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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9844386" data-attributes="member: 8461">I just finished reading Lee Child's 1998 novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Trying_(novel)" target="_blank">Die Trying</a>, the second book in his Jack Reacher series.I mentioned a <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/what-are-you-reading-in-2025.709371/post-9743629" target="_blank">few months ago</a> that I'd picked up a Jack Reacher book out of a Little Free Library in my neighbor's front yard, and decided to move this one up in my queue (mostly so that I could return it, freeing up a bit of space in my book-crowded house).Normally I wouldn't have started a series with its second book, but my understanding was that each of the Reacher novels is a stand-alone tale. Throw in the fact that the first book, Killing Floor, was the basis for the first season of Amazon's Reacher show (which I've seen), and there was no real reason not to give this book a whirl, since I liked the Amazon production.Having said that, this one wasn't quite the same beast. I've heard how people will talk about the way Ian Fleming's James Bond books are quite different in tone than the films, and while I can't comment on that, I feel like there's a similar (albeit, I suspect, lesser) dissonance here. It's not that the character is different (though he comes across as slightly more human, having rare moments of self-doubt and even fear), but more about how things are presented.For instance, Child's writing is choppier. Lots of short sentences in sequence. Articles frequently omitted. Could be seen as workmanlike by some. But really it's more about processes. Lots of processes get described here. Things snipers take into account. Procedures used to investigate kidnapping cases. How to disable radio receivers.All of which sets the tone for the book as a whole, which is one that's far less action than the Amazon show and more like a slow and sustained siege. Jack Reacher is presented as a force to be reckoned with, but spends a lot of time analyzing people, locations, and circumstances before taking action. Even then, that action is often about where, when, and how to place a strategic shot than about him overwhelming a bunch of thugs through sheet brute force. He's more of a tactician than an action hero.Also, I didn't anticipate the degree to which the secondary characters would be given coverage. There are significant portions of the book where we follow the villains or law enforcement as they pursue their own agendas and react to what happens, laying down plot threads far in advance of when they start to become aware of each other, much less come into contact.The overall takeaway is that this wasn't a bad book by any means, but is more of an adventure-thriller than any sort of power fantasy. Reacher busting heads or blowing someone away is a thing that happens more than once over the course of the story, but is invariably something he can only do after what feels like long periods of maneuvering rather than acting like a human Hulk. And given how much maneuvering there was—the mass market paperback is just over 550 pages, not including the previews for further stories in the series—this came perilously close to feeling like a slog at times.Still, it wasn't anything I regretted reading, but the no-nonsense presentation lacked the panache that I was hoping to find here, giving the whole thing an emotionlessness that felt more like The Terminator than Rambo. It's not bad, but I don't see it being for me; in the future, I'll stick to the Amazon series to get my Reacher fix.</blockquote>

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