Brief thoughts on my latest reads

[PMP Webmaster]

So over the holidays I read DM #62, the Soul Search Project, and #63, the Pakistan Mission.

Soul Search Project I'm not all that impressed with. The plot kind of meanders around the country as the Death Merchant and his Blue Eagle force look for the kidnapped scientist who claims he has found a way to talk to the dead. There's some fair battle scenes, but about two dozen NYPD cops get hosed in the book (I'm not mad at this really, but it was pretty unnecessary), and there's a lot of metaphysical blahblahblah in the book that gets really tiresome. About the only good this this book does is set up #64, Atlantean Horror, which I read a few months ago and found pretty enjoyable.

Pakistan Mission was pretty cool. I always dug anything having to do with the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and this book deals with Death Merchant & Co. recruiting a band of Pathan rebels along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border to attack and wipe out a secret Spentsnaz base being built in Afghanistan to facilitate an invasion of Pakistan. Good action, some suprisingly interesting political discussion, and I always like it when Rosenberger creates a story where the Death Merchant can be more than just a butcher. Here, he does a good job of forming an alliance of Pathan tribes and planning their attack on the Russian base.

If I can find a little time, I'll see about posting formal reviews on the PMP review page.

[Philb]

Which "Death Merchant" book(or books, if you can't choose one) gets your vote for having the best action sequence?

[PMP Webmaster]

Hey Phil, you're off of the mackbolan.com board, right? Glad to see that my site made an appearance there without any prompting on my part.

I'd hesitate to say "best" action sequence, but I do like the end-of-book battles in most of the "black cover" Death Merchant books I own. Of these, the battles at the end of Burma Probe and Atlantean Horror are pretty cool, Burma Probe especially - The fight involves not only Camellion, the agents he's been working with, Lester Vernon Cole, and Mad Mike Quinlan's Thunderbolt Unit Omega mercenary force, complete with helicopter gunships, fighters, air transport, and APCs. In fact, all the Black Cover books seem to end in a very large and brutal battle, which is pretty fun just for the sheer intensity of the action.

So in short, I'd say if someone was looking to read a few Death Merchant novels, they ought to lean towards the Black Cover books - I've had the most enjoyment out of them.

[Django The Bastard]

I was an avid reader of the Death Merchant in it's heyday...I read 'em as they came out, so it has been a while for me for most of them, but I still have vivid memories of the most bizarre action series of all time!

The one that I considered the highlight of the series for me was #8 Billionaire Mission...it was a tale of agents from around the world (including Russians) trying to stop the plan to destroy the world by a devil worshipping madman...pulp action at it's early 70's finest!

In many ways the earlier ones were almost easier to digest as they contained less of the racism prevalent in later volumes.

Not that Russians wer ever anything other then "pig farmers" to Camellion!

[PMP Webmaster]

Ahhh yes, "pig farmers". I wonder just how many pigs do get farmed in Russia...

I haven't read Billionaire Mission, don't remember if I have that one or not, but I have read Deadly Manhunt, which is the "sequel" to #8 - the son of Camellion's target in Billionaire Mission comes after the Death Merchant to get revenge on his father, and tracks our elusive merchant of death with a "aura tracker". Weird, but filled with the usual allotment of insane violence that we all know and love.

[Philb]

Yeah, I'm the Philb from the Mack Bolan boards. Thanks for your input on the Death Merchant series. I'll keep in mind what you said about the "Black Cover" books. For the most part I've been confining myself to the books with neo-nazis as the enemies. I don't know why, but I find these plots the most interesting. One of the Neo-Nazi books I read and enjoyed very much was "The Fourth Reich". I thought the chapter where Camellion and his teammates have to fight their way out of the bad guy's mansion was a rather well-written action sequence that made for exciting reading. I've also read the first two Death Merchants in the series, which I thought were just OK...not really that fantastic in the action department. I have in my possession, but have not yet read, "Nightmare in Algeria", "Massacre in Rome", and "Billionaire Mission". I'm looking forward to reading "Billionaire Mission" as the plot seems quite wacky and interesting... and after reading Django's positive appraisal I'm guessing I'll enjoy it. I didn't realized "Deadly Manhunt" was a sequel...I'll have to pick that one up one up!

[PMP Webmaster]

Yeah, how can you really go wrong with Neo Nazis as bad guys? They're pretty much the perfect opposition. Camellion faces off against them in #15, the Iron Swastika Plot, which I've read - fairly entertaining, with some good under- and on-the-water combat.

I've been on-again, off-again with #36, the Cosmic Reality Kill, where Camellion takes on an Apocalypse cult. Going to have to finish it one of these days. If people aren't comfortable reading some of the more derrogatory DM novels (and that's a valid complaint), the nice thing is that there are a bunch of other DM books out there where he kills Neo Nazis, Satanists, cultists, criminals...hell, he kills them all.

[bigautomag]

i used to have maybe 30 or 40 death merchant books and enjoyed them greatly. I would like to know if anyone knows a great place to buy a bunch of them? Or how to find out more about the author? thanx

[PMP Webmaster]

As for the author, Rosenberger seems to not have any web references to himself. I know he wrote for FATE magazine at some point, that he was into all sorts of oddities like aliens, ESP, astral travel, and all that whatnot (of course, all that goes hand in hand with Cold War conspiracy theories anyways). People who knew him, from what little I have gathered, portray him as a pretty depressed, bigoted, mentally unhealthy person. A lot of that bleeds through into his books, and it's up to the reader as to whether that turns them off the series or not.

As for where to get more books, I always say the best place to FIND them is through abebooks.com. However, I tell people to never buy directly through Abe, since their shipping charges assume a weight of 2 kilos or so per book, so buying half a dozen slim paperbacks that add up to a pound might net you about twenty pounds' worth of shipping charges. The best thing to do is use Abe to find a used book dealer who seems to have a lot of the books you want, then use their contact information to buy from them directly. If you specifically state you're not terribly concerned about how the books are shipped you might be able to get them sent book rate or what have you and save the charges some place on individually wrapping the books in mailers or bubble-wrap.

[zanshin]

I think sometimes the Death Merchant gets an unfair shake, in terms of it's quality. Yes, some volumes were completely annoying and hard to read. But, many more were highly entertaining, highly detailed, and just plain fun. What I liked about Rosenberger was the inconsistency, I didn't get the feel that I was reading the same book over and over like I do with the current Bolans. The variance of characters etc and the writing on the whole had alot more personality and creativity. Todays Bolans seem to be cut from almost identical cookie cutters with the exceptional higher-quality novel popping up now and then. While he certainly was "un-PC" he did spin some really good takes, especially in the later issues (and the "Super Death-Merchant"). I was suprised to find a "Super" - they only did one and it was very good. I wish there were more information out there on Rosenberger. I recently found an almost entire collection and am enjoying re-reading the series.

[ROBOTIK]

The Death Merchant was second, and a close second at that (With Remo Williams being third) only to Mack Bolan. I credit DM and MB with my becoming a Republican at ab early age.

Thanks for the info on Rosenberger. Is he still alive?

I also had books he wrote under the Camellian name called, Assasination: Theory and Practice and Behavior Modification.

[zanshin2]

I believe Rosenberger's last published work was "Geneva Force" in 1990, which was probably intended to be a #1 of an ongoing series.

[doug]

I just tried to get through installment #13, THE MATA GROSSO HORROR, but I couldn't hack it. Maybe the Death Merchant isn't for me.

It has a wonderfully absurd premise: a neo-Nazi has set up a camp in the Brazillian rainforest where he's taken over the minds of canniballistic natives. I didn't go through enough of it to figure out what the ultimate big plan was, but hopefully there was something cookin'.

There's actually too much action, I think. The best comparison I can think of is (I hope nobody will be offended by it, although if you're reading Death Merchant novels, it's hard to imagine you're easily offended) adult films.

Too little sex in an adult movie and it's just boring, and sort of beside the point. On the other hand, I find adult movies that are nothing but sex just as boring after awhile. You need to strike a balance: how people do that will vary, of course. But it's easy to see the far ends of the spectrum.

Even in the grottiest pulp, you've got to manage things a bit, I think. Work towards crescendoes. Rosenberger starts crashing his cymbals from the first couple of pages and never lets up, and it gets tiring after awhile.

doug

[Vaughn]

I used to read these books back when I was in Jr. High school in the late 70's. I had almost every one. I lost them all when my mother threw them all out.. but recently I got hold of almost all 63 books from e-bay. My thing is .. What is the last book? didn't Joseph Rosenburger die recently? Anyone know?

[Django The Bastard]

To the best of my knowledge the very last volume of the The Death Merchant was The Greenland Mystery number 70 in the series.


It was a doozy if I recall...I think it was about battling the ever present "pig farmers" to recover a flying saucer buried under the icy plains of Greenland!

This would make the total series 71 volumes all together counting the un-numbered "Super Death Merchant" Apocalypse...not a bad run all in all...

Rosenberger died several years ago...sadly, despite a small sized following online...(you see him mentioned on occasion...often in a very bad light)...there is very little on the internet as to his personal history.


The author Stephen Mertz has shared some of his knowledge of Rosenberger in the past on the Mack Bolan message boards...he knew him personally...perhaps someday he'll pop in here!