The book of course is Mace #6: Year of the Boar by paperback legend Len Levinson. Len (may I call you Len?) was really one of the best writers in the 70s Men's Adventure market. His series work on Super Cop Joe Blaze and The Sharpshooter, and his stand-alone thrillers and more literary works are all very entertaining reads. He's one of those writers like say, Michael Avallone, that can't help but inject a little of themselves into their work and it's for the better.
Too many of the paperback writers of the time didn't actually want to be writing a Sharpshooter book or a Peacemaker book. So, they wrote the books in a perfunctorily way and they either come off a little bland or often they read like a private eye novel because that's what the writer wanted to write or maybe Raymond Chandler was the only "fun" writer they ever read. But Len throws it all in when wrote these paperback assignments, the action comes quick and often, the characters have a real 70s New York vibe to them (when in New York) and they have a nice conversational town, like Len is just telling you a nice and violent story.
Now, the Mace series is the product of the 70s post-Bruce Lee kung fu boom, if you want to know more about that I suggest you go over to Steve Carroll Writes where Steve has a nice overview of the phenom and how it affected the spinner racks. Mace is the product of the, uh, warped mind of Joseph Rosenberger (if you've read a Death Merchant you know what I mean) who was working for Manor doing The Murder Master series at the same time. I haven't tackled a Rosenberger Mace book yet; I understand that they are a rough a read as a Rosenberger book could be. I have to be a special mood to tackle one of his books. All that being said, I have tons of those books, so why am I complaining?
Mace #6: Year of the Boar is Len's only entry in the series, it didn't last much longer but it's still a shame. I understand in Rosenberger's entries Mace is more of a CIA dude. Here he's simply a Martial Arts Master who runs a school and lives by his strict code and when the Mob tramples on his code Mace springs into action. It's a simple story but that's one of the things I really enjoyed. It played like a down-to-Earth-story Men's Adventure story, but Mace himself is nearly a superhero with his Chi being able to cure bullet wounds in no time and all his super-heroic bullet-dodging kung-fu fighting. And there's TONS of fighting in this book and once the Mob imports an evil Martial Arts Master to kill Mace, the whole thing is set to boil of. All of that plus arson, mob hits, attractive lady reporters, Chinatown vibes, fun made-up guns, and a little philosophy too.
Like always in Len's work the side-characters a well-rounded in their brief appearances. Len pretty much always sticks with the protagonist of his book most of the time which sounds simple, but too many Men's Adventure books spend too much time with the bad guys or side-characters. Len spends just enough time to understand their goals and to show how evil they are. Mace himself is a bit of cipher, but that's pretty in line with what a Martial Arts Master would be, but he's a fun enough protagonist who likes to chew on matchsticks.
This is one FUN book. Seriously, this probably tops my previous favorite Martial Arts paperback, Kung Fu Master Richard Dragon: Dragon's Fists as my all-time favorite now. It's got a shorter title to type too. Len's work is top-shelf and finding the old paperbacks have become a pricey affair once the work got out, luckily a fair amount of them have been reprinted and are eBooks, so they are easy to get. Go out and buy some RIHGT NOW.
