Fan fave Steve Latshaw is a writer/director/producer who has worked with popular film and television stars Dolph Lundgren, Treat Williams, Jason Connery, Lee Majors, Dean Stockwell, John Schneider, and James Best among others. His film credits include Stan Lee's Lightspeed, Command Performance, Jack-O, Death Mask, Rangers, and Xenophobia. Steve is also a fan of Charles Lee Jackson II's Emperorverse. Below you can read what Mr. Latshaw has to say about book one, The Emperor's Gambit."I have a fondness for looking back at the mind candy of my youth from the 60s and early 70s... the paperback spy novels featuring Matt Helm, The Saint and the Men from U.N.C.L.E.; the James Bond movies, soundtracks and Bubble Gum Cards (Sean Connery, thank you very much). So many
memories... Alistair MacLean novels, the Avengers and the Persuaders on TV and, oh, those amazing Republic Serials, seen occasionally on the late show or local cable, and in Super 8mm Ken Films cutdowns. And I read about them in the pages of books by Alan Barbour and Don Glut & Jim Harmon, and the occasional, tattered issue of Screen Thrills Illustrated, treated like the gold it was.
"But over time the words, flickering images and memories seem to fade. Or at least they did, until I stumbled into the first few pages of Charles Lee Jackson II's The Emperor's Gambit. And now it all comes back with his series of novels. Mr. Jackson has created an embarrassment of high adventure riches, a literary stew pot mixing every cool paperback, comic, Super 8mm reel, late night TV treasure and John Barry score I've ever owned. Mr. Jackson's books combine the best of heady 60s and 70s spy adventure with the breakneck pace and scale of the great Republic serials, and all with a wry sense of good humor that rival's Napoleon Solo's best lines. And best of all, when I read them, I'm 12 years old again, and the world is new and full of intrigue, and possibilities. And high adventure. Oh, and the good guys win. As they should."
