Download No Middle Name The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories edition by Lee Child Literature Fiction eBooks

Product details File Size 3797 KB Print Length 455 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN 1444835327 Publisher Dell (May 16, 2017) Publication Date May 16, 2017 Sold by Random House LLC Language English ASIN B01MTJQFQY

No Middle Name The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories edition by Lee Child Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

• I'd read these stories before with the exception of the first one, new, "Too Much Time". Even so, I enjoyed them almost as much as the first time I read them. Lee Child's meticulous attention to detail, along with his excellent character development, dramatic timing, and well-paced plots, makes for enjoyable "page-turner" reading. One fault I find in his writing/stories. Despite that aforementioned meticulous attention to detail, Mr. Child obviously knows very little about the progression of a military career (I am retired after 26 years in the military). The characters often have reached rank much quicker than is possible, to include Reacher. One of the most glaring errors is his brother. The various stories establish that he is born in 1958, and would have graduated from West Point in 1980, plus or minus one year. How then, as in "Small Wars", can he be a full colonel in 1989, a mere 9 years after graduation. Even being promoted at the earliest possible opportunity, he would be pushing it in a highly accelerated year group to make major by then (and since I am a contemporary of Jack Reacher in age and know what the group two years ahead of me did, that also wouldn't be true). Okay, a small nagging complaint for what are otherwise engaging stories. Oh, PS, how in the world do you justify Tom "pretty boy" Cruise in the role of Jack Reacher? I hope the money was worth sacrificing your principles Mr. Child. Jack Reacher sure wouldn't have taken that deal!
• For Reacher fans this collection of short stories is an enjoyable read. As I understand, this is a complete collection of Child's short stories about Reacher. There is a recent novella, Too much Time, which is included. Having read the 22 Reacher novels that Child has penned, this collection provided additional information about Reacher's childhood, early adolescence, his parents, and family life. There is plenty of action and proof positive as to Jack Reacher's physical prowess. Several of the stories show Reacher's softer side and u8nsolicited sense of caring. A refreshing change of pace
  
  I found this a fun read that added to my collection of Reacher facts.
• 418 pages. 12 novellas. Some long at 72 pages. Some Short at 6 pages. Average of 38 pages. 105 seconds per page. 43,890 seconds to read the book. Did you ever notice that when one finishes a Jack Reacher novel, that there is a tendency to talk like him?
  
  When it was announced, this year, that Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel “No Middle Name” were going to be a collection of short stories, this reader had concerns that a series of stories would not have the same impact of a complete novel. I was wrong. This was pure reading enjoyment and I am hopeful that author Child will again offer a collection of short stories.
  
  The stories are exciting and from different year’s in Jack Reacher’s life. There were two stories, one that included his brother Joe, in which this reader had to take pause and think about the deeds Joe did and also what Jack did. This was simply a fun read!
• When I'm not reading books germane to my profession as a minister and religion journalist, I like to read mysteries and thrillers. At the top of my list of must-read authors is Lee Child, who has written twenty-one novels featuring Jack Reacher, as well as the twelve short stories contained in No Middle Name The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories, just released by Delacorte Press on May 16.
  
  The book contains one new story, "Too Much Time," and eleven previously published stories, the oldest, "James Penney's New Identity," having been written in 1999. With the exception of "Too Much Time," the stories start with Reacher as a youth and end in the present day. They are of uneven quality, in my opinion. "Too Much Time" is Lee Child at his best, as Reacher is arrested for a crime we all know he didn't commit. "Maybe They Have a Tradition" and "No Room at the Motel," both Christmas-time stories involving pregnancies, are, well, just okay.
  
  The number one rule of fiction is the willing suspension of disbelief, which is especially important when reading Reacher stories of any kind. Reacher is a decorated, West Point educated, ex-military police officer who now travels the United States (and world) with little more than some cash, his passport, and a foldable toothbrush in his pocket. Along the way, he gets himself into scrapes with miscreants, whose crimes he detects and whose just sentence he metes out, often violently, even lethally. In other words, he's a homeless sociopath whose rough justice happens to be directed at targets who had it coming.
  
  What keeps you from thinking about Reacher's shortcomings too long, in addition to the fact that the targets of his beatdowns are deplorable, is Lee Child's prose, which I can only describe as kinetic. Child has a way of pulling you along word after word, sentence after sentence, page after page. He makes you want to know what will happen next because you're right there with Reacher, who's wondering that too.
  
  If you haven't read any Jack Reacher stories, I wouldn't start with No Middle Name, which I generally liked. Start at the beginning with The Killing Floor. The novels will make you a fan. No Middle Name is for the already convinced.