Sky Ghost

Sky Ghost is a Men's Adventure title from the sporadically produced Wingman series.If you've stumbled onto this review and don't know what a Men's Adventure book is, it isn't (necessarily) a sex book. Instead Men's Adventures are action-packed stories strong on action, plot, and often short on characterization. They don't have to have detailed characterization because these stories usually take place in a series and thus the main characters are developed over time.There are a variety of Men's Adventure series. The Mack Bolan/Executioner/Stony Man series portray a grim fellow fighting organized crime - domestic and international. The Destroyer mixes mysticism, martial arts (the sun source, Sinanju), and political satire into its action. Deathlands shows a band of adventurers in a nightmarish post-apocalyptic world. There are several western-themed series like Long Arm and the Trailsman which use horses and gunplay to break up sex scenes. There are several series that relive various battles from recent wars. All of these series have strong male leads, operate in a male world, and have at their core action, action, and more action.Apologies to those who know what Men's Adventures are, but I thought it useful to give a short primer to help folks better understand this review.Wingman combines a post-apocalyptic world with the real war variety of Men's Adventure series. Apparently, the first 13 stories (published over a 10 year period) dealt with a war ravaged world in which the US was split up and constantly being invaded. Russians, Asians, Neo-Nazis, etc. all had their shot at the good old broken US. The only thing that stood in their way was air ace Hawk Hunter, Wingman.At the end of 13, it looked like curtains for Wingman. But he returned in 14, The Sky Ghost, albeit to a different world. This world was apparently a parallel one; one in which WWII never ended. It's the year 1997 and WWII has been going on for more than 50 years. America is in dire straits, they need a hero. Enter Wingman.What intrigued me about this story (not a book for those looking for serious literature) is the title. It smacked of an old pulp called G-8 and His Battle Aces. G-8 was a master spy and ace WWI pilot/fighter. He fought the Hun throughout his run in the '30s and '40s. But rarely did he fight ordinary Germans. No, instead he fought Nazi werewolves and steel-masked villains with ray guns. These were wild adventures, strange and unreal. The Sky Ghost seemed to be of that ilk.I found that it was. Oh, the writing is better and a bit more realistic. But the situations are just as fantastic. The world in which Hawk finds himself is filled with incredible war machines, impossible to build or fly in our world but airborne in Hawk's world. The enemy is clearly defined and we want only to root for the good guys.Still, there are some twists - not only plot but in the writing. Maloney doesn't seem to dash off the story. He writes. Rather than primarily using dialog to carry the

Hawk Humter lands in a parallel reality unsure of who he is. He soon discovers his unique talants and his sixth sense. I was at first unsure of how well this would work out with the strange aircrafts in this book. I was very pleased with the outcome and found myself lost in the book as the story progresses. Over all "Sky Ghost" is keeping true to the series and the character of Hawk Hunter.

I'm guessing that Mr. Maloney wanted to experiment with alternate history with this one. Blasting a somewhat amnesiac Hawk Hunter into a parallel universe where World War Two has been raging for half a century made for an interesting plot; it allowed Hunter to run into characters who had been dead for at least two prior novels. THE SKY GHOST contains all the trademark features of the WINGMAN series: intense aerial combat sequences, Hunter taking on large numbers of enemy airplanes on his own and routing them, tricked-out gimmicky airplanes, an endangered America, and kinky sex. Overall it was a little wierd, but a fine addition to the series nonetheless.