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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
This is the 25th book in Jack Reacher series. He has been in the picture for a long time now and he began loosing steam for sometime now. Last few Jack Reacher books were okay, except for Blue Moon which was good.
Reacher is a smart guy, and he's a strong guy who can take on anyone. Only the latter part is captured in this book. The story was...just another story...spies, Russians, mob bosses etc. Reacher is very cocksure...he likes things precise which has the bad guys confused and the readers rolling their eyes. Reacher is making exceptions to his rules... understandable, with the Andrew Child taking over the reins.
The Sentinel was an okay, ultimately forgettable story... I hope the next one gets things back on track.
Reacher is a smart guy, and he's a strong guy who can take on anyone. Only the latter part is captured in this book. The story was...just another story...spies, Russians, mob bosses etc. Reacher is very cocksure...he likes things precise which has the bad guys confused and the readers rolling their eyes. Reacher is making exceptions to his rules... understandable, with the Andrew Child taking over the reins.
The Sentinel was an okay, ultimately forgettable story... I hope the next one gets things back on track.
I think I’m done with Reacher. I’ve read all the books multiple times, but the last few just feel like bad re-runs.
We read this book for book club and it was my first Jack Reacher book.
Honestly, I wasn't impressed. This was by no means a bad book, but I probably wouldn't read it again. I might read the first book to test out a theory, but unless that book turns out to be mind blowing I'm thinking this is my only foray into the series.
I'll start with something I did like. Jack Reacher's humor. I enjoyed that he was smart and somewhat funny and not just a meat head that solves every problem with brute force. Brute force is always an option, but it's not his first option. I appreciated that. The mystery, while not overly complicated, was at least well done enough to keep me going, and the clues were spaced out nicely.
The problem I had, is that I feel no connection to any of the characters. Jack Reacher has no connections, no relationships, no stakes in this story. He could get up and leave at any time and his life would be no different. At no point in the book was I concerned that things wouldn't work out in his favor. He got hurt maybe twice at the very end of the book, and even that was treated as a minor inconvenience. As said above, the mystery was interesting, but not interesting enough to anchor the whole story. This is supposed to be a thriller (I've been told) but there were no thrills what-so ever.
I feel that if the story had been anchored around Rusty, not Jack, things might have been more high stakes. Heck, we could have centered it around Rusty, Fisher, and Jack and that would have been more interesting because at least two of those people were in actual danger some of the time. They had actual skin in the game. Consequences if things went side ways. They couldn't just walk away.
Anyway. The book wasn't bad, it was a dumb fun time while I was in it, but I did think it had some problems that I had a hard time getting over. My roommate says people don't read Jack Reacher for the stakes, but if not, I don't see much of a reason to read more than one.
Honestly, I wasn't impressed. This was by no means a bad book, but I probably wouldn't read it again. I might read the first book to test out a theory, but unless that book turns out to be mind blowing I'm thinking this is my only foray into the series.
I'll start with something I did like. Jack Reacher's humor. I enjoyed that he was smart and somewhat funny and not just a meat head that solves every problem with brute force. Brute force is always an option, but it's not his first option. I appreciated that. The mystery, while not overly complicated, was at least well done enough to keep me going, and the clues were spaced out nicely.
The problem I had, is that I feel no connection to any of the characters. Jack Reacher has no connections, no relationships, no stakes in this story. He could get up and leave at any time and his life would be no different. At no point in the book was I concerned that things wouldn't work out in his favor. He got hurt maybe twice at the very end of the book, and even that was treated as a minor inconvenience. As said above, the mystery was interesting, but not interesting enough to anchor the whole story. This is supposed to be a thriller (I've been told) but there were no thrills what-so ever.
I feel that if the story had been anchored around Rusty, not Jack, things might have been more high stakes. Heck, we could have centered it around Rusty, Fisher, and Jack and that would have been more interesting because at least two of those people were in actual danger some of the time. They had actual skin in the game. Consequences if things went side ways. They couldn't just walk away.
Anyway. The book wasn't bad, it was a dumb fun time while I was in it, but I did think it had some problems that I had a hard time getting over. My roommate says people don't read Jack Reacher for the stakes, but if not, I don't see much of a reason to read more than one.
I waited a while before reading this, mainly because I wanted to get my hands on a hardcover copy, but also because there were a lot of negative reviews which I believe led me to lowering my expectations significantly.
The book itself took me about 2 days to read and now I'm sitting here wondering why so many people hate it.
Sure, this isn't exactly the Reacher we know, the writing's different, the style's a bit different, the book feels tonally different than the previous ones. I agree with all of that. But in my view, all of these were expected. This isn't Lee Child anymore. But overall this is still Reacher and maybe I enjoyed myself more just because my expectations were low but it's still a lot of fun.
Reacher in some aspects feels different, he's more outgoing, more talkative, has a certain charm perhaps, and because of this (maybe I'm making it all up, but) he feels... A little more British. Which is a bit funny but nothing to get worked up about.
The story's a bit cheesy, yes, but so was Blue Moon. And to be honest, so was Past Tense. In retrospect I like Past Tense more, but the more recent books all felt like an imitation of the old Reacher glory. Still, there are Nazis and Russian agents (which makes me biased as a 20th century historian) and yes the book reads like a cheesy spy novel but Past Tense was an outright Stephen King imitation and a lot of people liked it. So people can also like this. Because there's a fun story, action is fine -more or less what you'd expect from Reacher- and it's a fast read.
As for the tone shift, I believe the real tone shift took place between Make Me, the 20th book, and Night School, the 21st book. Because I'm under the impression that 20 books were somewhat enough for Lee Child and he had the creative reserve to write 20-21 books maybe. I read somewhere that he planned on writing 21 books and then be done with it, but in 2016 he signed on for another 4 books which got us here. Therefore in a way I consider the 'main' series to be the first 20 or so books and the others are somewhat of a continuation and should be read with lower expectations. Especially because the last 3-4 books didn't really shine. Last year I reviewed Blue Moon and I said if that was going to be the end, it should have been on a higher note, but turns out, it wasn't.
Will the series ever be as good as Persuader or Never Go Back or Worth Dying For or The Enemy? Realistically, I don't think so. But that's not really news and it's not really on Andrew Grant (I'm aware of the fan theory that Andrew Grant actually took over a few books ago but they kept it under wraps until now, I can't definitively oppose it but I believe The Sentinel feels different enough from the last few books).
We'll always have those classic Reachers, now for as long as Andrew Grant can provide for us, we'll still have this semi-new Reacher. And I believe not comparing him to the old one does the trick. Because this one, in and of itself, is perfectly passable.
The book itself took me about 2 days to read and now I'm sitting here wondering why so many people hate it.
Sure, this isn't exactly the Reacher we know, the writing's different, the style's a bit different, the book feels tonally different than the previous ones. I agree with all of that. But in my view, all of these were expected. This isn't Lee Child anymore. But overall this is still Reacher and maybe I enjoyed myself more just because my expectations were low but it's still a lot of fun.
Reacher in some aspects feels different, he's more outgoing, more talkative, has a certain charm perhaps, and because of this (maybe I'm making it all up, but) he feels... A little more British. Which is a bit funny but nothing to get worked up about.
The story's a bit cheesy, yes, but so was Blue Moon. And to be honest, so was Past Tense. In retrospect I like Past Tense more, but the more recent books all felt like an imitation of the old Reacher glory. Still, there are Nazis and Russian agents (which makes me biased as a 20th century historian) and yes the book reads like a cheesy spy novel but Past Tense was an outright Stephen King imitation and a lot of people liked it. So people can also like this. Because there's a fun story, action is fine -more or less what you'd expect from Reacher- and it's a fast read.
As for the tone shift, I believe the real tone shift took place between Make Me, the 20th book, and Night School, the 21st book. Because I'm under the impression that 20 books were somewhat enough for Lee Child and he had the creative reserve to write 20-21 books maybe. I read somewhere that he planned on writing 21 books and then be done with it, but in 2016 he signed on for another 4 books which got us here. Therefore in a way I consider the 'main' series to be the first 20 or so books and the others are somewhat of a continuation and should be read with lower expectations. Especially because the last 3-4 books didn't really shine. Last year I reviewed Blue Moon and I said if that was going to be the end, it should have been on a higher note, but turns out, it wasn't.
Will the series ever be as good as Persuader or Never Go Back or Worth Dying For or The Enemy? Realistically, I don't think so. But that's not really news and it's not really on Andrew Grant (I'm aware of the fan theory that Andrew Grant actually took over a few books ago but they kept it under wraps until now, I can't definitively oppose it but I believe The Sentinel feels different enough from the last few books).
We'll always have those classic Reachers, now for as long as Andrew Grant can provide for us, we'll still have this semi-new Reacher. And I believe not comparing him to the old one does the trick. Because this one, in and of itself, is perfectly passable.
I don't know if I like the Jack Reacher as much with Andrew co-authoring.
I've always had a soft spot for Reacher and this series are basically the only thrillers I read. It was clear, however, that this one had a new author. I give the brothers credit for making the switch, but it doesn't quite work the same. It was fine, but just not quite as good as the first many.
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No