Point of Impact is a great read. It is a fast moving story that kept me reading for hours. ( )

Bob Lee Swagger, retired Marine sniper, has isolated himself in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. After 87 kills in Vietnam, he is “simply and explicitly an extraordinary killer”, but one who has given up killing. His life still revolves around guns, hunting, and shooting, but he doesn’t kill with his shots. When two strangers arrive at his fence, his first inclination is to send them away. But one of them has a Congressional Medal of Honor, just like his father won at Iwo Jima, so Bob decides to give them a few minutes. They want to hire Bob to hunt the Russian sniper who ended Bob’s career as a professional shooter and killed Bob’s spotter. This same Russian sniper has a new target – the President of the United States. Bob finds the Russian, and a shot is fired. The world tilts sideways. Now a suspect himself, Bob must find out the truth about who set him up and what the real goal was. The sixth Swagger novel, I, Sniper, was released in December 2009.

I was intrigued after watching the (lame) film Shooter, which is based on this book, to see just how badly Hollywood screwed it up. My hunch was that the damage was extensive as the film was poorly done, but the story idea was a good one. Knowing Stephen Hunter is a damn fine writer I figured I had nothing to loose. My hunch was correct, Point of Impact is a taut thriller with great characters and deeply researched back up information to move the story along. In short, read the book; skip the movie. ( )

Bob Lee Swagger is a tough, unforgettable character. The action, settings & plot are all plausible. If you like conspiracy theories, guns & snipers, it's a great read. Well written & thought out.

The biggest surprise to me was that when I tried to re-read the books maybe 5 years later, I couldn't get back into it. I didn't think of it as a read-once book. It's better than that. Maybe a little too good & I remembered it too well to make a re-read worth it. Usually my memory is worse than that. ( )

Let's just say if you've got a member of a gun control group on your Christmas list, this book would be the worst possible gift! Stephen Hunter's Point of Impact is a lovingly-crafted mash note to precision firearms, and it's excellent.

Bob Lee Swagger was the creme de la creme of Vietnam snipers, but he's at loose ends back in civilian life. So he's eager to take up a sniping-analysis job that's a perfect exercise of his unique skills. Could it be too good to be true? And how!

Although Bob Lee is not the world's most realistic character, as other reviewers have noted, he's not really the point here. It's the guns that are the real focus of point of impact, and they're handled with consummate skill worthy of Bob Lee himself.

Recommended. ( )