Another Keep

As a nerd* I would be remiss in not mentioning F. Paul Wilson's The Keep, after talking about Jennifer Egan's book. I quite liked Wilson's book when I read it back in the 80s. You may recall the film, directed by Michael Mann and starring Scott Glenn. As I recall, the movie was so-so.

The story involves a castle in Romania where occupying Nazis are being killed. Yay, right? No, turns out that the creature killing them is an ancient evil, never meant to be free. The forces of good rally to combat the wicked foe. Using this story and the follow-on, the Tomb, Wilson launched a two -track epic about a battle between good and evil that ends in a colossal Ragnorak-like battle.

The relatively brief Adversary Cycle consists of the Keep, the Tomb and six other novels. I recall the last three as being a particularly enjoyable supernatural end of the world tale. His other track is the Repairman Jack series, which currently stands at a staggering 10 volumes. And he isn't done. As he discusses on his website, the Repairman Jack books are integrating into the Adversary Cycle. So if you know how those books end, you know how the Jack books do as well.

Repairman Jack is one of those impossibly competent characters that populate the thriller genre. It has been awhile since I have read any of these books, but I recall them being compelling despite the unbelievability. Just to be sure, I bought Harbingers, book nine. Unlike fantasy series, you can hop around a bit with these.

*If I was being a true nerd I would have to mention B2 Keep on the Borderlands, which is the second D&D module I ever played.