Jack Reacher
author reveals the story behind "one of this century's most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes" ( The Washington Post). In this short piece, the creator of Jack Reacher shares the origins of the ex-military cop who now makes use of his skills in the civilian world—a place where he never feels quite at home. In addition, Lee Child reflects on writing and his own life story: the importance of character; making the transition from a television career to a literary career; how his famous character was almost named Franklin—and how he wound up being called Reacher instead. "Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of. I read every one as soon as it appears." —Ken Follett, international-bestselling author of The Pillars of the Earth "Every Reacher novel delivers a jolt to the nervous system." — Kirkus Reviews
Stats for nerds
13recommend
31mentions
27people
2013–2025years
45% recommend48% neutral6% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you really get into them here’s a few series that are along similar lines
- Prey series by John Sandford
- Bosch series by Michael Connelly (He’s the “Lincoln Lawyer’s half-brother). Also a series on Amazon Prime
- Orphan X series by Mark Greany
I’ve followed all of these (as well as Jack Reacher and Gray man) series for years and have read all of them. Great brain candy.
- Lovely story. Reminds me of the rather more violent but still enjoyable "graduation ring returned to owner" Jack Reacher novel The Midnight Line.
- Seeing this reminds me of something I'm not proud of. I've done effectively no reading this year. At least not by my normal standards.
I generally read between 30-50 books a year (mix of fiction and non-fiction). But this year I knew my focus was going to be more on research, reading papers, writing code, etc. so I set my reading goal lower than normal (I usually set it to like 75, knowing that that's a bit aspirational). This year? I set it to like, 30. And I won't come close to hitting that. Right now I'm at 7 books for the year. So I don't have a big sample set to choose from. :-(
That said...
Of what I did read, a couple were pretty good:
Non-fiction:
Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks- Scott J. Shapiro
Readings in Agents - Huhns, Singh (eds)
Programming Multi-Agent Systems in AgentSpeak using Jason - Bordini, Hubner, & Wooldridge
Fiction:
In Too Deep (Jack Reacher, #29) - Lee Child
- Darren Shan's books about vampires/vampaneze.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_of_Darren_Shan
It helped me escape from a lot of stuff, gave me a fantasy world to run to when books were all I had.
All of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books gave me a character to look up to, someone to aspire to be like. At the time, there was maybe only 3 released but I read them over and over again.
"What will you do, Reacher?"
"The right thing, Mom."
- I've read all 20+ of the Jack Reacher books, some multiple times. Best bedtime reading I've found. Fun enough I actually want to go to bed. Shallow enough that if I miss a page or two because I'm drowsy, no big deal.
- I've read all 20+ of the Jack Reacher books,
Same! I think they're great. But that's "great" when you appreciate them for what they are. I wouldn't compare, say, The Killing Floor to Nineteen Eighty Four or anything. But I'd say they're both great - in their respective ways.
