Ground Zero

Repairman Jack, Book 13

By: F. Paul Wilson

Narrated by: Christopher Price

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

On September 11, 2001, a man drifts in a boat off lower Manhattan as the twin towers burn. He removes a small box from his pocket and presses a button. As he waits for the south tower to collapse, he thinks: The vast majority will blame the collapse on the crazy Arabs who hijacked the planes and the Islamic extremists who funded them - the obvious choice. A few will notice inconsistencies and point fingers elsewhere, blaming the government or Big Oil or some other powerful but faceless entity. No one - absolutely no one - will guess the truth behind the who and why of this day. Years later, someone does. Repairman Jack's childhood friend Weezy Connell (the genius girl from Jack: Secret Histories) has started fitting together the pieces of the puzzle and anonymously posting her conclusions on the Web. But she can't stay anonymous forever. Someone is after her. Jack becomes involved in her troubles and in the paranoid mazes of the 9/11 Truth Movement, where conspiracy theories point in every direction. They're all wrong. The truth is stranger, darker, and more evil than anyone can imagine. It involves the cosmic shadow war into which Jack has been drafted. And if the plot behind it - millennia in the planning - succeeds, it will forever change life on this Earth.

©2013 F. Paul Wilson (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Totally forgettable.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This is part of The Adversary/Repairman Jack/Secret History sequence. And that is the problem. It feels like a "check back later/buy my next book" filler. There's too many plot lines leftover from previous books and this story does absolutely nothing to advance the series; totally forgettable.

The story has too many new characters, all introduced to little effect. All the characters, including Jack, are pure cardboard. There's way too much chatter and exposition. (This Secret History stuff takes ALOT of telling, not showing). There's way too little of Jack "fixing" stuff. We get a few teases of thrills or horror. But it never really delivers. Although that Fhinntmanchca stuff certainly had some serious horror potential.

In my opinion, there's too much effort put into one of the author's main conceits of this series: There are no coincidences. So the author struggles to link every single person and every single momentous world event to Jack and the ancient struggle between the adversaries. Only it all really feels lazy here. Each new coincidence/linkage brought on a shrug of "so what" rather than feelings of wonder. So why keep this theme running so relentlessly?

This summer, I read some of the earlier novels in this sequence: The Tomb, The Keep, The Black Wind, etc., and it seems to me those earlier novels were never conceived as a series. And those stories are so much more satisfying than this later stuff. Wilson is a good writer, so I'd still rather slog through one of his weaker efforts than most of the stuff that's out on the market. Even so, this isn't something I'd recommend to anyone.

Happy happy Christopher Price is back!

I could not listen to the last book because of the narrator. I skipped to the first book with this narrator. Love the story and the characters. Still hooked
Meredith

Christopher Price ruined the story for me

A reader needs to not have a speech impediment. Listening to this guy drag out the last word of sentences was excruciating. That is something the producer should have highlighted and fixed. Or hire a new reader. Then, Chris has no emotion, no inflections. Droning. Boring and painful. Meanwhile, FPaul Wilson did his best, as always.

I'll ensure I don't buy anymore books read by this goof.

Storytelling of Repairman Jack

Christopher Price as narrator has a great feel for Repairman Jack that hits hard. Glorious.

I didn't enjoy this due to 911

I did not enjoy this particular Story. The main reason is that it just seemed to diminish the human atrocities that were inflicted on people due to the 9/11 attacks. To make a story that there was some higher power involved in that horrific attack just did not sit well with me.

I do like this narrator better than the previous one but I wish he would say Julio correctly. it's WHO-Lee-oh not Ooo-lee-o. That's all.

I love the series overall but this one just did not do it for me. I would recommend skipping due to 9/11.

Love Repairman Jack...

Read all the early books in a row and couple of years ago and then fell off the wagon so have had to catch up again now and they are brilliantly crafted so it didn't take me long to bring myself up to speed and remember what had gone before. A new take on good and evil, if it can be called that, and I enjoy F Paul Wilson's take on it. Highly recommend this series.

Thank The Ally Price is back!!!!

Just so glad Price Is narrating again. Not to bash but I can't hear anyone else in Jack's voice. Neat!

just need to know why the towers were off limits

i real liked the cold city books and the narrator but there was a question about the twin towers that was left unanswered. i lessened for that answer. the cold city books are so much better and was better narrated. i hated all the scifi monster stuff because i had no back store. the cold city books are not like that. if you have read these book in the series i am sure it is a good one but it is not a stand alone book

Christopher price returns!

awesome as usual. so thankful Christopher price returned to narrate this one. he just adds another dimension to the stories.

Repairman Jack versus the 911 Conspiracy

What made the experience of listening to Ground Zero the most enjoyable?

The writing . The story was very engaging.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. As I stated - very engaging story without going way out there conspiracy-wise.

What about Christopher Price’s performance did you like?

Initially I thought that the voice used to characterize the main character Jack was too bland and average. Then, upon thinking about it, that is precisely what the character would sound like - intentionally.

Who was the most memorable character of Ground Zero and why?

Jack of course. He is our POV character and our protagonist. His moral code make him the unconventional but enviable hero.

Any additional comments?

A good series entry as it comes to the head.