Hard Jack [Kindle Edition]

John David Hanna (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Jack lives a normal life in a declining world only to be awakened after his death. Others of the dead convince him that he could have done better and may even save the world from the impending doom that claimed his life.
Jack agrees to try and returns to the world armed with a few friends and a few tools of advanced design. He will work work within the parameters of his world to change it instead of producing a few miracles and then demanding compliance.
His team amasses some wealth and turns their abilities toward finding the creator whom they know to be within the solar system. They know the creator is an artificial intelligence who has created us for a specific purpose.
They plan to find it and convince it to utilize the race, as planned, before it destroys itself. They suspect the machine is benign but has no emotion and does not care if it succeeds in it's mission: it has been thwarted by race failures many times in the past.

About the Author

John was born in the steel city of Youngstown, Ohio and attended elementary school before moving to Florida with his family. High school was uneventful and he summered at his grandparents hotel on Indian Rocks Beach where he cleaned fish for the paying guests. After graduation he learned a few trades including machinist, architectural draftsman, and auto mechanic. John married and attended University of South Florida where he was awarded a degree in computer engineering in 1991. He enjoyed a growing family and a computer consulting career until he retired in 2009. John is creating characters that he hopes are entertaining while exemplifying the misunderstood qualities of sacrifice, efficiency, logic and creativity.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 932 KB
• Print Length: 305 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1439244472
• Publisher: Book Surge (August 1, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002LITEB0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #554,357 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Hello Fellow Science Fiction enthusiasts;

Thank you for looking at my background.
I can proundly state that my greatest achievement lies with my family each member of which swells me with greater pride each passing day. Beyond that my career can be rated as greater than dismal and less than stellar.

Things that become apparent in my works are that I am a capitalist (never lost a buck for anyone) and I like to make an honest dollar. The government is good when it mellows ruthless competition and sets minimum standards but can not profit or quelch growing efforts.

I am good at and lived from the following trades and professions in sequential order - mechanic, machinist, restaurant work, architectural draftsman, software engineer and teacher. My first book, Hard Jack, was written to display solutions I feel may work encased in a living story that expands the exciting possibilities of scientific disciplines along with a few theories.

I have always wondered where the aliens were and why we could see no trace of other intelligent life in the universe. I have concluded that the human race was seeded and the harvest is near. I find that the reasonable implementation of this work could only be done by a machine and I have included that there is a culling, an inhumanly cruel thinning, due before the harvest.

What is interesting is how simular religious dogma matches what is becoming reality. I can tell you that I am a strong advocate of equal rites yet many have suffered due to bigotry and I have tried to illuminate these hardships as they are part of life in America. Also, my protagonists are a bit prone to recreational fornification and I have included some diversion as sex is also a part of life and it gives depth to my characters.

My novel deals with a crew that finds the AI that runs the system. Although the description of that astounding machine is detailed the objective reveals the difficulty in dealing with an omnipotent dead being and the difficulties in transferring these awards to the religious and the government and all others maintaining the status quo.

My objective is to reveal how bad conditions may get but the book is one of hope. It is my opinion that the race is ready for the next step. That step may be to approach the AI that runs this system. The AI is not God and the machine doesn't have the power of creation but the machine did build the race for a purpose.

The final culling may poison us beyond salvation or the AI will take the survivors as nature has always thinned a species. But it may be that we can avoid the final cut with a conversation.

I am working out the second novel now as Jack's son leads the second approach and experiences the beginning of the harvest. Hope you like my work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly Written, August 9, 2011

By 

JB3 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard Jack (Paperback)

I have not reviewed books in the past but this one was so bad that I wanted to warn people.
First, I'm not a prude, by any means, but I felt the sexuality in this book should have given it an explicit warning if not an X rating.
Don't get me wrong ... a little sex can help move a storyline along, but when it crosses over into hardcore territory, it begins to detract from the overall Sci-Fi reading experience for me.
Secondly, the ending was so abrupt and lame, giving the book an unfinished feel, that it actually made me somewhat mad.
On a very slight up-note (and why I gave it 2 stars instead of one), the level of technology described in the book was fair to good.
I would not recommend this book to others.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, thoroughly recommend it, March 4, 2010

By 

1234JMT (UK) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hard Jack (Paperback)

As a sci fi fan, I admit I am a bit fussy about my fiction. I want to be entertained but not with cheap gimmicks, I want out of this world, brain stretching concepts and yet to be able to see logic and depth - not just little green men running around shooting helpless blondes.. This book rose above all of that and proved to be one of the best books I have read in ages.

The opening section of the book introduces you to some of the main characters in a very unusual and thought provoking way. John Hanna uses some clever tactics to create a wide landscape that creates the scene and placement for the unfolding story to come. Jack, the central character starts with his own death and the slow realisation that he has a chance to do something much bigger than live once and die. As he learns about his "death" he is made aware of a higher purpose - that of gathering a small, like minded team to save humanity before the seemingly inevitable nuclear disaster looming ahead. To do this, he needs to return to Earth, locate his team and find a way to contact an AI "out there" somewhere.

The reader is swept along with Jack as he returns and starts realising he has a few extra abilities to help him in his quest, quickly assembles his team and starts working to set up a business capable of providing both the investment and the equipment to send a message that an AI might pick up in space. As his team is gathered together and they form working and personal relationships with other "outsiders" the plot develops on their joint quest to contact the AI and deal with the inevitable "what happens next".

If you enjoy intelligent and believable sci fi with good plot and decent characters, then this is a great choice. If you are not really a sci fi fan but enjoy a good book full of interesting and multi faceted characters, then also consider this book! I will not talk about the ending other than to say WOW. Made me sit up and came as a complete shock. As much as I wish the ending may have taken a different route, it left me reeling in suprise. Not many books do that these days.. read it for yourself and see what I am talking about!

Really hope that there is a sequel planned.... please.... ;)