I, Sniper

Bob Lee Swagger, Book 6

By: Stephen Hunter

Narrated by: Buck Schirner

Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Four famed '60s radicals are gunned down at long range by a sniper. Under enormous media scrutiny, the FBI quickly concludes that Marine war hero Carl Hitchcock, whose 93 kills were considered the leading body count tally among American marksman in Vietnam, was the shooter. But as the Bureau, led by Special Agent Nick Memphis, bears down, Hitchcock commits suicide.

In closing out the investigation, Nick discovers a case made in heaven: everything fits, from timeline, ballistics, and forensics to motive, means, and opportunity. But maybe it's a little too perfect?

Nick asks his friend, the retired Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger, to examine the data. Using a skill set no other man on earth possesses, Swagger soon discovers unseen anomalies and gradually begins to unravel a sophisticated conspiracy - one that would require the highest level of warcraft by the most superb special operations professionals. Swagger soon closes in, and those responsible will stop at nothing to take him out. But these heavily armed men make the mistake of thinking they are hunting Bob, when he is, in fact, hunting them. And when Swagger and the last of his antagonists finally face each other, reenacting a classic ritual of arms, it is clear that at times there's nothing more necessary than a good man with a gun and the guts to use it.

©2009 Stephen Hunter (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

First Taste

What did you love best about I, Sniper?

The narration was really good, the story was enjoyable. I'm going to order other stories in the series

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Lead me to believe it may be the last story in the series. I am pleased there are more.

Which scene was your favorite?

The truth about the photo was a perfect surprise for the suspense of the story.

Wonderfully detailed & nuanced.

Some have mentioned the extreme detail used in this book as a negative. As if it were almost a cheap attempt to advertise gear or simply to fill pages. I couldn't disagree more. This book, this story take place in the world or snipers & operators. The high end equipment and the specifics of make, model, and spec, are of paramount importance & in their own way tell a story of their own. In fact, Hunter's telling of this story, and of the characters, couldn't be adequately told without these specifics. To the average reader this may seem more detailed than necessary. However to someone with a background of some kind in firearms or the military, be they a novice or expert operator, this detail is imperative. As important as character development.

The story itself - is another wonderful adventure in the varied life of GYSGT Bob Lee Swagger USMC (Ret). Stephen Hunter has created a character as richly detailed and memorable as any 'Jason Bourne' or 'James Bond'. I cannot wait to learn what is next!

Eh?

Not as good as other Bob Lee stories but it could have been the narrator . A fair premise and good characters (and bad bad guys!). A little over the top in details but still worth the read (vs listen perhaps)

I, Sniper

Packed full of sometimes not so good technical jargon, lots of gore, it filled one niche for me....It continued the story of the movie Shooter.

Poorly written politically motivated CRAP!

The author didnt even take the time to create original characters. Instead he takes well known actual people and spends HOURS giving his warped view of them. The story actually takes about 45 minutes to tell if you remove the unnecessary and boring crap espousing the authors right wing opinions. The narrator does a poor job also. What a waste of my money. This will be my last Stephen Hunter purchase!

If you believe that a sixty something year old man with an artificial hip is still taking down young Special Forces types, then this is the book for you.

I Wanted to Like It..

First, I love the sniper characters. Some of the criticisms I read before purchasing the novel were complaining about Hunter's politics, which appeared to them as right wing. This surprised me and intrigued me because, as a conservative, I constantly ignore the left leaning politics of most all of my favorite authors. I thought surely even liberals cringed at the actions of Jane Fonda during Vietnam, Bill Ayers' terrorist acts and Ted Turner's loony, chauvinistic, and extreme obsessions.

Nevertheless, I give this one 2 stars due lack of cleverness, poor narration, (did the reader have a cold?), and very poor character development.

Suuuuper slooooow....

If you like watching paint dry and grass grow, this might be the book for you. For me, listening to this narrative I could feel old age creeping up on me and I had to ask myself if I really wanted to spend the precious hours of my life ignoring this novel before I could listen to something interesting.

i sniper

very good nows his stuff

Hunter Needs to Write Plots, not Rants

A disappointing, formulaic, and implausible story that marks a further deterioration of the Swagger saga. The first three were good, the subsequent ones indicate that Hunter is trying for Rush Limbaugh's demographic. Hunter can't even be bothered creating his own characters, he seems to have lifted most of them out of supermarket tabloids. The book is filled with filler--no one can mention a weapon (and all his characters talk about weapons all the time--to the point that pages/minutes go by with no advancement of the plot) without a long digression on model, caliber, ammunition, trigger guard, finish, and so on. It often reads like Hunter wrote this book with only two sources: a gun catalog and a thesaurus. No modifier can ever be singular, it must be added to, supported, supplemented, justified, explicated, explained, enhanced, and so on and on and on. Really--why doesn't Hunter just select the correct word the first time? This book could easily have been 2/3 its length with a decent editor. There are gaping holes in the plot that any one who knew the federal bureaucracy would spot. Without being a spoiler, there is one incident in which the New York Times (which is trying to destroy the career of a patriotic FBI agent) is revealed as a part of a great conspiracy after it prints a picture of a rifle that wasn't in existence when the picture was allegedly taken! This allows Hunter to vent for 5 pages on how stupid the mainstream media is and how smart the gun owners are. Great. Except that any reader who knows anything about the federal bureaucracy knows that the whole issue would have been resolved 200 pages earlier when the accused produced an alibi. The reader is asked to believe that a senior FBI agent assigned to the Washington bureau can disappear for weeks from his desk, keeps no records of trip expenses, doesn't keep a calendar, had no meetings with anyone during this time and--best of all--in the weeks of NY Times persecution no one in the FBI thinks to ask him (nor does he think to produce) an alibi for the dates. Hunter was a journalist for years, so one can only assume this and other howlers are due to his being either lazy or untruthful. Buck Schimer is no great reader--he does Clint Eastwood, bureaucrat, arrogant whiner, and Steppin Fetchit and that is about it. I gave up on the book 2/3 of the way through--and I am sure glad I only paid $5 for it.

Better left for elsewhere

As the author says on several occasions after seemingly endless comments on firearms their use and history. Typical U.S. cop story, government interfears, bad agency management, good cop to be shelved, girl cop is promoted. One good part - NY's Finest newspaper is trashed.