MobileRead Discussion: Killing Floor by Lee Child (spoilers)

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by lene1949

Surely Authors don't have to write a sentence everytime their hero showers... What if the hero had OCD...??? the whole book will be about showers...

Wait.. I think I've read that book.

BOb

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

OK, the book did have some plot holes in it. But, not telling us when he took his SSS was not one of them. I recently read Pride & Prejudice and they never once took a shower or went to the bath room. They must have smelled to high heaven.

BOb

Yes, I thought the omission was glaring!

[BearMountainBooks]

Now Bob, we all know in Victorian England times, people merely took a sponge bath at best. Baths and personal hygiene were simply *not* discussed so it's with the times to not mention them in literature. PLUS showers didn't exist and baths weren't as high fashion as they are today...

I happened to find it strange near the beginning of the book that he went through all these sweaty things and wasn't anxious to get in a shower. Plot hole? No, just something I noticed.

Now as for why the book as a whole didn't capture me as much as some other series, I really think that boils down to characterization. Reacher is a tough guy...but the book has this "love'm and "leave'm" kind of thing going on. The woman in question was good at her job, *relatively* strong...but not worth hanging around for apparently. Reacher's just this super-cool dude who has his fling and moves on. There's nothing wrong with that from a story perspective, but just like real tough guys can wear pink, real tough guys have real relationships (not all successful, but yanno.) I felt like the author sort of "threw" the relationship away for convenience sake there at the end.

And I have not read any of the later ones. Maybe he develops some great relationships. I'm only referring to the way this book struck me. Kind of a "The Hulk" theme of constantly moving on in search of...something.

That's not a plot hole either, it's a perfectly reasonable and realistic character trait.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Now Bob, we all know in Victorian England times, people merely took a sponge bath at best. Baths and personal hygiene were simply *not* discussed so it's with the times to not mention them in literature. PLUS showers didn't exist and baths weren't as high fashion as they are today...

I know... I was just messin' wif ya! It's what I do.

BOb

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I know... I was just messin' wif ya! It's what I do.

BOb

No worries. I'm not that sensitive. Well maybe my nose is...

[badgoodDeb]

Did anybody else get "Persuader" jack Reacher #7 when it was free in March 2009? I'm just now reading it. Enjoying it too! Yeah, I notice the short choppy sentences more there -- but it DOES leave me feeling that Reacher is precise & concise in every thing he does. Don't tell me how it ends!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Did anybody else get "Persuader" jack Reacher #7 when it was free in March 2009? I'm just now reading it. Enjoying it too! Yeah, I notice the short choppy sentences more there -- but it DOES leave me feeling that Reacher is precise & concise in every thing he does. Don't tell me how it ends!

I've never read it, but I expect I know how it will end.

BOb

[badgoodDeb]

Well of course! And it did (figured I'd better finish it before coming back here. Just in case!). But it was still yummy. Implausible, but nerve wracking and fun. I'll keep Child on my shopping lust for the next time I want some super heroism. It's now 6 years after Reacher left the service. He teamed up with pros for this one, but still walked into the scene by accident, and left the book alone and wandering.

Just spotted a typo above, but decided to leave it. It's not inappropriate!

[JSWolf]

I'm reading #2 now. I did find the initial premise that set up the situation jack has found himself in a bit far fetched. But if you can get passed that, it's a good read.

[badgoodDeb]

Yeah, a bit far fetched. But hey, if ya send in the second string thugs, ya gotta expect mistakes!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Yeah, a bit far fetched. But hey, if ya send in the second string thugs, ya gotta expect mistakes!

Third string given how inept they are.

[badgoodDeb]

Hey --if anybody thinks Reacher's character is overly tough, check out "Dark Matter" by Bruce Gilkin ($9.99 at Amazon). It describes the fight through Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) of a Viet Nam Special Forces vet. Man, just the 8 week training he describes is brutal, making him a honed assassin (his noun). Then there are the incidents he recounts from Nam.... Wow.

And then his psyche is expected to cope with normal life after he returns home. He describes the horrors that PTSD is too. Good book, if not thoroughly edited (helps remind me he's real and not fiction). Ought to be helpful if you interact with anybody who was over there. Or perhaps in Desert Storm, or more recent wars. Just -- wow.

[carpetmojo]

Having tackled this thread late, as usual, I'd like to put in my tuppence-worth (cent's-worth?) and say that the first time I read a Reacher novel, (in the hard form days) I literally chucked it in the corner as being too daft, too gratuitously (?!) violent, too dumb, and too dear.....


A couple of years later my son grabbed one in an airport while we were waiting for a flight, and a few hours later, having "nothing better to do" I had it finished.

I'd also finished being so high-falluting about it, and accepted it as a modern equivalent of the classic "ripping good yarn".
Best taken without being pernickity, adopting a certain amount of suspension of belief, and relaxing into it - accepting them for what they are - an entertaining rattling good read !
I still wince a bit at some of the violence, but you can more or less skim it, it doesn't harm the plot much ................

[DiapDealer]

Hi. My name's Doug... and I'm a hopeless Reacherite.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Hey --if anybody thinks Reacher's character is overly tough, check out "Dark Matter" by Bruce Gilkin ($9.99 at Amazon). It describes the fight through Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) of a Viet Nam Special Forces vet. Man, just the 8 week training he describes is brutal, making him a honed assassin (his noun). Then there are the incidents he recounts from Nam.... Wow.

And then his psyche is expected to cope with normal life after he returns home. He describes the horrors that PTSD is too. Good book, if not thoroughly edited (helps remind me he's real and not fiction). Ought to be helpful if you interact with anybody who was over there. Or perhaps in Desert Storm, or more recent wars. Just -- wow.

Reminds me a bit of the first Rambo movie.