Ranking May Reads

In the video, Eric counts down his top book reads from May, ranking them from worst to best. He shares brief reviews, shows the book covers, and provides publication history and reprint details for each vintage paperback. Stream below or watch on YouTube HERE.

The Terminator #03 - The Kill Squad

Dennis Rodriguez wrote the six-book series The Terminator using the name John Quinn. The series was published by Pinnacle between 1983-1984. Thus far, I'm batting .1000 with hits in all three series installments I've read – Mercenary Kill, Silicon Valley Slaughter, and Crystal Kill. I was glad I found the third book, The Kill Squad. It was published in September 1983 with cover art by series regular Bruce Minney. 

The villains in The Kill Squad are international political assassins that live in the U.S. Under the disguise of being “weekend warriors”, these killers live in a camp in rural Arkansas. It's here they have recruited rednecks from town to join them in this survivalist dream of planning for an inevitable U.S. invasion from the bad commies. It's funny – the baddies HAVE invaded and living under the noses of the paranoid small town America. They even threaten the local hick sheriff to allow them free reign.

Rodriguez has a number of characters thrown into his violent narrative. First, a rogue town resident has spilled the beans to a friend in New York, a D.A. who wants to expose the survivalist camp. The killers, led by a crazed lunatic named Max, find the townie and the D.A. and ice them both. Next, they track down the townie's sister and girlfriend and kill them. This is the long way of how The Terminator, Gavin, gets involved. Remember, Gavin is a retired C.I.A. assassin that wants to pursue easy living in the mountains reading books and banging his girlfriend. Terminating the bad guys isn't something he sets out to do in these books. 

Gavin heads to New York first and gets into an amazingly (read that as savagely violent) well-written fight with the two killers in an apartment. I'll never look at my kitchen knives the same. Next, he heads to Arkansas and gets in the fight through a woman named Pam. She was raped by the bad guys and, to add lime juice to wound, they murder her father. This plot and takeoff was just fantastic. Unfortunately, Rodriguez doesn't stick the landing.

Gavin's placement in Arkansas is wasted. He doesn't do much to protect Pam, all these innocent characters pretty much become raped or killed, and the excitement of breaking into the camp and bashing brains takes place on pages 190 through 194. The problem? There are 199 total pages in the book. I was expecting so much more after this 190 page set-up and it was all just a big waste of time. I can't completely obliterate the book or Rodriguez's writing because it mostly worked. This was just terrible execution. The Kill Squad was The Kill Flop. Read at your own risk.     

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 120

In this episode, Eric explores the life and career of Lou Cameron, a comic book artist who became a prolific paperback writer and pioneer in the adult western genre. He also reviews a Booktuber, showcases his latest used book acquisitions, and discusses the newest issue of Men's Adventure Quarterly. Stream below, watch on YouTube HERE, or download HERE.

Listen to "Episode 120: Lou Cameron" on Spreaker.