Bob Lee Swagger

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lksseven

Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
25
Anybody who loves guns, and loves great novels, should check out Stephen Hunter novels. The protagonist of many of his novels - Bob Lee Swagger, Marine sniper from Arkansas - is just a superb character, and the plots are riveting.

I would recommend in this order, to start ...
Point of Impact
Black Light
Time to Hunt
47th Samarai
Night of Thunder.

He also has novels that deal with Bob Lee's dad, Earl Swagger, and they are also excellent novels.

You won't be disappointed.
 
Shooter wasn't a bad movie at all, as far as Hollywood goes. (Okay - Michael Mann should have directed it!)

Just ignore the few bits and pieces that are dumb.



EDIT

The 47th Samurai was a crap book. There is no shooting involved.
 
started point of impact last night, a must read if you liked the movie. Enough differences between it and the movie that it will keep you on your toes.
 
didnt know there was sequels gotta check that out. do any other characters like memphis return?
 
Great Topic!
I hadnt heard of Stephen Hunter but did buy "Shooter" when I saw it on DVD at Target...plus it has Kate Mara in it and she is an eyefull. I did like the fact that the movie was pretty accurate in the weapons, no one was using a Mosin Nagant to represent a Rem 700 ( dont get me started on Sniper 3 w Tom Berenger...grrrr)
A coworker who is also into guns handed me a copy of "Black Light" and told me I would like the book, so I just realized when I started it there was more then one Bob Lee Swagger story. I finished Black Light about 2 hours ago and will check out Point of Impact next...thanks.
 
Not trying to be a jerk, but I read a couple Hunter novels and thought his stuff was weak,predictable,implausible and stupid.
But for a few notable exceptions, the stuff from Michael Conelly(sp?),James Lee Burke,and David Lindsey are among the best to be found in contemporary popular fiction.
 
Hunter is a very good author.
And I am right between Blue Ball and Ft Chaffee.:)

CP
 
Hunter's novels are a good entertaining read not great literature. He does a lot of research and I have not noted more than one or two goofs.

I thought Pale Horse Coming was a over-the-top although I admire his efforts at bringing real historical shooting giants into his tale. The characterisations he created seemed real enough. Too bad he couldn't fit Alvin York into the story....
 
the movie, Shooter, was "ok". Some typical liberal Hollywood b.s. preaching in it. Please don't judge the book by the movie - the book, Point of Impact, is a superb story, and Bob Lee just comes alive as a hero who doesn't want to be a hero. His character just gets richer and more interesting as the story (and the subsequent books) develop.

Night of Thunder - just released in September - has Bob as a 63 year old husband and father, who owns some layup horse barns out West. His oldest daughter, Nikki, is a reporter in Tennessee, and is run off a country/mountain road one night and is in a coma. Bob flies out immediately to be with his daughter and, as he's always distrustful of the competence of authorities, he begins to nose around a little on his own to learn what happened and why. His nose is twitching and his savvy hunter/sniper's instinct is starting to do the math.
 
Last edited:
some of the novels are homeruns, some triples, and some doubles. I agree Pale Horse Coming was a pretty ambitious 'yarn'. But Point of Impact, and especially Time to Hunt, are as good as story telling gets.

I've also got Time to Hunt on cd, with Beau Bridges narrating the 6 hour book. It's the best performance telling the best story I've ever heard in an audio book. His fight with the VC division in the Kham Duc valley on disc 2 is as good as it gets. Great gun stuff, great tactics stuff, gritty and also intelligent stream of consciousness.
 
I've read Point of Impact and Black Light, about to start on the next one shortly, once my son (who bought it ) has finished reading it :)
 
I am surprised that no one has mentioned "Spartan," an excellent David Mamet film starring Val Kilmer.
 
For 'Point Of Impact' you have to skip the first few pages regarding him hunting the deer.

That's where most people, who never finished the book, put it down.
 
Forget the deer hunting, you kind of have to skip the whole pretending this guy exists... If he were out there, deer would kick down your kitchen door and poop their livers into your frying pan as soon as you threw an onion in there. After Pale Horse, I'm kind of sick of hearing about how this guy teamed up with Lucky Lindy to wrassle the kaiser into a paper lunch sack...
 
Well, live and learn. I'm genuinely surprised to see even a few 'gun' people here that didn't care for the Bob Lee Swagger stories. To each his own!

The beginning of Point of Impact, about hunting the deer, I thought was excellent. It gave you a sense of the essence of the man, both his current state of mind, after a lifetime of being a warrior, and a glimpse at his once-in-a-generation skill (think Babe Ruth, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jordan)
 
I've read all of Hunter's novels except his newest and it hasn't made out here to the sticks yet. I enjoyed everyone of them a great deal with the exception of "47th Samurai". It was an OK story, just a little too far off the Bob Lee genre to appeal to me.
 
47th Samurai

47th Samurai was not my favorite, either. Quite frankly, I found it difficult to follow the action and get a mental visual 'fix' about which stroke was switch and how the action unfolded.
 
I am surprised that no one has mentioned "Spartan," an excellent David Mamet film starring Val Kilmer.
Click to expand...

Weak dialogue. Cheesey interaction between Val Kilmer's character and his "trainees" in the later parts of the movie.

Awesome plot. Awesome cinematography. It had a very "Ronin" feel to it (for obvious reasons), but the writting just wasn't there.

ETA: Why would you be suprised nobody mentioned a David Mamet film in a thread about Stephen Hunter novels?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

D
  • Locked
Bob Lee Swagger News...
Replies
0
Views
361
dk-corriveau
D
M
  • Locked
What would your fictional character carry?
2
Replies
31
Views
1K
cratz2
C
J
  • Locked
Favorite Gun Fiction Authors?
2 3 4
Replies
99
Views
4K
Bruegger
B
C
  • Locked
Stephen Hunter's Books
2
Replies
33
Views
2K
willbrink
W
JBP
  • Locked
Couple of Novel (Book) Recommendations
Replies
1
Views
486
Mad Man
M
Back
Top