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.

Nearly libelous

This is my first time with Hunter on Audible, I enjoyed his earlier books the old way on paper. This narrator sounds like James Arness half the time and the lifting of Jane and Ted for models of the victim and bad guy are really distracting. This could be a little more fictitous and what's with the several references to Bristol Palin? This book is pretty weak.

meh

Plot is weak! also STOP calling it a clip! you sound uneducated about the subject.

I sniper please kill me now!!

I should have learned my lesson and read the reviews before purchasing, but I loved the movie Shooter so I thought I would like the book. I did listen to the sample and was really misled by that. I started listening and 10 minutes into this it hits me, the narrator has a lisp! Are you kidding 15 hours of this. I really tried by best to ignore that but the story itself was so horribly boring that its all I could focus on. It was too technical, too wordy, and I actually started to hate all of the characters. Save yourself the suffering and pass this one by.
Perhaps trying one of these books in hardcover where you can really use your own imagination would help.

Narrator Horrible

The book lost all of its character when the narrator made everyone sound the same and be himself sounded like he was 95! Just one of the poorest Steven Hunter books I’ve tried to listen to.

Run of the Mill story

Did not like reader, Tonal afllections geared to lower level listener. But the story line was also along those lines. I Would Not Recommended

Suffern Sucatash

Speak this line out loud.

"Sniper specialists from Tennessee"

Now say it again but this time in your best Sylvester voice from Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird.

Did you like that? Well get used to it because that's what you're going to hear for the next fifteen hours. I'm only an hour into this and I'm fighting not to turn it off. Worst narration I've heard from any book. I'm also not a fan of Hunter picking real people, using some of their bios, changing their names only slightly (I guess to avoid royalties or lawsuits), and making them characters in a fictional book. It's fiction, why name a fictional character "Carl Hitchcock" that obviously draws on the very real "Carlos Hathcock" and then butcher the man. I just don't get it.

never again

A relentless tour of right-wing rhetoric thinly disguised as a shoot-em-up adventure. The book would be an hour shorter if only the nasty digs about the NY Times were removed. All liberals are morons, all conservatives true American heroes unfairly pilloried by the east-coast peaceniks. And the narrator seems to really believe it: a good listen for those whose Soldier of Fortune subscription hasn't lapsed for 20 years.

Are You Kidding Me?

I will start with I LOVED Stephen Hunter's earlier work. This book, however it total drivel. The narration, on top of an uninteresting plot, shallow characters, horrible narration, (oh, did I say terrible narration twice??)is a complete waste of hours on this earth. Don't bother, especially if you loved his earlier work. It is a terrible thing to see an author go downhill. Terrible. Didn't even finish it, even though I had no other books on my IPOD. I walked without listening to anything in stead of listen to the rest of this book. Now, THAT tells you something.

Bored

I hate rating a book that I haven't finished, but this book just couldn't keep my attention and I've given up on it.

A very long, loquacious comic book.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Testosterone cowboys and patriotic FBI agents

What do you think your next listen will be?

A good Norwegian mystery

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Buck Schirner?

George Guidal, but he is probably too discriminating to touch this.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Hunter does one thing well: inform about guns and the art of their use.

Any additional comments?

There's something inherently wrong with a story about a tall, silent western hero told by a garrulous self-indulgent writer. You want him to just shut up and move the story along and he won't. He yammers and yammers and yammers.

Also, it's filled with self-indulgent anger from those who served in shitty wars and think people critical of those wars "don't understand; we sacrificed our lives for these assholes' freedom to be jerks." Actually, most people DO appreciate that soldiers/marines sacrificed a lot. It's just that they were used. Might as well have former German concentration camp commanders crying in their beer about their patriotic sacrifices and how no one understands. This goes on and on, coupled with "Ah shucks, I didn't do nothin special." It works at first, then becomes cloying, then sickening.

One fantasy builds on another in this windy book, until it peaks in the gunfight of a comic book western. If you're a male over 60 and looking for a fantasy fix to drown your rage, this will be a pleasant escape. Most readers will want to spend their time reading something else.