gateways: a repairman jack novel by f paul wilson

i’m so hooked on The Repairman Jack / Adversary Cycle series… already have The Tomb, Legacies, Gateway, Harbinger, The Keep, and Nightworld… but i can’t seem to get the books in order. i really would prefer not to skip volumes…

Jack is very likable because most times he’s just your ordinary guy – smart but not diabolically intelligent. in fact, he doesn’t always save the day for everyone; but this makes him more of a ‘real person’ for readers.

in this volume jack has to travel out of his beloved New York City to the Everglades to see his comatose father. he meets anya, one weird old lady, who reminds him eerily of other weird old ladies with dogs. he also meets semelee, a girl living with a bunch of physically odd men (alright, let’s be politically incorrect for the sake of clarity… freaks) out in the swamps.

both anya and semelee think jack is special. and this ‘specialness’ is connected to the two supernatural forces slugging it out with each other since time began. on one side is pure evil, on the other, pure calculation…

but semelee has plans for jack, which she will carry out even it means going through jack’s father.

jack also learns much about his father, who’s not the staid accountant he’s known all his life. just like jack, he has secrets, and it’s time they get to know each other

legacies by f paul wilson

In the second installment of the Repairman Jack series, Jack’s girlfriend Gia asks him to ‘fix’ the theft of Christmas toys from an AIDS center for kids. The doctor in charge of the center is Alicia Clayton whose dark past has caught up with her, colliding with Jack!

Ever the fix-it guy, but this time out of compassion, Jack helps her solve the riddle of a house she has just inherited, willed to her by her notorious father. Apparently, there is something very important hidden inside it. Her despicable half-brother is in the pay of a mega-rich corporation and is doing everything he could do prevent Alicia from getting full control of the house.

Alicia doesn’t want the house though, she wants it destroyed… It represents so many painful memories, but everyone she enlists for help—legal or not so legal—ends up getting killed!

Will Jack be next?

LEGACIES departs from the horror aspect of THE TOMB. There are no supernatural creatures lurking nor are there ancient legends to act as clues. All we have is a clean sci-fi thriller; but one that builds really well on the urban mercenary-for hire angle. It also succeeds in fleshing Jack up some more.

Though I can’t really buy too much into the idea of an emotionally versatile jack . He can’t be so amiable one second and terrifyingly enraged the next without blemish. Sometimes, the way Jack is put out seems too carefree for him to really be this ruthless urban mercenary.

But F. Paul Wilson does have an uncanny habit of giving his villains and maybe-villains a sympathetic and all-too human face. it makes it really difficult to hate them. the mercenary in the hire of the enemy is crude and a cold-blooded killer yet all his earnings from his jobs go to his senile mother’s medical care. the enemy himself longs to go back to his country to rescue his troublemaker son from jail but stays until he can fulfill what he believes is a sacred duty to his country.

LEGACY’s storyline is just as filled with twists and turns as the previous volume, told in a clean writing style and fast-paced manner. I miss the supernatural elements of the previous book, though, because I prefer paranormal mysteries.

To sum up, Repairman Jack fans won’t be disappointed with LEGACY.

the tomb by f paul wilson

repairman jack fixes situations not things. not really that smart but repairman jack does a good job at loving and hurting. he sometimes misses obvious connections but he more than makes up for his intuitive lapses with spells of heroism and courage. never that keen on the rituals of and philosophies on chivalry, he nevertheless gets the job done even if messily more often than not… repairman jack is not terribly thrilling nor scary but exciting enough to keep us reading and wanting more–just to see how jack the character will grow and what other x-file type of situations fate will throw in his way. we have the sense that jack is being groomed.. for what?

well, maybe we’ll find out in the 5th, 7th, 10th sequel? in other words, repairman jack is a terribly good read because it has enough of what we want… i hope it will keep giving us extra though to keep us coming back for more. i am reading LEGACIES, second book in the series. i got my treat