The first Stephen Hunter book I ever read was Dirty White Boys, when it showed up at the local library in the early 2000s. I was going through one of those phases where you're constantly trying new authors to find something new to read, and I just liked that title and the synopsis sounded dope, and I just jumped right in.
Twenty years later, and I've read all of the books featuring the indominable Swagger clan and their unwavering talents for killing bad motherfuckers, often at considerable personal cost.
I call it sniper porn, and even though I'm a proudly lily-livered pacifist, I love the way the Swaggers take down the worst scum in the world, with a bullet in the right place. A lot happens in Hunter's books, but it's all so direct and clear and free of any bullshit, as sharp as the sniper's sight.
So of course I had to check out Basil's War when I saw it in the library the other week, and I haven't checked out again of a book so quickly in years. I don't think I made a dozen pages. Because while the Swagger books are straight to the point, Basil's War is full of nothing but bullshit.
I can certainly see what Hunter was going for, a piss-take of all the stiff-upper-lip ideals of old WW2 films, taken to the ultimate extremes. But it's so extremely different from the usual directness of his books, it was everything I didn't want in a Stephen hunter book.
I'm still down for the next Swagger (or Cruz) book, but Basil can do his own thing, I ain't got time for all that bullshit.
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