The Sentinel: (Jack Reacher 25) (utgåvan 2020)

NOt the bight of the usual. bit less biff and a bit more story. ( )

Uf, primera escrita a cuatro manos, deja de lado algunos de los tics de Reacher, y creo que pierde anclaje, despues de tantas novelas Jack es Jack y cuando deja de hacer algunas cosas el personaje se desdibuja, la trama insulsa, sobre una serie de programas de computación y espias rusos. Floja ( )

Over the span of the Jack Reacher novels I came to a point where I wanted change. I thought Jack was getting a little stale as a character account of the cookie cutter approach of the novels. I always wondered why Jack didn't grow/mature as a character. That question was answered by Child himself when I had a chance to hear him speak in person and was asked that very question. His answer was that Jack wasn't going to change because he, Child, was writing for the avid readers who followed Reacher's cause and had definite expectations. I accepted that at the time but was intrigued when I read his newest book was going to be a joint venture with his brother and Reacher's character would reflect some changes moving forward. The problem, however, is that this novel is like a time-tested recipe where the cook altered some of the ingredients without thinking about the final product. All, or most of the ingredients of the previous Reacher novels are present in some form or fashion in the Sentinel; however, it's like the cook, or in this case the writers, forgot to mix them in the right proportion to produce a product that was still appetizing to the reader. The plot wanders aimlessly through a series of "Reacher" confrontations loosely driven by any number of nefarious bad guys ranging from Russians to Nazis ... somewhat explained but never really developed in terms the underlying issues faced by Rutherford's character. I struggled to get through this one. There simply was nothing that compelled me as a reader to take a stake in what was going on. Sadly, if more attention had been taken to flesh out the narrative with Reacher's character as the driving force it always has been this novel could have knocked it out of the park. ( )

I read a review that suggested the addition of Andrew Child to the authorship of the novel made a perceptible impact. Not for me, continues to be enjoyable brain-candy for me. ( )

Yes, he's different and I'm not sure I'm quite on board with the new cerebral Jack Reacher. I knew when i saw that Lee Child (pen name) was co-authoring with his younger brother that it would be different, but after 24 books (this is number 25), maybe it would be a nice change. The ghost of the old Jack Reacher is there, but the essence of Jack Reacher is gone. I kept looking for him, but couldn't find it. Since when would Jack Reacher ever text? When would he ever look at different options when contemplating how to get out of a jam? When would he ever think about non-violent ways to get out of that jam? The pace was different too and maybe that was slowed down by all the thinking (?) that Jack did throughout. Lee Child always used short, spare sentences which moved the pace along at a fast clip. The sentences in this book were long and well-constructed. Sorry. This is not my Jack Reacher. I read the whole book looking for the essence of Jack, but didn't find it. The plot was well-constructed, and the bad guys were horrific, but Jack seemed to just swagger his way through the book, and didn't seem to get involved mentally or emotionally engaged. I gave it an effort, but I found the book wanting. I may have come to the end of the road for one of my favourite anti-heroes. That list has been depleted lately with changes authors have made to their plotting and storyline. ( )