Stephen Hunter

[Bob F.]

Finally reading and enjoying a Hunter novel, "Blacklight". He's been highly recommended  here, so I finally got a new library card. Looking forward to some of his other stuff. Should I read in some particular order?

Bob

[vaskidmark]

I hear that left-to-right works pretty well.

Seriously, you willingly submitted yourself to the inspection and observation of the System?  Don't you know those "library cards" are really tracking devices that can read your snail mail and report what you are watching on the big box thing in the living room?

You might as well join ACORN, now that you are a card carrier.

Mr. Speaker, I move that APS stone Bob F. for going over to the dark side.

stay safe.

skidmark

[Ben]

I really like the Swagger books (though the first Hunter book I read was "Day Before Midnight"). There's probably a "right" order, but I've never followed one and don't feel like reading newer before older has given much away. In fact this thread reminded me to check if "Night of Thunder" (apparently not as well reviewed as his other novels) was out in paperback yet on Amazon and now I see he has a new one, "I, Sniper" that's on pre-order.

[John G]

I like the Earl Swagger books best, and have enjoyed Hunter's detailed attention to firearms. His protagonists are capable and competent, which can be refreshing in this age of modern fictional heroes, where characters are just collections of "flaws."

[Standing Wolf]

I've always had the feeling he's the kind of writer who actually reads books.

[Bob F.]

Hell, Skid, between the gunboards, NRA, tea parties, Easy-Pass, cell phone, etc., I figured I'm hard-wired into the "big computer"!!!

Stay safe, keep the tin foil handy!

Bob

[w turner]

Here is the order as I remember it.

Bob Swagger Books
Point of Impact
Time to hunt
Black Light
The 47th Samurai
Night of Thunder

Earl Swagger Books
Hot Springs
Pale Horse Coming (my favorite Earl book)
Havana


The 47th Samurai has flashback scenes with Earl that help support/set-up the story.  Black Light is about Earl's death and has some tie ins to Dirty White Boys(which is a great non-Swagger book written by Hunter).

The main thing that I like about Hunter, is you can tell he is a writer that loves movies.  Pretty much any of his books could be easily made into a movie with very little editing needed.  I thought Shooter was a pretty good adaptation of Point of Impact although I would have preferred they kept the estate shooting scene closer to the book and not as tacticool and if they had included the arc where he did the target shooting for the evil ammo company

W   

[Berettababe]

I got into Hunter after seeing him reccomended by posters on THR.

Pale Horse Coming was the only book that didn't sit too well with me. It had minstrel-esque dramatically overwrought caricatures standing in for the only Black characters, and the 'gunny celebrity' cameos were mostly self indulgent wish fulfillment type stuff.

[w turner]

BB - I get your critcism of Pale Horse Coming, still made for a fun read for me though, especially envisioning all of those gun guys sitting around jawing at each other.  By all accounts, he did get the personailties of them right.

[Bob F.]

Enjoyed "Black Light', now reading "Havana". Got to thinking (always dangerous!): Guy from unknown locale, with no real plan or foresight but great, charasmatic orator.........hhmmm. Deja vu??

Guess I need to read something about eastern Europe in the thirties!?!?!

Any suggestions?

Stay safe.
Bob