[HDNA #6] - The Target H (The Penetrator Book 1) by Chet Cunningham

[Neon Maniac]

Holy fucking shit. They didn't even bother to go with something different than the mob. Was the mob the only bad guys in the '70s?

Love that the heroin dealer is the Chinaman and the guy who's healing him is an Indian. My god, they are doing all the racist cliches.

This would have NEVER been written today. The author would be gone, fast and furious.

Speaking of Indian, of course the main character is found to be part Cheyenne. Of course.

Yeah, they were still the good enemy in the 70's. But it kills me because the mob never really got to the west coast. They used to send the witness protection mobsters to the west coast because the mafia wasn't really anything out here. It went as far as Nevada really, and that was about it. So none of this would be happening.

Not that there's any realism in the book to begin with...

And yeah, it's racist af. Looking at the time it was written and the who it was written for, I'm going to say in 1973 it probably wasn't racist and may have even been progressive. lol

Having finished the whole thing, what it really reminds me of as far as story and style go, is an old pulp. Like The Shadow or Doc Savage.

[Alien Redrum]

Have you ever seen the Doc Savage movie? It's ridiculous and fun and horrifying all at once. There's a scene where a Mexican woman just starts randomly eating a taco at work. Because she's Mexican I guess.

[Neon Maniac]

I've always wanted to see the movie but I've only seen the trailer. I've never seen any place that has it to stream.

And I don't know what you're complaining about because I would love to randomly eat tacos at work.

[Neon Maniac]

Have you read any more of this?

[Alien Redrum]

Not yet. I'm covering two offices this week and got bombarded in one of them yesterday. I'm going to try to read some more today, but tomorrow looks golden for sure. Definitely plan on it. So far it's the ridiculous nonsense I love.

[Neon Maniac]

Yeah, the ridiculousness of it is what kept me going straight through

[Alien Redrum]

Okay, I'm not going to nitpick every piece of ridiculousness, but I will point this one out:

"Before I say anything more, it is my duty to advise you of the provisions of the National Security Act of 1921 and the National Security Act of 1943."

"I think I know what you mean. That's the law that says I can't be compelled to testify in a State court on any matter pertinent to a pending Federal case and the other thing about not being able to say anything about anything to anyone about what we talk about for a period of ten years, right?"

Just knew those acts off the top of his head.

[Alien Redrum]

Also, they way they just refer to the Chinese guy as...Chinese. As in, "This your Chinese?" and "Your dead Chinese..." WTF.

[Alien Redrum]

Oh...okay, he went from "Chinese" to other things. I should have seen that coming.

[Neon Maniac]

Oh...okay, he went from "Chinese" to other things. I should have seen that coming.

Well yeah he gets identified and spoiler alert there turns out to be more Chinese people in the book. I would bet $100 that when the book was written he was referred to as the China Man, but the woke editor changed it just to Chinese.

yeah that little discourse about the laws was random and annoying it was just so stupid and pointless, and if you actually say those words as written it is very awkward. It kind of reminds me of the lines in Rushmore. Like when they're doing his plays. I could totally see that discourse being part of his Serpico play.

[Alien Redrum]

I've read the next three chapters, and it finally hit me what this book is.

Okay, when you read, say, Crabs, it's ridiculous but not annoyingly so. It's fun. And I think Guy Smith was just a badass in real life. His name is Guy for fuck's sake. So he's all manly, so he knows about manly things and how to write manly things.

Now, this? This feels like...okay, you know that guy who never had sex, but then he talks about it. And it's just off enough that you know dude has never had sex in his life. That's what this feels like. It feels like a really skilled teenage writer writing something that he thinks sounds cool, but doesn't have any real-life experience, so it lacks authority.

Mark Hardin is basically the Wish version of Mack Bolan.

Omg, writing them out like that...Christ, they didn't even try that hard to mix up the name. Mack Bolan. Mark Hardin.

Still enjoying it though. It's like that 2022 version of The Stand. I'll rip it apart all day, as I'm watching and enjoying it.

[Neon Maniac]

Yeah, that's a really good comparison. It's teen fan fiction of Mack Bolan You're right though, it's written by someone who doesn't really know what they're writing about. One of my favorite scifi authors is this guy named David Drake. He's a vietnam vet, lawyer, writer, and his main hobby is military history. His two main series are Hammers Slammers about space mercenaries, and the RCN series which is about the space navy. All of his books are based on actual battles or events that have happened and he just puts his characters in to it and writes it like it played out, or makes changes to make it a better story. He'll usually have a chapter in there about the actual things he's referencing and basing stories off of. As ridiculous has his story premises are, space mercenaries and space navies, they're hella authentic and are really fun to read.

This was the opposite of that and was ridiculous to read

[Neon Maniac]

There was a book I read in the mid 80's, not sure when it was written; maybe the 70's. I don't remember the name of it. It was essentially a book like this, but it was about an ex special forces guy, and the huge earthquake in california happened and it fell into the ocean. And the special forces guy somehow takes on the mob or other criminals, or something really stupid like that.

I wish I could find it again.

[Alien Redrum]

Can we take a minute to talk about the names?

Charlie the Horse
Stan the Man
Chu Chu

and, best of all, Tutti and Frutti.



My God, these names are killing me.

[Neon Maniac]

Yeah, those were killing me. I can see putting in one or two names like that for flavor, but every dang mobster has some nickname like that. Tutti and Frutti were over the top I thought. I liked Charlie the Horse, they should've just left that one there. Stan the man... lol. In further books I bet we get to meet Bob the Slob, Meatballs Marinara and Cha-Cha Chicharrons.

There's some things in this book like that, that make me wonder if this is bad satire or just bad writing