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Summary: Many young readers of this book will become future heroes.
Review: This novel, like most, has a somewhat familiar plot, but is one of those books that we need to come along more often than has been the case. This book's influence will inspire many future heroes for many generations to come. An outstanding visceral tale of human courage and triumph over adversity.
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Summary: Great, even with Plot Holes!
Review: I thought the book was great!, but there were some plot holes that I couldn't seem to figure out: (1) How did Mr. TruGood know that the events would play out the way they did? He got Sam to go to Thebes. How did he know that Sam would be captured--and that would make Earl rescue him. If Earl hadn't been captured, he probably would not have gone back to Thebes for retribution. Then the book would have been finished at around page 300.(2) Why didn't Earl get some of his WWII Marine Corps buddies for the final attack? I would think he would be more comfortable fighting with them rather than with the team he put together.
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Summary: Hunter's absolute best book
Review: This Hunter's best book. He takes us back to 1951 and Earl Swagger - Medal of Honor and Arkansas State Trooper. Along with Earl is Sam Vincent - you remember him as the fiesty lawyer in Point of Impact. Together Sam and Earl uncover the secret of Thebes Penal Colony in backwoods Mississippi. Sam approaches the puzzle according to the rule of law, the rational and the logical. He desperately wants to uphold the system. Unfortunately, Thebes and the human scum that inhabits Thebes do not understand the rational. They are beyond the law. They are not beyond Earl. Here Hunter's true genius is displayed. Pale Horse Coming is Earl Swagger at his primal and fearsome worst. Hunter has brought Earl thru a crucible that can only end one way (I won't even intimate the details - it is too good). Suffice it to say, Hunter brings Earl to a place that even the horrors of Iwo Jima can not compare. This one ranks up there with Point of Imnpact and The Day Before Midnight. You will not be dispppointed.
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Summary: A thrilling thriller!
Review: Pale Horse Coming is a great Stephen Hunter novel, just like all others in the Swagger series. This one features Earl Swagger, just like his last one, Hot Springs. But Pale Horse Coming is better. From the jacket, you know the general plot of Earl destroying a prison. The first few pages had me hooked as the town and prison of Thebes is established to be an evil, mysterious place, and Earl's friend Sam agrees to go there to find a missing person. The action picks up when Sam is arrested and Earl goes to find him. The rest of the plot is pretty straight forward without any surprising twists, but that doesn't mean there isn't any suspense. There are a few slow parts in the book, and those include Sam trying to find out the history of Thebes including all of its deep dark secrets. Some of this seems drawn out and predictible, yet not enough to slow the story down. The best parts were the scenes at the prison, where evil truly existed. Those parts made the climax that much greater, when you had a true sense of the evil Earl and his friends were fighting. Now for a few random thoughts. Stephen Hunter isn't a racist, but in writing a period piece with racism as the primary force of evil, there are parts that are bound to be uncomfortable. So, any black person should be aware of the brutal treatment of the black prisioners and the frequent use of racial slurs. Perhaps the worst part is realizing that attitudes like this did exist, and perhaps still do. Reading Amazon reviews is the only way I found out that all of the characters on Earl's posse were real-life gunmen. However, the name Audie Ryan did ring a bell. Just like in Hot Springs, Hunter used realife characters. I don't think it detracted from the story, because in this book, I had never heard of them. In the climactic battle, Hunter writes with the belief that if you are a good gunman, you can defeat several people with your precise shooting alone. I think Hunter gives a good shooter too much credit. Other men with guns would probably get in a few kills now and then. Finally, this is the fifth book in the Swagger series I believe, and the one that relates best to it is Black Light. In that book, Earl's son Bob Lee tries to figure out the mystery of his father's death. I know Hunter wrote Black Light several years ago. But if I remember right, Earl was killed rather easily considering the mayhem and death he survived in this book and Hot Springs. The Earl Swagger in this book would not have died so easily in Black Light. I may reread Black Light to see if my memory is correct. I recommend all books in the Swagger series to anyone who enjoys Pale Horse Coming.
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Summary: Good Gun Lore, Bad Sadistic Prison Scenes
Review: I'm definitely a Hunter fan and nobody else gets guns right the way Hunter does but there was page after page of sadistic prison torture that I though detracted from the book. Call me squeamish. (Wow what a great first line for a book!) I liked the last half of the book just fine. I thought it was clever the way he incorporated the great gun writers of the time into his book. Not everybody might like it though. You don't HAVE to know who all the gun writers are to enjoy the story but it helps. Only four stars but I'm not sorry I read it and I'll get Hunter's next book too whatever it is.
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Summary: Wait no longer...
Review:
In my opinion, "Pale Horse Coming" is his best book. As much as I love the character of Bob Lee Swagger, his daddy Earl is even more interesting.
"Pale Horse Coming" contains Hunter's most vivid and unforgettable writing. If, like me, you're drawn to Hunter's knowledge of firearms, this will profoundly appeal to you. If, again like me, you find his characters compelling, with this book he takes you farther than in any previous novel.
It is simply memorable, inspirational and entertaining writing.
In an age of grey, in a time of moral ambiguity "Pale Horse Coming" is confirmation that there IS such a thing as good and evil.
And the good guys wear black hats.
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Summary: Payback, Swagger style
Review: Pale Horse Coming, one of Hunter's best, is definitely not for the faint of heart. It is replete with a plethora of stomach turning violence. The story centers around the exploits of tempered steel tough Arkansas state trooper and Medal of Honor winner Earl Swagger and his father figure and Polk county prosecutor Sam Vincent. Vincent, a practicing attorney, gets a lucrative referral which takes him to the isolated backwoods Thebes State Penal Farm for Colored (the year is 1951) in Mississippi. Fearing for his safety he confides in Swagger who agrees to rescue him if he doesn't come home safely in a specfied amount of time. Thebes is run by a gang of racist, sadistic[s] ... who inflict relentless torture to the inmates. Vincent manages to become ensnared in the web of the prison farm and gets rescued by Swagger who himself gets captured. Swagger gets subjected to months of brutality and torture at the hands of the prison
guards headed by the notorious albino head sergeant known as Bigboy. With help from one of the aged trustees of the prison, Swagger manages to escape. Swagger, determined to bring the whole system down recruits a group of aging gunfighters to mount an attack on the penal farm. What results is a story that is hard to put down. Hunter creates other storylines which result in some interesting twists as the story concludes.
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Summary: Another good Vengence novel
Review: Another good book by Mr. Hunter. Does not vie for my favorites from Hunter: "Point of Impact", "Black Light" and "Time to Hunt" but still a good story that I will read again. Adding to the story of "Hot Springs"; Earl Swagger, Bob Lee's Father; comes to the Aid of his friend Sam Vincent who has been wrongfully detained in an illegal prison. This is another Vengence novel, righting the wrongs and Good over Evil, similar to the others in the series. A drawback to the style Hunter employs of the backwards timeline (The first book in the Swagger line is the most recent in timeline and subsequent books go backwards to give depth and background) is that there is a lack of suspense for the well-being of our hero. We KNOW Earl will make it out of his predicament and triumph over his foes becasue he has to be alive for this other book that is set later in the timeline that we have already read. If you are a craven fan as I am of Hunter, you read his work as soon as it is released. If you happen to be new to Hunter's work and the Swagger series, I might suggest a different order to start from than the way Hunter has written them. MHO. Thats not the way Hunter wrote them and I am sure for his own good reasons. Great Work again, when is the next one coming out? One last comment: What would I gripe about? Although I am sure it is probably authentic for the time and setting of "Pale Horse Coming", the inordinate amount of times the word "..." is used is pretty tough to handle. Barring that it is a wonderful novel and I cannot wait for the next.
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Summary: Great read
Review: Fans of the Swagger family saga will love this latest installment. Lots of action and shooting fans will recognize many greats from the post WWII era (slightly fictionalized of course). First time Hunter fans will enjoy as well, as this is a stand alone novel.
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Summary: Another great one
Review: I am now up to date with the complete Swagger series. Reading other reviews I must agree,it's not the best,it would be a five as here it only go's to 5. In that light the others are 10's. Hope he returns with more Bob Lee, possibly bring him up to date. Read Higgins, you see Sean Dillon has come through world events and stayed young for over fifty years, Why couldn't Bob Lee. I think we fans would accept it.Lets hope to see it.
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