What Fiction are you reading this week, October 31, 2021?

[NQAS]

31. As usual, a few on the go

Last edited Fri Nov 5, 2021, 03:40 PM - Edit history (3)

1. Just finished listening to Falling, by T.J. Newman. Summary, plane is hijacked remotely, thriller follows. Newman is a first-time author, and I can't wait for her next outing. The tension, the timing, the back story. All done brilliantly. I'm not really that much of a softie, but she damn near had me in tears several times. And laughing at other times.

2. Just started Better off Dead, the latest Reacher book by Lee Child and his son. Very dramatic start to the book (no spoilers). One odd thing so far. Usually, when Reacher commits to helping utter strangers, he's all in. So far in this one, he's all in, but he keeps expressing doubts about whether he should just hit the road. Don't know how things will turn out, but so far, so good.

UPDATE I'm about halfway through. Since this latest installment was co-authored with his son, maybe I'm listening more carefully. But so far this one is falling short. These are gut reactions. The cliches keep coming. If I hear another reference to "wet work," I'll scream. Also, Reacher just seems unusually dense. It's a given that he's a Luddite when it comes to technology, but he also seems to have been living under a rock. When the woman he is helping refers to a QR Code, he looks at her blankly. OK, sure, he travels the highways and byways by hitchhiking, doesn't own a phone or a watch or a credit card. But he's still living in the 21st century. Also, this woman refers to a transponder, and he looks at her blankly and asks, what's that. He was an MP major in the Army. Transponders have been around for a long time. What's a transponder? Is this early onset dementia? At one point he's following some bad guys to a house where that woman might be being held. His search of the house is pathetic. He finds an 8' hole in the floor and what looks like a generator or something in the basement. He finds no secret passages and so he writes it off and leaves. Huh? Also, Reacher refers to having been in Beirut at the Marine barracks bombing in 1983. That would put him at around 60 years old. And it's not been an easy 60 years. But his antics are those of a 20-year-old MMA fighter. And, as I mentioned above, he seems hesitant. In almost every scene he's debating whether he should continue or just leave town. That's not like him. I'm pretty much okay with whatever authors choose to thrown at their readers. But I've ready all of the Reacher books, and things just aren't holding together quite the right way in this book. (BTW, in terms of taking whatever authors throw at us, see also the Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers books from John Sandford, and the August Snow books from Stephen Mack Jones. All sorts of weird ship keeps coming our way. Violence, survival under damn near impossible survivability episodes, Virgil learning how to scuba dive like a pro in 30 days. I'm fine with that. It all seems to hold together, even if it seems far-fetched at times. The stories just flow. This one seems more disjointed than I would have expected. Of course, I might learn that Lee Child wrote the whole thing and included his son's name to boost his career. In which case I'll feel pretty stupid. In any, I'd appreciate some thoughts from Reacher fans.

3. In the middle of reading The End of Men by Christine Sweeney-Baird. Covid-type virus kills only men. Starts in Scotland, goes viral (so to speak) and men the world over are dying. Story is told through about a dozen or so characters and their experiences (mostly bad). I didn't think I would like it, but it's very compelling, especially in the time of Covid.