Hosts

Hosts start out awesome and looked like it could be by far the best Repairman Jack novel. We find Jack in the middle of a mass shooting where he ends up stopping the shooter- and it is all told from the POV of a reporter. Following this, the reporter wants to use Jack to propel his career.

Unfortunately the book then starts to go downhill. The main case involves Jack’s sister whose female lover has been acting strange since her brain surgery, but is it a natural result of the surgery, or something more sinister?

The problem is that there are so many sideline stories that the main case gets very little page time. The entire sub-plot of the brothers out for revenge is wasted page space. And while the reporter is an interesting character with an interesting arc, alot of pages are again wasted on unimportant information (his rivalry with co-worker, his new GF, etc).

Even with the lackluster plot that tried to do too much, the book could of been good- except for that ending. No spoilers, but it made large portions of the book irrelevant.

O and there is a ton of pro-gun agenda within.

The Repairman Jack series is one of my favorites, each book has been well written, evenly paced, thrilling, exciting, suspenseful and many times emotional.
However, Host was a step slower than the previous books, not bad by any means, just not quite up to the high standards previously established.
Hosts feeds off and of a few previous books adventures and characters, which I like.
The supporting characters, who are excellent, had a smaller role, too bad.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Hosts and the next installment is in my wish list.

I was surprised by the underlying plausibility of this theme, an adenovirus phage carrying a therapeutic gene goes awry and causes problems. The novel showed considerable scientific and medical insight, not surprising since Wilson started out as a medical doctor. Of particular interest was his compassionate treatment of Jack’s estranged sister, who struggled with her sexual identify. A good read.

The genres may be different, but lately I have found that a couple of the series I have enjoyed the most in the past few years have both featured a character named Jack: Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books and F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack books. Hosts, the fifth in the series, is as much fun to read as the others have been.

In this novel, Jack gets a phone call from the sister Kate who he hasn’t seen since he parted ways with his family after his mother’s death. It is an accidental encounter: when she reached out to Repairman Jack, she had no idea it was her estranged brother. She just thought that he could help her get her lover Jeanette back from an apparent cult.

Jeanette has recently recovered from a brain tumor, having been treated with an experimental virus. The virus worked but had an unusual side effect: it has linked Jeanette with others who were similarly treated into a kind of hive intelligence called the Unity. It’s bad enough that Jeanette is seemingly emotionless, but her little group has the intent of spreading the virus and essentially forcing everyone into the Unity.

Kate is one of the first targets, and Jack, after trying to help, is second on the list. In certain ways, it is Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though the conclusion is reminiscent of another classic novel/movie which I will not name lest I spoil things (those who’ve seen it or read it will easily recognize it). In a subplot, Jack’s attempts to keep hidden from the government are threatened after he performs a heroic act; this threat to his freedom needs to be dealt with, but is rather irrelevant if he can’t save the world too. (There is a rather nightmarish chapter that shows what would happen if the Unity succeeds.)

Although Hosts works as a standalone story, there are references to other books that makes it better if you’ve read the other books. In particular, there is the larger story of Jack’s run-ins with the Adversary (first seen way back in the non-Jack novel, The Keep). Whether this is your first F. Paul Wilson novel or not, however, this novel is a fast and fun read that should be enjoyed by most supernatural thriller fans.

Jack has gradually moved into adventures that start pitting him more overtly against the Otherness and as that has happened the stakes are starting to get pretty high.

Doesn’t feel as though any of Jacks nearest and dearest are that safe any more and this brings some great tension to the proceedings.

Good news is though that Jacks still Jack and he certainly doesn’t take any prisoners in this book.

The great thing about Jack is the Pulp Fiction style of action where, when faced with overwhelming odds or some otherworldly horror he doesn’t hesitate to pull a gun and start shooting.

Thats not to denigrate the character or the writer –this is pretty complex pulp fiction but the nearest analogy I can make is to imagine a protagonist in a horror story (e.g Stephen King story ) and then imagine that that protagonist has got martial skills and aint scared to use them.

A rollicking good read in which Jack wins some and loses some and a great continuation of the overall battle between higher forces that permeate Wilsons stories.

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