Jack Reacher - any good?
Discussion
hidetheelephants said:
After watching for several hours Reacher sensed rather than saw as Lee Child crimped out another rectum stretcher of a Reacher book. He stretched like a cat, rose from his concealment and advanced toward the author;
Mr Child, this has to stop.
When people stop buying he will stop writing.Mr Child, this has to stop.
Monkeylegend said:
hidetheelephants said:
After watching for several hours Reacher sensed rather than saw as Lee Child crimped out another rectum stretcher of a Reacher book. He stretched like a cat, rose from his concealment and advanced toward the author;
Mr Child, this has to stop.
When people stop buying he will stop writing.Mr Child, this has to stop.
I started off reading James Patterson and some of his early books were ok. Then he started "writing" with other named authors and things started to go down hill with many similar predictable storylines and too many perfect do-gooder characters and too many bombs and wanton destruction in America, not that that is necessarily a bad thing 
You wonder who really wrote the books, chapters with less that 2 pages, numerous pages mainly blank with only a few lines, wider line spacing and bigger letters to pad out the book, and to make matters worse often 30 plus pages or so at the end of the book advertising the next co-written book.
When you break it down in a book with 350 numbered pages, probably the true story length is more like 280 or so, which seems like a bit of a con.
You wonder who really wrote the books, chapters with less that 2 pages, numerous pages mainly blank with only a few lines, wider line spacing and bigger letters to pad out the book, and to make matters worse often 30 plus pages or so at the end of the book advertising the next co-written book.
When you break it down in a book with 350 numbered pages, probably the true story length is more like 280 or so, which seems like a bit of a con.
Monkeylegend said:
I started off reading James Patterson and some of his early books were ok.
I generally enjoy his stuff, though most of the points you raise are spot on. I have just read "Toys", though, and it's awful. I made it to the end, but there's a lot of poor descriptive writing.Stan the Bat said:
Reacher started the downward trend about 5 or 6 books ago imho.
I quite enjoyed the recent one with the people being hunted in the woods that had less actual Reacher in it.Lets be honest the formula's pretty played out. He ran out of decent reasons for Reacher to beat up a isolated small town full of baddies a good while ago.
I'm just starting the latest 'Better Off Dead' Reacher book # 26. Early days, but the hardboiled narrative and minimalist details of earlier books have been replaced by a Reacher who seems to be having a menopause, constantly chatting in the first few pages about his feelings, reactions and planned actions when interacting with a woman on the highway. Really feels the series have lost some essential strengths at this point, and Lee Child's brother seems to be painting a Reacher who is an annoying pedant, who talks and thinks too much, and who you lose real enthusiasm for. The whole point of this genre of 'hero books' and films (e.g. Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns) is that the hero remains something of an enigma, but you root for them anyway, and that mystique and alure is all part of the charm and attraction of watching or reading about them.
I invested in the book, and am a Reacher fan, so will persevere with this, but not encouraging so far...
I invested in the book, and am a Reacher fan, so will persevere with this, but not encouraging so far...
Edited by Blue One on Wednesday 10th November 07:41
Okay, further to my post on ‘Better Off Dead’, I did stick with it and after the first chapter it definitely got better. Without giving the plot away, the very first part of the book is a flashback to what happens later, but IMO is quite badly done and unnecessary, thus the initial poor impression when you start reading the book. The narrative and prose definitely pick up in chapter 2.
You still get the usual random characters turning up and disappearing like some computer game (in fact the plots of most of the Reacher books are), but it is still better than the last couple, but still far from Peak Reacher IMO.
You still get the usual random characters turning up and disappearing like some computer game (in fact the plots of most of the Reacher books are), but it is still better than the last couple, but still far from Peak Reacher IMO.
Blue One said:
Okay, further to my post on ‘Better Off Dead’, I did stick with it and after the first chapter it definitely got better. Without giving the plot away, the very first part of the book is a flashback to what happens later, but IMO is quite badly done and unnecessary, thus the initial poor impression when you start reading the book. The narrative and prose definitely pick up in chapter 2.
You still get the usual random characters turning up and disappearing like some computer game (in fact the plots of most of the Reacher books are), but it is still better than the last couple, but still far from Peak Reacher IMO.
Thee flashback thing is just a way of filling out the book when you are devoid of ideas.You still get the usual random characters turning up and disappearing like some computer game (in fact the plots of most of the Reacher books are), but it is still better than the last couple, but still far from Peak Reacher IMO.
Get paid for telling the same piece of the story twice in the same book, rather crafty.
A mate passed me a copy with the timeless words "this is crap, you can have it if you want". I've read some but not all of the earlier ones. Against what I remember of them, this one seemed...turgid ? I recall a sort of constant flow of plot and narrative, this was much more move - stop - bash with bits of poorly written scene setting prose as if the author had suddenly remembered what he was taught on a creative writing course.
Interesting comment above on the random characters because I wasn't sure if there was a history from the earlier books but at least two people seemed to arrive from nowhere and then never be mentioned again.
There was also a laughable contrivance of "I'm a modern wanderer, I don't need any of your modern ways and I have no idea what technology is or how things like phones work", right up until Reacher needs an advanced knowledge of nuclear fusion, semiconductors, and gene editing for the plot to proceed.
Interesting comment above on the random characters because I wasn't sure if there was a history from the earlier books but at least two people seemed to arrive from nowhere and then never be mentioned again.
There was also a laughable contrivance of "I'm a modern wanderer, I don't need any of your modern ways and I have no idea what technology is or how things like phones work", right up until Reacher needs an advanced knowledge of nuclear fusion, semiconductors, and gene editing for the plot to proceed.
Monkeylegend said:
And he's not very good with a stick shift either, not even sure he has a valid driving licence.
One of the bad bits of the films (if you've read the books) is that the books talk about how Reacher doesn't drive, or hardly drives, and yet I seem to recall Mr Cruise doing some quite fancy driving in one or both of them.I've bought the new one, not started reading it yet.
droopsnoot said:
Monkeylegend said:
And he's not very good with a stick shift either, not even sure he has a valid driving licence.
One of the bad bits of the films (if you've read the books) is that the books talk about how Reacher doesn't drive, or hardly drives, and yet I seem to recall Mr Cruise doing some quite fancy driving in one or both of them.I've bought the new one, not started reading it yet.
He was also about 6' 4" or so, something else he didn't have in common with Mr
I bought it, read it and dropped it off in work, warned others it was crap and left it there.
All but the last 3 I have read more than once, I'm oot.
Shame.
Really hoped he would move on from Reacher when it became obvious the character was pretty much played out but apparently not.
Still wrote a lot of interesting books with great talent.
All but the last 3 I have read more than once, I'm oot.
Shame.
Really hoped he would move on from Reacher when it became obvious the character was pretty much played out but apparently not.
Still wrote a lot of interesting books with great talent.
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