The problem with another “Jack Reacher” novel is just that, it’s predictable. Seemingly simple plot points, a hero who also functions as an anti-hero, in defiance of accepted rules, and then?
I understand the character’s desire to keep life super-simple, and there was a line from one of the books, echoed on the recent screen version, something about, “They got a kid hurling at 100 mph; I want to see him pitch before he blows his arm out.” Might not have the exact words, but I recalled it from one of the books, and then, on-screen, I love when the screen version is a reasonably accurate take on the book.
Apple’s Slow Horses is like that.
When I picked
Chain Reaction up at the store, this will make for an almost complete collection of “Reacher” books as hardback, first editions. Of the whole series, I only lack two or three of the early ones as
Hardback, 1st Ed. Regrettably, those first two or three are now in the astronomical price of “collector editions,” and I’m not willing to part with that kind of cash just to make for a complete collection. I did fill in a few of the earlier ones by carefully cruising used bookstores, replacing my older, beaten trade paperbacks.
To the question of buying a book, or just getting a library copy? If I’ll read it more than once, then the hardback is justified, in my mind. Think I reread most of the early Reacher books, you know, lock-down protocol. There was time, and the books are enjoyable. Reread a bunch of them in publication order.
I started reading the latest
Reacher just after finishing
Good Writing, so the lessons themselves were fresh in my mind.
Part way through, I realized some of the
Good Writing points were clearly laid out as I was ripping through Reacher’s
Chain Reaction. Active verbs. Economy of prose. Each detail propels the action further down the road. Very few cliché expressions, but the apparently effortless, breathless prose pushes the plot ever onward.
A fun aside, I’ll attribute
Reacher as my source for two condensed expressions.
- Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.
- No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
The mantra-like way the first expression is used throughout the canon? Sure. But to me, the important one is that second expression. Some time back, I did a deep internet search, came up with nothing substantial. Over the course of twenty or more books, though, the character Jack Reacher had more astute observations about that, along with a possible, now-verifiable, source. Fun. Hint: plays against a point in the new novel.
Fast-paced, enjoyable, decent body count, and mostly stylistically-free prose. If you like Reacher, it’s perfect. Raises an eyebrow or two about our modern life.
