A New Broken Empire Review!
Raven’s Reviews recently took a look at the first Assistance Unlimited: The Silver Age novel, Broken Empire. Here’s what they had to say:
Assistance Unlimited, the next generation!
Lazarus Gray is now 59, still active, but not as involved in the daily affairs of Assistance Unlimited as he used to be. These are the adventures of Emily Grace, daughter of Samantha Grace, one of the original members of Lazarus Gray’s organization. Emily is getting a new partner, Benjamin Falk. Falk was on President Kennedy’s team in Dallas and blames himself for the assassination. But Gray referred to here as “the old man” sees something in Falk.
There are two interconnected stories in this volume.
Book One: The Rise of Helios
Marvin Levin and his crew of clones endeavor to reestablish the Fourth Reich. To accomplish the madman’s goal they seek supernatural objects either under lock and key in Assistance Unlimited headquarters or being actively pursued by them. But Levin has a rival… or is it more than one…
Book Two: Roll the Bones
Otto Darling, the current leader of SIGIL (Supreme International Group for Illicit Liaisons) is after the Chalice of Madness. Allying himself with Helios from Book One, he seeks knowledge that drinking from the chalice is said to bring. Or was that insanity and chaos?
I found the book exciting. The only complaint I have is that according to information at the end of this book, it is slightly out of sequence. Things that take place here are direct results of events in Lazarus Gray volume 8 which I am reliably informed will be out later this year.
That said, it does not really affect the story all that much since the focus is on the characters. The exact events of Emily’s birth and parentage being forthcoming does not stop the reader from enjoying what a kickass character she is. The character is 100% pure smashmouth pulp hero and the action never stops. There are over-the-top villains, world-shaking weapons, Nazis, the supernatural—what’s not to love? Encore! I say!
I give the book a resounding five stars plus!
Assistance Unlimited: The Silver Age – Broken Empire was examined over at 
Ray Bara has been a longtime supporter of the Reese Unlimited universe so it’s no surprise that his is the first Amazon.com review for Broken Empire. Ray gave the book 5 stars and titled his review “Loved the next wave of Assistance Unlimited” – here’s what he had to say in full:
The Black Terror is a character that dates all the way back to Exciting Comics # 9, published in January 1941 by Nedor Comics. His secret identity was pharmacist Bob Benton, who formulated a chemical he called “formic ethers”, which gave him various superpowers. He used these powers to fight crime with his sidekick, Tim Roland, together known as the “Terror Twins”. The character proved popular enough to survive until 1949 and his distinctive costume made for some truly memorable covers. After the Golden Age, the character eventually fell into the public domain – which led to a whole host of publishers reviving him for various projects. Over the years, he’s appeared in books published by AC, Eclipse, Wild Cat, Image, Moonstone and, of course, the Reese Unlimited imprint of Pro Se Press. I first wrote the character for Wild Cat back in 2008 as part of a book called Legends of the Golden Age and later used him in a couple of stories for The Peregrine. More recently, I’ve gone further back into his continuity to incorporate him into my Lazarus Gray stuff. Because his “later” appearances were written first there are a few discrepancies in how he’s portrayed.
Folks know that the Grace family have formed part of the heroic backbone of the Reese Unlimited Universe – we’ve seen Samantha Grace as part of Assistance Unlimited; Charity Grace has fought crime as Gravedigger; Eobard Grace has adventured on both Earth and The World of Shadows. There are others that have popped here and there, as well… and when I decided to tell a story set in the Sixties with Assistance Unlimited, I knew there would have to be at least one Grace on center stage. That turned out to be the daughter of the villainous Nemesis and our beloved Samantha.
Welcome back, folks. Things have been busy around here – on a personal level, my mom recently fell ill and she’s been forced to move in with me so that I can help assist her with daily living. Given that we were all afraid that she was going to pass away just a few weeks ago, we’re glad to have her around. Even so, it’s led to some disruption on the homefront. Oh, and there’s some sort of pandemic which has led to me teaching all my classes from home!
THE LEGACY OF LAZARUS GRAY CONTINUES-
Good news all around – I’ve approved the galley edits on Assistance Unlimited: The Silver Age so hopefully you’ll get to see this 1960s-era story soon. From what I’ve been told, the backlog of Lazarus Gray books will begin to roll out on a quarterly basis soon, too.
I’m moving closer and closer to the end point for the current novel and it’s at this stage that I’m always bursting at the seams to go ahead and type, “The End.” I’m anxious to think about what’s next and the thrill of the current WIP has simply evaporated. I’ve lived with it for too long.
So I’m approaching the ten thousand word mark on the 12th volume of Lazarus Gray… and you guys have only seen the first seven books! I’ve heard some griping from a segment of my readers and I sympathize but Pro Se is a big publishing outfit and they have a lot more than just my books to schedule. I do think that you’ll see something new from Reese Unlimited soon, maybe this very month, but it won’t be Laz Gray Volume 8 — it should be Assistance Unlimited: The Silver Age, which takes some of our characters and updates them to 1964 for a spy-flavored adventure. Lazarus is a part of that book but he’s not the star.