Comments on: BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> One-Name Wonders

By: Bookgasm: Reading Material to Get Excited About » Blog Archive » BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Creative Bankruptcy

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:00:56 +0000

[...] 1984 adventure offers the most mindless fun. I was ready to goof on the fact that the real author disavows these novels, but I’ll hand it to John Shirley: As ridiculous as this book gets – and it [...]

By: Bookgasm: Reading Material to Get Excited About » Blog Archive » BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Countdown

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:48:55 +0000

[...] FROM U.N.C.L.E. #2: THE DOOMSDAY AFFAIR by Harry Whittington • THE OTHER END by John Shirley • THE SPECIALIST #1: A TALENT FOR REVENGE by John Shirley • TRAVELER #1: FIRST, YOU FIGHT by John [...]

By: Bruce

Bruce — Fri, 18 May 2007 01:48:39 +0000

Well excuse me I did not tell him I was reviewing a book he does not like to bring up anymore. To be brutaly honest I was not even expecting a response about my question.

By: Paula

Paula — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:46:30 +0000

So an anonymous poster asks you on your author’s message board: “John was just wondering why there is no mention of The Specialist series on the site. Especially since your name does come up on the amazon listings for it also.”

He doesn’t identify himself and say it is in the context of commenting on the books somewhere. He doesn’t even say he’s read the books.

The author — who was hired to write the books to certain specifications more than 25 years ago in an extremely limited amount of time — answers, in about 10 seconds, fairly: “But the Specialist books, though as well crafted as I could make them with the speed I had to write them, are not my finest moment as a writer…”.

The books AREN’T his finest moment! Good grief, what is he supposed to say? have you read some of his “finer moments”?

The books were written for what waas then called the “men’s action” genre. They are what they are. They are over-the-top, violent, and sexy. That’s what they were supposed to be.

As for the leather jacket — I doubt if Mrs Shirley would really care for that, uh, fashion statement?

By: Ryun

Ryun — Fri, 11 May 2007 03:19:45 +0000

I grew up in a household where my dad would take me to used bookstore after used bookstore in search of black-spined Doc Savage paperbacks, as well as any Avenger books we could find, and I loved the specialists books just for that reason–as a 12-year-old.

By: PMP Webmaster

PMP Webmaster — Thu, 10 May 2007 23:53:14 +0000

I’m the prodder, by the by. I’ve read about half a dozen of the Specialist books (gotta get around to doing full blown reviews of these myself) and they are indeed, erm, “over the top”. Amazingly they are more digestable than some of the trash I’ve read & reviewed, but they are just so, so very hokey. And I have to say that I am just a little bit disturbed by all the really graphic sex that goes on in them. I’m certainly no prude, but I have to wonder why constant references to the protagonist’s eight-incher and such comments as “…take me through the back door!”, “…I don’t know if I can fit it all in my mouth!” and “…worked at it like a giant candy cane…” really need to be in there. Well OK, I can guess why, but it makes me wonder how it fits with John Shirley’s quote: “But the Specialist books, though as well crafted as I could make them with the speed I had to write them, are not my finest moment as a writer…”. In the end, this stuff is trash, but more readable and certainly more rabidly gratuitous than a lot of the other trash you could be reading (like, I dunno, the Gor novels…).

By: Ryun

Ryun — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:44:18 +0000

That’s some good prodding.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:30:27 +0000

It was the prodding of a friend of mine to cover that book. He was also the one who pointed out how Shirley has distanced himself from them.

By: Ryun

Ryun — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:26:32 +0000

He seems pretty dismissive in his response to Bruce’s question, and that’s too bad, because the books are awesome, if I’d have written them I would have a special leather jacker made that said “LADIES: I WROTE ‘THE SPECIALIST’ BOOKS” on the back.

By: Paula Guran

Paula Guran — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:09:47 +0000

Shirley’s never distanced himself from THE SPECIALIST series or dismissed it. As it inspired the Stallone film, it gave him his first screen credit. But it was a “work for hire” series written under a pseudonym. None of his pseudonymous works are listed on the Web site. Is it comparable in qulaity to much of his other work? No. As you yourself say, the plot is all over the place, although it does display great imagination and over-the-top action.