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Blood Ivory (Lance Weber #2)

Andrew McCoy

Start date: November 13, 2014

Finish date: November 13, 2014

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Nov 23, 2014 Matt Posner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was originally published in the 1970s; I read the new edition by Cool Main Press, which is both re-issuing Andrew McCoy's work and commissioning new novels from him. This text was provided to me by the publisher at my request since I was interviewing the gentleman for my website.

Blood Ivory is a direct sequel to African Revenge, to which I also gave five stars. Both feature as hero Lance Weber, who is an apprentice adventurer in the first novel and a veteran adventurer here, travelling This book was originally published in the 1970s; I read the new edition by Cool Main Press, which is both re-issuing Andrew McCoy's work and commissioning new novels from him. This text was provided to me by the publisher at my request since I was interviewing the gentleman for my website.

Blood Ivory is a direct sequel to African Revenge, to which I also gave five stars. Both feature as hero Lance Weber, who is an apprentice adventurer in the first novel and a veteran adventurer here, travelling on the road in a caravan of trucks with a mixture of sub-Saharan Africans as employees and partners. Both are unflinching in their depiction of race relations and racial conflict. Blood Ivory adds some new elements: boats, helicopters, and Chinese participants in the conflicts. The range of this story is expanded to include England and many places in Asia, including Singapore and Hong Kong. More parts of Africa are shown; I was surprised by the small scale, since the truck convoy seems to cross countries in fewer hours than it would take to cross states that I drive through in the United States. I know Andrew McCoy has it right, however. No thriller writer knows Africa better than Andrew McCoy.

The novel posits an alternate-reality version of the 1970s world in which wild elephants are near extinction, and with their extermination, the price of their ivory will be dramatically magnified. The result, as one might expect after reading African Revenge, is brutal slaughter of men as well as animals.

Blood Ivory is a very gripping novel with strong characterization and terrific plot. It confirms me in my belief that I will enjoy anything Andrew McCoy writes, even when I am horrified by the cruelty and gore and even when I find the characters' attitudes alien to my own. This is a different type of thriller than those written in this century, because of its setting, because of the treatment of race (and violence toward women), because of the characters' necessary reliance upon 1970s technology (no mobile phones or computers).

I give this book five stars. It is highly recommended for everyone with a strong stomach for violence.

I hope I will soon see a reissue of McCoy's controversial novel ATROCITY WEEK. Really longing for a look at that one. ...more

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Nov 13, 2014 Andre Jute marked it as to-read

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