book data
1,134 ratings,
3.59
average rating, 243 reviews
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published
June 3rd 2008
(first published 2002)
by Delacorte Press
binding
Hardcover, 416 pages
characters
isbn
0385340567
(isbn13: 9780385340564)
description
Two small towns in the middle of nowhere Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, nothing but twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher can't find a r...more
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avg 3.59
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
almost no one
After reading about 8 of Child's Jack Reacher books, I finally found a dud. It started out thrilling, as expected, but quickly became almost boring. I can not believe I am typing those words.
Reacher's repeatedly doing the same thing, over and over (returning to a bad place) was tedious and so unlike our hero's usual behavior. The plot wandered all over the place and the book was too long.
I found it impossible to buy into the far-fetched "conspiracy theory" wit...more
Reacher's repeatedly doing the same thing, over and over (returning to a bad place) was tedious and so unlike our hero's usual behavior. The plot wandered all over the place and the book was too long.
I found it impossible to buy into the far-fetched "conspiracy theory" wit...more
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1 comment
I'm done with Child after this latest installment. The last few Reacher novels have really dragged and I was hoping this one might revive the series. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
Furthermore, the writer decides to jump on a soap box towards the end and throw in random anti-bush/anti-war diatribe. Obviously, this is his right as the creater of the novel but I found it completely ridiculous and hypocritical of his main character. It would be one thing if Child had done t...more
Furthermore, the writer decides to jump on a soap box towards the end and throw in random anti-bush/anti-war diatribe. Obviously, this is his right as the creater of the novel but I found it completely ridiculous and hypocritical of his main character. It would be one thing if Child had done t...more
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3 comments
Read in March, 2009
Ex-MP Jack Reacher is the kind of guy you want on your side in any fight. That's a cliche to say, but he's just reliable and steady and tough. This adventure finds him in Colorado, investigating trouble in two small towns, Despair and Hope. Great adventure like Indiana Jones but a much better developed protag.
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4 comments
Read in June, 2008
Jack Reacher finds himself between Hope and Despair, actually two cities. Despair is a desolate place where everyone wants to see him out of town. Everything is owned by one man which immediately makes Reacher suspicious. He enlists the aid of a cop in Hope and having a knack for finding trouble, Reacher gets plenty of it. I have always liked Reacher but for some reason this year it seems as though publishers told their writers, "give me a plot involving trashing the government, the mil...more
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Read in June, 2008
Disappointing but effective installment in Child's Jack Reacher series. This but seemed long for a Reacher thriller and might have been strengthed by cutting one of the three main plot strands. I felt that Child made it more confusing than necessary and could have shored up the suspense with tipping his hand a little more. Starts off great, but we've seen some of the same elements in Killing Floor, Die Trying and Echo Burning. But still, nobody does hardcore, bad-ass loner fiction like Child...more
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Read in May, 2009
This is the first of the Reacher series that disappointed me! This time Child struggles to put together a mystery/thriller and sadly tips his hand so early in the story that the mystery is exposed much to early-- it makes the reader wonder why Reacher is taking so long to figure it out. Child still writes a slam bang action novel, but this tiome the plot is so contrived, silly, and ridiculous it makes me wonder if the Reacher series will be worth reading in the future. This one was boring, r...more
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Read in May, 2009
Nothing To Lose is a part of the ongoing Reacher series by Lee Child. While I was vaguely familiar with the author, I had never heard of this series. Girlfriend’s brother loaned me this book and explained the basic premise which piqued by curiosity. Simply put, the Reacher series is about Jack Reacher, a 6’5”, 250lbs, former Army MP with a penchant for stoicism and smart-alecky comments, who is walking diagonally across the country from Maine to San Diego, CA with only his ATM card and too...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Lee Child Fans, action fans, western fans, thriller fans
Not quite as kick-ass as BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE, but light years ahead of the competition. Lee Child has brought the "lone good guy rides into troubled town and sets things right" style of western novel into the modern age, and done so in a fashion that keeps you turning the pages obsessively. There are some surprising opinions from ex-military cop Reacher in this one.
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Read in January, 2009
I'll give Child some credit for continuing with Jack Reacher but, he's an orchestrated obsolete character. Archaic is Reacher's dialog, attitude, physicality, diet, and everything else that is dictated, presumptuous, disenfranchised and directionless.
Nothing to Lose carried superfluous and purposeless themes of recycling military artillery mistakes, an undercover plot of reclaiming uranium, military AWOL's escaping to Canada, and the best yet...the Bible's end of life projection.
...more
Nothing to Lose carried superfluous and purposeless themes of recycling military artillery mistakes, an undercover plot of reclaiming uranium, military AWOL's escaping to Canada, and the best yet...the Bible's end of life projection.
...more
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Read in January, 2009
I really didn't want to believe all the negative reviews of this book, but now that I'm finished, I have to say that I agree with a lot of what's been written. This book was nowhere near as satisfying to read as most Reacher novels. I think it's because the "villain" remained an amorphous entity rather than a true threat to Reacher himself. And I really missed his usual cast of military-friend sidekicks, who help to pull the plot along and keep things in the realm of reality; the polic...more
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Read in June, 2009
12th book in the Jack Reacher series
After reading many of his previous novels, I found this one a disappointment.
The story started promising enough with Reacher walking into the town of Despair Colorado. The town people are not keen to see strangers in this area and they show it. What are they hiding? As time passes, Reacher becomes more and more determined to find out.
Reader boredom sets in with an endless description of bar brawls fights with police and gene...more
After reading many of his previous novels, I found this one a disappointment.
The story started promising enough with Reacher walking into the town of Despair Colorado. The town people are not keen to see strangers in this area and they show it. What are they hiding? As time passes, Reacher becomes more and more determined to find out.
Reader boredom sets in with an endless description of bar brawls fights with police and gene...more
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Read in June, 2009
The Jack Reacher saga has come to a end for me with this book. Although the writing and action of the Lee Child talent is great, I was disappointed to find a political ploy behind the book.
The book's big seceret is military members going AWOL, which the brazen Lee Child goes on the defensive for. He strikes the war in Iraq, supports going AWOL in leu of serving and includes Reacher in a sexual affair with a married woman of a severely injured and comatose Iraq war veteren.
...more
The book's big seceret is military members going AWOL, which the brazen Lee Child goes on the defensive for. He strikes the war in Iraq, supports going AWOL in leu of serving and includes Reacher in a sexual affair with a married woman of a severely injured and comatose Iraq war veteren.
...more
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Read in March, 2009
I haven't read Lee Child before. He is actually grittier than my usual mystery read. His character Jack Reacher is not your typical action hero. For one thing, he can apparently do rather complex math in his head quickly. And he uses his fists and his brain rather than a gun. At least in this book. Things that I didn't even realize while I was reading the book, but figured out after I had read it: the violence was limited, the bad language was minimal and tame, and the sex was suggested, n...more
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Read in April, 2009
recommends it for:
No one
Several people have already expressed the same view that I have of this book. Normally I love Reacher but Lee Child lost me in this one. We have the (metaphorical?) towns of Hope and Despair which Reacher goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between frequently with no real reason and with boring results (except that every now and then the coffee is better or the cup is better or the rim of the cup is better or...) The book is way too long and has no real point. What a waste.
...more
Read in May, 2009
For me, This is a curious book. I really wasn't fond of the actual story and out of all the Reacher books I've read, this is the first one that I felt you really had to have some history with Reacher to accept his involvement in the course of events of the novel - essentially Reacher involves himself because he's stubborn and that's hat he does, and I think a first time Reacher reader might struggle with that.
The curious part about this is that despite not enjoying the actual story,...more
The curious part about this is that despite not enjoying the actual story,...more
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Read in March, 2009
Just read Nothing to Lose by Lee Child. I enjoyed it. This was my first Lee Child book and I was in the mood for it. I can see why Jack Reacher, the ex-military policeman, has his following- what's not to like about a guy who can take them on 4-on-1, then 6-on-1 and only come away with sore knuckles. I didn't know what I was getting into so it took me a while to figure him out. Then it kept me interested through all the twists and turns. Jack is determined, relentless, physical, always thinking...more
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Read in May, 2009
A good read for the beach. Sort of a Grisham style....nothing especially intellectually stimulating but he tells a good story. About a war vet drifter who takes offense when he is run out of a small town in the midwest and sets out to discover what the town is hiding. Commutes to the town of "Despair" from the neighboring town of "Hope". Takes up with a local woman cop from Hope who becomes his accomplice in ivestigaqtaing what really goes on at the scrap metal plant in Despa...more
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Read in December, 2008
This was Reacher at his best. He is hitchhiking cross country and gets dropped off in a little Colorado town called Hope. The next morning he starts walking west to the next town, Despair. There, the steam roll him into court as a vagrant and drop him off at the town line, headed back to Hope. This does not sit well with Reacher and starts the tale of two towns and why one is Hope and the other Despair. It is well written, well-plotted and worth staying up late to finish. When you read a R...more
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Read in January, 2009
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Read in January, 2009
This book is really quite silly. But it's the 12th book in the "Jack Reacher" series, so apparently lots of people like this stuff. I'd describe Jack Reacher as the kind of guy Jack Bauer would become after he retires. In this book, Reacher drifts into a small town called Despair and after an unwarranted run-in with the local deputies/good old boys, he decides to make it his mission to cause a ruckus in town and find out just what exactly it is they're hiding.
Reacher's...more
Reacher's...more
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2 comments
"He lies like a book. And he reads a lot of books."
— Elfriede Jelinek (Wonderful, Wonderful Times)
..............................................................................
What in your Head , when you Read the Quote above?
— Elfriede Jelinek (Wonderful, Wonderful Times)
..............................................................................
What in your Head , when you Read the Quote above?
Winner Take Nothing
He's not a good hero,cause he surely copy something from the books,he read, to make his lies, so his lies like a book very much.
Hemingway told that "Winner Take Nothing" ,so, he not a winner,also.
He's not a good hero,cause he surely copy something from the books,he read, to make his lies, so his lies like a book very much.
Hemingway told that "Winner Take Nothing" ,so, he not a winner,also.
Nothing to Lose
He's a broken one, he know that he has "Nothing to Lose" anymore, the last thing left with him just the memory of reading, so he try to gather all books he ever read together, to made his own story, he never want to lie anyone, it's just his idea about to creat original one.
He's a broken one, he know that he has "Nothing to Lose" anymore, the last thing left with him just the memory of reading, so he try to gather all books he ever read together, to made his own story, he never want to lie anyone, it's just his idea about to creat original one.
Warrior-Prophet
He's just the effect from a lot of books he read, a lot of books, was writen by the prophets, all of prophets in his memory, try to show themself through his words, that made him look like a lier who lies like a book, in fact, he just an innocent man who need a warm pity.
He's just the effect from a lot of books he read, a lot of books, was writen by the prophets, all of prophets in his memory, try to show themself through his words, that made him look like a lier who lies like a book, in fact, he just an innocent man who need a warm pity.
I have my own answer, if I want, I will put it in the comment here.
Nothing in the World
He's already got enlightenment, by reading a lot of good books, it's made him knew the truth that "Nothing in the World" , so he try to put no interest about all true fact, and become a lier one, anyhow, a lot of books, he read, send it's effect to his lies words so his lies like a book, that because of he read a lot of books.
He's already got enlightenment, by reading a lot of good books, it's made him knew the truth that "Nothing in the World" , so he try to put no interest about all true fact, and become a lier one, anyhow, a lot of books, he read, send it's effect to his lies words so his lies like a book, that because of he read a lot of books.
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