Slanted Jack [Mass Market Paperback]

Mark L. Van Name (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

Slanted Jack:  a novel that bobs and weaves, takes you on a headlong race through a strange but believable future, and never slows down.

 

The job looks simple enough:  Jon Moore, the nanotech-enhanced, world-weary, soldier of fortune, agrees to help a con man, a friend from a part of his past he’d rather forget, protect a very special young boy.  The deal doesn’t stay simple, as each move Jon and Lobo make results in more danger and more enemies.  The situation grows even more complicated when a beautiful woman with an unclear agenda joins them in their quest.

 

The best con man Jon’s ever known, a ruthless gang boss, a heavily armed group of religious fanatics, and an interstellar government out to clean up a dangerous frontier world rush together toward an explosive climax—and Jon and Lobo are caught in the middle.

 

Slanted Jack: the second novel in the Jon & Lobo series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While the character development, world building and thematic depth are mediocre at best, Van Name's flare for witty dialogue, breakneck pacing and nonstop action compensate for the narrative inadequacies and make this high-powered sequel to 2007's One Jump Ahead an undeniable page-turner. When nano-enhanced soldier of fortune Jon Moore and his sentient assault vehicle, Lobo, run into a former acquaintance, a conman and thief named Slanted Jack, Moore's kindheartedness gets him and his sarcastic battlewagon into a deadly predicament. A religious fanatic who moonlights as an arms dealer, an irate gang leader and a powerful government councilor are all ready to wring Jack's neck, and Moore becomes the target of their collective fury when Jack suddenly disappears with an allegedly psychic child and a cache of invaluable artifacts. The flat characters and undemanding plot may discourage more cerebral readers, but those who gravitate toward action-heavy story lines will find Moore's escapades highly entertaining. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Mark L. Van Name, whom John Ringo has said is "going to be the guy to beat in the race to the top of SFdom," has worked in the high-tech industry for over 30 years and today runs a technology assessment company in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. A former Executive Vice President for Ziff Davis Media and a national technology columnist, he's published over a thousand computer-related articles and multiple science fiction stories in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including the Year's Best Science Fiction. Jon & Lobo stories have appeared in a Baen anthology and Jim Baen's Universe.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Baen; Reprint edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416591621
• ISBN-13: 978-1416591627
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark L. Van Name is a writer, technologist, and spoken word performer. As a science fiction author, he has published four novels (One Jump Ahead, Slanted Jack, Overthrowing Heaven, and Children No More) as well as an omnibus collection of his first two books (Jump Gate Twist); edited or co-edited three anthologies (Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology, Transhuman, and The Wild Side), and written many short stories. Those stories have appeared in a wide variety of books and magazines, including Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, many original anthologies, and The Year's Best Science Fiction.

As a technologist, he is the CEO of a fact-based marketing and technology assessment firm, Principled Technologies, Inc., that is based in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. He has worked with computer technology for his entire professional career and has published over a thousand articles in the computer trade press, as well as a broad assortment of essays and reviews.

As a spoken word artist, he has created and performed two shows: Science Magic Sex, and Wake Up Horny, Wake Up Angry. He also frequently leads humor panels at SF conventions.

For more information, visit his Web site, www.marklvanname.com, or follow his blog, markvanname.blogspot.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting for some info on Jon's background - but otherwise didn't leave me impressed, July 6, 2008

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slanted Jack (Jon & Lobo) (Hardcover)

Jon is having dinner at swish restaurant when his meal in interrupted by an old partner of his - Slanted Jack - a professional con man who wants Jon to do him a favour. Jon knows Jack never does anything without an angle but he finds it impossible to refuse his request to help with security needed by a small boy with a meeting he has to have with local religious leader.

For me, after reading ONE JUMP AHEAD this book was a disappointment. It doesn't have any real action sequences and by the second half of the book it felt like I was simply reading about one meeting after another. The nanos - in many ways one of Jon's most interesting features - don't play much of a part in this story at all. What we do find out about however is more interesting information on Jon's home planet of Pinkleplonker and how Jon was healed by his sister.

I'll still read the next book in this series, but the author seems so intent on keeping these novels as stand alone stories that so far you don't actually see much character development in either Jon or Lobo.


One Jump Ahead (Jon & Lobo Series)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars boring, meandering, wordy, uninteresting, January 9, 2009

By 

Stuart Abramson "stuarta46" (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slanted Jack (Jon & Lobo) (Hardcover)

I very much enjoyed the 1st book in this series "One Jump Ahead", but didn't like this book at all, and, in fact, couldn't finish it. The author takes WAY too long to tell his story with way too many words, asides, uninteresting background information, unnecessary scenes. The relationship between the man and the boy is completely unbelievable (he only met the boy once for 15 minutes, and the boy could have been a con artist); then he becomes devoted to the boy's welfare. There is one scene in which Jack buys a kind of flying sled where the author tours the entire town and tells everything about the store and the salesman except what he ate for lunch today. I wanted to scream "Just buy the !@#$% sled already!!". I think he needed to pad the words to make the book meet the page count. Finally I gave up and just threw the book away.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very disapointing, April 30, 2009

By 

99silver - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slanted Jack (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved the first book in this series but this one is not up to snuff. There is very little that separates this from most other military science fiction.

Mostly a large number of meetings with unbelievable results. No use of the unique characteristics of Jon and Lobo. Lobo becomes a nag and a bore. Maggie is totally one dimensional and a pain in the story. Jon's relationship with the boy is unbelievable.

Skip this one and hope Van Horn returns to form in the next one.