Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Nightworld: A Repairman Jack Novel (Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack Book 16)

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Nightworld.

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2017

The final book. The final chapter. The final battle. My final journey with Repairman Jack, Gia, Vicky, Abe, Glaeken, Julio, the Lady and her dog, and others is finally over. I, personally, miss them already. I have had the privilege of traveling to many places I will never see in person. I've spent many hours reading F Paul Wilson's books and I deeply appreciate his work. At each step I read about people I was getting to know and now they are more like family. Fortunately, I own those books, and I have a feeling that somewhere down the line, I will revisit Jack and company again. I can't just let my friends slip away. Again, many thanks to F Paul Wilson and all who helped him with this series. I, for one, am very grateful for what you have given me. Thank you!!!

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JJ Bjornsson

Disappointed in F. Paul Wilson

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2012

I have been a fan of the Adversary Cycle since first reading "The Keep" back in 1991; I hold both "The Keep" and "The Tomb" well above the others. I had such high expectations for the revised version of "Night World" because Jack would now be a prominent character. I honestly feel as if FPW mailed this in. Obviously, it couldn't have been easy merging all of the happenings in the Repairman Jack series to the original novels. However, this book read almost exactly as the original "Night World"; the exception being the new Abe/Gia/Vicki chapters. Among the most disappointing aspects was the treatment of Jack being the Heir, Ernst and the Septimum Lodge, Hank Thompson and the Kickers. No spoilers, but I was left scratching my head; all of that build-up for this? <spoiler> Same with Dawn Pickering and her baby, who aren't even in the book!

This novel just didn't work for me as being the grand finale to the Adversary Cycle, as I had expected so many more revisions and tied-up loose ends due to the inclusion of the Repairman Jack series. The chapters with Ba/Alan/Jeffy/Sylvia felt very dated because there was no difference at all from the originals. Wait, Jeffy was watching "The Incredibles" for the eleventh time; I suppose that counts as a revision. In addition, the Rasalom from the RPJ series doesn't convince me as being the same Rasalom from the original novels of the Adversary Cycle. It's almost as if they are two different characters; I prefer the Rasalom from the Jack series.

I will give the book three stars for getting me to once again read "Night World". I could easily have saved the $12.99.

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Nightworld.

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2017

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Mr. Random

A good ending to a long series, but not perfect.

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2018

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Note: This review is as much about the book as it relates to the Adversary Cycle series as about the book itself. Spoilers may occur.

So this is it. This was the novel I'd heard a lot about. I may have started with The Keep, but I knew that this was the book where the End Times hit. I knew it was going to get dark and ugly, and we'd have an Avengers-style meeting of protagonists come together to stop it. Was it worth the slog of the last three novels? Is it an epic horror tale in its own right? Did he get it right?

In short: barely, yes, and not entirely.

Wilson gets the action going right away this time, and from beginning to end you know the crap is hitting the fan. He juggles mutliple characters coming back from mutiple stories, and the whole thing feels like a real epic conclusion to an entire literary universe. All told, it's an ambitious outing, and if I had read the Repairman Jack novels I bet I would have been altogether satisfied.

But I didn't read them. Again, I didn't think I had to. And much to my surprise, not only did I not get answers to a few lingering plot points from Reprisal, I encountered serveral characters and references to events that were obviously from the Jack novels. It wasn't enough to confuse me, but it certainly lowered the impact of the story in places. This is often what happens in crossover event stories, so you learn to accept that either you read the tie-in books or you just let it go. Still, I was surprised at how reliant the story was on Repairman Jack plot points, as Wilson had apparently rewritten Nightworld to accomodate his successful Jack novels.

Also, Wilson skimped on the epilogue. I'm a believer that the longer your series goes, the more important it is to wrap things up in a nice epilogue, give your characters some decent closure. He didn't really do justice to some of the characters he dragged back into the fray.

So in the end, I don't regret my time with Wilson and the Adversary Cycle, but it's clear to me that the path to truly enjoying Wilson's fictional universe was through Repairman Jack. As such, I have to say that the ultimate litmus test for whether it's worth the trip will depend on whether you like Jack and his stories. If you do, then you're probably find the Adversary Cycle a worthwhile journey. Otherwise, you might want to look elsewhere.

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Byron Craft

An Awesome Wrap-Up

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2021

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If you are a fan of F. Paul Wilson’s THE KEEP, THE TOUCH, THE TOMB, SIGNALZ, and the REPAIRMAN JACK series, then “NIGHTWORLD” is a must-read.
Rasalom, the ancient sorcerer from the “First Age of humans,” is back with a vengeance! His reincarnated form transforms Earth into a merciless hell. Rasalom shortens the daylight hours, turning our planet into a “Nightworld.” A plague of fearsome flesh-eating monsters preys on the world’s populace whenever darkness falls. Riots break out over food, gangs wage war on the public, and Rasalom grows stronger as he feeds on the increasing chaos.
“Nightworld” is F. Paul Wilson’s Adversary Cycle, an apocalyptic finale. Repairman Jack and Glaeken search the world for miraculous items needed to stop the hideously transformed Rasalom while gathering a reluctant legion of surviving characters from the previous novels for a last stand.
If I could give “Nightworld” 6-Stars, I would. Don’t miss this one.

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Josh Mauthe

A great book becomes somehow even better

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2012

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And so we come (again) to the end, as both the Adversary Cycle and the Repairman Jack sagas reach their conclusions in a single book. I read Nightworld years back in its original version, and for all intents and purposes, the plot is identical: Rasalom, now facing no real opposition, begins the process that will bring about the end of the world. Just like in its original form, Nightworld is a dynamite apocalyptic book, filled with some incredible Lovecraftian nightmares, unforgettable setpieces, and brilliant pacing that keeps the book moving like a rocket while never letting you forget the scope of what's going on. (I forgot how much I loved the use of media as a sort of Greek chorus to the novel, both commenting on the action and giving a sense of just how massive the events have gotten.) And none of that has changed in this version. What has changed, then, is Repairman Jack, who has essentially gone from another supporting character of the book to one of the two main heroes. Wilson has added a huge amount of new material to the book to accommodate Jack's story, and the additions are pretty fantastic, serving as a combination curtain call for the Jack series as well as hammering home the emotional stakes for the series. More than that, though, the edits are pretty seamless. There's no sense that we're reading a George Lucas-style special edition of the book filled with nods and unneeded changes; rather, this new version of Nightworld manages the difficult task of wrapping up two different book series at the same time and does it well. You can't just jump into Nightworld without having read all the Jack books and all the Adversary Cycle books, but that's okay; that just means that you have a LOT of great reading ahead of you before you get to an absolutely incredible piece of apocalyptic horror-adventure writing. The only down side? Knowing that both of these underrated and masterful series have finally come to an end.

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S. D. Beallis

An exciting, satisfying conclusion!

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2012

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Maybe it's just that I've been following this series for a long time now, but I found the last book of F. Paul Wilson's "Secret History of the World" series to be a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the saga of Glaeken, Repairman Jack and others from Wilson's body of work.

As usual, the storytelling is strong and compelling. I had trouble putting the book down from almost the first few pages. It is sort of a rush, to have characters that you root for so strongly. That you know so well. Whose stories finally reach their apex and it works!

In this last book, Rasalom has apparently succeeded. He's cut off Earth from the Ally, and the Ally, believing it to now be a dead world, has turned its back on humanity. So Rasalom is free to begin "The Change", and unleash horrors upon first New York City, and then the rest of the world. And this change brings out the worst in humanity, as those who are driven by duty or bound by their own ethics and morality cower in fear and avoidance of the terrors of the ever expanding night and those who have no such scruples run wild. Glaeken, Jack and others hurry to assemble the tools they need to defeat Rasalom and his goals, but one obstacle after another impedes their progress.

I looked forward to this reissue of Wilson's earlier edition by the same title. Apparently this one is heavily revised to incorporate characters that simply didn't exist in his mind when he wrote the original NIGHTWORLD many years ago. Jack, a bit player in that edition, is now one of the main characters in this version. I haven't read the original, but as Jack is one of my favorite characters, I will stick with this one.

I may be overenthusiastic about this book because I just finished it in a rush of reading, and because I like the series so much to this point. But I stand by my assessment. I don't think it will stand as well as some of Wilson's books do on their own, but as part of the series, it is really good. Grab this one if you're a fan of Repairman Jack or if you've read some or most of the series.

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Nick Howes

Repairman Jack: Outstanding Final Confrontation

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2012

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In this final Repairman Jack novel, Rasalom, the embodiment of ageless evil, launches the final days of Earth in his bid to win the planet for the Otherness by first bringing eternal night. During the increasingly long nights, vicious, hungry creatures emerge from bottomless sinkholes that appear in the ground and attack people. Standing against him and his voracious army are a pitiful collection of people, including the now-mortal Glaecken, several other men and women who've been drawn into the situation, and Jack. The odds are very much against them, especially since the mysterious Ally, a force that opposes Rasalom's Otherness - think the Really, Really Dark Side or Mount Mordor on Saturday night - have been fooled into thinking Rasalom is gone from Earth.

Ever since teenage Jack got a grisly revenge on a scumbag who killed his mom by pushing a concrete block off of an overpass into traffic below, Jack has worked as a repairman. Jack is a repairman like James Bond is gun shop salesman. Jack doesn't repair appliances, as his dad assumed, but instead repairs situations with clients who are unable to go to the police. Along the way, he learned of the Secret History and of the ambitions and powers of Rasalom. In Nightworld, he gets the full course.

Just to confuse things, this book was initially written years ago to end the two-pronged approach of the Adversary Cycle and the Repairman Jack series which esd then a single stand-alone novel. Both series stem from The Keep, a small castle keep in Eastern Europe where Glaecken meets and appears to vanquish Rasalom. The Ally releases him to age naturally, believing the battle settled. Having written the books of the Adversary Cycle, Wilson paused to write his first Repairman Jack novel, The Tomb, in which Jack experiences the Otherness while battling demonic creatures. He then wrote the first version of Nightworld, although he and his fans had fallen in love with Jack do he proceded to write a series of books about the rage-filled, unstoppable Jack in more than a dozen novels, as well as three juvenile fiction books about teenage Jack, several short stories, and still plans a few more Repairman Jack novels about his early years in his odd profession.

Because of the growth of Jack as a continuing character with a wealth of extra detail brought about in the development of the series, Wilson has issued a reworked version of Nighteorld which wraps up loose ends and gives Jack a greater role in the final confrontation.

Great book. An epic ending to the Repairman Jack series.

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KLF

Better than expected

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2013

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There were a couple of books I missed in the Adversary cycle, but I don't feel like that was detrimental to reading this last one - on the contrary, I'll seek out the rest now that I've ended the series. I've read all the RJ books and several of the others, and would like to pick up the missing pieces anyway - but I was pretty anxious to read this, so I got it as soon as I could.

I won't go into the story line, because if you've read any of the RJ books, you'll have a pretty good idea of what it is anyway. I found the handling of this one to be right in line with the others I've read. (I did not read the original version of Nightworld so this was all new for me). The only departure I really noticed was the length of the denouement - seemed to take forever to get through that. But I can see why it was done that way - I'm sure if this were a scene in reality, it would have seemed to have lasted even longer. What happens to Hank Thompson (and several other characters) seemed a bit long as well - but still managed to come across with the tang of tongue-in-cheek humor I've come to expect from Wilson's RJ characters.

Overall a satisfying read. If you've read the rest, you'll know better than I can say why you need to read this one. If you've never read a Repairman Jack novel before, this is not a good starting point - go back to a couple of the earlier novels, at least, and then read this one. If you like the earlier ones, you'll find this one to be a good continuation/ending - you won't be sorry.

Thanks, F. Paul.

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Laurie

Repairman Jack is One of the Best Characters Ever Created!

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2014

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I was wondering how Wilson could tie up all that had happened so far in the Repairman Jack series - and he did an excellent job. The book is exciting and Wilson knows how to write about such unbelievable events and make them plausible. As he does in all of his R.J novels, Wilson makes you care about the characters and what happens to them. He writes with such intelligence and with such a great sense of humor. I love how Jack reacts to all of the insanity happening around him, comes to terms with it - and deals with it.

I have read all of the Repairman Jack novels up through Nightworld. Wilson never disappoints, and as I was reading this book, knowing that it was the "last R.J.", I was comforted by the fact that I had just ordered five more R.J. books - the young R.J. trilogy, and "Cold City", which tells of Jack's first years in Manhattan. I also got "Quick Fixes" a book of R.J. short stories. When I open a new R.J novel I am so happy - and the thought of not having more is very depressing! I will savor the five that I just got - and if Mr. Wilson doesn't write anything more about Jack - I will just have to start the series all over again.

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Alix Z

Original Night World was the best version.

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2017

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I inadvertently read Night World before I read any other F Paul Wilson books. I was getting them from our local library and the books were on loan and they came back in the backward order. I read The Keep last. At that time, I didn't know about the Repairman Jack books.I liked Wilson's style. I wrote to him asking if he had set out to write the Adversary Series or if they just naturally happened as he went along. He never answered me. However, I still like Night World but I don't like the newer version. I don't think the expanded version was necessary. I am a confirmed Gia non fan. I get so tired of her whining and complaining. If she doesn't like what the man does, then get out of his life! She was only in a smidgen of the original Night World. I was happy with that. Wilson should have left well enough alone.

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Janice Sims

Perfect in every way!

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2012

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Jack, Jack, I want you back! The world is going to hell in a handbasket and Jack and Glaeken plus a few other recruited warriors are the only ones fighting Rasalom to save it. This book had everything I love in a story: a life-or-death situation that warrants bravery beyond the call of duty; a really nasty villain; pathos; thrills galore; the standard battle between good and evil. Suspense, suspense, suspense, nail-biting suspense. Plus some truly spectacular science-fiction with physics going wild. Up is down and down is up. On the emotional side, Jack has lost his entire family and most of his friends. Now Gia and Vicky are in danger too and he's preoccupied with saving the world so has to entrust their care to his old friend, Abe, who thank God has been stockpiling weapons and survival gear for years. This is truly an epic tale of mythic proportions which means I think it's an instant classic. Great job, F. Paul Wilson. It's my favorite Repairman Jack book.

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