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| View Larger Image | Slanted Jack (John and Lobo)
by Mark L. Van Name
| | List Price: | $24.00 | | Price: | $16.32 | | You Save: | $7.68 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 44001 | | Studio: | Baen | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 400 | | Publication Date: | July 01, 2008 | | Publisher: | Baen |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Mark L. Van Name's first book in the Jon and Lobo series demolished all the already high marketing projections. In Slanted Jack he's vaulting that stunning success with a novel that bobs and weaves, takes you on a headlong race through a strange but believable future, and never slows down. The job looks simple enough: Jon Moore, the nanotech-enhanced, world-weary, soldier of fortune, agrees to help a con man, a friend from a part of his past he'd rather forget, protect a very special young boy. The deal doesn't stay simple, as each move Jon and Lobo make results in more danger and more enemies. The situation grows even more complicated when a beautiful woman with an unclear agenda joins them in their quest. The best con man Jon's ever known, a ruthless gang boss, a heavily armed group of religious fanatics, and an interstellar government out to clean up a dangerous frontier world rush together toward an explosive climax -- and Jon and Lobo are caught in the middle. They're willing to do anything to save the life of the boy -- But there may not be anything even they can do! Slanted Jack: the second novel in the Jon & Lobo series. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 4 reviews)
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SF With Action and Moral Dimension 
Remember the Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison ? He was a loveable character who stayed barely on the right side of the law (most of the time) in a far future where human civilizations had spread over multiple star systems. There were villains and dictators of all varieties and a former cat burglar/con-man wandered through all of them bringing them down a peg, or unseating them totally by starting a revolution that wonderfully reminded the reader of the only successful revolution in modern history: the American.
As you can see from the plot synopsis elsewhere on this page, Jon Moore is back in a sequel to One Jump Ahead (Van Name's first novel). This time Jon (and his highly intelligent ship/assault vehicle named "Lobo") is caught up in an elaborate con game with a former partner-in-crime who is (quite deservedly) known as "Slanted Jack."
Jon didn't want to work an elaborate three-way con involving two sets of crooks and a semi-dictatorial multi-system government. (For the latter, think of a the government cops who were the bad guys in the TV Series "Firefly.") However, he decided that it was morally obligatory to save a child who may be one of the few links to the home-planet that Jon lost about 150 years before. (Yes, he is that old - remember the nano-machines in his body?)
The moral dimensions of Jon's predicament are what give the story some depth. Jon wants to do good, but he also wants to survive and not be captured as a human test subject, imprisoned in a government laboratory for the rest of his life. His decades of life on the edge has involved a lot of killing. So much that he schemes on how to win any conflict and escape from any trap without having to blast innocent and not so innocent humans into constituent atoms.
If you liked the series "Firefly" or the movie "Serenity," you will probably enjoy this series. If you are old enough to remember the SF novels of Harry Harrison or Keith Laumer, then you will cheer the author on as he brings action back into hard SF.
July 15, 2008 | |
A great read 
I must admit some prejudice in that I thoroughly enjoyed the first Jon and Lobo book (One Jump Ahead), so I was expecting good things from the latest book.
The team of Jon and Lobo are well matched in that Jon could give himself over to the sarcastic artificial intelligence of his ship, Lobo, but instead he allows his essential human self to guide them both, and usually into the heart of a storm.
The book introduces the con man Slanted Jack, but also Maggie who joins the adventure with an eye to protect the young boy at the heart of concern. But she brings out an emotional side of Jon that satisfies and explains much of his interactions.
I found the story fast paced with wonderful inventions and a great new sport that I want to see out on the market sometime soon.
This new universe carries many of the quintessential human problems forward without making the future a dreary and sad place, allowing for beauty and excellence.
I recommend it highly.
July 15, 2008 | |
Interesting for some info on Jon's background - but otherwise didn't leave me impressed 
Jon is having dinner at swish restaurant when his meal in interrupted by an old partner of his - Slanted Jack - a professional con man who wants Jon to do him a favour. Jon knows Jack never does anything without an angle but he finds it impossible to refuse his request to help with security needed by a small boy with a meeting he has to have with local religious leader.
For me, after reading ONE JUMP AHEAD this book was a disappointment. It doesn't have any real action sequences and by the second half of the book it felt like I was simply reading about one meeting after another. The nanos - in many ways one of Jon's most interesting features - don't play much of a part in this story at all. What we do find out about however is more interesting information on Jon's home planet of Pinkleplonker and how Jon was healed by his sister.
I'll still read the next book in this series, but the author seems so intent on keeping these novels as stand alone stories that so far you don't actually see much character development in either Jon or Lobo.
One Jump Ahead (Jon & Lobo Series)
July 06, 2008 | |
entertaining futuristic crime caper
Jon Moore hates being the best combatant in the galaxy as that means missions he does not want to take. The nanotechnology enhanced soldier wants to live the rest of his life in peace and quiet on his home planet accompanied by his only friend, Lobo, an artificially intelligent Predator-Class Assault Vehicle. However, Jon knows that he and Lobo are expendable pawns always sent to the next impossible mission.
As Jon seeks a bit of R&R, he and Lobo meet his old crony con artist and petty thief Slanted Jack, who needs a slight favor. In spite of being the deadliest kick-butt person known in the galaxy, the kindhearted sucker, ignoring the sarcastic commentary of Lobo who encourages him to just say no, Jon agrees to help in what seems rather easy. He should have known that Slanted Jack set him up to take the fall from an angry arms dealing religious fundamentalist and his rabid followers, an enraged gang leader and his rabid mobsters, and a fuming high-ranking government councilor and his rabid supporters. They agree to kill Jon when Jack vanished taking a psychically gifted child and invaluable relics with him. However, in spite of the beautiful woman who insists she wants to help him and the assaults from the assorted rabid minions, Jon and Lobo agree rescuing the child is the mission.
The second Jon and Lobo space thriller (see ONE JUMP AHEAD) is an entertaining futuristic crime caper as everyone converges initially on Jack who pulls a sleight of the hand with his disappearing act that leaves Jon and Lobo holding a dead rabbit. The story line is fast-paced and filled with non stop action as each step that Jon takes to expedite himself from the growing mess complicates his escape as more enemies surface. Although none of the cast except the heroic lead duo goes beyond comic book status, readers will enjoy the escapades in space of Jon and Lobo who will keep saying I told you so as the hero knows he didn't know Jack.
Harriet Klausner
July 02, 2008 | |
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