Repairman Jack
I was introduced to the writing of F.Paul Wilson about two years ago, by a podcast called “Books You Should Read” that was giving a very positive review. I can’t remember the exact details of the review but I know that the reviewer mentioned that Wilson was tying together different strands of his writing so that different books and series would overlap, and revising earlier works so they all came together into one reality. This all sounded very promising.
I started with The Keep, the first book in the series called the Adversary Cycle. It was good. Not amazing, but I found myself engrossed and enjoying the story as I started to understand some of the characters. I’ve seen it classified as horror which I can understand, but it isn’t particularly disturbing. There is plenty of action though and the introduction of some supernatural elements.
It was the next book that I read, The Tomb, that really captured my interest though with the introduction of the character of Repairman Jack. He has become one of fictional characters that I’ve most enjoyed reading about, a man who sees an injustice and determines to do something about it. Wilson finds an interesting balance in the character of Jack. Sometimes invincible but often vulnerable, he is in some way ordinary but gets very good at dealing with the exceptional. Stephen King called this book an ‘all-out adventure’. It’s also part of the Adversary Cycle as well as the Repairman Jack series so you start to see the way in which different parts of Wilson’s writing come together.
I’ve since read a few other books in the Repairman Jack series and they are consistently good. Check them out.
F.Paul Wilson’s official website
