Customer Reviews

Night of Thunder [With Earphones] (Bob Lee Swagger Novels (Playaway))

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Stephen Hunter has long been one of my favorite writers but he is sorely trying my patience after his last two releases. His first book or two, back in the eighties, I'm thinking The Master Sniper, were OK, but then he wrote the first Bob Lee Swagger book, Point of Impact, and it, and everything that came after until 47th Samurai, was six star genius. In fact, Stephen Hunter became my favorite writer, even edging out James Lee Burke, and Hunter's novels Dirty White Boys and Pale Horse Coming are two of my favorite books ever. I bought half a dozen copies of Pale Horse Coming so I could give them as treasured presents to my brothers and friends. Then came 47th Samurai, a ridiculous excuse for a book in many ways, and ruined what had been a run of stupefyingly good books for many years. I'll forgive an author, particularly Hunter, for a bad book once, but with the release of Night of Thunder, I have to say I am officially ticked off and offended.

This book would have been a three star book if it had been written by a new author, but for a talented veteran like Hunter, this is one or two star fare at best and I can't help but feel betrayed. Why are so many good writers releasing such sub-par books in the last two years? Where is the pride one should have in accomplishment? Is it just about money now? This feels a little like finding Shakespeare cranking out harlequin romances simply because it pays better. Shame on Stephen Hunter for foisting this pap on us. The man who writes Pale Horse Coming should have more pride than to publish a book like this.

In Night of Thunder, Bob Lee's oldest daughter is forced from the road in attempted vehicular manslaughter in Tennessee and is in a coma. Bob goes to investigate and ultimately finds a clan of Arkansas criminals trying to commit a heist at a Nascar race. They tried to kill his daughter to keep the plan from coming out so Bob gets to shoot them all by the end of the book. So what is bad about this book? Everything. Bob Lee has gone from a three-dimensional complex and cunning character to a cartoon, the villains are also cartoonish and speak in some kind of argot which is supposed to be Southern but which isn't. They don't use contractions and speak long convoluted sentences beyond their intellectual capability. The plot is direct, simple and ultimately cartoonish too. So no character development, stupid unbelievable villains, lame plot. Can you tell I'm upset? I've purchased every Stephen Hunter novel the day it was released in hard cover for the last ten years. No more. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. If you want a great "guy" reading experience go back to Point of Impact and start reading forward from there. Stop when you get to 47th Samurai and do not read it. It will ruin all the wonderful times you had up until then. Certainly do not bother with Night of Blunders. I think Hunter needs to stop writing about the Swaggers now and move on. I hope he writes a new novel that restores my faith in him, but I will wait for paperback for his next book and check the reviews before I even buy that. This book is strike two for Hunter, and if his next book is strike three then I am done.

I'd like a refund for this book as well as the 47th Samurai. Never again will I read a Stephen Hunter novel and at one time, he was my favorite author. I've read everything that he has published and unfortunately, his work of late has been very disappointing. He has done a great disservice to both his fans and the great Bob Lee Swagger.

Night of Thunder had more holes in it than a Bob Lee target at 50 feet. The plot had potential with a gang of mountain men trying to kill Nikki, Bob Lee's daughter. However, the characters were just plain boring and the dialog was senseless. The local Sheriff was a retired Army Ranger Colonel. The hillbilly gang was from Polk County and Hot Springs, Arkansas. The detective was a champion marksman. How would they have not heard of the Swaggers? References to NASCAR and the Bristol motor speedway were just plain wrong.

I'm sure it took me longer to get through it than it did for Mr. Hunter to write it.

Being an avid Stephen Hunter fan since reading Point of Impact, I found the caricature that is Bob Lee to be a fascinating and welcome resurgence to the long forgotten "real man's" hero.

Since Hunter missed the mark on the last few books--namely The 47th Samurai--I have been waiting for Hunter to return to his forte, namely the ability to write a tightly woven story intertwined with realistic gun fights. To my surprise Night of Thunder attempts to bring back Bob Lee and all his skills to once again amaze the reader.

I don't want to waste your time going over the story but I will address a few points that stopped me from giving this book a better rating.

1) It is very difficult to not compare Hunter's latest books against his 2 pinnacles of achievement: Dirty White Boys, and Point of Impact. Each of those novels contained an excellent story, properly edited, and allowed you to fall in love with the protagonist and antagonist. It just seems that Hunter hasn't been able to achieve that kind of storytelling in his latest books.

2) While Bob Lee has returned in this novel, I felt separated from who he is and what he has become. The author has left holes in the story that the readers are supposed to fill in with what we know of Bob Swagger. I think Hunter needs to return to the basics and write about Bob Lee so anyone can pick up the book with as little confusion as possible and read on.

3) The plot of this book seems a little childish, and the enemies as well as the people Bob bumps into along the way are nothing more than mere words on a page. I do not connect with any of them, and I certainly feel they could have been better written (those of you who have read Dirty White Boys know what I am talking about).

Lastly, maybe it is time for Hunter to retire Bob and find another anti-hero. I, along with many of you would mourn the loss of Bob the "Nailer" but I also hate to see Mr. Swagger driven through terrible plot twists that only make sense in the story due to the author placing much of the story telling burden on Bob.

Anyway, I give it 3 stars. I wanted to give it 4 as at times I felt like I was reading the old Bob Lee books, but the story lacks any real appeal. I will give Hunter a decent pat on the back for continually trying to bring Bob back; I just keep waiting for a good story to go along with it.

After the decidedly lackluster 47th Samurai, in which Swagger becomes a world-class samurai swordsman in a week, it's nice to see a return to the series' strength--the feral instincts on familiar turf. This does have a few flaws, but we're back to the satisfying territory of most of Hunter's previous Bob Swagger novels. The story takes place in East Tennessee, in the Tri-Cities area of Northeast Tennessee, and in Knoxville. The main plotlines center around meth labs (certainly a popular activity in this part of the country) and NASCAR racing at Bristol (also popular). The evil Brother Richard, a supremely skilled driver, tries to kill Swagger's daughter Nikki by running her off the road. Nikki works for a Bristol newspaper, and is investigating meth labs: the accident puts her into a coma, and this brings in Bob Swagger, suspicious and wary as ever that perhaps the target was actually him.

Brother Richard has been working with a remarkably unpleasant gang under the leadership (and parentage) of the Reverend Alton Grumley. Grumley has fathered all (or almost all) of the Grumley clan: some he has fathered on his own daughters, and few, if any, of the clan are able to trace family ties with any kind of confidence. So we soon have Swagger bumping into Grumleys. The local law enforcement is convinced the "accident" was a local kid showing off, and has more important things to do--namely worrying about NASCAR crowds--and Swagger is, politely at first, told to go back home and let the local law take care of things, which advice Swagger, of course, doesn't heed. You can pretty much take it from there: Swagger's feral instincts and skills put to use against the bad guys. Lots of action, good writing, the traditional Hunter strengths.

There are a few flaws--nothing major. Few people have heard of Bob Swagger--the only one I remember in the book is a NASCAR driver. Law enforcement looks him up--nothing on him, nothing that sets off any bells. It appears that the police and the bad guys never think to do a Google search, or if they do, they find nothing (you get 146K hits for the fictional Bob Lee--imagine if he were a real character!). This seems like rather a bad oversight, but it lets Swagger play the harmless old geezer. There's an episode of driving a truck at a good clip up a trackless wooded mountainside at night--quite a feat! There's also, for Amazon shoppers, a (perhaps unintended) slur on Amazon's expedited delivery service (maybe Hunter didn't like some of the 47th Samurai reviews on Amazon...). Part of the ending was satisfactory, but part was, to say the least, unprofessionally senseless (more details would reveal plot elements). And we also learn about another of Swagger's world-class skills that we were (I believe) previously unaware of--but nothing of the disorder of the samurai sword skills, at least. So these problems distract a bit from the story, but not enough to bother one very much. The prodigal son returneth, and we're back, thank goodness, to the old Swagger style--a very welcome return

Bob Lee Swagger - Bob the Nailer - is back in this novel that pits him against a crime family from the "Deliverance" end of the gene pool as they target the world of NASCAR for their next murderous criminal escapade.

Over the years and through the series Swagger has transformed from a misanthropic hermit to a dedicated family man, and the years have taken their toll - though minimally - on his abilities. This has been gratifying to watch, as so many of the heroes of continuing literary series seem to be Peter Pans, never aging or diminishing as time marches on. Dave Robicheaux comes to mind, and the most glaring example of this is James Bond, who started the series as an ex-Royal Navy Commander and World War II vet and to this day is still only about 38 years old.

Any Bob Lee book is better than no Bob Lee book, and the elements we all love are here: bad guys who are truly bad, a bit of mystery as to the identity of the mastermind behind the crime (though, frankly, I figured this out pretty early in the story), an interesting venue (NASCAR), a bit of a mystery to be solved, and a guns-ablaze satisfying ending.

But in all honesty, this has been done so much better in previous Swagger books, in my opinion. I found the crime family somewhat cartoonish. The story didn't seem to have the depth or polish we've come to expect from the series.

And one big element: Swagger is a character whose real expertise derives from his experience as a Marine sniper, and he's a man of the long gun. That's the uniqueness of the character. It's been used to great effect in most of the series.

In "47th Samurai", a book I liked a lot (in contrast to many of the other reviewers, apparently) Swagger used swords in the final confrontation, but getting him to that point was a very interesting trip.

In the final confrontation with the mastermind, he's suddenly a quick-draw expert, a skill I don't remember from any of the previous books. It almost magically appears, and struck me as being very "Quigley Down Under"; the man of the rifle being also and unexpectedly the master of the handgun.

As an avid shooter myself, and former competitor, I can assure you they're very different skill sets. A person can have both, but expertise in one doesn't automatically confer expertise in the other.

Anyway, enjoyable, but not the best of the series.

I have read all of Mr. Hunter's books and this one is awful; just like the 47th Samuri and Havana.

I confess I returned the book to the library and did not complete it. The plot line is weak and boring. The cast of characters must have been derived from the book "the novice manual of book writing". Mr.Hunter has consistently headed downhill.

Bobby Lee has lost his swagger if you will. Consider this:

HAVANA - why read a book with Swagger in Havana and plot line with Castro? Regardless of the plot the ending is a known.

47th SAMURI - Not the least bit plausible. The sequel will have Bobby Lee get the best of Superman.

This book and the others mentioned are a total waste of time. Save your money and hope that Mr. Hunter can get his act together. Prior books were wonderful.

Bob "The Nailer's" daughter is in a car accident. Bob's paranoia has him investigating the incident thinking it may be some old enemies trying to get back at him. During the process he uncovers the reason for the hit.

The story is familiar to the Swagger series fans. The Swagger Saga is getting long in the tooth and needs to be retired.

Although it is an enjoyable read, the characters were cartoonish and sterotypical. The ending was somewhat of a twist.

Not as good as his previous works, Mr. Hunter needs to retire Bob and find a new character.

disapointing. IN fact, one of the saddest events of my recent life. Having loved Hunters other books, I was so looking forward to this. Wow, how...bad. Stupid. Pointless.

Not really a novel. Too short and too thin, in every sense of the term. Merely a confection, an homage to the earlier books WHICH YOU CAN STILL GET ON AMAZON OR EBAY. But it does raise the deeply philosophical literary question that, if you initially set the bar in the stratosphere by creating the single greatest action hero in the history of US fiction (no, not kidding, mean every word) and then you allow your later books to get sloppier, and thinner -- can you still outscore everyone else in the genre because you started out at such a lofty level??? At least it is not as insane as the just-prior book, the "Bob-Sans-Bullets" one, which was also an historical achievement, but not one to boast of. And, to be fair, nobody puts his hero through as much Hell as Hunter. If Bob The Nailer is allowed to age gracefully into just one more goofy tale like this, he'll be using his walker to brace his rifle. Good fun and fond memories for fans. A quick read, especially if you skip over the repititive descriptions of the bad guys. Embarrassing for newbies. Get the earlier ones. You won't be sorry.

This last effort highlights the need NOT to continue a series, unless it is for the money only. Bob Lee Swagger, a favorite hero/non-hero is subjected not only to age, something we all, if lucky enough will experience, but to poor characterizations and moronic plotting. Worse, It takes the spawn of the really savage and evil Pye family(Dirty White Boys)andf the Grumley's (potentially good villians for a well thought out book), who have some horrible genes and places them in tattered jeans for a lacklustre and boring tale of nonsense that actually seems to embarras poor Bob Lee. Dear Mr. Hunter. Stop before you ruin more. Either think out your stories and plots well or just say no. If you are on hard times and need the dough, I can relate. Then do it. But if you do not. Please do not alienate your readers by disrespecting them with such garbage. I give it a single star because of the work you have provided to those in need of a job and paycheck.