Customer Reviews

Conspiracies (Repairman Jack Novels)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Conspiracies" freaked me out; I loved it. And Repairman Jack certainly needs no introduction for this one, a book sinking deep into all conspiracies and beginning to weave together F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack Novels and The Adversary Cycle.

I continue to be amazed by the Repairman Jack novels. "Legacies" was nothing like "The Tomb", and "Conspiracies" is nothing like the other two. Each one is a new experience with a different rhythm. I especially love the weird paranormal ingredients in "Conspiracies" that were missing in "Legacies."

What I don't get, though, is why a reader (see one of the other reviews) would want Wilson to remake Repairman Jack (whom Dean Koonts says is "one of the most original and intriguing characters to arise out of contemporary fiction") into a Remo Williams retread. Some people just don't get it.

Don't listen, Mr. Wilson. Keep Repairman Jack just as he is: an original.

No database contains information on Repairman Jack, who applies unorthodox methods to fix problems for people. Jack blends so well into the scenery, no one notices him, let alone remembers seeing him. Though a pragmatic person anchored into the material plane, Jack has battled some supernatural creatures in his time.

Jack's latest case comes to him via his home page on the Internet, which allows the Repairman to advertise, but remain invisible. Lewis Ehlers desperately wants to find his missing spouse Melanie. She appeared on his TV screen while he watched the Weather Channel and appealed to him to obtain the services of Jack. The Repairman accepts the case and soon attends a conspiracy buff conference where Melanie is scheduled to make an appearance. Jack meets the usual crazies, but also senses a malignant supernatural essence trying to crash the barrier into this world. Only Jack can hope to stop the creature from succeeding, but his odds of surviving the counter is slim.

Anyone who has ever read a Repairman Jack tale wonders what makes the man tick? He appears to be a normal person just by the nature of his conversations with his friends, but the average individual does not spend an inordinate amount of time making sure no trace exists of his ever being anywhere. Thus, Jack remains one of the most enigmatic characters around as readers realize they don't know Jack. Placing this puzzling protagonist inside a non-stop, action-packed thriller like CONSPIRACIES leave the audience wanting more novels starring Jack. As with his TOMB AND LEGACIES, F. Paul Wilson provides the audience with a triumphant tale starring a quirky hero who deserves wide fan attention.

Harriet Klausner

Stephen King is the president of his fan club. Movie stars are battling to play the role in the upcoming Tomb movie. And, he's funny. Though tough to beat the Tomb, Conspiracies comes very, very close. I'm grateful Jack is back

Over the years, F. Paul Wilson has written quite a few books (over thirty, based on the list at the beginning of my edition of Conspiracies). Many of these books fit into a single world where a dark force known as the Otherness wreaks havoc, especially with its primary agent, The Adversary. Among these books is the series featuring Repairman Jack, a sort-of urban vigilante who rights wrongs, but usually only for cash. Although the first Repairman Jack book - The Tomb - is also considered part of Wilson's Adversary Cycle, the link is not immediately apparent. It is with Conspiracies that Jack is finally drawn into the broader Otherness mythology (and in which The Tomb's link is finally explained).

Conspiracies is the third Repairman Jack book, following the aforementioned Tomb and the nonsupernatural Legacies. In this novel, Jack is hired by Lew Ehler, whose wife has disappeared. At first, this seems like a simple case, even though Jack thinks Lew is crazy: since his wife Melanie disappeared, Lew only got one message from her, through his TV, telling him to hire Jack.

Melanie is a member of SESOUP, an organization whose members believe in various conspiracies. There are believers in UFP conspiracies, "New World Order" conspiracies, Satanic cults and other fringe ideas. Shortly before her disappearance, Melanie was going to propose a Grand Unified Theory that would tie all the various ideas together. Since some of SESOUP's members are not all that stable, anything that threatens their own theories may cause them to go over the edge; this, at least, is what Jack thinks. There is also SESOUP's head, Salvatore (or Sal) Roma, a person who Jack finds rather sinister (and whose name holds a hidden significance for readers of Wilson's other books).

This simple missing persons case turns out to be anything but simple, as strange, supernatural events occur and Jack is plagued by very realistic nightmares (involving events from The Tomb). There is the strange device that appears in Jack's hotel room, the evil monkey familiar of Roma's and the very mysterious men in black.

One big theme in this book is Wilson's general indictment of these grand conspiracies. Most of the ones presented within (which are similar to some very real ones) demonstrate the paranoia of the theorists. At the same time, Wilson is not overly harsh, and presents many of the SESOUP members as somewhat disturbed but also sympathetic.

Admittedly, I started this series with book seven (Gateways) before backtracking to The Tomb, so I can see some of the directions Wilson is going in. This book stands alone as a good story, while also drawing the reader into something bigger. As is typically the case, this is well written and a real page-turner. Although it does stand alone, I think this works best for readers of The Tomb and Legacies; for such readers, this book should be quite enjoyable.

F. Paul Wilson's magnificently rendered Urban Mercenary Repairman Jack returns for another job in Conspiracies, his follow-up to The Tomb & Legacies. Conspiracies also marks Jack's return to the type of Supernatural adventures that Wilson writes so well.

Repairman Jack is hired to find missing conspiracy-theorist Melanie Ehler, who has vanished mere days before she was slated to unveil GUT (Grand Unification Theory), her theory which would unite almost ALL conspiracy theories under ONE gigantic all-encompassing plot against humanity. Melanie's Husband, Lew, is moved to hire Jack after being contacted by the missing Melanie....as a voice coming through the television while Lew is watching The Weather Channel. Jack is soon up to his neck in crackpots as he infiltrates an annual Conspiracy convention (Which provides some BIG laughs to offset the novel's growing sense of menace), and if he ever manages to sift through all of the disparate theories, he just may find himself head-to-head with a VERY familiar baddie....

Conspiracies marks a Grand Unification of a different sort, as Wilson ties Jack more firmly into the mythology of his six-book Adversary Saga, as well as some of his many excellent short stories. Knowledge of his short stories isn't necessary (Although readers familiar with the town of Monroe, the gateway in the New Jersy Pine Barrens, and disfigured serial-killer Carly will be tickled at the sly winks to those and other stories), but I think at least a working knowledge of The Adversay Saga (The Keep, The Tomb, The Touch, Reborn, Reprisal, and Nightworld) is needed to fully grasp the weight and importance of the story. I'm not sure I would have been satisfied with the ending if I hadn't read the other books already. For this avid F. Paul Wilson fan, Cnspiracies is his best book yet, and luckily, there's much more Repairman Jack to come.

F. Paul Wilson's 3rd Repairman Jack novel is yet another solid ongoing tale of Repairman Jack's slow unveiling of who he really is.

Although seemingly bigger in scale than the last book, Legacies, this 3rd entry into the series left me and my wife wanting more. As always. But moreso here because Wilson creates in this novel a bigger scheme and theme for the series, giving readers only a taste of bigger surprises to come for what he obviously has in store for readers of Repairman Jack.

Always thus far being the illustrious storyteller of solid, action/adventure, supernatural tales, F. Paul Wilson builds his main character - along with the few main characters that Jack surrounds himself with - with ever-growing characterization. This is smart writing. Keeps the reader not only engaged, but wondering what shifts and changes will occur with each new novel. Will Jack and Gia get married? Will Jack quit being The Repairman? Will new gateways open all over Earth, making the emergence of the Otherness creep fully into the world?

These climatic things to come - or will they? - keep the readers so obviously wanting more. My wife and I absolutely love this series and have already purchased the next five. Can't wait to get to them!

But the only reason that my wife and I didn't give this novel a full 5 stars is because we felt that Jack didn't react believable enough towards fighting against strange, alien-like creatures that are so obviously not of this world. He doesn't tell his true love, Gia, or close friend Abe. Why not? At least Gia has come across the otherworldly creatures of the Rakoshi, so why not confide in her? Jack's reaction to all of the other people who believed in differing conspiracies, from UFO's to numerous other types, then his facing off of a transforming monkey, along with Men In Black that are seemingly unstoppable, and just walking away from it all without reacting more strongly to it all just came off too breezy for us. But perhaps in the next novel Wilson will show this...?

If you love your series truly exciting and surfing the edge between fantasy and sci-fi, as well as fiction and horror, with loads of supernatural overtones, then this series is for you.

Get into Repairman Jack. Believe us, you won't be sorry.

Repairman Jack is hired to find a missing member of a conspiracy theory group. On the eve of the first SESOUP conference Jack must work his way through competing theories to find why his client's wife has vanished.

The hints of strangeness found in THE TOMB and LEGACIES become fully blown in this novel as Jack finds that there is more than a grain of truth in some of the theories that are presented to him by the strange group he meets at SESOUP.

I enjoyed this novel, but it is slower in pace, and not quite as thriller oriented as the first two books in the series. However, you do get a distinct feeling that the events in this Repairman Jack outing are a turning point, and I'm still looking forward to reading the next book, HOSTS.

Although this story had it's weak spots I could not call the story weak. The nightmarish drama and mystery in this book was much more than enough to keep me reading like crazy and looking into the shadows. The book is truly a shocker in it's dynamic plot. I think it was one of the most amazing peices of literature out there and my favorite book.

The plot of this Repairman Jack book is very good and would be well worth the price. "Repairman Jack" is hired by a man whose rather strange wife was to deliver a lecture at an invitation-only convention of conspiracy buffs. She disappears several days before the convention, leaving her husband a mystical message to the effect that only Jack can find her. Jack worms his way into the convention, where he meets all sorts of conspiracy theoriests, conspirators, and alien beings, as well as a mythology which makes the X-Files background seem tame.

But what is great about this book is less the plot itself than the loopy dialogues and interactions of the conspiracy theorists at the convention, and the way Wilson integrates their nutty conspiracy theories with the real (fictional) conspiracies which are actually taking place in the book -- all this with a hint that there is a real-world conspiracy which involves Wilson and the writing of the book. The "wheels within wheels" theme brings in just about every half-baked conspiracy of the last 50 years: the Kennedy assassination, flying saucers, alien takeovers, the Trilateral Commission, black helicopters, etc. Various characters give voice to their own pet conspiracy, which appear to be duly mocked by the omiscient author, who the goes on to suggest that these nut cases are actually "sensatives" who have at least one part of the broader puzzle right, and that their "delusions" are really a partially correct portion of a "Grand Unified Conspiracy."

My only criticsim of the book is that the ending -- despite a wonderful action scene involving Jack and a hole in the middle of the Earth -- is not able to satisfy the apocolyptic expectations the book has created. But it would take an imagination of the magnitude of St. John the Divine to pull this off, and even Wilson is not quite in his league. That said, a wonderful read.