The Tomb (Adversary Cycle, #2) (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
This was my first - and THE first - Repairman Jack book, and I really enjoyed it. Well written and super-exciting. Repairman Jack isn't your average repairman. He doesn't fix appliances or broken fences. He "fixes" things for people who can't, or won't go to the regular authorities for help with problems. Jack is the last resort for people who are desperate for help and have nowhere else to go.Jack doesn't exist as far as the "normal" world is concerned. He doesn't have a bank account, a social security number or any legitimate identification, and the IRS doesn't even know he exists. But even so, he's the answer to a prayer for the people who need his help . . . if they can find him, that is.In this book, Jack is approached by a diplomat from India. He tells Jack his grandmother has been mugged and brutally beaten and is at death's door in the hospital. What he asks of Jack is odd, however. One of the things the mugger took is a necklace his grandmother was wearing. He tells Jack the necklace is a family heirloom and of great sentimental value and he wants Jack to find it and return it to her before she dies. And just to make it more complicated he tells Jack he MUST find the necklace and get it back around her neck within 24 hours or she will be dead and it will be too late.Jack takes the assignment, never for a moment believing he has a hope in hell of finding a particular mugger in a city the size of New York, not to mention any hope that the necklace is still in one piece, in 24 hours. And yet, he does!Once the necklace is returned, however, everything gets weird very fast. The grandmother is spirited secretly out of the hospital and the diplomat goes back to his work at the U.N.And Jack goes back to trying to convince his ex-girlfriend Gia to give their relationship another try. When Gia found out what Jack's life is REALLY all about, she could not get past the violence and the secrecy his work involves and she definitely doesn't want him or his work around her young daughter, Vicky. Unfortunately, Vicky adores Jack and can't accept his departure from their lives. So between Jack and Vicky, Gia's having a hard time keeping Jack away, especially since she really loves him.Then, one of Gia's two beloved and elderly aunts by marriage [to her rich but rotten ex-husband now living in London] disappears from their townhouse without a trace. Gia is desperate enough to ask Jack for help finding her.And Jack is happy to help, especially since if he finds Aunt Grace, he hopes Gia will give them another chance. But once he starts investigating, the trail leads back to the Indian diplomat and his younger and beautiful sister. Jack can't figure out what's going on.When he finally does figure out what is happening, he can't believe it. The things he sees and learns can't be real - they just can't! [No spoilers - you'll have to read the book to find out].Things really heat up when Vicky is taken by the same evil that got Aunt Grace. At that point Repairman Jack goes full force and doesn't care who he has to go through to get Vicky back.The story is extremely fast-paced and thrilling. Once the facts about what's going on are revealed, the book moves like lightening and the events really grab you and drag you along with them at 90 miles an hour. Towards the end I realized I was actually holding my breath and that doesn't happen to me very often.There are some aspects of this story that require you to suspend disbelief about what is possible in the real world. But if you can go with Hamlet and embrace his reminder that: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosopy," well then, this is a great thriller with a terrifically exciting plot and great characters. I will definitely read other books in this series and recommend them to others.
"The Tomb", by F. Paul Wilson, is the SECOND book in his "Adversary Cycle" series and the FIRST book in his "Repairman Jack" series.This novel introduces New Yorker Repairman Jack, a man with no permanent last name (it varies with the ID he's carrying at the time) and no records of his existence (he either had them erased or doesn't reference them at all anymore). His job is to fix things that the police can't or won't fix. Sometimes this involves hurting or killing people, which is why his ex-girlfriend, Gia, dumped him.I wouldn't think of Repairman Jack as a hired thug or assassin. He's more like "The Equalizer" from that old TV series (only he's not an ex-spy...he has no formal training to speak of). He only kills when there's no other option and he only handles cases that the police can't handle. He does this for money.The PlotRepairman Jack gets two contracts. One from his ex-girlfriend Gia, whose sister-in-law has gone missing and one from an Indian cultural attache' working for the UN, who has lost an important necklace.Of course these two plots intersect and monsters are involved.The GoodAs a character I liked Repairman Jack. I can definitely see why there's an entire series of books based on him. He's an intriguing character.The book is also well plotted. The pace is just right. Sometimes a novel will conclude and tie up all its loose ends in the last 20 pages. This one is more deliberate in its pacing and it doesn't lag in the middle, like so many of these types of books seem to do.There was a scene in the book where the monsters are holding chunks of bloody flesh that was once human (a character in the book). This scene was genuinely creepy.The main antagonist was a sympathetic one. I like this moral ambiguity in my reads because no one is ALL good or ALL bad.The BadThe characters in the book, besides the protagonist Jack and the main antagonist, are pretty one dimensional. There is a child, Vicky, in the book who is written to be so sweet, she'd turn Satan into a diabetic. Shirley Temple, on her best day, has got nothing on this kid.The monsters were kind of nondescript. I didn't get any real sense of foreboding or threat from them. It seems to me, with a few slight changes, the monsters could be excised from the story entirely and you'd still have the same overall plot.There was also no real connection between this and the previous book, "The Keep", which makes me think that perhaps calling it a part of the "Adversary Cycle" was a way to increase sales. Another reviewer said it was Lovecraftian, but I really didn't get that out of the book at all. There is mention of the "Old Gods" who created the monsters of the book as a "parody of humanity", but that's pretty much it. Even that seemed tacked on as an afterthought and maybe that small fact was the connection between this book and the previous book, "The Keep". I'm not sure.Perhaps I'm not very astute in the literary sense, but I still don't get the title, "The Tomb". To me, "The Necklace" would have been a more apt title.ConclusionIt's a good read. Wilson didn't knock the ball out of the park as he did with "The Keep", but it's a book worth reading for the character of Repairman Jack alone. Hopefully the ancillary characters in the Repairman Jack series get more interesting as the series progresses. As far as the "Adversary Cycle" goes, this is a dubious addition to it. I hope that the reason that this book is in the "Adversary Cycle" will become more apparent as I read the later books in the series.
What do You think about The Tomb (Adversary Cycle, #2) (1998)?
3.5 stars but I'm rounding up to 4 because that's what I would have given it if I'd read it with 1984 sensibilities which was when it was published. It was that era when only lip-service was given to equality. It was "accepted" that women were equal and strong and smart but all that meant was having them say a few smart things or show interest in what was going on or just having femal characters. The same went for people of color. We weren't there yet for any other minority groups.So Wilson's women are fairly smart, they are strong in that they want to know what's going on, they demand answers, and one tries to find answers for herself. But they aren't really strong in that they don't really do more than talk, their legs turn to rubber or wood when a man is there to do the heavy lifting, and they freeze when things get terrifying (except for one heady moment when one woman actually goes first into a scary passageway, although she does have a magic item that renders her invisible to the bad things she at least went first after panicking and refusing to go for at least a full paragraph!). Later this same woman hears something shocking and is so dazed she needs to be carried, even though Jack is fighting for their lives, terrified by and running from something he knows nothing about and she has known all her life. I actually found the other woman, Gia, a bit more realistic. I completely understood why she left him and why she stayed away despite her love for him. I probably would have done everything I could so he couldn't find me.The writing was smooth, the pacing was good, and the monsters were scary. I really liked Jack. He was fallible. He didn't like to exercise but he forced himself to in order to stay alive. He admitted to himself when he was afraid and when he was in over his head and it was genuine, not a machismo kind of "ah hell, this bugger would make anyone scared" or the fake humility that is also common in urban fantasy. He's also strong and fast like a man of his skills should be. I really liked the subtle emotions, though. I really felt his grief when someone he loved was in danger. I felt his love for the little girl. I felt his confusion and feelings for both women. I really like that he had feelings at all, although he seems very alone to me. Other than Gia, he only has one friend that shows up in the book, a delightful Jewish character himself, and the lone 1980's nod to multiculturalism. I hope Jack is less alone in later books.Other things: I loved the junky home he lives in that everyone else hates; it's so unusual for a character in fiction who's in this kind of role to be tied down with tons of stuff.I hated (view spoiler)[that a woman let's a man go off to rescue her kid without even trying to go with him (hide spoiler)]
—Kelly H. (Maybedog)
A fun and entertaining read.This is a bit of an unusual book- it starts out like your typical "regular world" mystery/ thriller, but gradually we and the Repairman Jack get pulled in into a world of supernaturals, curses and magic. It was a shock, to say the least, to our rational non-believing protagonist, but he shook it off and kept on going. This book has a streak of horror to it, but it is the good kind of horror- more built on suspense and genuinely creepy, scary situations rather than copious amounts of blood and gore. What I liked about the book:► Repairman Jack. He is your modern day superhero, except that he is completely human and without any helpful superpowers. Also, he does not wear any spandex- a relief that. He did wear a dress at one point though. :) I guess every superhero needs disguises of one sort or another. What Jack does have are his wits, fast reflexes and faster legs, unwavering tenacity, an almost unnatural sensitivity to danger, a knack of making Sherlock-Holmesian intuitive leaps, and an arsenal of fancy weaponry. He is clever and resourceful like MacGuyver. He has a strict moral code, a strong sense of justice, and a desire to help those in need like a true Knight in Shining Armour. Admittedly his moral code is not always quite the same as for the rest of us, but that is understandable. He does what needs to be done, fixes what needs to be fixed, and kicks the evil of this world in the proverbial butt, regardless the cost. He does get paid for his services though, unlike most common superheros. But that is only fair, his risks are greater than that of Superman for example, after all, Jack is not bulletproof.► Writing and Story. The storytelling is masterful and the pace is perfect. This story has awesome suspense, adventure, mystery, danger, horror, romance, humour, a great ending, and superb characters. What else could anyone ask for?I will certainly be reaching for the next Repairman Jack novel. Thank you, Ben, for telling me about this series!I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files, Simon R. Green’s Nightside series, or Kevin Hearne’s The Iron Druid Chronicles.
—Tiina
Beginning a new series is always a dicey prospect for me. Will it be my kind of series? Will it become my newest temporary addiction, with me scrounging the net to find each and every book in the collection? Will it cause me to begin fantasizing about what it'd be like to exist within that universe? With all these questions rattling about my head, it should be understandable that I was hesitant to begin the Repairman Jack series- especially because I'm loathe to begin a series that has not come to an end. Once bitten, twice shy, thank you Robert Jordan.Still, after a friend had touted the glories of the Repairman Jack books to me again and again, I found my curiosity piqued and the walls of my reticence began to crumble. And how fortunate that they did! This book was pure fun from beginning to end. Jack is a great hero- a "repairman" who fixes extralegal problems for his friends and confederates, living off the grid, changing IDs like underwear, endlessly resourceful- he's like MacGuyver but without the jean jacket and the mullet. When you toss in some delightful Indian monsters that are hunting down several of his friends, well you've got the makings of a fast-paced thriller the likes of which I haven't read in a long time.So thank you, Scott, for raising my awareness of these books. I'm firmly hooked now (Legacies is on hold for me at the Library as I type this). Good thing that 13 of the 15 books have been released, because I think I know what I'm going to be doing with my spare reading time this Winter.
—Chloe
