I want a Jack Reacher in space book. Not literally, but a military sci-fi with the mc being like Reacher. I read a book called Planetside recently by Michael Mammay that was like that (Still in Military Reacher, not Modern Day Reacher), but the protagonist was nowhere near Reacher's level of badassery (though the book was still pretty enjoyable).

 

I'd recommend David Gunn's Death's Head series as being pretty much this. The protagonist is a huge, ridiculous badass soldier who gets caught up in intergalactic politics way above his pay grade.

 

So I read most of the Los Norton books over the last two months or so and while I mostly liked them I have to admit that they clearly haven't aged very well (and honestly probably were problematic even when they came out). They can be incredible misogynistic and racist.

Also the similarities with Jack Reacher are pretty limited in my opinion.

I have watched what is been out so far and can say I was pleasantly surprised. I think they have done a great job of adopting the material for a more modern audience while keeping most of the tone/setting that made the books so interesting to read.

 

Lee Child is retiring and turning over the Reacher series to his younger brother.

 

So, I just ordered an e reader again (had one years ago), so I’ll probably get to some of these again/ finally. Anything new and or interesting in the land of angst free badasses?

 

Updates: I've read Death's Head, and while it's decent space pulp fiction, it's full of angsty rageness, which honestly reminded much more of Sandman Slim series, and more than Reacher in space, it's a more edgy Dresden in space. Bit letdown for my current tastes, but thank you for the rec nonetheless, @13thadaption. @Gengar if you enjoyed Dresden or read and enjoyed Sandman Slim, try it.

I'm now starting @Gengar 's rec with Pendergast - GF is already on book 4 or 6 and seems to be enjoying it very much, so thank you for the rec!

I also still have to re-read Reacher, I think - I haven't in a while, and want to be fully in Reacher mood so I can try the first post-Lee Child books.

 

Welcome.

I fell off those books because it became a lot more about his past than the Reacheresque mystery of the week kind of thing. Glad she's enjoying it though.

I feel like i put more effort into finding fiction to my tastes than my actual job lol...

 

Found The Terminal List after seeing it's getting a movie adaptation, but got only as far as 6% of the first book before I just DNF.

It's full of uninteresting gun-wank (with a _very_ detailed descriptions of guns), and even the soldier past can't save the author from writing uninteresting story. We'll see how the movie fares.

Next: Grey Man series.

 

@James if you haven't found them and were still interested I can get you the Les Norton books.

 

Well, I checked out the first Les Norton book, and honestly - the character is closer to Jack Reacher than many of other current "PTSD'd veteran" books, but is also a bity of an hillbilly and nowhere near close to Jack's intelligence. I'll give the rest a pass.

 

Les is cunning as a shithouse rat, you bite your tongue.

 

These are actually pretty great, but James Reece isn't Jack Reacher. He's a SuperSeal, which I find a lot more common than Reacher types - I classify that as less physically competent than the SuperSeal types, but much smarter, better deductive reasoning, better planning etc.

I also quit on the Terminal List series though about 4 books in? Maybe 3? It's not so much gunwank as it was just 'gear' wank. It felt like product placement at times. Carr needs an editor so they can cut that shit out - it's why I'm expecting the show to be so much better.

I tried to get into Gray Man. I think that's the one where the first book chronologically was a prequel set way in the past? I kinda got bored with it tbh.

 

Finally restarted JR reread, and for the first time read the book written mainly by the younger brother, and it’s a huge dissappointment. The dialogue is all wrong, sentences are choppy as fuck and it’s all… it reads like a mediocre fanfiction with good spelling.

So, now that even Jack Reacher doesn’t feature Jack Reacher type protagonist, any new recs? At this point, I think I’ll take anything with smart mc without “character building” guilt and regrets.