Buy it if: You're not ashamed to read with endorsements like "Set your sights on fun!" printed on the back...
Don’t buy it if: You think good fiction is always comprised of things that could happen, but simply haven’t.
I’ve put off reviewing any Stephen Hunter books for some time, mainly because it’s a bit embarrassing to admit I read them. They are essentially comic books minus the graphic illustrations of rippling muscles, big guns and bloody fights…but that doesn’t mean they’re not fun.
Night Of Thunder is the latest paperback installment in the Bob Lee Swagger ‘saga,’ which began with the thriller Point of Impact (later adapted for the silver screen as ‘Shooter,' starring ‘Marky’ Mark Wahlberg) For the highbrow Clancy fans out there, Bob Lee is Hunter’s backwoods Jack Ryan. (Though with a WAY better name. Hunter is a master of unabashed nomenclature whose talent reaches its zenith in The Day After Midnight with character ‘Dick Puller.’ Whoa.) Like Ryan, he's both improbable and invulnerable, but a bit more self-effacing and…lovable.
Why ‘lovable?’ Well, somehow Hunter has managed to create a ruthless, coldblooded Special Ops sniper from Arkansas and imbue him with a Berkley liberal’s sense of social justice. Swagger, a self-proclaimed hick from the mountains with too many guns and a rockin' redneck accent also manages to have equal visions of all races, orientations, sexes and religions. He's the ACLU with .50 caliber rifle. Forget the bullets dodged and single-handed battles fought...this is the book's biggest stretch of the imagination.
But that’s not to say the rest of the story is easy to swallow. By the time Night of Thunder rolls around, Bob is many years removed from the Vietnam war that barely precluded his first appearance in print. He’s older, he’s slower and has long since gone gray, yet somehow always manages to be nimble in a fight and faster on the draw than ever. I thought Hunter might have maxed out his audience's willingness to believe when he let Bob Lee outduel a samurai master (yes, I’m serious) in his previous book, but this most recent volume seems to be even less encumbered by an adherence to realism.
Still, though this admission may actually force Georgetown to request my degree in English literature back, I loved it. I love them all. I love every single ridiculous adventure. And it almost makes sense. Superman's always been a favorite of mine, too, and I wouldn’t exactly call him the pinnacle of factual writing. So why not Bob Lee? If you can’t set aside the world for a bit and escape into an adventure with almost no grounding in the physical constraints of nature, ignorance of time's inescapable hand and a general flouting of statistical probability... Well, gee, you’re missing out on more than I or Stephen Hunter can provide. Maybe a little Bob Lee Swagger would do you some good.
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