Review: the Repairman Jack Series

The affair began almost 12 years ago. Not the sort that you were thinkinhg...

I had to write a paper for my creative writing course regarding a local...something or other, I cant really remember the reason. What i DO remember was the book i chose to write about... or the person who wrote the book. It was titled "Midnight Mass" written by New Jerseys own F. Paul Wilson. Local author writing a story about vampires taking over our local area and wreaking havoc and obliterating the remaining human race. PERFECT! I did not find out til later, just how local he was. Living on the other side of town that I grew up in.

This book opened up my world that I was currently being introduced to. The science fiction world. Albeit he is not solely sci-fi but the elements are there. After reading Midnight Mass I was hooked. Wilson's writing, themes and style were too good to let go. So i moved on to his other novel, The Keep. In this novel I was introduced to Rasalom and Glaeken. Two warriors battling across a millennia, fighting for opposing shadow forces. Wilson describes these forces as neither good or evil just one side wishes too destroy existence and the other will leave it to wither away. The novel was again, incredible.

I had to have more! That's when I started to dig and I discovered Repairman Jack.

The Repairman Jack series revolves around a guy named...Jack, of course. He's a jaded New Yorker, originally from Jersey, that is up for hire to handle situations that need "fixing". An unsavory anti-hero that cares not for the law and lives by his own code. His story picks up with him receiving a message regarding a missing necklace belonging to an ordinary Hindu man. Little does he know that the necklace has a curse and the man he is finding it for is the keeper of demon like monsters called Rakoshi. This is first time Jack is introduced to the other worldly happenings.

This novel is titled The Tomb and has been read three times by myself. Loaned out twice and is just like that bruise that you want to keep poking at. At the very exciting and suspensful end of the intro to the series you are left wanting more. You want Jack to turn into this hero that fights evil. But he doesn't. In fact, he is left for dead... sorry, SPOILERS!

Just the way Jack is explained and his image is developed is beyond so many things i have read. I still have no idea as to what Jack Reacher looks like (I know it's not Tom Cruise)... just saying. There is absolutely nothing special about Jack and Wilson pushes that point to no end. Even as the series goes on you wait to hear the connection between Jack and what is happening but it never comes. Maybe it has and is hidden so well in the ongoing conflict or maybe there really is nothing. Whatever the case may be, its incredible and pushes the saga forward.

Every story begins with Jack being hired for a simple job. He always does terrible things for a great cause like breaking bones of would be thieves and giving the proceeds to a local little league team. Other jobs require or develop into something requiring massive amounts of firepower provided by his typical New York Jew friend Abe Grossman, an incredibly written character as well.

Not a single job he completes goes unnoticed by the forces that have aligned their sights on him since the events of the Tomb.

Remember the shadow forces that Wilson writes about in the Keep? Well... Spoiler... The Keep is a novel that belongs to The Adversary storyline, another saga piece by Wilson. Those same forces collide with Jacks world in the Repairman Jack series as well. Since the events of the Tomb, there are forces that are working towards grooming Jack into becoming the champion of the lesser of evil shadow forces to go up against Rasalom, which is a recurring character and chosen champion of th e more evil of the shadow forces and is introduced under different pseudonyms, in place of Glaeken who is the long-lost champion from ages ago. Or is he...?

Nope! Glaeken has also been watching Jack through the years, as a distant watcher under th e light posts, knowing that one day he might have to rise to the occasion and present himself as the Champion or a spear as he is described. Others of this realm ar e keeping an eye on Jack through the series such as the Lady of whom is a physical embodiment of life on earth or mother nature.. sort of, always accompanied by a dog as her companion.

As the events of the series continue to unfold, Jack is forced into the ongoing conflict and loses those who are closest to him. Later finding out that this is all intentional with the recurring phrase of a spear has no branches pushing him closer to "claiming his place" as the champion needed to defeat Rasalom.

A series that is this good eventually must end of course and apparently it does in the series finale for both the Repairman Jack series and the Adversary series. Titled Nightworld, Jack and a few of the characters from the Adversary series must band together and find a way to stop the destruction of mankind being dealt by the shadow force that Rasalom is an agent of. The otherness as it is known. Creatures straight out of any nightmare realm feast on humans and wreak complete mayhem on mankind.

I will go NO FURTHER...for I have yet to finish the book. Once finished, a long time coming, you can bet that I will let you know all about it.

If you have no idea what this post was about, simply go online and purchase any stories written by F. Paul Wilson and you will surely find yourself tipping your toe into the Repairman Jack saga.