Rain Fall (2002)

Another series I’ve heard about, but never read. This one features an assassin with a soul and is set in Japan. Recently Eisler regained his publishing rights and has retitled the books to be more in line with what he wants rather than the publisher. Latching onto the last name of our hero (?), they’ve all got Rain in their titles and Eisler never really liked that so he changed them. Good deal for him. I wonder if John Sandford is sick of the Prey thing? Since neither the Flowers nor the Kidd novels follow the same kind of pattern, I bet he is.

Anyway, I mostly liked this one, but it seemed a bit convoluted for convoluted’s sake. Lots of hidden motives, agendas and personalities. Also Rain seems to have a lot of baggage that is constantly seeing the light of day. Most of what we’re told feels like it’s coming from a psychiatrist’s couch session. Rain seems to be very aware of what his Vietnam experience has done to him. He’s conflicted about what he does, but only up to a point, the point where he justifies it all. “All the things I’d done made sense in the war, they were justified by war, I couldn’t live with them outside of war. So I needed to stay at war.”

Neat, that. So it made it all the more ironic when Rain is confronted with evidence that he’s been played his whole life, starting with his actions in the war. He thought he was receiving orders from one place, only to find out they came from another. This carried over into his assassin work and his realization that he was set up and used over and over again, was a big blow to his ego. He thought he was in control of his own actions and destiny; a rogue who can pick and choose his missions, but he was just another tool for the manipulators of the machine. Both sides got him to do what they wanted and he had no idea.

Dissolution came hard. It’s a long fall from that high horse. Rain bears it all tolerably well and I think that despite some whining, his psyche is basically teflon-coated so I don’t expect much of it to stick. If I do read more of the series, I don’t expect Rain to get hung up on the finer points of right and wrong too much. He’s an expert in justifying his actions to himself and since he’s already done so much outside of the rules, what’s a little more?

The setting, while interesting, got to be distracting simply because of its unfamiliarity. Slang, settings and place-names all needed me to think about them instead of the story. Someone more familiar with Tokyo wouldn’t have this problem. Rain’s character had some distinct elements to it, but of course he fights like Bruce Lee, screws like Don Juan and drinks like Carraway. The romance angle was nice, but doomed from the start so I didn’t get too invested in it. ( )

"All the things I'd done made sense in war, they were justified by war, I could't live with them outside of war. So I needed to stay at war." This is one of my favorite quotes from this thriller, as the protagonist tries to describe his difficulty making peace with his past. He is half Japanese and half American and fully accepted by neither group. The author makes you feel that you are in Tokyo with his descriptions of scenery and cultural behavior. It's a good story about political intrigue and interaction between government agencies within countries as well as with agencies of other countries. I could have done without so much description of judo moves personally, but if that's your thing, you'll get plenty of it. I plan to read more of this series. ( )

http://www.book-blog.com/2012/07/eisler-barry-rain-fall.html ( )

I started this because I was looking for an author that was a)similar to Lee Child and b)not someone who seemed to be drifting too far to the right. It turned out that this was a hit on both levels. As with Lee Child and Robert Ludlum, Eisler does not present his heroes as protecting the government and this is much more appealing to me. This most likely just mirrors my personal feeling in regards to the use of force in support of governmental institutions. I don't particularly like the idea of supporting a character who is an assassin, like John Rain, however I find it tolerable when the character is not driven by ideology. My intention is not for this to be a political statement but merely to try and pinpoint some of the reason I enjoyed this book.

In terms of writing the book flows very well though it is largely predictable. There was a recent article that showed that people enjoy books more when they know the ending and it definitely did not hinder my enjoyment here. I'm not sure you want to read this kind of book too many times in a row but it is an excellent example of this type of book. Some people have disliked the amount that the story is impacted by the location (Tokyo). I really do think the setting is vital and it is a compelling addition from my perspective. Overall I just highly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to most people who have enjoyed the character Jack Reacher or the books of Robert Ludlum.

Excellent read. John Rain is a half American, half Japanese killer for hire with a soul. Eisler gets high marks for maintaining suspense, creating believable, multidimensional characters, and writing in clear, fluid prose. Also, as a bonus, the book teaches much about Tokyo and Japanese culture. ( )