By the Sword: A Repairman Jack Novel (Repairman Jack)

Of all the Repairman Jack novels I've read--all of them--this was the least favorite and most disappointing. As often as I read, when I pick up the latest Repairman novel, I certainly can't be expected to remember everything that's happened in the previous novels and would appreciate a little bit of history to catch me up. The start of this novel was rather complex and disorientating but as I pushed on it did become engrossing. This series seems to get more and more complicated with each novel, with some entities and characters having 2 or 3 different names it's sometimes hard to keep track of the good or bad. Not a novel for first time readers of this series.
That being said, I still like to read these novels. I like the Repairman Jack character and what he stands for.

There is very little about Repairman Jack in this book. There are lots of Ninjas and other bad guys but Jack barely makes an appearance. Gia get about 1/2 page and Vicky gets nothing. This book just doesn' work.

I will echo what some previous reviewers have said. This is one confusing novel. There are so many parties searching for the katana sword and the young pregnant girl, you have to stop and back up sometimes to see who is doing what. This does seem to be a Repairman Jack story that is treading water until the final few books are written. Wilson said there are only a couple books left in the series. All said, I was hoping for much more, and this one left a bad taste.

Jack's Back!

How any fan of this awesome Repaiman Jack series can give this latest and 12th installment a 2-star review is beyond us. It may not be one of the best, but it certainly still is a fantastic and solid story.

F. Paul Wilson is just a solid yarn weaver when it comes to this series. None of them are stinkers. Just as in any series, some are better than others. But none of them suck.

And in this latest, By The Sword, Wilson answers more questions and mysteries that have resonated and given piecemeal with each novel. (How can THAT be 2 stars!?)

Jack takes on another job to retrieve a fabled katana sword that was made by a swordmaster of the distant past, but was given something akin to magical properties due to it being at ground zero during the bombing of Nagasake. But of course, this is Fate, and larger things develop for Jack's life of being - The One.

The colorful and cool immortal Glaeken is back, and teaming up with Repaiman Jack is a true treat to read. (Again, how can you give this a 2-star review?!) This is great interaction here.

Despite what a previous reviewer wrote, Jack is in this latest novel, through and through. Sure, just as every Repairman Jack novel there are new characters involved, as well as old characters, but all are seamlessly drawn out and interesting.

If you are looking for a superlative supernatural thriller, then look no further.

Jack is back in the latest Repairman Jack novel, By the Sword: A Repairman Jack Novel (Repairman Jack), but I have to confess that I don't think this is the strongest book in the series. I have noticed that many mainstream authors have been releasing extremely sub-par novels recently. I'm not sure if it is something in the air or water, or just crass commericalism on the part of publishers and authors, but whatever the reason, a plague upon all their houses. This novel is not horrible, as have been some of the others released this year, but it does show weaknesses and is a wee bit disappointing compared to past adventures with Jack.

I'd say the biggest problem here is that in most Repairman Jack novels, in addition to having a main confrontation between Jack and the forces of Otherness, the books also had a side story or two wherein Jack turns the tables on ordinary criminals with fiendishly clever ploys. For me that was always the best part of the Repairman Jack novels and the most interesting. There isn't such a side story in this book and I really missed it. In fact, while many people may not agree, I feel the whole Otherness/Adversary element of these novels in some ways actually detracts from the books. In my opinion Jack is one of the coolest and most imaginative characters created since Sherlock Holmes and if he was just left free to play urban mercenary he might be my favorite character ever. Nevertheless, the Adversary/Otherness crowd are pushing the time-table and the whole end of the world thing is quite a downer, not just for me the reader, but also for Jack who, after losing friends, family and his unborn child, is not nearly as creative in his mayhem in this outing as he has been in past novels. In fact, all he does in this novel, after some judicious prodding, is get out of the way of three groups of bad guys and let them maul each other. An intelligent choice, but lacking in the finesse and craftiness that makes Jack so interesting in preceding novels. His talent for taking out the bad guys while also delivering unto them their just comeuppence is missing in this book. As the end of the world draws nigh, Jack's stress has mounted and his patience and creativity have waned, and therefore one of my prime elements of Repairman Jack glee is now missing. This book is still OK and I'd rather have read it than not read it, but it was something like an oatmeal raisin cookie that doesn't have any raisins. A plain oatmeal cookie is better than no cookie, but c'mon Mr. Wilson, please put the raisins back into our cookies.

In this novel we still have Dawn, the pregnant girl, and Hank Thompson, leader of the Kicker cult, left from the last book, but Mr. Wilson throws in a Japanese cult with a predilection for self-mutilation, and another Japanese group, The Kaze Group, a corporate organization whose ends are opaque, but whom employs Yakuza assassins to do their dirty work. The event that kickstarts this novel is the theft of an ancient Japanese katana from a farm in Hawaii which the thief transports to NYC. The sword is riddled with holes and apparently worthless but both Japanese groups are vying to get it and the Kickers decide they need it when Hank dreams about it repeatedly. Jack tracks it down, loses it to the cult, and then the novel goes into high gear as the groups battle for both possession of the sword and Dawn.

There were two things about the sword that bothered me that you may notice yourself while you read. The sword is supposedly created by the famous Japanese swordsmith Masamune, partially using metal given him by Glaeken, the champion for the Ally, and partially using more prosaic metal he had laying around. The two metals didn't mix well. The sword is at ground zero in Hiroshima when the atom bomb goes off and the more prosaic metal vaporizes leaving the sword with a swiss cheese look. The first thing that bothers me is how did Masamune, who couldn't create more than 2,000 degrees fahrenheit and one atmosphere of pressure, work the otherworldly metal into a katana if the 30,000 degrees fahrenheit and many atmospheres of pressure at groud-zero couldn't make the metal melt? The other problem is that all the characters who hold it talk about its fabulous balance, but if Masamune made it with two metals, it was then made to be fabulously balanced with both of them. With half the metal gone the sword should have then been unbalanced. These are minor points, but my suspension of disbelief got tangled up on them.

Overall I thought the book was OK, and as I said I'd rather have read it than not, but I hope Mr. Wilson will go back to basics and put the raisins back into his cookies in the future. Even if Jack has to spend all his time battling Otherness there is no reason he can't be gleefully sneaky and clever about it. That after all is what sets Jack apart from a 100 other action heroes. Anyone can shoot the bad guy, but how many action heroes can also think circles around them and trick them into into destroying themselves? I want my tricky Jack back. I want my raisins.