Meet Repairman Jack

Overall, I think that new “pulp-inspired” characters fall into two general categories.

The first are the very clear “New Pulp” heroes, characters that are obviously inspired by and very similar to the original pulp heroes, characters like The Rook (The Perigrine), Prof. Stone, The Black Centipede, Silver Manticore, Dillon, etc.

The second are more subtle. They are modern heroes whose pulp inspirations are not as direct or as obvious. Some that come to mind are Dirk Pitt (sometimes called a Doc Savage-like character), Agent Pendergast (almost a modern version of The Shadow), and Repairman Jack, who I think is almost like The Spider. I have covered the first two characters in prior postings. Now I turn my sights on Jack.

Created by F. Paul Wilson, Repairman Jack is an unusual character — a sort of urban mercenary, who over the course of his stories has been pulled into a cosmic conflict of epic importance, Wilson’s so-called “Secret History of the World.” He is a big part of Wilson’s interlocking works as well.

But let’s look at Jack first. He seems an ordinary guy, but due to past tragedies, has left the rest of his family to live off the grid and anonymously in New York City. He works as a “repairman.” But he doesn’t fix appliances, he fixes “situations.” Situations that can’t be dealt with legally. Not quite a detective and not an assassin, he gets people out of these situations, setting things up such that they won’t be bothered again. He works hard at blending in, looking and acting totally nondescript. He has few friends, other than Julio, who owns the bar he meets clients at, and Abe, who is the underground gun dealer who supplies him his weapons (operating out of the Isher Sports Store). In one early case, he meets Gia and her daughter Vicky, and starts a relationship with Gia, hoping to marry her. His family members will show up in certain books, but things don’t turn out well.

Underneath all this is the “Secret History of the World” (as Wilson refers to his interlocking works). We get bits and pieces of it over the course of the works. There are a lot of H.P. Lovecraft concepts. We learn that our world is a battleground between two rival forces in the cosmos, but a very insignificant world to these forces. One is the Ally, the nominal “good guys.” And the Otherness are the “bad guys,” who would “Change” the world and destroy it in the process. The battle here on Earth is done through proxies. The “Adversary” represents the Otherness, opposed by the “Sentinel.” And the Ally intends to make Jack the new Sentinel. There is also a mysterious Lady who appears in most of the books, always in a different form and always with a dog. Who and what she is is a mystery you will discover. And as to this “history,” we learn of past people and civilizations, and secret occult works and more.

We also learn that Jack is more tied into it than we (or he) first imagines. And that Jack has a dark side that manifests itself at times, which is why I go with The Spider analog, with that over-the-top, dialed-up-to-11 part of him.

The overall Repairman Jack series consists of:

•  “The Tomb” (1984, 1998 updated release)
•  “Legacies” (1998)
•  “Conspiracies” (1999)
•  “All the Rage” (2000)
•  “Hosts” (2001)
•  “The Haunted Air” (2002)
•  “Gateways” (2003)
•  “Crisscross” (2004)
•  “Infernal” (2005)
•  “Harbingers” (2006)
•  “Bloodline” (2007)
•  “By the Sword” (2008)
•  “Ground Zero” (2009)
•  “Fatal Error” (2010)
•  “The Dark at the End” (2011)
•  “Nightworld” (1992, 2012 revised edition)
•  “Quick Fixes: Tales of Repairman Jack” (2012, collection of all short stories)

Because the series builds up to the “Nightworld,” the grand finale and possibly the end of the world (unless Jack and associates can fix things), and that the last few novels are basically parts of a larger single storyline, it’s best to read them in order. In fact, from “Harbingers” on, it’s almost one single long “river novel” as the French call it. I actually stopped reading them after “By the Sword” until I could get them all and read through them rather than wait months for the next one. Having done so, I’m glad I did.

The Repairman Jack series ties into the parallel Adversary series, which consists of:

•  “The Keep” (1981)
•  “Reborn” (1990)
•  “The Tomb” (1984)
•  “The Touch” (1986)
•  “Reprisal” (1991)
•  “Nightworld “(1992, 2012)

“The Keep” is set in World War II, where the Adversary is released by Nazi soldiers from the prison the Sentinel had put him in. “The Tomb” and “Touch” were originally separate novels pulled into the series, whereas “Reborn” tells of the Adversary being reborn in modern times, and “Reprisal” is the lead-up to the grand finale.

Recently, a young adult trilogy of “Young Jack” novels, which shows Jack as a teenager in high school, has appeared. You also see Jack exploring, if unaware, elements of the “Secret History.” Further, it’s fun that we also learn that Jack is reading hero pulps — like The Spider, The Shadow, and Doc Savage — that he borrows from a second-hand store he works in and is run by the uncle of Abe. Some of the characters from this series will pop up later in the young Jack novels, starting in “Ground Zero” (it’s best to have read this trilogy before that novel, in my opinion. I did, and glad of that).

The Young Jack trilogy is:

•  “Jack: Secret History” (2008)
•  “Jack: Secret Circles” (2009)
•  “Jack: Secret Vengeance” (2011)

More recently, a new trilogy of Jack stories were started, the “Early Jack” trilogy, which is set after he has moved to New York, but before the events of “The Tomb.” Here we see Jack finding his way in NYC. In the background is the “Secret History,” which at this point Jack is oblivious to, but if you’ve read the others is quite clear. This could be a good starting point for readers wanting to get into the series. The storylines again in these three flow together, so almost think of them as one single work. I’ve read the first one, and can’t wait for the rest.

The Early Jack trilogy is:

•  “Cold City” (2012)
•  “Dark City” (2013)
•  “Fear City” (2014)

Jack is a very different, and non-traditional hero. The world he is pulled, very reluctantly, into is vast and mysterious. But I recommend him as a character that should be checked out.