Gateways, by F. Paul Wilson

The only sad thing about the fact that I've finished Gateways is that now there aren't any more Repairman Jack books to read (until the next one comes out). Yes, I've finally read them all (except Nightworld, and that doesn't really count).

F. Paul Wilson's books tend to flow very well, if you know what I mean. Once you start reading one, you have a damn hard time putting it down. The pace is steady, the tension is more or less constant, and there's a Hell of a lot of action. Anyone who hasn't read Wilson's books is missing out on a good thing.

This book starts with Jack's father in a coma in Florida. Jack goes to Florida to help and runs into a pack of crazy swamp mutants. They're responsible for what happened to Jack's dad, so naturally it's up to Jack to kick their collective asses.

I love this book, like I love all the Repairman Jack books. I give Gateways a full five yo-yos.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are quite a few reviews up this week. I have the next for days off of work, and sadly, I don't have anything better to do with my time than read. I so need to get a girlfriend.

Harbringers, by F. Paul Wilson

I'm not feeling too good right now, so I'm going to try and keep my review of Harbingers short. If you've read my previous blog posts, you know I love the Repairman Jack books. We finally get to find out who's been killing Jack's family. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise to any reader who's been paying attention. There's lots of action and emotion, and we get to see Jack make a really tough choice. I give Harbingers five yo-yos.

Do-Gooder, by F. Paul Wilson

Last week, I was browsing the Repairman Jack forums, and I saw that there was a Repairman Jack short story available for $30 on eBay. These aren't just any short stories. They're printed on a 14x20 broadsheet, and are signed and numbered. It's printed on acid free paper. It has a woodcut illustrating it (and is signed by the artist too). It's printed on acid-free velvet and is suitable for framing. I got one, and it's pretty cool. There are only 200 of them, so if you want one, you better check it out now.

The story is pretty good, considering it's only about 500 words, and it's just such a neat thing to own. I give it five yo-yos.

The Haunted Air, by F. Paul Wilson

Another day, another Repairman Jack novel. I just love these things. Repairman Jack is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. He reminds me of The Equalizer or The A-Team, only he never works for free (unless his girlfriend Gia asks him too). Any bad guys who get in his way are dead meat.

In The Haunted Air, Jack is hired to help a couple of phony mediums out of a jam. The problem is, their house is haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl, and that ghost has plans for Gia. There's lots of action, lots of violence, and lots of supernatural stuff. Oh yeah, and there's a guy who's either over two hundred years old or a loony--the book doesn't specify, but I'm going with loony.

This is a cool book. If you're a fan of Repairman Jack, you should read it. If you're not a fan of Repairman Jack, buy one of those $4.99 copies of The Tomb, and you probably will be (then you can read this one, or read it first I don't care). Anyway, I love the Repairman Jack books, so I give The Haunted Air five yo-yos.

Oh yeah, I received a copy of Tom Smith's The Last Hero on Earth. I'll probably have a review of it up later tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Hosts, by F. Paul Wilson

The premise behind Hosts is that there's this virus, called Unity, that turns people into a sort of hive mind thing that wants to take over the world. It's not exactly an original idea. It kind of reminded me of the Doctor Who episode The Invisible Enemy, only the virus doesn't make people look like chipmunks. I also thought of the Borg, only they used nanites and turned into cyborgs. There are probably a bunch of other places that use the same idea, but that doesn't mean this one sucks.

This one has Repairman Jack--and his sister Kate. Kate's lesbian lover is infected with the virus and Kate is worried about her. So Jack steps in to help. Turns out Jack's immune to the virus due to his encounter with the Rakoshi back in The Tomb. Anyway, the day is saved and unfortunately Kate dies tragically. I already knew that she would though, because it was mentioned in Infernal.

The idea behind the story wasn't a particularly original one, but then very few are. This is actually a very good book. The Repairman Jack books are always exciting. The only thing I regret about reading this one is that now I only have three more Repairman Jack novels to read (not counting Nightworld). I'm not counting Nightworld, because I don't plan on reading until I can get my hands on a revised edition--the older version was written before the Repairman Jack books 2+, and from what I hear the continuity no longer makes sense--and unfortunately, as far as I can tell the revised Nightworld is currently only available in a $60 limited edition version, and that's a little out of my price range.

To get back on track, Hosts is a darn good book. I love these Repairman Jack books, and I don't hesitate to give this one a full five yo-yos.

If Repairman Jack Is Out To Get You Is It Still Paranoia

Well, I have now finished reading Conspiracies, the third Repairman Jack novel. I love the Repairman Jack books.

In this volume, Jack enters the world of conspiracy theories to find a missing woman. He has his first encounter with Rasalom, the evil entity from The Keep who is the Otherness's servant on Earth. This is also the first mention of the Otherness in the Repairman Jack books.

It's a very exciting story, but I thought it started a little slowly. The real action doesn't start until Jack gets to the conspiracy convention, about 100 pages into the book. This is because Wilson spends a lot of time introducing Jack (and his readers) to the ideas of conspiracy theories. I think this is a little unnecessary. These days, conspiracy theories have become pretty mainstream. Just about everybody knows that there are people who believe that Oswald didn't kill JFK, the moon landing was a hoax, and that Al Qaeda wasn't responsible for 9/11. Or maybe that's just me. It might be that being a regular reader of Fortean Times has made me more aware of that sort of thing.

Anyway, this is a great book in any case. It's got lots of action and weirdness. I give it four and a half yo-yos.

Repairman Jack Wears Amazon Shorts

I decided to shell out 49¢ for a short story from amazon. It seemed like a pretty good idea, especially since I started out with F. Paul Wilson's The Long Way Home: A Repairman Jack Story. I was slightly wary, because it did get some pretty mixed ratings.

They aren't totally undeserved either. As just about every review on Amazon pointed out, their are some continuity problems; Jack is somehow simultaneously wearing "work boots" and "sneakers." I know the story first appeared in a book called Dark At Heart, but I have no idea if these errors were in that volume too, or if they cropped up as the story was transferred to digital form.

The story is pretty interesting. We see Jack as the very moral man he is. He risks his life, and possibly his freedom, to what's right and help a wounded police officer. We also get to see what happens when Jack finally gets arrested. This is a way cool story. I give it four yo-yos, and I'd have given it five if it wasn't for that whole work boots/sneakers thing--and confusing bawling (crying) and balling (having sex with) at one point.

Samurai (Repairman) Jack

I've finally read Repairman Jack #2, Legacies (Repairman Jack Novels (Paperback)). It's a damn good book.

This one takes place shortly after The Tomb, and well before Jack begins to be constantly involved with the Otherness. The plot of this one actually kept me guessing until very close to the end. A woman has been willed a house, and there's some sort of mystery inside. I didn't figure out what the mystery was until just before the characters figured it out, which is pretty rare for me. This might be because, based on the other Repairman Jack books, I expected a supernatural secret, but it was in fact super science.

Anyway, the Repairman Jack books are great. This is no exception. I give Legacies five yo-yos. If you wondered about the Samurai Jack reference in the title, it's because Jack is referred to as a ronin a couple of times in this book.

Jumping Jacks

It's repairman Jack time again. This time I've read Crisscross, which is the eight novel in the series.

You might wonder why I'm skipping around so much in the series. I mean, I read #1 years ago, then I read #9 last month, then #4, and now #8. It's simple; My local Borders sucks. They don't have #2-3 of the series in stock, so since I can't read them in order, I just decided to skip around. That's pretty much the same reason why I haven't read Lumley's Vampire World trilogy yet--all they have is volumes two and three.

Anyway, the book itself is great. There's a blackmailed nun. There's a sinister cult. There's the Otherness. There's Jack. There's lots of action and a very fast pace. It has everything needed for a great Repairman jack adventure. As usual for F. Paul Wilson's stuff, I give this one a hight rating: five yo-yos.

I Don't Know Jack

I don't know why, but for some reason I was thinking that All the Rage was F. Paul Wilson's second Repairman Jack book, but it's actually the fourth. Probably because it makes much more sense to have the first and second volumes available for $4.99 than it does to have the first and fourth. It doesn't really make much difference, it's still a great book.

This is a real page turner. If I could have, I would have kept reading all damn day. Unfortunately, I had to go to work and stuff, but I still managed to finish it in about 24 hours, which isn't a bad speed for a 500 page book. It's a superbly paced book.

If you read my review of Infernal, you know that my biggest complaint there was all the references to Repairman Jack's previous books. There aren't anywhere near as many in this one. The Otherness is mentioned, but it actually gets a brief explanation. There are several references to the first book, The Tomb, but I have read it, so they didn't bother me and I think someone who hasn't read it would be bothered either. The Tomb was about these two Indians, and one of them had these demon things called Rakosh (I'm guessing the name is based on the Rakshasa, but I'm no expert on Hindu mythology). Anyway, Jack killed all the Rakosh, except for one, which reappears in this book.

This book is all about a designer drug called Berzerker, which gives you an edge, but if you take too much you literally go berserk. There are corrupt scientists and business men involved in it (and a very scummy drug lord). There's also a very odd freak show run by a guy called Ozymandias Prather. He is a very interesting character, because he is both malevolent to the outside world and very loving towards his freaks. He seems to be very sinister and somewhat evil, yet I can't help thinking that he's not all bad. According to Wilson's introduction, Oz and his show first appeared in an anthology (edited by Wilson) that was called Freak Show. I'll have to try and get a copy to see if I can find out more about this guy.

Anyway, this is a great book. Buy it and the other Repairman Jack books. All the Rage
gets a well deserved five yo-yos.

You Don't Know Jack

Many years ago, I read (and loved) F. Paul Wilson's The Tomb. For those of you not familiar with it, that book features a character called Repairman Jack, who fixes problems for people. Unfortunately for Jack, those problems usually seem to feature some sort of supernatural element. Wilson went on to write a whole series about repairman Jack, but I didn't find out about it until recently when I saw Infernal at my grocery store and picked up since I knew I needed some more reading material.

Infernal is the ninth Repairman Jack novel. Since I've never read volumes 2-8, some of the material in the book was a little confusing. Like wondering exactly what in the hell "The Otherness" is. Still, there were only a few minor points like that, and they don't detract from the story too much.

The book introduces Jacks brother Tom, who is a grade-A asshole. We also get to see their father get murdered by some Islamic terrorists (which is what reunites the brothers). Jack and Tom end up taking a little trip to Bermuda, where they find a magical grapefruit-like thing called the Lillitongue of Gazpacho (or something like that), which causes all kinds of trouble.

I like this book, and I definitely recommend reading it. However, I'd recommend reading Repairman Jack volumes 1-8 first. Volumes 1 & 2 are currently available in cheap $4.99 editions (at least at my local store, Amazon doesn't seem to list them) as are a few of Wilson's other books. I've already got a copy of Repairman Jack volume 2: All the Rage, and a copy of Wilson's The Keep, because they were so cheap. Infernal is well worth reading, so I give it four and a half yo-yos.