Books of 2018: Quarter 4

And, bringing the final count to 14, the last books of 2018.

The Persauder by Lee Child

     "'No,' I said. "Not really. I don't really care about the little guy. I just hate the big guy. I hate big smug people who think they can get away with things.'
     'You produce the right results for the wrong reasons, then.'
     I nodded. 'But I try to do the right thing. I think the reasons don't really matter. Whatever, I like to see the right thing done.'"

"Theoretically he should have been unconscious. Or in a coma. It was probably thirty years since I ever had to hit a guy more than four times. But he showed no pain. No concern. He wasn't unconscious. He wasn't in a coma. He was dancing around and smiling again. He was relaxed. Moving easy. Huge. Impregnable. There was no way to hurt him."

Jack Reacher goes undercover to finish a job he thought laid to rest years ago. Wandering around the city streets one night, Reacher spots a dead man walking in the crowd. Using his old military connections, Reacher attempts to investigate further on his own. Instead, he gets drawn into an off-the-books DEA undercover operation. Now, with time running out, Reacher will need to out maneuver a New England mansion filled with enemies, find a missing DEA agent, covertly collect evidence of the illegal operation, and put a dead man back into the ground.

I mean, I've read a bunch of these books already, so I'm not going to do a lot of work explaining it to you. If you like mystery and action, or those Tom Cruise movies, or dislike all the fantasy books I've recommended, then this is something for you. I think the biggest change in this particular book is watching Reacher outwit opponents. Reacher tends to be a character that lives in the moment and solves his problems there and then. As Reacher embeds himself with the criminals from the first chapter and will need to stay undercover through the story until his mission is complete, he'll need to think on his feet to outwit his opponents and convince them he is an asset while still gathering the information he needs.

I know that I've been reading a lot of these Jack Reacher books lately and, if you're dedicated to using these reviews to find new books (you shouldn't), you're probably getting sick of hearing about them. I honestly did have another two or three books that I was going to read first, but then I was going on this trip and I wanted a book I could travel with: something small enough to put into my bag and I could easily pick up and put down, just to read whenever I've got some free time sitting on the plane or at the airport or just waiting around in general. The other ones were taller or thicker or might be something I didn't want to put down, not really something I would feel comfortable carrying around. So I went out of my way to buy the next Jack Reacher book about a week prior to my trip knowing that Child's stories tend to fit this criteria perfectly.

No Middle Name by Lee Child

"He had been in the military all his life, first an officer's kid, then an officer himself, raised on bases all over the world, and then he had fallen out into civilian life and couldn't really settle down to the kind of existence normal people seemed to have. So he wandered the land, seeing the things he had never had time to see before, going here, going there, staying a night or two, and then moving on. No bags, no schedule, no plan. Travel light, travel far."

"But Reacher wasn't about to wait for it. He had learned to fight a long time ago, in hot dusty outposts in the Pacific, and cold, damp alleys in Europe, and hardscrabble towns in the South, against resentful local youth and tribal military kids, and then his techniques had been broken down and built back up by the army, and he had learned the golden rule: Get your retaliation in first."

"Smart as a whip, probably, but any human given instructions is at a disadvantage. Your target is a big guy, very tall, gray suit. And however smart you are, however quick, that lethal one, two, three question-and-answer drumbeat occupies precious mental milliseconds, at least big guy check, very tall check, gray suit check, like that, and the problem comes when the big guy in the gray suit occupies those same previous milliseconds by walking straight toward you and breaking your skull with his elbow."

If you get a big enough following, it seems, you'll eventually be asked to contribute a story to a collection someone somewhere is putting together (Jim Butcher, Neil Gaiman, etc). Which is where I assume this collection of Jack Reacher short stories came from, 11 previously published short stories put together into one book, as well as one brand new novella. Like with most collections of short stories, there are going to be good ones, sometimes a bad one, and most of the time a lot of "meh" ones. Most of the stories in this collection were just "meh" but there were three that I really liked: "Too Much Time" finds Reacher arrested for a crime he didn't commit and he must use his own detective skills to find the real criminal and outwit the local agents; In "Second Son," a 13 year-old Jack Reacher recently moves to Okinawa with his family when his dad is restationed, getting into trouble with the military boys already living there, and, of course, working his way out of said trouble; and "Small Wars" is a short story from Reacher's time in the Military Police, investigating the murder of an up-and-coming lieutenant colonel.

The best part of this collection, assuming it's all canon, is seeing Reacher in different phases of his life. In the books I've read so far, the stories all feature Jack Reacher, the drifter. In this collection, we're introduced to a teenage Reacher, a couple stories featuring Reacher as a military police officer, and, of course, Reacher the drifter. We also get to see Reacher interact with non-bad-guy types: just going around and doing the right thing amongst ordinary civilians, standing-up to the military he was once a part of, and talking it out with the defeated and downtrodden.

While on vacation, I realized I was reading The Persauder too quickly and might need to invest in another book soon (I didn't realize how much time I would spend waiting around in places; and, because I'd been traveling alone for a week, just needing something to do while eating alone ... I should've spent more time on my phone). Anyway, so one day I did a search for English bookstores and found one in Itaewon that I could even search their website to find what they had in stock. They didn't have the next book in the series, but they did have this collection of Jack Reacher short stories that I didn't know existed. Also, if you're not reading these books, that's typically how Reacher introduces himself, or is introduced: "First name, Jack. Last name, Reacher. No middle name."

Tarnished City by Vic James

"The truth was, everyone in Britain wore a collar they couldn't see. Millions of people, unquestioningly obeying the Equals. Slaving for ten years in appalling conditions. Subject to rulers they couldn't choose or criticize. Confined to a country they couldn't leave until their days were done. And accepting it all as normal."

Set in an alternate England where those with magic, known as "The Skill", rose up and took over the country back in the Victorian era, the story follows the present day lives of the unSkilled Hadley family as they attempted to peacefully serve their 10 years of slavedays, and the Skilled Jardine family, once more at the head of the Equal regime. The second book of James' Dark Gifts trilogy, it's going to be hard to talk about the book without giving away spoilers so here's a warning: SPOILERS





[Hopefully that was enough blank space] After the depressing, hope-crushing conclusion of the first book, "Gilded Cage", the Hadley family is split apart once more, while the Jardine family appears unknowingly divided amongst themselves. As in the first book, James uses multiple points of view to tell the story, the chapters representing a switch in the character telling the story. Maybe I've just gotten really bad at it, but I can't think of a major, overarching plot other than the characters striving to create a better country. For the most part the story is about several characters and how their lives and goals intersect. Luke Hadley, the Hadley's middle child, is sentenced to Condemnation for assassinating the Equal Chancellor. He'll need to find a way out of a prison surrounded by criminals before he can get back to helping better the lives of those like him caught up in serving their slavedays. Abigail Hadley, the Hadley's oldest child, is on the run and looking for allies to help her free her brother, eventually getting caught up in the revolution to overthrow the Equals. Gavar, the Jardine's oldest son, finds himself with more political power than he ever wanted while his main focus is on providing a better life for his illegitimate, and unSkilled, daughter. Bouda Matravers-Jardine, Gaver's newly arranged wife, likewise is given a high-ranking role in the political world as she seeks an even higher role of Chancellor but begins to see the ugliness behind their world and how it could be better for everyone. Silyeon, the Jardine's youngest son, further manipulates behind the scenes, seeking out knowledge of the Skill and what it might truly be capable of.


As in the first book, James splices in a greater political worldview after the rise of the Skill. Gilded Cage gave background on the past and how the introduction of the Skill led to the overthrow of monarchies, revolutions by the unSkilled, and even the schism of the United States of America. Tarnished City gives more information on how the Skill shapes present day politics and governments. Three world powers are ruled by the unSkilled with their technological and military might. Three other major world powers are ruled by the Skilled in almost the same way as in England where the Skilled put on displays of their power to keep the population in control.

One thing I forgot to do before reading this book was re-read the previous book. As I complain practically everytime, I'm really bad at remembering names and now, with several months between reading the first book and then this one, I managed to forget a lot of the important side characters who now play a larger role in the story. I do like though, that James doesn't ease the reader back into the story with a recap of the characters. "Oh, do you remember this person? S/he is blah, blah, blah who did blah blah blah," some writers might say, but not James. The story just carries on as you should already know who everyone is. Eventually, I managed to put all the pieces back together and figure out who everyone was again ... after several chapters.

And finally, with something I've never done here, speculation for the final book. So, Bright Ruin, the third and final book is already out, but I don't want to buy it in hardcover. And with the way this story is going, I'm really not sure how it will all end. Most stories, no matter how helpless things look, there's always this little bit that reminds you that the heroes will prevail. The heroes always have at least one more trick up their sleeve, or a forgotten hero returns to the battle, or an enemy begins to show a weakness. But with the Equal government in control of society and their already physical superiority to the unSkilled, this might be one of those stories that ends with the revolution failing and society remaining unchanged. After all, do the protagonists always have to win?