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Title: Night of Thunder: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel (Bob Lee Swagger)
ISBN: 1416565116
Author:
Stephen Hunter
Publicate Date: 2008-09-23
Publish: 2008-09-23
List Price: $26.00
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $12.87
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $11.94
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.16
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Bob's BAAACK
I also had problems with Hunter's last entry in the Swagger saga, and just had "problems" with a sword swinging Bob Lee, but it was still a good read.
Happily, Bob the Nailer is back in "Night of Thunder".
While not quite up to some of the last entries, it does bring us back the Bob we all love...the gunfighter.
And Bob does it so well.
With a host of a vicious but not too smart criminal family, Bob has his work cut out for him.
You'd think that coming from the same general area in Arkansas, they would have heard of the famous Bob Lee and backed off.
Fortunately for our entertainment, they didn't, so Bob backed them off.
I'm not sure where Hunter is going to be able to go with the Swagger series, since Bob Lee is simply getting a little old, and he killed off Earl Swagger in the early 1950's.
This constrains Earl Swagger stories, because you can only pack so much into the few years between the end of WWII and Earl's death in that cornfield in the 50's.
Like many, I'm getting rather impatient waiting for Hunter and a Swagger to finally deal with Frenchy Short.
I think it's past time for a show down before Short himself is simply too old.
So, while it may not be on a level with "Point of Impact", "Night of Thunder" gives us the Bob we love.... the silent hunter of men.
Fortunately for us, the Bad Guys never figure out that they should NEVER mess with a Swagger.
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2: A Real Pageturner
Just as was the case in Hunter's previous book, The 47th Samurai, I can't understand the criticisms of the book. This one is a page turner that I could not put down and read in three sittings. Swagger, as a 60+ year old, reminds me of the character (Einar) played by Robert Redford in An Unfinished Life: he may be old but don't mess with him or underestimate him unless you're willing to pay the price. Hunter does not portray him as invincible, but as an aging warrior who, despite his awareness of his increasing frailty, is still confident in his remaining skills. Buyers of this book who are Stephen Hunter fans will not be disappointed. I only wish that Hunter was a more prolific writer. His books have been sporadically spaced, but perhaps that may change now that he has retired from his "day job".
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3: NIGHT OF THUNDER by Stephen Hunter
Nikki Swagger, Bob Lee's daughter, is a police reporter for the Bristol Courier-Herald. It is her first job out of college and she is hot on the trail of a story about the rampant methamphetamine trade when late one evening she is knocked off the road in a hit and run. When Bob is notified of the accident his daughter is in a coma and the doctors are uncertain when Nikki will come out of it. Bob Lee is concerned not only for the life of his daughter, but for the rest of his family as well. It could be what it's reported, a simple hit and run, or it could be payback from his past.
When he arrives in Bristol Bob hires the Pinkertons to protect his daughter and then starts his own one-man investigation. He traverses the city--in the throes of a major NASCAR event--and the backwoods to discover what happened to his daughter. He confronts a publicity-seeking Sheriff, a cult-like religious crime family, a NASCAR race team, and bunches of rednecks in his search. He also expends a few rounds of ammunition and gets in more than one fight.
NIGHT OF THUNDER is an enjoyable thriller that, while not to the standards of the early Bob Lee Swagger novels, is packed with action and a sense of urgency. Bob Lee is his tough warrior self prone to do things alone and hard. He is good with a gun and still pretty good without one as well. The prose, at times, has a cool lyrical quality:
"It was that old-time religion, fierce and haunted, harsh, unforgiving. It was Baptist fire and brimstone, his father's fury and anguish, it was Negroes in church, afeared of the flames of hell, it was the roar of a hot, primer-gray V8 `Cuda in the night, as good old boys in sheets raised their own particular kind of hell, driven by white lightning or too much Dixie or too much hate, it was the South arising under red snapping of the flag of the Confederacy."
The plot is swiftly executed with a sure hand. There are no loose-ends, but there are a few plot twists that rely too heavily on coincidence and at least one that was incredulous. I guessed the major twist less than halfway through the novel, but the writing and action was strong enough to keep the story interesting and fresh.
-Gravetapping
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4: At least its not about Swords this time...
I love Bob the Nailer. These series of books have been one of my favorite for years. But alas, even good things seem to always end. Havana was pretty mediocre, The 47th Samurai was pretty bad... i read Swagger for guns, not for swords. It seemed like i spent more time with the last book trying to learn these words then enjoying what i am reading...
but i digress...
Night of Thunder goes back to what Bob Lee is good at. I was worried when i read all these nascar overtones, but alas, it was overall a okay read. Yes, Bob Lee magically knows how to ride a motorcycle, and yes, Nikki was 4 when bob was 50 in Black Light, and now Nikki has graduated college and bob is... well... not 72. But its a step back in the right direction.
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5: Thunder and then some
You don't have to own a gun and follow NASCAR to love this book. Stephen Hunter's newest Swagger novel is addictive. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. And I wasn't disappointed. It's a good story, told with characteristic wit and skill (and lots of loving attention to every scope and bullet in sight), that builds to a crescendo that is terrifying and really funny at the same time. Hunter's a great detail man -- and he has perfect pitch in Night of Thunder. From the making of an unlikely hero at a country store that will be recognized by anyone who's ever stopped to get a soda on a back-country road to the orchestrated pomp, circumstance and greed that makes NASCAR so appealing, Hunter's created a hell of a story here. One of the nicest parts of this book is the author's abiity to show how an aging and slightly creaky Swagger can still deliver the goods when they're needed. Swagger in his later years is as craggy and flinty as Clint Eastwood, an old lion but still a lion. Night of Thunder is one of Hunter's best.
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