Jack Reacher

The More Things Change

The more they change.

I just finished reading the latest Jack Reacher book, #26, called “Better Off Dead.” And I think it might be my last Jack Reacher book. This is the second book Lee Child has co-written in conjunction with his brother Andrew with the intention to retire and hand over the reins of the Reacher books to him.

I don’t know to what extent Lee has been involved with the writing in the last two books, but there has been a slightly different feel to “Better Off Dead” and #25, “The Sentinel.” I can’t actually put my finger on what it is, but I haven’t enjoyed these two books as much as I did the first two dozen.

The same thing happened with the Spenser books by Robert B. Parker. I read a few of the books in the early 2000s and liked them so much that I started searching used book stores, eBay and garage sales trying to find the 35 or 36 novels already out. My collection of books ended up roughly half paperback and half hardcover and I read every one of them in order, from the first to the last. I even created a page here on the blog entitled Spenser’s Crime Buster Rules.

Robert B. Parker, like Lee Child, wrote a new book each year, so I bought the next three hard covers when they came out. But in 2010 Mr. Parker died of a heart attack and his estate worked with the publisher to find an author willing to take on the task of continuing the series. Ace Atkins finished the book Mr. Parker was working on when he died and then continued the once a year writing schedule. I think I read a couple of those books written by by him, but again it just didn’t seem the same, so I stopped.

Both Andrew Child and Ace Atkins were novelists in their own right when they took over from the creators of the already beloved characters, but I just think the writing slightly changed. Then again I’m willing to concede that maybe it is just me and my perception because there was a different name on the books.

That Was Fun

So I watched the first episode of Reacher on Thursday. On Friday I watched five in two shifts and on Saturday I finished the last two. Now, I’m almost sorry Amazon didn’t do to Reacher what they did for the sixth season of The Expanse because I have no will power.

For The Expanse‘s first 5 seasons the episodes were dropped all at once, but for the 6th, they released one episode each week, kind of like old school TV. So, because of that lack of will power, I have churned through all 6-1/2 hours of Reacher and now I will have to wait another year or so for more, that is, if they do decide to make more.

Anyway, I enjoyed the series and if you like that sort of tough guy takes on the world with lots of fighting, shooting, blowing things up sort of thing, you should watch it. If you have read the books, the plot of the first book is almost all there and for the most part follows right along with the novel. Almost all of the changes, except for maybe a couple of head scratchers for me anyway, are there for TV purposes, like too expensive to film or nearly impossible to recreate.

Because this was more or less an origin story for our hero, they did give us some flashbacks, that came from a short story called Second Son, to sort of explain Reacher to folks who may not be book readers. And because this is 2022 and the book was written in 1997, some of the supporting characters get some different beats to make it feel up to date. They also introduce a reoccurring character from several other Reacher books, but is not in the Killing Floor that this based is on. But that is fine and probably was done as a carrot for the actor, so she knows that there is more work coming her way.

As with the Tom Cruise movies, and I was unaware of this because of my steadfast refusal to watch them, the author Lee Child has a cameo in the show in the very last episode:

I Suppose It Is the Fourth of February Already Somewhere

Earlier this evening I sat down in front of the PC, and because it is the day before the Reacher series premiers on Amazon, I might find a newer or different trailer out that I hadn’t seen yet. Well, there wasn’t any trailer, but the entire show was there waiting to be watched.

So I watched the first of the eight episodes. Watched it all the way through, even the credits. The lead actor fits the bill and I believe he is Reacher incarnate. From now on whenever I’m reading a Jack Reacher book I will picture Alan Ritchson in my head, just like I visualize Sam Heughan in any of the Outlander books.

This story is based on a book set in Georgia and the scenery looked the part, from the countryside to the small town square. I checked IMDB and the only filming locations mentioned are in Ontario, Canada. I guess it is a good thing they filmed it in the summer.

Also on the IMDB page there were several user reviews already there and they were dated February 4th even though it was early evening here. It wasn’t even past midnight on the east coast.

But then I remembered the credits I watched. I had noticed at the end of them the voice actors were listed for all the different countries that will be seeing this show. I realized, at least from the languages I recognized, many were in Europe and it was actually February 4th there.

There’s a New Jack in Town

I’ve written here before about being a big Jack Reacher book fan and now there is going be an Amazon adaptation. It will be based on the the first book, The Killing Floor.

And if it does well they will probably make more. There is plenty of source material to draw from, 26 and counting novels and over a dozen short stories or novellas. The series will start on February 4th so I’ve just finished reading the Killing Floor again to get ready for it.

There is a lot familiar about the trailer and there are also some things that I don’t recognize in there too. I know there are always compromises made when adapting a book into a movie/show, so I should be able to get over most of them. Mainly because I am already beginning to visualize Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher just from the trailer. Unlike the previous person how played him in a couple of Hollywood productions, Mr. Ritchson is the right size.

I guess if you had never read any of the books maybe those movies aren’t bad, but I have steadfastly not watched the 2012 Reacher, nor 2016’s Never Go Back because of my size bias against the lead actor. Maybe after I see this Amazon adaptation I may go back and give them a try if I can find them free somewhere, because the first movie is based on the book One Shot which was my first discovery of the character and the second film is based on one of my favorite of the series, Never Go Back.

Tuesday Update

Shiny

The team car of the Purple Whales from the End Zone Entourage Fantasy Football League got its annual preseason wash and wax on Sunday afternoon. The NFL season starts in 3 weeks and then there won’t be any time on Sunday afternoons for that sort of thing.

I haven’t read the Jack Reacher novel Killing Floor before because I would have definitely remembered it. It is set in the fictional town of Margrave, Georgia which is described as about an hour south of Atlanta, but at one point our hero travels to Augusta to search for a missing character that figures big in the plot. The author has obliviously never been to Augusta and did minimal research, because from his description I wouldn’t have recognized the town. This I would have remembered…

My suspicions were correct on the purpose of the clear lucite sign holders. This morning my bathroom appropriate magazine ads were gone and were replaced with those same First Responders recruitment posters. The plant nurse will be holding informational meeting on joining the few the proud towards the end of next week. If those flyers are still up at the beginning of next month I think I’ll replace them with some U.S. Armed Force posters.

Jack Reacher

KillingFloorWe were in the book store on Saturday looking for some summer reading and I was so desperate to find something I would enjoy that I picked up a Jack Reacher novel, Killing Floor.

I have read all the Jack Reacher books and chew through them like I used to with Robert B Paker’s Spenser novels. Because I was sure I has already read this book I kept waiting for the moment when I would go go, “Oh yeah.” But I’m now more than half way through and that moment hasn’t come. Did I miss this book in the series or is it because it was written in 1997 that I’ve completely forgotten it? I’m thinking I just missed it, but the light of recognition may still go off in the next couple hundred pages.

This is a reprint of the very first Jack Reacher book and it has a new introduction by the author Lee Child that tells how he came to write and why he chose the genre, an anti-hero and how he came to name his protagonist. It also has a new round yellow circle on the front cover that reads “See Jack Reacher now in his first major motion picture.”

The introduction adds nothing new if you have visited the Lee Child’s web site, so what I really wanted was what he was thinking about with the much smaller Tom Cruise playing his 6’5″, 250 pound creation. I have heard that he publicly said he was happy with Cruise in the role. I recently had an opportunity to watch the movie and passed on it just because I knew I couldn’t be so charitable.

97,000 Calories

This morning we took a little trip downtown to St. Mary’s School’s Annual Chocolate Festival. We didn’t consume anywhere near the 97,000 calories that were on display at the bake sale tables. It was probably somewhere between 97 and 970 because all we spent on cookies and brownies was a buck and a quarter.

We spent $11 dollars on used books. Donna bought 16 kids books for nephew James at a quarter a piece and I bought 3 hardcover books. The one book that cost the most, nearly 50% of our book expenditures was Lee Child’s 2007 Jack Reacher tale, Bad Luck and Trouble.

I’m 150 pages into the 370 page book, it’ll probably be finished before tomorrow night. Chapter 13 starts like this:

At six the next morning Reacher went up to Neagley’s suite. He found her awake and showered and guessed she had been working out for an hour. Maybe in her room, maybe in the hotel gym. Maybe she had been out jogging. She looked sleek and pumped up and vital in a way that suggested there was a whole lot of oxygenated blood doing the rounds inside her.

After the festival we took the long way home via the bypass so we could drive by and look at, quite literally, the biggest thing to ever happen to Aiken. It has been the talk of the town since last weekend when the 300 foot long 1.89 million pound transport carrying a giant generator parked along the side of the road east of town. There is a photo in this article from the local paper, but you cannot get any idea how big this thing is from it. Plus in addition to the transport rig there is about a 1/4 miles worth of support trucks parked along with it.

Somewhere during our excursion the Emperor passed the 97,000 mile mark.

Started down, still down.
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