Guardian [Import] [Paperback]

John Saul (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 409 pages
• Publisher: Fawcett Crest; New Ed edition (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553407465
• ISBN-13: 978-0553407464
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,079,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

House of Reckoning is John Saul's thirty-sixth novel. His first novel, Suffer the Children, published in 1977, was an immediate million-copy bestseller. His other bestselling suspense novels include Faces of Fear, In the Dark of the Night, Perfect Nightmare, Black Creek Crossing, Midnight Voices, The Manhattan Hunt Club, Nightshade, The Right Hand of Evil, The Presence, Black Lightning, The Homing, and Guardian. He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling serial thriller The Blackstone Chronicles, initially published in six installments but now available in one complete volume. Saul divides his time between Seattle, Washington, and Hawaii.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One word: WEAK, July 22, 2000

By 

Lisa Krause (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guardian (Mass Market Paperback)

I haven't read a John Saul book in years, but I remembered him being very good, so when I saw this one at the swap meet I grabbed it right away. Unfortunately this book did not live up to my expectations. Like the previous reviewer, I fear that I may have drifted away from enjoying Saul's style.

I thought the writing in this book was really weak for the most part. Problem number 1: The plot was very basic and was stretched too thin. It may have worked as a short story or novella, but not as a 350+ page novel. Thus, in order to fill up the pages, we get lots of repetition (after reading the fifteenth detailed description of Joey's "urges," I was ready to throw the book across the room) and development of useless characters whose ONLY purpose in the story was to be killed in a gory fashion. I read the restored version of THE STAND right before this, and although THE STAND is 1200 pages long it contains far less useless/boring material than GUARDIAN.

Problem Number 2: The prose reeks of false drama. Nearly every chapter or section ended with an over-the-top dramatic sentence fragment. In addition, by the end of the book, most of the paragraphs were one-sentence dramatic statements. This is a great device to use once in a while to trigger a response in the reader, but it kills the tension when practically the entire book reads that way. I was actually laughing by the end of the book because it was getting so ridiculous.

Problem Number 3: This book is predictable! I guessed the two major "surprise" plot elements before the book was a quarter of the way through, and I am usually terrible at figuring out mysteries. Once you figure out what is going on, the story becomes a series of mindless death scenes. Again, I think this is the result of trying to stretch a perfectly good idea for a SHORT piece into an entire novel. The suspense for such a simple (and I don't mean "bad") idea just can't be credibly kept up for so long.

Problem Number 4: The end is unsatisfying, cliched, and an obvious set-up for a needless sequel. Come on John, we know you can do better than this!

I hope I'm not offending any John Saul fans out there, but I really think this novel needed more work before it was ready for primetime. The feeling I got reading this was that he was churning out a formulaic thriller simply for the sake of the dollar$ he would make. It felt like he was hardly trying. I guess that's okay, if you don't mind reading the same thing over and over from the same author, but now I'm scared to pick up any of his more recent stuff. Saul appears to have been stricken with the dreaded John Grisham Syndrome. Here's hoping he'll snap out of it soon.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Silly, April 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Guardian (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm amazed looking at the other reviews for this book that they are all so good. I was very disappointed in this book. I have read several other John Saul books and this is by far the worst I've read. I found it slow moving and the premise weak. The ending seemed as though the whole exercise of writing the thing had been so painful he just wanted to be done with it.

I will say that it's been many years since I last read a John Saul book and I may have just grown out of them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars captivating....... a real page turner, December 2, 1999

By 

Brian Hovermill - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guardian (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the second book I've read of John Saul's works and so far he is right on target. This book kept me interested the entire way through, no weak spots or slow areas. A real thriller. I challenge anyone to read this and have a problem with it, and I consider myself a picky reader. The ending was good, a possible sequel? However, the ending, I felt, was fairly predictable although adequate. This guy knows how to weave a story and keep you glued to your chair.