1-800-Henchmen: Four Horsemen By Katherine Wielechowski - The Last Of The Series Raises The Stakes To The Breaking Point

1-800-Henchmen by Katherine Wielechowski

In this fourth installment of Katherine’s 1-800-Henchmen series, things take a much different turn from what a reader finds in the first three novelettes. Things get quite serious for our hero, Alfie Vihar, as well as for those around him.

This series consists of four novelettes that follow Alfie Vihar for a short period of time. While looking for a way to make some money so he can travel after graduating high school, Alfie answers an ad and suddenly finds himself working for a company that rents out personnel to assist clients, good or evil, to accomplish their goals.  In the beginning, Alfie is quite green and has a rough time keeping up with the other members of his team, but as they are a team, everyone chips in to train him and his competence grows. Alfie also grows as a person through the series.

At home, Alfie is surrounded by a family that is very close and cares about on another deeply. Alfie’s best friend, Tessa, is actually more of a member of the family than an outsider. Alfie can go to Tessa with anything and she is always there to help. The biggest problem that Alfie faces is how to keep his family from knowing that he is a henchman. He faces danger on a regular basis, so he tells his family that he is working for a company that does athletic training in order to explain the bruises he sustains from training, He also tells them that he often has to go on business trips to explain his absences. As time passes, the missions that Alfie’s team go on become more complicated and so does Alfie’s personal life.

So far, Alfie has been pretty happy-go-lucky as he goes about the business of putting super villains out of business. However, in Four Horsemen, things take a turn for the worse and the stakes are raised to the breaking point. Alfie has to take a second look whether continuing on is really worth it. The stakes are high and so is the action in this last of the four 1-800-Henchmen series.

As always, Katherine does a great job continuing the familiar brilliant character development and engaging story lines that have been a thread through the entire series. Even the most minor character has a level of personality that a reader can relate to, or find endearing. Four Horsemen ups the ante for Alfie and his team, not to mention those that he cares the most about and the action is palpable. Not only is the action fast paced, but there is also the added dimension of high tension as Alfie has to figure out how to get the job done and not risk everything.

I recommend reading the entire 1-800 Henchmen series in order so one can really appreciate the brilliance of this up and coming author.

On another note, I am both happy and saddened by the recent news that Katherine will be leaving the local area to take a new job in the city working in the publishing business. I am happy for her, but at the same time sad because I will not be able to hear her wonderful and witty writing at our twice-monthly Central Nebraska Writers Guild meetings, not to mention the great munchies that she brings along.

I am sure that the other members of the CNWG will join me in wishing Katherine all the best as she embarks on her new adventures, and our hopes that she will stop in every now and then and share the amazing writings that we have come to enjoy and love.

Well, there it is…

Qapla’!

1-800-Henchmen: Three Times Unlucky by Katherine Wielechowski - It's Not Easy Being A Henchman

1-800-Henchmen: Three Times Unlucky by Katherine Wielechowski

Alfie Vihar is a member of a crack team of henchmen that work for Resources, Inc., a company that hires out henchmen to whomever needs them to do a job, good or evil. Alfie is a member of Team 9, and in this installment, they are sent to help a pair of super heroes defeat  the biggest threat they have faced since Alfie joined the team.

Three Times Unlucky opens within hours of where the last book, Double Lives, Double the Fun, leaves off. Team 9 is getting a briefing from Commander Gibson, who compliments the team on their handling of a nuclear terrorist they put down in Canada. The team is allowed to leave. Alfie uses his time off to accompany his sister Ruth and his best friend Tessa to the local museum to see new exhibits there. As the trio move from one building to another, a storm arises and causes the building to collapse. Alfie, Ruth, and Tessa are not injured in the collapse, but several people are trapped and hurt, so Alfie works to help those he can. When he receives a phone call from Gibson, Alfie is in the middle of rescuing a man trapped in the rubble.

As soon as he is able, Alfie heads for a meeting where he learns that the storm is not a natural phenomenon, but it was created by a new super villain calling herself “Trade Wind.” Gibson explains that Team 9 is going to be sent out to help super heroes Forcefield and Bullet defeat Trade Wind before she can do any more, and more severe damage.

The first two books in the series, First Shot, as well as the second one mentioned earlier cover most of the exposition of the series as they introduce the characters and shape them into real people. I have mentioned in previous reviews what a gift Katherine has for writing characters that one can really care about, and how real they are as people. Well, the exhibition is over now and the characters that I enjoy are getting put into situations in this story that feel dangerous. They are written so well, what might seem ridiculous becomes plausible.

One of the main parts of this story is the author beginning to explore more details of the character’s interpersonal relationships. Alfie seems to be hitting it off pretty well with another member of Team 9, but there are twists and turns along the way. This causes Alfie and Ray, the other team member in question, to come to an impasse in which they will be reexamining their relationship. At the same time, Alfie discovers something about Tessa that is disturbing to him and will also possibly result in a change in relationship.

In any case, the author has really ramped up the action in this series, and over the three novelettes, has shown huge growth as a writer of fiction. Three Times Unlucky is a well paced and fun story to read, especially if one is looking for an escape from reality for a little while.

I recommend that if you are considering reading this series, be sure to start with 1-800-Henchmen: First Shot followed by Double Lives, Double the Fun before reading this segment!

Well, there it is…

Qaplah!

Edited by Benjamin Arrowood  

1-800-Henchmen: Double Lives, Double The Fun By Katherine Wielechowski - Leading A Double Life Ain't Easy!

1-800-Henchmen: Double Lives, Double The Fun by Katherine Wielechowski

Double Lives, Double the Fun begins almost where the first book in the series, First Shot leaves off. In this segment, Alfie is doing his best to balance a very complicated life, which he does so while maintaining his sense of humor while developing his skills as a member of the Henchmen team to which he has been assigned. It was discovered that Alfie has a lot to offer his team in the area of firearms proficiency, but is lacking in the area of hand-to-hand combat. So while he undergoes training to improve his skills, obtaining many bumps and bruises along the way (the Henchmen don’t pull their punches in training), he has to limp home and try to maintain his family life, concealing his aches and pains as he perpetuates the falsehood of being a simple employee in a gym. Thankfully he is still young and he recovers quickly, but he doubts his improvement as his trainers ramp up the torture as he gains skills.

Alfie’s non professional life continues on a more or less normal track as we get to meet more of his family, including two brothers who visit all too infrequently as far as Alfie’s mother is concerned.

Now, if balancing leading a double life isn’t enough, throw in an unintentional budding romantic relationship with one of the members of Alfie’s team and a den of terrorists in Canada bent on causing more nuclear mayhem, you have the makings of a really fun story.

In this novella, the second in a series of four (so far), we find our hero, Alfie facing the rigors of leading a double life trying to hide the true nature of his job from his family, which he is doing brilliantly. Once again, Katherine knocks it out of the park with her brilliant character development and imaginative plot development creating a story that can be easily read in one sitting, but is jam-packed full of fun banter between characters, hilarious situations, and action packed entertainment.

While the Henchmen stories may not be pure Sci-Fi, I would have to say that they are within the superhero, action/adventure genres and are well worth taking a look at.

Well, there it is…

Qaplah!

1-800-Henchmen: First Shot By Katherine Wielechowski - A Fun Novelette By A Talented Aspiring Author

1-800-Henchmen: First Shot By Katherine Wielechowski

I have been attending meetings of the Central Nebraska Writers Guild for a year and have met some brilliant writers. One of those is the young woman who is an aspiring author named Katherine Wielechowski, a very friendly person and a writer who shows great promise if this first released publication is any indication of what will come in the future. Anyway, while running through my Facebook feed, I saw a post from Katherine giving away the second of her four novelettes in the 1-800-Henchmen series for one day only, so I grabbed that one and bought the other three as well, not really sure what to expect.

1-800-Henchmen: First Shot centers on Alfie Vihar, a young man that is days away from high school graduation and looking for a job that hopefully pays more than fifty dollars a week. Answering an ad for Resources, Inc., a company that is apparently hiring a summer intern. Alfie secures an interview with Mr. Kadish, who is awaiting his arrival. After Alfie gives his memorized stock interview answers, Mr. Kadish prompts Alfie into giving him some real answers to a few rapid fire questions. We learn that Alfie is an aspiring writer that speaks three foreign languages, two of which he learned to impress girls, and the third, Chinese, so he could understand the Chinese cursing that is used frequently in his favorite television show, Firefly. Kadish tells Alfie that he is not quite the right fit for the summer internship, but he is qualified for another opening at one of the company's other divisions.

When Alfie reports for his first day of work, he has no idea what he has gotten himself into, but soon finds out that he either has a dream job for an eighteen year-old, or he is in so far over his head that he may not measure up. He finds that he has gone to work for the Henchmen, a quasi-mercenary group that aids whomever hires their services to accomplish their missions, for good or evil. Funny thing is that all he really wanted to do was earn enough money to go backpacking around Europe, but his first adventure finds him traveling all the way to Beijing, China!

What came through this novelette for me was that Katherine has a huge talent for character development. RIght from the opening, I found Alfie to be someone that I would like to know. He is a nice young man who has a tendency, as most eighteen year-olds do, to speak before his brain is engaged. He obviously has a good brain and an ear for languages. Even on his first mission, he and his team is looking for what might be his specialty, to what talent he posses that will add to the team he has been assigned to. Alfie has a good home life in a middle-class family that is close. His best friend is a girl that he has apparently known for quite some time, however they are not romantically involved, which I find very refreshing.

Even the supporting characters in this story have some degree of fine character development. For instance, Mr. Kadish, whom Alfie only briefly visits for his interview, is alive and very real. Brief descriptions of Alfie’s Henchmen team mates are packed full with great visual clues that make them also jump off the page, appearing as personalities as opposed to simply being supporting cast.

All in all though, I found that as I read, I wanted more. While the first three-quarters of the story was full of marvelous character development, as well as brief but detailed well written descriptions of things and places, I wanted more story on the hero; I wanted more on Alfie’s training and more on why the villain was plotting an attack with a nuclear weapon on Beijing.  I would have liked more on how the fight went before the UN soldiers and the super heroes arrived on the scene to break up Huanxiang’s (pronunced wone-she-ow) little party. In short, the last quarter of the story felt rushed.

Nevertheless, this was a fun story that gave me pause numerous times to laugh. At 47 pages, it is easily read in a little over an hour and is well worth the effort. I look forward to reading the next three installments of Alfie’s adventures with the Henchmen. This is a fun piece of writing and is a fine example of seeing growth in a talented writer. As someone who reads a lot of heavy science fiction, I found that this was a nice break from my usual fare and it gave me pause to laugh a little. I recommend First Shot for it lighthearted tone and interesting characters.

Well, there it is…

Qaplah!