Oh dear Lee, What went wrong this time?
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I love Lee's Reacher series and like so many others have ready every single book and await the new one on it's day of release. But after reading NTL, and this took almost a week instead of the usual two day's, I asked myself why I had bothered. The plot, if it can even be called that, is bizare and thin. So thin it's just full of holes like a Swiss cheese. Reacher seems to be running on autopilot (Or is that Lee?) and the book simply does not flow because of this unlike the rest of the series.
I just hope that Lee and our hero Reacher are back on form in the next installment as NTL is simply a big, big letdown.
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Sooo disappointed
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I ordered this book with a great sense of anticipation - I love Jack Reacher and have found all of Lee Child's other books totally believable. I was bored by the constant too-ing and fro-ing between Hope and Despair - that's actually how I felt when I was reading it - hoping it was going to get better and despairing when it didn't. I can't wait for the next one - it's got to be better
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A Little Boring
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I personally thought this was the weakest Reacher novel of the series. There was little action in it and the plot was very tedious at times.
I hope and expect the next one to be a belter after this let down.
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Is the Reacher formula wearing thin?
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I have to agree with many of the reviews - I think this is the most disappointing Jack Reacher novel yet. I can happily live with the fact that Lee Child has a formula that usually works even if the story lines don't change much from book to book - Reacher is a loner wandering from town to town not looking for trouble as trouble finds him - but this storyline was just a bit too bland. And it started off promising with Reacher walking between Hope to Despair - physically and figuratively. But couldn't quite get how the whole of Despair was in on the secret uncovered at the end and didn't really find that Hope was any more interesting. The storyline meanders back and forwards between the two towns and the endgame is as uninteresting as it is unbelievable.
In my last review (BL&T) I thought Reacher had become a bit too civilized - well here he was back to his lonesome best but unfortunately the storyline fell below the usual standard.
I HOPE that the next Reacher novel is better - I have always eagerly awaited the new novels but I really think Lee Child should develop Reacher's MP days (as in The Enemy) or introduce his friends (as in Bad Luck and Trouble).
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Jack Reacher and Politics Don't Mix
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I would not describe myself as an avid fan of Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. I've found the books to be enjoyable pot-boiler thrillers, and I've read all of them to date, but I don't feel the need to rush out and buy the latest adventure on the day of publication.
That's one of the reasons that I'm only now getting around to reviewing Nothing to Lose, Child's latest Jack Reacher novel. The other reason that its taken me a bit of time to put fingers to keyboard is that it took me longer than normal to rattle through this latest book. Not because it was a particularly long novel compared to its predecessors, but because, remarkably, it wasn't very exciting.
Now the one thing that you can usually rely on when picking up a Reacher novel is that its going to move at a cracking pace and therefore, irrespective of book's other merits, you'll rattle through it pretty quickly. In this respect 'Nothing to Lose' bucks the trend. Not that I found myself so bored that I felt like giving up on it, but nor was I kept riveted as the carefully woven plot unfolded. In fact at one point I skipped ahead due to my impatience at the speed of the narrative. Considering that part of the Reacher novels' raison d'etre is to provide pulsing, fast paced excitement that final confession is to my mind a rather damning one.
Part of the problem is the plot itself, which goes around in circles for much of the book's length, stretching out two somewhat thin, parallel conspiracies to breaking point without really moving forward. As at least one other reviewer has mentioned, it gets to the point where if Reacher were to spend any more time sniffing around without actually 'discovering' anything (or at least revealing what he has worked out) you'd feel like screaming "GET ON WITH IT!". Normally the reveal at the end, as everything falls into place and Reacher ties up all the loose ends is part of the books appeal but in this case by the time it arrived I was just ready for the whole thing to be done with (I had also guessed what one of the two conspiracies was, so wasn't exactly wowed when it was revealed).
Another problem, and this is a big one since it goes to the heart of the whole series, is Reacher himself. Not for the first time I found myself wondering how much longer Child can keep pumping out books featuring such a one dimensional character who never develops as an individual. I am aware that the wandering 'loner' is a reoccuring character in modern American fiction, and I have no problem with Reacher's nomadic tendencies, but there is no attempt at character development. Whilst that wasn't a problem in the earlier books, which could get by on Reacher's stoicism, his abilities as a warrior and his apparent strong & silent charm, those things only go so far and a dozen books in the character is starting to become a little tired and predictable. That's not so much of an issue when the rest of the book is strong, but when stuck with a weak plot as he is here Reacher's weaknesses as a character become all the more evident.
The final problem I had with Nothing to Lose was the nature of the conspiracies that Reacher uncovers during the course of the book. The simple fact is that I just didn't buy either of them. The minor one (I don't want to give details and ruin the plot) struck me a improbable at best. The more significant one just struck me as ridiculous, as it required various arms of the US government to all act utterly incompetently (not necessarily impossible but highly unlikely). It would also have required a large number of 'secret' deaths amongst US forces in Iraq to go unreported by the media over a period of years. Essentially it would have required too many very unlikely and coincendental events to occur, and alot of smart people to behave stupidly, in order for it have been feasible. Other Reacher novel plots have had holes in them, but never to the extent where it fundamentally undermines the whole book.
Unfortunately in Nothing to Lose Lee Child has decided to include a plotical 'message', in this case an anti- Iraq war message. In order to do so he has crafted the book around the political points he wants to score, compromising plot and character in order to score them. Rather than allow the message to be implicit in the story and allow readers to form their own opinions he tries to budgeon us with his own point of view. It is an unsubtle and heavy handed approach that just feels wrong for a Jack Reacher novel, especially when it requires his central character, a former Military Policeman, to behave in a fashion that, based on everything we know about him from previous books, I simply can't believe he would.
If Lee Child wishes to hold anti-war beliefs then he is welcome to do so (its likely I would even agree with some of his views). If he wants to write an anti-war novel then he should go ahead and do so (I might even buy it), but trying to mix a Jack Reacher thriller with an overtly political message just doesn't work. It forces compromises that result in weak plotting, poor characterisation and a distinct lack of thrills.
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