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Gateways [Hardcover]

F. Paul Wilson
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Nov 1 2003 Repairman Jack Novels
Following last year's successful The Haunted Air, F. Paul Wilson returns with another riveting episode in the saga of Repairman Jack, the secretive, ingenious, and heroic champion of those whose problems no one else can solve. As Dean Koontz says, "Repairman Jack is one of the most original and intriguing characters to arise out of contemporary fiction in ages. His adventures are hugely entertaining."

In Gateways, Jack learns that his father is in a coma after a car accident in Florida. They've been on the outs, but this is his dad, so he heads south. In the hospital he meets Anya, one of his father's neighbors. She's a weird old duck who seems to know an awful lot about his father, and even a lot about Jack.

Jack's arrival does not go unnoticed. A young woman named Semelee, who has strange talents and lives in an isolated area of the Everglades with a group of misshapen men, feels his presence. She senses that he's "special," like her.

Anya takes Jack back to Dad's senior community, Gateways South, which borders on the Everglades. Florida is going through an unusual drought. There's a ban on watering; everything is brown and wilting, but Anya's lawn is a deep green.

Who is Anya? Who is Semelee, and what is her connection to the recent strange deaths of Gateways residents-killed by birds, spiders, and snakes-during the past year? And what are the "lights" Jack keeps hearing about-? Lights that emanate twice a year from a sinkhole deep in the Everglades . . . lights from another place, another reality.

If he is to protect his father from becoming the next fatality at Gateways, there are questions Jack must answer, secrets he must uncover. Secrets . . . Jack has plenty of his own, and along the way he learns that even his father has secrets.

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From Publishers Weekly

As in his last Repairman Jack novel, The Haunted Air (2002), Wilson deftly contrasts the self-imposed isolation of his vigilante hero with the forced exile of society's outcasts. When he learns that his estranged father is in a coma after a car accident, Jack travels to Florida, where his father has been living in a retirement community, Gateways South, which encroaches a bit further into the Everglades than the brochures would have you think. Jack soon has another run-in with what he calls "the Otherness," a Lovecraftian evil that here pervades a lagoon and the community of mutated rednecks surrounding it. Wilson is unsurpassed in depicting his characters' feelings of alienation as they attempt to comprehend the cosmic forces that have misshapen their lives. Particularly vivid is Semelee, an albino woman-child who achieves a certain degree of domination over her mostly male brethren by virtue (or lack thereof) of her sexuality. Jack's reconciliation with his father, along with the discovery that his father is also no stranger to the finer points of violence, could have been maudlin in the hands of a lesser writer, but Wilson provides just enough conflict between the two to allow their newfound love for each other to be convincing. This one will appeal to horror aficionados and to fans of Carl Hiassen and James Lee Burke.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The new Repairman Jack novel finds our heroic fix-it man on a road trip to Florida, where his father has recently been in a near-fatal car accident. The trip itself is dangerous enough (in the post-9/11 world, it is tough for a man with no official identity and a weapon strapped to his arm to get onto an airplane), but that's nothing compared to the danger he'll encounter in the Everglades. As usual, Wilson intrudes on the action with various pronouncements--witness, for example, the scene in which Jack flicks through stations on a car radio, and we're treated to (presumably) the author's opinions on country music and Lou Reed--but this time the main story, involving a series of murders and some mysterious creatures in the swampy glades, more than makes up for the frequent editorial intrusions. Wilson continues to mix the traditional thriller with elements of the supernatural in ways--not quite horror but more than mystery--that appeal to both sides of the genre fence. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Customer Reviews

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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Repairman Jack July 14 2004
Format:Hardcover
I have to agree with Kathleen Griffin's note that you should first read "The Barrens." It lends appreciation to this Repairman Jack piece.

Jack heads down to Florida after his father is involved in an auto-accident. There are no more coincidences for Jack, of course, and he finds more going on with his dad than he would ever have expected.

The repairs in Gateways are personal and not as layered as those in The Haunted Air or Hosts (for example), but the personal information on Jack's life and the much-needed reconnection with his father make this a more-than-worthwhile read. And, afterall, it is Repairman Jack, and F. Paul Wilson doesn't disappoint here. It'll keep you going from start to finish.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Gates of Hell July 13 2004
Format:Hardcover
Warning: You should first read Wilson's brilliant short story "The Barrens." The novel will impress without that background, but with it there are greater depths and the mention of nexus points are more ominous.

Jack reluctantly encounters his family when his father, recently relocated to a Florida retirement community, is in a terrible car accident. After supercilious years of looking down on his father as an innocent unacquainted with "real" life, Jack discovers a ruthless, extremely self-disciplined, and honorable man. This Korean War veteran and Marine sniper is his father -- and unrealized role model.

The Everglades are wonderfully evoked here, with touches of Zora Neale Hurston's lush description. The novel picks up the pathos of the "clan" of nexus-deformed persons trapped by their "home." Carl, the only one to escape to near-normal life, is touching and charming.

Anya is a great creation, and her dog Oyv is perfect. Apparently she'll turn up in the future -- but could Wilson bring back Oyv too?

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Repairman Jack Story May 11 2004
Format:Hardcover
Repairman Jack is back! This time he travels out of New York to the edge of the Everglades in Southern Florida, where his father is hovering near death following a hit and run accident. Jack moves into the Gateways, his father's retirement community, for the duration of his visit. After talking to residents and employees at the Gateways, having a few unpleasant encounters with a band of mutants living in the Everglades, and uncovering a series of suspicious deaths of the community's elderly residents, he fears that his father's accident was deliberate. He soon decides that things need repairing there too. It appears that the Otherness is back, and Jack has been drawn here to confront the ultimate evil once again.

This novel is full of interesting characters. First there's the mutant clan leader Semelee who has special gifts that she is certain set her apart as a Chosen One, and who targets an unwitting Jack as her soul mate. Then there's Anya, an eccentric Gateways resident who watches over Jack and his father and whose green lawn in the midst of drought indicates that she may be more than she seems. Wilson delves into Jack's past and treats the reader to more on the mysterious man's background. And finally, there are some surprising discoveries about Jack's father that indicate that Jack didn't fall that far from the family tree. Now that Jack and his father have come to know each other better, they have a reconciliation that adds depth to the story.

The Everglades, in a mingling of the natural and the supernatural, provides an exotic and colorful backdrop for this tale. Otherworldly lights appear semiannually from a sinkhole deep within its wilderness. It harbors fantastic creatures both real and surreal. The Otherness is exerting its influence on both man and beast there. There is information about its natural wonders here too. Even though I am a South Florida resident living in a city bordering the Everglades, I learned some fascinating new facts about its ecology. I recommend this as a great horror story, thriller, and source of background information on the enigmatic Jack. It is hard to put down, and it definitely deserves its 5 star rating.

Eileen Rieback

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Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars We Love Repairman Jack!
If you have been reading the Repairman Jack novels, you don't need to read any further...in fact, you are probably already putting this one on hold for yourself or checking it out... Read more
Published on Mar 6 2004 by Timothy Capehart
5.0 out of 5 stars Not The Maytag Repairman!
Repairman Jack is not an appliance repairman as his father has been led to believe. He fixes things that no one else can fix--things that might involve--well--going outside the... Read more
Published on Feb 25 2004 by Louis N. Gruber
5.0 out of 5 stars Best Repairman Jack Since The Tomb?
I once read a series of six books by Wilson, called the Adversary Series. It started out with The Keep and ended with an out of print, rare book called Nightworld. Read more
Published on Feb 25 2004 by Mr D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
Of course, I love all of F. Paul Wilson's books. Repairman Jack is definitely my favorite character. Highly recommended, it's a must read.
Published on Dec 18 2003 by Barb RR
3.0 out of 5 stars Repairman Jack is Losing Steam
I am an avid reader and longtime Amazon buyer and browser. I have read many reviews, but this is the first time I feel compelled to share my views on a book/series. Read more
Published on Dec 4 2003 by K. A. Downing
5.0 out of 5 stars Good supernatural thriller
See book summary above.

If you liked the previous Repairman Jack novels you'll love this one. If you've not read any of them you might get a little confused as to some of the... Read more

Published on Nov 25 2003 by Konrad Kern
5.0 out of 5 stars Freat Repairman Jack tale
Repairman Jack is trying to find a way to be a citizen again ever since he found out Gia was pregnant with his child. Read more
Published on Nov 7 2003 by Harriet Klausner
5.0 out of 5 stars My first Repairman Jack, but not my last!
This is the first book I ever read by F. Paul Wilson. What a treat I've been missing! Having read Gateways and enjoyed a thrill ride like no other, I plan to read the whole... Read more
Published on Oct 26 2003 by Mary Chrapliwy
5.0 out of 5 stars Back in Action!
F. Paul Wilson's iconic hero-without-a-history, Repairman Jack, is back for his seventh, and possibly finest, adventure. Read more
Published on July 1 2003 by J. A. KONRATH
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