All The Rage

All the Rage by F. Paul Wilson sits a little uncomfortably in the Repairman Jack/Adversary Cycle series. The book is good and the story engaging but Jack seems like a background player until the very end. It seems also that Wilson has this annoying habit of eliminating pronouns at the beginning of sentences. This can be awkward and appears to be more precedent as the series goes on. At first I thought it was an editing gaff but that is apparently not the case. The characters, Doug, Nadia, the Corporate guys and the bad guy just fall flat. The bad guy is such a joke. I just wanted to jump into the book and laugh at him. Doug and Nadia are so uppity and plastic...they get boring really quick. I honestly felt unthreatened by all of the bad show more guys. I expected them start shooting guns with little flags that said "Bang" on them. On a positive note. The book does tie in with the rest of the series by bringing back one of Jack’s old adversaries. This is done rather well in the story and Wilson clearly lets the reader know that it is not over. The series is becoming a bit campy though. The humor and personalities of the characters are becoming something on this side of Doc Savage. One thing that could possibly throw the reader off is the inclusion of the Last Rakosh into this book. A rare short story by Wilson it is seamlessly woven into the overall theme of the book to form an entire novel. I commend Wilson on his ability to this with his work. Overall a fun read. show less

RJ is, as always, the man. The plot centers on a great concept -- a drug that makes people violent, paranoid, and angry to the extreme, like PCP on PCP, with a coke and acid chaser. If you're already a Repairman Jack fan, what are you waiting for? If you aren't, don't start here -- start with The Tomb and go in order.

Jack is faced with a street drug that is causing people to lash out in extreme violence. He trips onto the drug while trying to help a research doctor who is worried her mentor is being manipulated by a gangster. The source of the drug is not clear in the beginning, but it seems related to the continued existence of Scar-Lip, the rakoshi that survived Jack's attempt to wipe them all out. Scar-Lip is now part of a traveling freak show and Jack decides to kill two birds with one stone - kill the rakoshi and dry up the source of the drug. As always, everything seems to fold together in the end. But when Jack gets face-to-face with Scar-Lip things don't go as planned. One of the best bits is that Jack inadvertently gets dosed with the show more ultra-violence drug - Jack's dark side on speed is not something NYC is going to be able to handle for long.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly Recommended!!!!! show less

3.5

Another good Repairman Jack. We get carnival characters, mad scientists, wine fanatics, a tense opening with Gia and Vicki, Jack being hired by another Dr (that seems to be a theme....), and captive creatures. The ending helped cement half a star uptick.

This installment of Repairman Jack lost me in places. Like Legacies, I didn't feel like I got enough of Jack. The other characters took up too much page time and some of the - Nadia, Doug, and Luc - were just so unlikeable that I didn't care if they lived or died. Nadia and Doug weren't evil - just the opposite. They were good - too good, and I kind of wanted them to get eaten. This book's connection to the rest of the series also seems thin. Yeah, a Rakosh is involved, but only peripherally. I'm going to continue with the series, but I hope more of the books are Jack-centric.

Repairman Jack is a man who has lived without an identity for most of his life. When police and other authorities are no help, people hire Jack. He stops bad guys from doing harm. He doesn't like publicity, so it's word of mouth for people to find him. Junie needs a ride to visit Ifasen, a psychic. Jack and his girlfriend Gia give Junie a ride and sit in on the session. While there, an earthquake happens, centered under the psychic's house. An evil spirit/ghost starts doing damage in the house and scaring people. Ifasen believes other psychics are trying to run him out of town because he took some of their clients. He's been shot at and almost hit by a car. He also believes the spirit/ghost may be a trick by the other psychics. Ifasen show more hires Jack to stop them. More pieces of the "Otherness" puzzle are given here, but the complete story has yet to be revealed. A good plotline to keep readers coming back for more. show less

A new designer drug that makes people very aggressive. A medical researcher hired to work on stabilizing a mysterious molecule who fears her boss is being threatened by a notorious gangster. A travelling freak show. Repairman Jack makes a horrifying discovery as his recent cases tie all these together.

Still as addictive as popcorn--and about as filling.