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Post by PMP Webmaster on Mar 30, 2005 13:10:42 GMT -5
I just finished the Series Overview for the pulp series The Specialist. You can get there through the PMP page using the link in my .sig below, and clicking on "The Specialist" link in the left-hand frame. The overview is pretty entertaining, if I do say so myself. I'll be working on getting a few more covers and some short book reviews up there in the next week or two as well.
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Post by englishteacherx on Nov 11, 2006 7:48:09 GMT -5
I think you were a little hard on The Specialist series, insofar as you said it was just an Executioner ripoff -- yeah, it most certainly is that, obviously John Shirley was just writing the series to pay his bills, but I think there's a sense of humor to it that you missed -- some parts of the series almost seem like parody.
For example, I can't remember which book it was, but it was set in New York. There's one of the lengthy sex scenes that you mock -- in which the author mentions Jack Sullivan's "eight inches of pink steel." Pretty cheesy, of course -- but then Sullivan is walking through 42nd Street later and is disgusted by the pornographic film theaters -- one of which is playing a film called "Pink Steel."
Plus, the supporting characters and villians tend to be much more colorful and eccentric than the generic mercenaries/hitman/federal agents/soldiers/drug lords/terrorists in other books.
Somebody on the board hit it on the head saying that they're books that people who like late-night cable TV will enjoy.
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Post by PMP Webmaster on Nov 13, 2006 14:03:37 GMT -5
Eh, I'm fine with the "humor" in it - hell, if I can laugh at the Death Merchant I bet I can laugh at almost anything. I think what really embitters me towards this series is Shirley's complete disavowment of the books. At one point there was a very oblique mention of them in his website's bio, but the last time I looked I couldn't even find that.
Be proud of your schlock beginnings, John Shirley, be proud.
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Post by Skaramine on Nov 14, 2006 22:11:24 GMT -5
Shirley needs to get a little distance, then like Donald Westlake and Parker, there'll be a happy reunion.
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Post by englishteacherx on Nov 16, 2006 16:29:57 GMT -5
Interestingly, if you watch the mid-90's Sylvester Stallone / Sharon Stone / James Woods action film called THE SPECIALIST, which has pretty much nothing at all to do with THE SPECIALIST novels, beyond the fact it's about a mercenary who is hired to kill some people, you will see in the opening credits, "Suggested by THE SPECIALIST novels by JOHN SHIRLEY."
Obviously, he wasn't ashamed to take credit for the novels when a Hollywood paycheck was forthcoming. . .
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Post by PMP Webmaster on Nov 17, 2006 13:46:22 GMT -5
Yeah. When I was first fishing about for any reference to the novels, I got a Google match off of the IMDB entry for that movie. Of course that was what, over a decade ago?
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Post by Skaramine on Nov 17, 2006 14:56:36 GMT -5
That was 1994. Then Shirley noticed how awful the movie sucked far worse than the cheesiest of novels, most likely.
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Django The Bastard
Junior Member
"They called him Django...he was a friend to me..."
Posts: 85
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Post by Django The Bastard on Nov 30, 2006 10:33:38 GMT -5
I t makes ya wonder why the series was even mentioned in the credits...Stallone's character Ray Quick was nothing like Jack Sullivan...
Maybe if he was it would have been a little better movie...?
According to imdb "Steven Seagal was offered the chance to star and direct this film but he wanted $9 million for it. The studio didn't want to pay him that much and offered it to Sylvester Stallone instead."
I wonder if it was somehow connected to Stallone's un-satisified desire to once play Mack Bolan?
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