Gateways

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Repairman Jack Story
Review: Repairman Jack is back! This time he travels out of New York to the edge of the Everglades in Southern Florida, where his father is hovering near death following a hit and run accident. Jack moves into the Gateways, his father's retirement community, for the duration of his visit. After talking to residents and employees at the Gateways, having a few unpleasant encounters with a band of mutants living in the Everglades, and uncovering a series of suspicious deaths of the community's elderly residents, he fears that his father's accident was deliberate. He soon decides that things need repairing there too. It appears that the Otherness is back, and Jack has been drawn here to confront the ultimate evil once again.

This novel is full of interesting characters. First there's the mutant clan leader Semelee who has special gifts that she is certain set her apart as a Chosen One, and who targets an unwitting Jack as her soul mate. Then there's Anya, an eccentric Gateways resident who watches over Jack and his father and whose green lawn in the midst of drought indicates that she may be more than she seems. Wilson delves into Jack's past and treats the reader to more on the mysterious man's background. And finally, there are some surprising discoveries about Jack's father that indicate that Jack didn't fall that far from the family tree. Now that Jack and his father have come to know each other better, they have a reconciliation that adds depth to the story.

The Everglades, in a mingling of the natural and the supernatural, provides an exotic and colorful backdrop for this tale. Otherworldly lights appear semiannually from a sinkhole deep within its wilderness. It harbors fantastic creatures both real and surreal. The Otherness is exerting its influence on both man and beast there. There is information about its natural wonders here too. Even though I am a South Florida resident living in a city bordering the Everglades, I learned some fascinating new facts about its ecology. I recommend this as a great horror story, thriller, and source of background information on the enigmatic Jack. It is hard to put down, and it definitely deserves its 5 star rating.

Eileen Rieback

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Repairman Jack Story
Review: Repairman Jack is back! This time he travels out of New York to the edge of the Everglades in Southern Florida, where his father is hovering near death following a hit and run accident. Jack moves into the Gateways, his father's retirement community, for the duration of his visit. After talking to residents and employees at the Gateways, having a few unpleasant encounters with a band of mutants living in the Everglades, and uncovering a series of suspicious deaths of the community's elderly residents, he fears that his father's accident was deliberate. He soon decides that things need repairing there too. It appears that the Otherness is back, and Jack has been drawn here to confront the ultimate evil once again.

This novel is full of interesting characters. First there's the mutant clan leader Semelee who has special gifts that she is certain set her apart as a Chosen One, and who targets an unwitting Jack as her soul mate. Then there's Anya, an eccentric Gateways resident who watches over Jack and his father and whose green lawn in the midst of drought indicates that she may be more than she seems. Wilson delves into Jack's past and treats the reader to more on the mysterious man's background. And finally, there are some surprising discoveries about Jack's father that indicate that Jack didn't fall that far from the family tree. Now that Jack and his father have come to know each other better, they have a reconciliation that adds depth to the story.

The Everglades, in a mingling of the natural and the supernatural, provides an exotic and colorful backdrop for this tale. Otherworldly lights appear semiannually from a sinkhole deep within its wilderness. It harbors fantastic creatures both real and surreal. The Otherness is exerting its influence on both man and beast there. There is information about its natural wonders here too. Even though I am a South Florida resident living in a city bordering the Everglades, I learned some fascinating new facts about its ecology. I recommend this as a great horror story, thriller, and source of background information on the enigmatic Jack. It is hard to put down, and it definitely deserves its 5 star rating.

Eileen Rieback

Rating:
Summary: Not The Maytag Repairman!
Review: Repairman Jack is not an appliance repairman as his father has been led to believe. He fixes things that no one else can fix--things that might involve--well--going outside the law. Things that might involve going up against ultimate Evil. In this book, ultimate Evil resides in a sinkhole in the Florida Everglades, right behind the retirement village where his father was living just prior to his near-fatal accident. And of course, Repairman Jack is quickly drawn into the scene and its ever-widening net of sinister complications.

Jack is one of the most intriguing characters in current literature and author F. Paul Wilson's signature character. A man with no legal identity, no social security number, he operates in a shadow-land outside the law, yet always fighting for justice. And while Jack is very good at his peculiar line of work, he also yearns for a normal life, with a normal family.

So, will Evil be defeated? Will Jack figure out how to emerge from the shadows and marry his long-time girlfriend? Will he even survive? Will existence as we know it survive? You will just have to read the book to find out. Author Wilson is a great story-teller who will keep you turning the pages. I recommend this one. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Rating:
Summary: Freat Repairman Jack tale
Review: Repairman Jack is trying to find a way to be a citizen again ever since he found out Gia was pregnant with his child. Since the government does not know he exists, they cannot be legally be married. Jack ponders a way to live up to his reputation as the "fix-it" man, his brother calls. He tells Jack that their father was in a car accident in the Everglades and is in Novaton Community Hospital.

When Jack flies down to Novaton he does not realize he is going to be in another battle for his life. Hidden in the Everglades are two sinkholes that at the equinoxes give off an otherworldly light. The light mutates humans and animals and all other living creatures. Semelie, the leader of the inhabitants with the power to control the twisted life of the sinkholes, is responsible for the accident of Jack's father. Still she cannot get at Jack because a neighbor woman with much power is able to hold the forces of darkness at bay for the moment. When she is overcome, Jack and two surprising allies fight back knowing it could mean their deaths.

Fate has something very big in store for Repairman Jack and the author slowly, novel by novel, reveals parts of the plan in which the Ally (Jack's side) battles the Otherness. Readers learn more about Jack's relationship with his father and why the Other has let him live. This is a very enthralling and mesmerizing tale because it is very possible that the dark side will win and the protagonist knows it.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Good supernatural thriller
Review: See book summary above.

If you liked the previous Repairman Jack novels you'll love this one. If you've not read any of them you might get a little confused as to some of the background (but you'll catch up). Either way you'll enjoy this supernatural thriller.
Wilson's ability to pull you into a story is one of the things that makes him one of the best in this genre. His knack of displaying highly visual and sometimes graphic scenes is also a bonus.
I don't think I've read anything bad by this author. Keep it up.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: My first Repairman Jack, but not my last!
Review: This is the first book I ever read by F. Paul Wilson. What a treat I've been missing! Having read Gateways and enjoyed a thrill ride like no other, I plan to read the whole series!

Repairman Jack is a man without a history, skirting the edges of society, setting wrongs right. This book opens with Jack inside the home of a private detective who is using the evidence and pictures he gathered about people's personal lives to blackmail them. Jack has been hired by one such person, but destroys the evidence of many blackmailing schemes, trying to set many wrong to right. He's a fringe-of-society character with a strong conscience. You immediately take a liking to Jack.

From there this story takes off at blistering speed as Jack travels to Florida to investigate a life threatening "accident" that his father has been in. Here's where you need to suspend belief, as this story takes a turn toward fantasy, science fiction. It is so well written that you don't have to be a fan of fantasy to enjoy it. The suspense and danger - you actually wonder how on earth the main characters will survive - builds to a breathtaking conclusion.

It is so well written that you hate for the story to end. Fortunately there are more Repairman Jack novels to dive into. Though this is the most recent installment in the series, well after the series is established, you can enjoy this book on its own merit. Run, don't walk, to the shelves to buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Gates of Hell
Review: Warning: You should first read Wilson's brilliant short story "The Barrens." The novel will impress without that background, but with it there are greater depths and the mention of nexus points are more ominous.

Jack reluctantly encounters his family when his father, recently relocated to a Florida retirement community, is in a terrible car accident. After supercilious years of looking down on his father as an innocent unacquainted with "real" life, Jack discovers a ruthless, extremely self-disciplined, and honorable man. This Korean War veteran and Marine sniper is his father -- and unrealized role model.

The Everglades are wonderfully evoked here, with touches of Zora Neale Hurston's lush description. The novel picks up the pathos of the "clan" of nexus-deformed persons trapped by their "home." Carl, the only one to escape to near-normal life, is touching and charming.

Anya is a great creation, and her dog Oyv is perfect. Apparently she'll turn up in the future -- but could Wilson bring back Oyv too?

Rating:
Summary: Gates of Hell
Review: Warning: You should first read Wilson's brilliant short story "The Barrens." The novel will impress without that background, but with it there are greater depths and the mention of nexus points are more ominous.

Jack reluctantly encounters his family when his father, recently relocated to a Florida retirement community, is in a terrible car accident. After supercilious years of looking down on his father as an innocent unacquainted with "real" life, Jack discovers a ruthless, extremely self-disciplined, and honorable man. This Korean War veteran and Marine sniper is his father -- and unrealized role model.

The Everglades are wonderfully evoked here, with touches of Zora Neale Hurston's lush description. The novel picks up the pathos of the "clan" of nexus-deformed persons trapped by their "home." Carl, the only one to escape to near-normal life, is touching and charming.

Anya is a great creation, and her dog Oyv is perfect. Apparently she'll turn up in the future -- but could Wilson bring back Oyv too?