WINGMAN THE TWISTED CROSS BY MACK MALONEY

Copyright 1989.

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.

WINGMAN THE LUCIFER CRUSADE BY MACK MALONEY

Copyright 1987.

Victor the architect of the Circle War has escaped to the Middle East. Hawk Hunter and his F-16 are hot on his trail. He finds out that Victor is known as Lucifer in Europe and the Middle East. He has amassed a million man army in Saudi Arabia with Soviet backing. Once again the terrorist is sowing chaos for his Soviet masters. Hunter links up with an RAF contingent and finds out the Modern Knights the rulers of Western Europe are assembling a mercenary army to fight Lucifer. WWIII is about to heat up and Sir Neal has a bold plan. He is going to hire a group of mercenaries and tow the disabled aircraft carrier USS Saratoga across the Med to the Suez Canal. There he will hold off Lucifer’s army from breaking out into the Mediterranean Sea. The trip sees Hunter and the group battle the Red Army Faction in Southern France. The Holy Sardinian Empire. The Sidra-Benghazi gang and scores of airplanes and submarines to get to the Suez. There they have an epic battle against an overwhelming force that will determine the fate of Europe.

So Maloney takes his hero to the Mediterranean for his next book. We find out like America, Europe and the Middle East are one goofy ass place after WWIII. He has an eclectic group of people on this great crusade that involves the improbable feat of towing an aircraft carrier across the Med. Yes once again there is a boat load of improbable feats accomplished in this book. Once again the reader just doesn’t care. You are caught up in the fun story. Maloney obviously knows the point is the story and not realism. You have the good guys overcoming and defeating the evil guys against incredible odds. You root for these underdogs and get a satisfying ending. Lucifer gets killed by Nazis at the end which foreshadows some future bad guys. So just sit back and enjoy the fun.

WINGMAN THE CIRCLE WAR BY MACK MALONEY

Copyright 1987.

After the defeat of the Family, Hunter and his buddies settle down with the Pacific American Air Corp(PAAC) which consists of the west coast of the former United States. Yet stuff is happening. Hunter discovers the Soviets sneaking 50 Yak-38 VTOL fighters into the country. There are reports of mysterious goings on all over the country. Strange lights over the great lakes. Cavalry troops attacking from the Badlands. It is soon discovered that the Soviets have infiltrated thousands of surface to air missiles(SAMs) into the Badlands that center part of the country destroyed by a sneak nuclear attack. They also have Mongol cavalry to guard them. While this is going on Victor Robotov a terrorist and possible Soviet agent has organized the eastern part of the country into The Circle. With thousands of recruits they march to link up with the Soviets in the Badlands. Then they plan to conquer the Western Democracies. The only hope is for Hawk Hunter to retrieve five black boxes that will power a flight of special B-1 bombers. Along the way in New York he manages to also find a Stealth fighter and rescue his girlfriend Dominique. Then it is a great battle between the forces of good and evil.

The second book in the series has Hunter once again save the good guys almost single handedly from the evil Soviets and their puppets. Another fun adventure as we get to explore the kooky world of the New Order. In this one Hunter goes from Hawaii to the Grand Canyon. He manages to use a jet pack to fly up to the World Trade Center(it exists in this time line) and rescue his girlfriend and get the necessary components to save the day. Yes the logic is a bit sketchy and the plot is downright goofy but it is fun goofy. Maloney writes a very fast paced and interesting story with larger then life characters in a larger than life world. You get a good feeling to see the bad guys get put in their place. Definitely another winner in the series. On a side note I remember a computer game called Harpoon. A very realistic naval warfare simulation at the time I loved playing. I remember that the Yak-38 was a real piece of shit in the game. Had a very limited range and weapons. Somehow I think that plane was overrepresented in the book.

WINGMAN BY MACK MALONEY

Copyright 1987.

It has been two years since America lost WWIII to the Soviets. They won on the battlefield in Europe soundly defeating the armies of the Warsaw Pact. Yet the Vice President was a Soviet mole and had the President and his cabinet assassinated. Then he turned off the star wars shield and the Soviets were able to obliterate the ICBM fields in the Midwest. What resulted was the New Order. The U.S. was to destroy all its advanced aircraft and other military equipment. The country is broken up into various independent nations and Free States. All broadcast TV and radio was banned and so is any mention of the United States and the American flag. Hawk Hunter is a fighter pilot who has been living on a mountain in New Hampshire since the great stab in the back. One day he gets a message from his old commander General Jones. Jones is head of the Airforce for the Northeastern Economic Zone which is made up of New England. He is offered a job and the chance to fly the last F-16 in existence.

Naturally he accepts but soon trouble is on the way in New Order America. The Middle Atlantic Conference known as Mid-Aks have been steadily conquering territory. With traitors in the Zone government they manage to launch a successful coup and Hunter and the Zone air force are forced to flee. Hunter eventually hooks up with Louie St. Louie the founder of Football City. Formerly St. Louis, Football City is now the gambling capital of he continent. Their main attraction is a football game played all day for most of the year. Yet the forces of evil are gathering to destroy this bastion of freedom. The Family the Mafia has taken over Chicago and build up a mercenary army. With Soviet advisors and financing they are about to conquer Football City. Hunter is tasked with building up an air force from scratch to defend the city. It ends in a spectacular battle.

This is one of my favorite series from the eighties. It is like Top Gun meets the Road Warrior. I have heard it described as a comic book in book form and that is a very accurate description. Apparently after the war the older aircraft were overlooked so everyone uses old jet fighters from the fifties and sixties. Hunter has the only modern fighter in America. This is a character that is larger then life and fighting opponents that are larger then life. Now it is a bit absurd for people to go cruising around in a jet fighter like it was a Toyota. In real life such a complex piece of machinery needs a crew of twenty and mounds of spare parts to operate. You don’t really care because this story is just so fun. The series continued well into the nineties before morphing into a sci-fi series called Starhawk. Then the author revived it a few years ago so the series has a popular following. Personally one of my favorites.

ENDWORLD #31 FREEDOM RUN BY DAVID ROBBINS

Copyright 2021.

The Family has decided to investigate why they never hear from the Free State of California and sent the Alpha Triad. Blade, Hickok and Geronimo use the time travel device and end up in Northern California. They soon find that the state is under martial law and terrorized by unknown mutant creatures. Thousands are missing as the state becomes a dictatorship. Blade soon finds out the Lords of Kismet have managed to take over. Using the shapeshifting Gualon they have replaced Governor Melnick and key personnel in state government. Now the Alpha Triad has to expose to the people of California that their government is not under their control.

The next installment of the new Endworld series goes back to its roots. First it has restored the run in the title. It has the original warriors that this series started out with and visits a familiar place. Since the series was revived the Family has been all but alone in their fight against the Lords of Kismet. Now they are actively starting to reform the old Freedom Federation. They start with the most powerful of the members the Free State of California. Robbins really has a firm grasp on the characters for they feel just like when I read this series back in the eighties and nineties. This was one of the best of the post-apocalypse series back in the day and I am glad to see it continue to thrive and move in new and exciting directions.

TANKWAR IV: FIREBRAND BY LARRY STEELBAUGH

Copyright 1991.

It is several days into WWIII and there is a tenuous truce. The First Guards Tank Corp has failed to successfully withdraw to a more tenable position thanks to Captain Max Tag and his supertank Xm-F4 No Slack Too. This didn’t come without a cost. Their driver Wheels Latta was killed. Fortunately they find a replacement in Tag’s girlfriend Lt. Giesla Ruther. Yet they still have their orders to continue to harass the trapped unit. So with his supertank, two advanced Bradleys and some Rangers he continues his attacks against the Soviets. They manage to destroy a recon battalion before the Soviets surrender.

So this book sees the war in Europe come to an end. The Soviets due to internal rebellion see the hardline government overthrown and a new democratic one take it’s place. You can tell that this series was already running out of steam. It has this supertank very overpowering and it is endless skirmishes with the Soviets. Naturally they achieve an overwhelming victory each time. Yet you get this sense reading this that it is pointless. The Soviets are clearly defeated so why bother? The book came out literally two months before the Soviet Union actually collapsed so it was already becoming highly improbable for this scenario to happen, I actually thought this was the last but I found out that there were two more books for this series future.

TANKWAR III: FIRESTORM BY LARRY STEELBAUGH

Copyright 1991.

The Soviets have resorted to a tactical nuclear strike on NATO forces in southern Germany. NATO responds and devastates the Soviet divisions. A truce is called for units to withdraw from contaminated areas. General Kettle though wants to punish the First Guards Tank Army which was the unit that launched the strike. The army is trapped between lake Constance and contaminated fallout areas. So Captain Max Tag with his supertank XM-F4 No Slack Too is given the job of harassing them. Because of the truce he will be operating without any support. Although he gets two super enhanced Bradley APCs and a company of Rangers to help him out. So begins a series of hit and run attacks against the army. Yet the commander a Colonel Yeshev has his own formidable tanks in the new T-80B.

For the third book the author ups the stakes by going nuclear. This seems to have hurt the Soviets more than NATO. After this we have units deserting. We are also introduced to the Soviet perspective in this book. Colonel Yeshev gives up a look at how hardliners took over. He is someone who is a sympathetic character and not some cartoon caricature that sometimes populate these type of books. We get plenty of over the top action as the No Slack Too causes mayhem with the Soviets. Needless to say the T-80Bs do not live up the the hype that the book hints at. It ends with them successful in preventing the Tank army from withdrawing but they do lose the driver Wheels Latta.

TANKWAR II: FIREBALL BY LARRY STEELBAUGH

Copyright 1990.

World War III has started with a Warsaw Pact invasion of western Europe. Sgt. Max Tag has managed to get the experimental tank back to NATO lines. Now he finds out his new mission from General Ross Kettle the commander of NATO. First he gets promoted to captain. Then with the newer XM-F4 No Slack Too he is to go back behind enemy lines to gather intelligence and hit rear area command and supply. They are also to go after units that are bringing up tactical nukes. So Tag and his tank are reunited with the Jagd Commandos and American supply company. Operating from an old mine and working with the local resistance they manage to take out a rear area HQ and many of the units bringing up tactical nukes. Only they don’t succeed in getting them all and a nuclear attack is launched against the NATO armies in southern Germany at the end of the book.

So the second has Tag and his supertank going behind enemy lines. They reunite with the units that helped them including his girlfriend Giesla. It must be great to be in a combat unit and have your girlfriend along for the occasional sex during those rest periods. Somehow I don’t think the real world works that way but this series was not set in the real world. You also get a new character introduced in Sgt. N. Sain. A hashish smoking rock musician who was visiting during a USO tour and now commands a Bradley. He was in the reserve Army and has his two keepers Mad Dog and Rabies. He spouts all this goofy new age mumbo-jumbo. This came out in December of 1990 which by then it was obvious that the Warsaw Pact was a Humpty-Dumpty that wasn’t getting put back together again. Still it was an enjoyable action series that you just suspended belief to enjoy. Ends with a big cliffhanger of a nuclear strike to give the reader a sense of much more serious stuff to come.

DAMNATION ALLEY BY ROGER ZELAZNY

Copyright 1969.

Hell Tanner is a convicted criminal in the Nation of California in this post-apocalypse future. A former Hell’s Angel he is offered a pardon. To earn it he must agree to deliver needed plague serum to Boston the only other pocket of civilization on the continent. In a high tech armored car armed with missiles, machine guns and flame throwers with two other cars he sets out to cross the desolate wasteland. A land filled with mutant giant snakes, gila monsters, bats, tornados and radioactive storms. He runs into various survivors. Some crazy and others biker gangs. Will he make it in time to save Boston.

I was familiar with this from the movie with George Peppard and Jan-Michael Vincent. It was based on this book and I have to say that it was loosely based but surprisingly similar in tone to the movie. Most of it was a leisurely travel log of a badass armored vehicle as it cruises across the post-nuke country. The main protagonist Hell Tanner was an anti-hero in the vein of Snake Plissken. Described in the beginning as a murder and rapist. Someone who gouged the eyes out of someone just for the fun of it. Yet in the book he is clearly anti-social but demonstrates noble attributes. When he finds his brother has joined this expedition for money so he can get married, he tells him of a hidden stash of money. Then proceeds to break his ribs so he can’t go on the expedition. In fact half way through the guy who wanted to take off at the first chance he got decides to finish this trip. He actually has to fight with his partner who wants to turn around. Then he runs into the biker gangs around New York and rescues a woman who he quickly falls in love with. She dies and it was a sad little moment.

Naturally he makes it in time just as the sky turns back to normal just like in the film. Only at the end in true anti-social behavior he vandalizes the statue erected in tribute to him, steals a car and heads out into the wastelands. The movie seemed like something that just sort of ran out of money half way through. The beginning had giant scorpions, tornados and hordes of cockroaches. Then the second half devolved into endless montages of the vehicle driving and George Peppard shaving. The book actually seemed to pick up the action at the end. Still for all it’s faults I like both the film and book.

So here is the trailer for the movie.

TO THE VANISHING POINT BY ALAN DEAN FOSTER

Copyright 1988.

Frank Sonderberg is a successful businessman with a growing chain of sporting goods stores. This summer he decided that for the family vacation to Las Vegas they should rent a motorhome instead of fly. Now with his wife Alicia, sixteen year old daughter Wendy and ten year old son Steven they are cruising through the Mojave. They come on a young woman hitchhiking out in the desert and stop to give her a lift. The strange woman who calls herself Mouse is a singer from another dimension. She is traveling to the Vanishing Point to sing to the cosmic spinner. She needs to sing to him otherwise the fabric of reality will descend into chaos. Soon the Sonderbergs find themselves at Hades Junction the gateway to Hell. Captured by fire-breathing cops they manage to escape with the help of a Navajo named Burnfingers Begay. They continue on and find themselves in an alien Las Vegas, a reality where everyone tells the truth and a nuked out Salt Lake City filled with mutants. Their Winnebago is now a mystical ride as they cruise down the Cosmic Road which happens to be Interstate 40. It takes them to the Vanishing Point and a final confrontation with the Anarchis. The fate of reality hangs in the balance.

I have been getting some new books lately and this was something that looked interesting. I really loved this book. It was an exciting read with an original concept. The characters all seemed to be fleshed out with their own personalities. The various realities were enjoyable with some humorous and sometimes quite disturbing. An enjoyable book that kept me interested from beginning to end. This would make a cool movie and I will have to check out more by Foster. In addition to many movie novelizations he has an extensive body of original work. I will have to check out more in the future.