Die Trying
Aug. 16th, 2013 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI love Jack Reacher. I just can't help it.
In a lot of ways, he's a typical man in his reactions, but he has enough of an edge to be exciting, and enough warmth and humour to be immensely likeable.
He gets himself into the most ridiculous scrapes by random unfortunate chance but, once he's in them, he'll "do what needs to be done or die trying", as his former CO tells the FBI in this second instalment by Lee Child. He's so pathetically unlucky in love - he keeps meeting the most amazing women but it just never seems to work out and his resigned attitude to this is rather endearing. ("It wasn't the end of the world - it just felt like it.")
I'm making sweeping generalisations after only listening to two of the books, but I'm assuming that pattern will remain fairly consistent throughout the series.
I absolutely loved this audiobook, so much so that I walked extra miles, and pretty much gave up reading my current hard copy book on the train, just so I could keep listening to find out what happened next. The story was utterly bonkers (Reacher almost literally bumps into the daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs a split second before she is kidnapped by insane militiamen, so he is taken along for the ride); the one female character is really overdone (FBI agent who uses incredible ingenuity and strength of character to mostly rescue herself - and Reacher, a couple of times - from certain death); the number of times they each individually escape, rescue each other and are recaptured gets a little silly towards the end; and the treatment of the romance aspect is painfully adolescent in its execution - but it's all just so much fun.
And Reacher himself powers through the middle of it - unstoppable, unflappable, a rock of a guy with a big heart and unbelievable martial skills - exactly the kind of guy most young girls used to dream about, before sparkly vampires came onto the scene. I certainly wouldn't kick him out of bed...
In a lot of ways, he's a typical man in his reactions, but he has enough of an edge to be exciting, and enough warmth and humour to be immensely likeable.
He gets himself into the most ridiculous scrapes by random unfortunate chance but, once he's in them, he'll "do what needs to be done or die trying", as his former CO tells the FBI in this second instalment by Lee Child. He's so pathetically unlucky in love - he keeps meeting the most amazing women but it just never seems to work out and his resigned attitude to this is rather endearing. ("It wasn't the end of the world - it just felt like it.")
I'm making sweeping generalisations after only listening to two of the books, but I'm assuming that pattern will remain fairly consistent throughout the series.
I absolutely loved this audiobook, so much so that I walked extra miles, and pretty much gave up reading my current hard copy book on the train, just so I could keep listening to find out what happened next. The story was utterly bonkers (Reacher almost literally bumps into the daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs a split second before she is kidnapped by insane militiamen, so he is taken along for the ride); the one female character is really overdone (FBI agent who uses incredible ingenuity and strength of character to mostly rescue herself - and Reacher, a couple of times - from certain death); the number of times they each individually escape, rescue each other and are recaptured gets a little silly towards the end; and the treatment of the romance aspect is painfully adolescent in its execution - but it's all just so much fun.
And Reacher himself powers through the middle of it - unstoppable, unflappable, a rock of a guy with a big heart and unbelievable martial skills - exactly the kind of guy most young girls used to dream about, before sparkly vampires came onto the scene. I certainly wouldn't kick him out of bed...
