase him off. Only the young guy thinks he went into the mysterious vault and so checks it out. He releases the Hobgoblins.(Why they didn’t escape the last time is a mystery.) Some nasty puppets that have this psychic ability to grant people their wishes but it kills them. The old guard has been keeping them locked in a vault all these years. Why? Don’t know.
The Ho wondering where her boyfriend is while a Hobgoblin must have found a stool to stand on.
Well by some great coincidence the Hobgoblins are drawn to the young guys house were his friends are partying down. The trampy girl is attacked by one of them and uses a hoe to squash it. Both girls later have to fight off the little puppets in a hilarious scene of them rolling around on a couch clutching them, trying to look like they are being attacked.
Ho uses a hoe.
The guy comes with his Army buddy friend and chase them out to the van where they are locked in. Only they are too late to save the phone sex pervert. A Hobgoblin gives him a vision of the phone sex girl wearing spandex that looks way too tight to fit.(I think I need a penicillin shot just looking at her.) She lures him to Reputation Road to make out. Only the real plan is to push the car over the cliff. The young guy comes and saves the day.
Phone pervert being lured to his death.
Only when he comes back home does he find that the Hobgoblins figured out how to open the door of the van and escape. They also lured his girlfriend to Club Scum so she can live out her fantasy of being a stripper. The gang goes to Club Scum and the place does live up to its name. It has a bouncer named Roadrash and a waitress with a beehive hairdo that has to be seen to be believed.
Hey 1963 wants its hair back.
Well stuff happens with the Hobgoblins causing chaos. The Army guy hallucinates that his sergeant is there and gives him grenades and an Uzi which he starts to blow up the place. One grenade explosion sets him on fire. Eventually they defeat the Hobgoblins and go back to the studio for the big final showdown.
Nothing says the eighties like this.
This movie was a very beloved one from the Sci Fi era. One of those just so bad they are good. Obviously it is a ripoff of the more popular Gremlins. The writing and acting is just so bad. The fights with the puppets. The Army guy at the ends comes back fine after being burned alive. This is just one of those perfect movies to riff on. So glad that Rifftrax is back.
The movie trailer.
And finally there will be another show in October. Amityville 4.
America is finally united and the Soviet puppet Circle is soundly defeated. Yet the country is a mess and the provisional United American government has its hands full rebuilding. There are rumors that the Panama Canal is still intact and Hawk Hunter goes to New Orleans to investigate. He talks to a man who claims to have been there and tells that the canal is run by Nazis that are obsessed with collecting gold. So Hunter takes off to Central America which is now known as Big Banana. There he finds the Twisted Cross a Nazis organization is extorting gold for passage through the canal. They also have mined the canal with nuclear explosives. Hunter has to find an expert that designed these explosives so they can be disarmed. America needs the canal to ship supplies from the west to rebuild the east.
So he rescues the doctor from some skinheads in Texas and finds out his daughter Elizabeth Sandlake was taken. She is a noted anthropologist who recently discovered new Mayan caverns that hold gold. The Twisted Cross needs this because they have this grand plan to corner the market in gold and from this rule the world. Hawk’s adventures find him meeting an American mercenary group known as CATS(Central American Tactical Squad) and some warrior monks. With the United Americans pretending to negotiate a mutual nonaggression pact they manage to ambush the Nazis and disarm the canal. Hunter rescues Elizabeth and once again defeats the enemies of America.
Now we move from Soviets and their criminal allies to Nazis as the main villains in this book. The Nazis would soon play a predominate villain in the series going forward. Now really explained how these Nazis came about but like most stuff in this series you just go with it. They do make excellent villains. Also introduces Elizabeth Sandlake who becomes a major villain in the series. She starts out this decent woman but somewhere along the line she goes nuts. She also develops this hypnotic power over people which we start to see develop in this book. Once again you just go with it. A strange development for a very strange series. I do love this series. It is just so off the wall nuts to be a fun and entertaining ride.
Hawk Hunter is back from the Middle East after defeating Victor Robotov aka Lucifer and his invasion of Europe. Now he has the deal with the Soviet backed Circle that controls the eastern half of America. The western forces now known as the United Americans first have to liberate Football City formerly St. Louis, They first have to make sure they rescue ten thousands POWs that the Circle are using as hostages. This involves a convoluted plan to use old prohibition era tunnels to get them to the Mississippi and float them out on inner tubes. Then Hawk and his friends infiltrate the Family in New Chicago and manage to take over that organization of criminals. They then set the Family army against the Circle army and destroy both of them. Finally they move east to continue their victories.
Yet they have to hurry for the Soviets have hired a mercenary army in Scandinavia that is coming to reinforce the Circle. They also have to stop a massive iconoclasm from happening in Washington D.C. The Soviets plan to burn thousands of books, sports equipment and American flags to destroy American culture and demoralize the people. Hunter has to lead a general revolt and stop the evil Soviets from their diabolical plans.
This book sees the Circle finally being defeated and America reunited. It also has Hunter get an upgraded F-16 or an F-16XL. Once again Hunter and friends fight against overwhelming odds and come out on top. I love how they manage to come into the mafia controlled New Chicago and take over. Maloney has a real talent for making his villains so loathsome. Most are sexual perverts into underage girls. I will say that he was way ahead of his time in the whole cancel culture thing. Sure the whole plot of the Soviets is a bit goofy and seemed really so at the time. Yet destroying American culture to destroy America has never been more alive and well. This was a really enjoyable book filled with over the top action and villain. Not to mention a good dose of American patriotism thrown in.
THE BOOKS THAT TIME FORGOT. 