Originally published at LonPrater.com. You can comment here or there.

Just finished The Touch by F. Paul Wilson. It’s hard to make up my mind how I feel about this novel.  I’m of course an unashamed fanboy of his Repairman Jack books, and there were of course too many moments of “oh cool!” to count in this excursion.  I knew going in to this one (being from the Adversary Cycle instead of the RJ arc) that it had been altered to bring the story into the modern era, so that he can all tie up into one tidy uber-cool Secret History of the World.  Now, I read the old versions of The Keep, The Tomb, and Reborn.

With Reborn, I noted the differences in time and place–the disconnects in crossover character age, etc.–but I was able to put them aside and enjoy the novel for its own sake.  I was able to envision on my own what this story happening in the modern day might have been like, but because the story in front of me hung together well with its own internal consistency, all that meta-stuff connecting this story to the rest of the books didn’t jangle any bells.  The Keep,happening in WWII, was pretty easy to go along with.  And I wasn’t one who felt compelled to go read the updated version of The Tomb, which took Repairman Jack of the 1980s and flashed him forward into the late ’90s.  And still, I’m not really sure how I feel about The Touch.

My main beef (and I totally see why these beefs remained in the story, respect Paul’s craft decisions, enjoyed the hell out of that ending, and so on) is the utter lack of cellphones or internet, or even any mention.  One character goes on about having to type his document into the mainframe and the idea of a Google Alert never really dawned on anyone.  Crucial plot points just wouldn’t have been allowed to go on uninterrupted in a world where spectacularly rich people had heard about the invention of cell phones.  At the same time as these nits are nagging at my suspension of disbelief, we find references to Harry Potter and a clear indication that the end of this book is happening at the same time as the end of Ground Zero.  On the whole, I think I might have enjoyed The Touch just a little better if I hadn’t been plagued by the plot inconsistencies necessitated by moving the story into the Internet Age.

Now it’s a given that I’m going to read the “heavily revised” Nightworld when it comes out.  How could I not?  It will include Jack and be the natural end of a series  (saga, really) I’ve been following for years now.  But Reprisal I’m not so sure about, and here are my questions for any other Repairman Jack/F. Paul Wilson fans out there:

Should I read the original Reprisal or the updated version? Why?  Not knowing anything about the plot beyond its intimate connection with the end of the RJ series, I’m on the fence.  Will I come away thinking the plot suffered too much from the update, or is this book not going to be easily hampered in that way?

Originally published at LonPrater.com. You can comment here or there.

That makes three that I know of–two women and one guy.  Shelley will be converted, once she gives in and reads the first, I’m sure.  ;)

Being a person with the dubious morals of your neighborhood pusher, I lent my neighbor F. Paul Wilson’s THE TOMB.

She finished it in a day and immediately put books 2-5 on order.  I’ll say it again:  If you aren’t reading Repairman Jack, you are missing out on some of the best paranormal thriller action going!

What about you?  Are you an F. Paul Wilson/Repairman Jack fan?

Is there a particular series or author you “push” on anyone who will listen?

Originally published at LonPrater.com. You can comment here or there.

* The latest issue of Apex Magazine just went online, with my story “Head Music” reprinted within. My story is in fantastic company: Look for stories by Secret History of Moscow author Ekaterina Sedia, the always enchanting Theodora Goss, and of course the usual slew of infortaining articles on horror/SF and such. Available free on the website, or in very affordable ebook formats, if you’d rather get your fix that way. I’ve read and enjoyed Apex for quite a while, so it feels like something of an accomplishment to finally be an “insider”!

* About to be far from regular, reliable internet access for a while. If you send me email or post a comment any time after Friday, my response will probably be slowish. Through the rest of March. By the end of the month, I should be unburying myself from whatever’s piled up. I should have some kind of internet, but I have no way of knowing how much/how often till I get there. I can’t broadcast here where I’m going for safety reasons. It should be okay to post a pic or two and some light travelogue on my return.

* Haven’t been reading so voraciously this month. Been busy as heck. Time with the kids, Time preparing for work commitments in the schoolhouse, Time preparing for this work commitment in the field. But like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, I did of course make Time for one last trip to the comic book store before my travel. Which added a measure of pure delight to an otherwise stinktacular night of poker. (Guess what? There is a hand that can beat a King high flush… Who knew?!) But the comic book store here in Fairborn (The Bookery, which rules) was still open–that’s how early Shelley and I got beat out of poker–and the final issue of Dark Horse’s Solomon Kane was in. A solid, splendid adaptation that built 5 issues from an unfinished REH fragment. As great as the finale was, there was even better news in the letters column at the end: June 2009 they are releasing a collection of all the old black and white Solomon Kane comics from the ’70s. (!!!) And later in the year, color collections of all the SK stuff done in color in the ’70s and ’80s. Formative stuff for me, so I’m stoked. I know they are only doing it to capitalize on the Solomon Kane boom they expect to come with the movie. But I’m okay with that. Just give the fan what he wants and no one gets hurt, see?

* Listened to a “playaway” collection of Mark Twain. Some well known stuff, like the Jumping Frog story and his scathing review of The Deerslayer. But some other pieces I hadn’t come across before, like Cannibalism in the Cars, where that sly dog Twain once again mocks Congress as only he could get away with, plus amusing pieces on the problem of getting a watch repaired, burglar alarms, the buying and selling of echoes, and travails along the way to getting the government to pay their bills. Read with spirit and warmth by Thomas Becker.

* Books going with me on my trip: Jay Lake’s Escapement (my bedside book, for what little reading time I’ve had this month), Lamentations by Ken Scholes, The Trouble Begins At 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West by Sid Flieschman. Probably more–I’ll have a crapload of airplane time to kill. While I’m at it, I’ll probably take over the latest collection of genrezines and so on and pass them along to folks otherwise starved for small press fantasticness.

* Besides working and reading, I’d like to get Unholy Mashup Novel finished while I’m there. It’s doable, I think. I need to get it done because Novel the Next is already wrapping its little claws around my neck….

Originally published at LonPrater.com. You can comment here or there.

1) From an Amazon UK reader review of Abominations that made me grin perversely:

“Starvelito” by Lon Prater is a sick cousin of “The Monkey Treatment ” from George R R Martins “Songs the Dead Men Sing”

2) Ken Scholes’ Lamentations is on the streets today.  After poker (once again, the last one to fall before they went to the final table–I’m cursed!)  my sweetie took me to the bookstore.  Not many debut novels get me to shell out hardcover money*, but Ken… I know he’s good for it.  This is going to be my traveling book next month.

3) Writing happens.  After muddling about with a novella for a bit that wasn’t much in the mood to be written, I finished a lingering short story, wrote another one, AND got totally buzzed when the final piece clicked into place for a short story that’s been marinating in my backbrain about two years.  The “glory” of not having a novel contract is that I can write whatever I feel like with no deadlines to worry about**.  Especially since aforementioned short story has suddenly declared itself as my next novel.  For purposes of the blog, it’ll be hereafter dubbed Unholy Mashup Novel.  Till I finish it, anyway.

4) Got to see my kids for the long weekend.  Aside from probably overdoing it with the fun events and unfortunately catching a flu bug of some sort–which now I’m catching too–they helped me name a character in Unholy Mashup Novel.

5) After a challenging bit of editing to rope it in to my current standards, I’ve been informed that Triangulation: Dark Glass wants to buy the revised and updated version of “Deadglass”.  Look for it in the spring.

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* F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack, George R.R. Martin’s Ice & Fire, and Jay Lake’s Mainspring series are the others I know I’d spring for in hardcover.

** Oh, those poor dears with novel contracts… how do they ever manage?