Customer Reviews

Fixer

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I felt it was time a woman reviewed this book. I LOVE THIS BOOK. I love all the Fixer books. These are the kinds of books that make reading fun and entertaining. I have re-read this book several times and always enjoy it. This is what a books supposed to be and I am pleased to own a copy.

This book has everything I wanted to read in a book: Witty remarks, blood and gore, and an excellent plot.
Although many female critics believe that their bad reviews are justified because this book was intended for men should keep one thing in mind: It is suppose to be. As romances are deliberated for women, many horror books are intended for men. Blood and gore is the typical definition of the genre horror.

Guys will get a thrill, girls would be bored. Editing sucks.

This is the first book in a new series, The Lawson Vampire:

The Fixer (Published May 2002)
The Invoker (Published October 2003)
The Destructor (Published March 2003)
The Syndicate (Published October 2003)

The Fixer was an OK book from start to finish. It set up the cast of characters adequately for the next books in the series and was grammatically and structurally well written, but, not very original.

Lawson, the main character, is a Fixer for the counsel. When vampires endanger the balance between humans and vampires, he "Fixes it". Normally that involves taking out the perpetrator permanently, with extreme prejudice.

Lawson's nemesis in this book is Cosgrove, a vicious vampire from his past who almost killed him.

Previously, Cosgrove had left several bloodless victims behind, during his last rampage. The council did not agree with Lawson's assessment and would not sanction Cosgrove.

Cosgrove leaves a trail of another 50 corpses to be found and then the council decides that he is a threat to the vampire race, sanctioning Lawson to take him out permanently.

Cosgrove wants to eliminate the ruling council, take over the world, and have the humans as little more than cattle.

That's the setup for this book. It's practically a rip off of Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. Lawson=Fixer=Anita Blake=Enforcer. If you mix part Anita Blake (Laurel K. Hamilton) with part Jack Fleming (P.N. Elrod, The Vampire Files) you get Lawson?

Lawson gets romantically involved with some bimbo assassin, who is tough as nails...original, right?

Cosgrove is supposed to be much stronger than Lawson, because, he drains his victims' of all their blood, where as Lawson, takes a little bit from several people. Cosgrove has numerous opportunities to take out Lawson, but, doesn't. How convenient, wouldn't be much of a book or a very long one if he did?

I had a couple of complaints against this book and there fore did not rate it higher.

First, the vampires in this book weren't very vampire like in nature. They can walk in the light, eat regular food and weren't immortal, just had long life spans, greater strength, enhanced senses, and some other miscellaneous powers. Basically, a bunch of wimps.

The main character was not very likeable. He was crude, vulgar and just plain boring. I was kind of hoping that Cosgrove would take him out so the book would end and I would be put out of my misery.

I felt that the plot and the book in general was nothing more than a setup for the following books in the series.

Reading this book, I never felt that Lawson was ever in any danger or that the world was in peril of being over run by Cosgrove and his evil cohorts.

This was the authors first published book. He's not in Anne Rices' or P.N. Elrods' league yet, but, I've read a lot worse books.

I rated it just OK. The authors got some potenetial.

This is one of the finest debut novels I've read in a long time. It's rare that a book would appeal to fans of both vampire and hard-boiled detective novels, but The Fixer manages this in spades! Merz takes the vampire mythos and turns it on its head, all the while building a gritty, thrilling (and at times quite amusing) story that starts fast and never lets up. His realistic characters and confident manner of building tension makes this a true "page-turner". I'm eagerly looking forward to picking up the next volume in this series.

THE FIXER, by Jon F. Merz, is a fresh look at the eternal world of vampires. The protagonist of the story, Lawson, serves as a "Fixer" - born to the task of maintaining the delicate balance between the vampire and human communities, which are hopelessly entangled, yet essentially separate.

Together with the mysterious Talya, a former KGB assassin, Lawson battles Cosgrove, a power-crazy, rogue vampire who plans to invoke an ancient blood demon to help him shred the fabric of vampire society - and all of civilization.

Merz knows how to tell a story effectively. His style is refreshingly clean, richly textured, and unpretentious. The book is a delight to read and easy to follow, throughout story twists and fast action. His characters are well developed and believable; you'll care about what happens to them. Merz tells an excellent story, which is well-paced and nearly impossible to put down. He wraps this story in a time of gangsters and celebratory decadence, which rings true, making the end result both genuine and fanciful.

In a nutshell: THE FIXER is a great read and well worth the purchase price. It deserves a place on your bookshelf. Treat yourself to some fun.

THE FIXER, by Jon F. Merz, is a fresh look at the eternal world of vampires. The protagonist of the story, Lawson, serves as a "Fixer" - born to the task of maintaining the delicate balance between the vampire and human communities, which are hopelessly entangled, yet essentially separate.

Together with the mysterious Talya, a former KGB assassin, Lawson battles Cosgrove, a power-crazy, rogue vampire who plans to invoke an ancient blood demon to help him shred the fabric of vampire society - and all of civilization.

Merz knows how to tell a story effectively. His style is refreshingly clean, richly textured, and unpretentious. The book is a delight to read and easy to follow, throughout story twists and fast action. His characters are well developed and believable; you'll care about what happens to them. Merz tells an excellent story, which is well-paced and nearly impossible to put down. He wraps this story in a time of gangsters and celebratory decadence, and does it well, so that the setting is comfortably genuine, and the details ring true.

As I finished THE FIXER, thoroughly pleased with the ending, I wished desperately that I had another delight from Merz to read. Good news - we can look forward to a Lawson vampire series! The second book is THE INVOKER. So grab a copy of both books as soon as you can, folks! I think we're gonna be seeing a LOT of Jon Merz in the future. {Just think how pleased you'll be that you bought first printings of the series.}

In a nutshell: THE FIXER is a great read and well worth the purchase price. It deserves a place on your bookshelf.

Wonderful book? You bet. If you're interested in anything with voice, captivating action, and unending plot twists, Jon F. Merz's book, The Fixer, is for you! Merz knows what he's doing when he writes this tale of betrayal, love and violence. Never before have I finished a book (of this length) so quickly. I could not put it down. Edge of the seat thrills, Vibrant images, You'd think I'm selling a DVD player with these types of phrases. But I'm not. The Fixer does not dissapoint. Wonderful writing written well.

Take the underworld of the 40s film noir and mix it with the comic book Blade, and the result will be something that closely resembles Jon F. Merz's The Fixer. This books marks the promising start of a new series which will appeal to anyone who is tired of the goth-chique vampires of Anne Rice.

The novel is fast-paced and very atmospheric. You are thrown into the noir world which you saw so often in the 40s crime films. Lawson reminded me a little of the Bogarts of that era, only with more muscles and with a badder, more sarcastic attitude.

Although the books lags a little in its central part (Merz gives us too much background info on Lawson; he could have stretched it out over the next few books), the rest of a the book is great fun. The wry, sarcastic humour and the often funny situations elevates this book over the B-style novel it could easily have become.

The Fixer isn't mind blowing, but it is a great read that will keep you entertained until its very last page.

The Fixer took me totally by surprise. Jon Merz has an unique style that hits me as toung-in-cheek. His writing style adds drama to simple exchanges between charaters, and the characters are larger than life. It didn't take long for me to get [drawn] into this one! The interaction between the characters is creative at times. As a Boston native, I found the setting impeccably portrayed. I recommend this book strongly. I'm not sure how this holds up within the genre, as I've never read a book such as this. I fully intend to buy The Invoker - out at the end of this year. You should too.