XIII Book 10: El Cascador
XIII Book 10: El Cascador, by Jean Van Hamme & William Vance, Cinebook
“WOW!” I whispered under my breath a few pages into reading this. Whereas the two word expletive I unconsciously shouted aloud to an empty room as I finished El Cascador I won’t commit to print here but I think you get the implied reaction that this book is really something.
In my review of the last volume of this series I opened it with the statement that I refuse to call XIII by any of the names that have been subscribed to him throughout this series so far – in fact I’m quite content for him to remain an unknown soldier – But, kind of as expected, but not so soon, Van Hamme throws a curveball or two and now has me thinking that yes the tattoo-engraved Roman numeral may well be Jason Fly and whoever else along the way. Oh, my giddy head!
So XIII was down in South America playing freedom fighter last time round, only to get captured. This time the cavalry come to the rescue, helping him to rescuing Maria (who may have been one of his previous self’s wifes), only to get captured by said cavalry – now headed by Maria’s brother – and be accused a traitor to Costa Verde. Now the wise new dictator would just have XIII and his gang executed, but dear George gets a deal to be signed by XIII allowing him and said companions to fly to safety.
XIII ditches the plane ride, meets up with Maria, ends up with Irish gunrunner George Mullway suddenly decked out in a suit playing his lawyer as they proceed to pull many rabbits out of hats that it would take a room full of Ali Bongos, the Van Buren family, two David Nixons a Derron Brown and the late Paul Daniels to achieve the same feat in real life. Talk about twists and turns. Some unbelievable, some strained, some with you saying “of course”, and me still thinking that with the next book Van Hamme will turn it all on its head again.
Suffice to say it’s a happy ending, possibly the happiest so far. But for how long?
Let me make it clear, that although this is the second half of a two-part tale you don’t need to have read the first half as things get well explained, and without you needing a scorecard this time, as the story progresses, and Vance’s art is reassuring and direct for us to follow through on from Page 1 until the end.
I still prefer Van Hamme’s Largo Winch series for pure Simon Templar-style escapism, but in these gritty post-conspiracy theory times we live in XIII surprises and challenges my preconceptions constantly.
For more information on XIII visit Cinebook.
Sponsored by Target Media.
