After seeing the film Shooter a few years back Ive always wanted to read the Stephen Hunter novel series. Well I finally had the time and cash and bought all 6 bob lee books and the 3 Earl swaggers. I have to say in my opinion these are some of the best novels Ive read. The characters are great, the action is amazing. Now not all are masterpieces, 47th samurai was good, but Bob lee as a swordsman? The seventh book comes out this year and I really cant wait.

Stephen Hunter is as good as it gets for us gun nuts.

My public library has every one of those novels...that is how I found them, scanning the new book shelves. The Library is a wonderful thing, and mine is one of the best.
All of the Swagger books are good reads.

Haven't read any of these yet, but they've got to be good. I mean, how can a guy with a badass name like "Swagger" not be a fun read?

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MARK

I am reading Havana now and plan on re-reading Hot Springs

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Stan

I have read all of them ... I'm hooked...

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

I loved Hot Springs and Dirty White Boys. Just finished Pale Horse Coming and thought it was kind of lame, a bit of a fairy tale, although it did have some enjoyable parts. I can see why some might find it amusing if they see anybody they recognize from real life among Earl's collection of gunmen.* I could only identify one. I suspect Hunter had some fun writing this one.

*In fact, that would be my question about this book: are all these gunmen modeled after real-life figures, and if so, who?

I liked Pale Horse Coming - Charlie Askins, Ed McGivern, Jack O'Conner, and Elmer Keith. Any others? Its been a while.

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Rule of law, not a man.

Hunter's novels rock. Shooter was a good movie, but it nowhere near did justice to the novel.

Make sure you read them in chronological order based on the time line and not when they were written.

"Pale Horse Coming" should be required reading for anyone that considers them self to be a "gun person".

If I remember right, one seemed to be Bill Jordan and the other Audie Murphy.

My favorite all time lines from a book.

From TIME TO HUNT............."Daddy's Home"

I've read 'em all, and am in the process of going back and re-reading them.
Already knocked off the 3 original Bob Lee books, and this morning I started "Hot Springs" again.

They're all good, but I really enjoy the Earl Lee series more than the Bob Lee series.

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I've read all of the Swagger books, some of my favorite reads of all time. Point of Impact is still my favorite followed closely by Time to Hunt.

I bring the whole collection with me when I am stationed in Iraq, now Afghanistan. The books take me to adventures, (while I am stuck waiting on a chopper or convoy).

Love 'em!

If you're a gun guy, then you'll find Hunter's books to be a joy to read. He gets all the gun stuff right.

I highly recommend reading them in order.

Point of Impact is the first Bob Lee Swagger novel and the book that was made into the movie Shooter.

Dirty White Boys appears to have absolutely nothing to do with Point of Impact. However, it is the second novel in the series. There is one page that gets your mind wondering about its relation to Point of Impact, but that's it.

Black Light is the third in the trilogy and it is just plain amazing how Hunter intertwines the two different stories from both previous books. Black Light also introduces Bob Lee's father, Earl, in a much more revealing light.

Some of the books are all about Earl and others are about Bob Lee.

I found Pale Horse Coming to be a masterpiece. I recognized all the gun writers/heros/lawmen that Hunter was referencing and it was amazing. Imagine an 80 some year old Ed McGivern having one last try at using his double action S&W revolver against some real bad guys that need killing.

I am just remembering the lines, so they're not verbatim, but the scene where Earl is explaining to old Ed what he has to do and Ed's granddaughter is helping to get the words into old Ed's almost deaf ears.

"Granddad wants to know what his role will be."

"We're going to have him shoot the first five bad guys with his revolver, real quick. Does he think he can do that?"

"Granddad wants to know what you want him to do with the sixth bullet?"

That's awesome!

Gotta love that Bob Lee prefers and carries a 1911 in .38 Super too.

I can't wait for the next novel to come out. I even loved 47th Samurai. I learned alot about swords that I had no idea even existed.

I started with Hot Springs read it in a day.

Then started on Pale Horse Coming, took around a week. Kept laughing to hard about the "Gun Fighters" he had, how many of them had ever heard a round fired in anger? Yet they had no remorse about shooting anybody and actually looked forward to it.

Started Havanna about a month ago. Still ain't finished it. Just can't get into it.

Just finished Havana again it is pretty good, I really liked Hot Springs and Dirty White boys was good too.

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Stan

I've read the entire series at least twice each. I like that Hunter gets the guns & politics right. With a Marine & State Trooper backround I get caught up in the tales easily.
Cherokee Slim

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NRA,SASS,BOLD#808,Semper Fi

I just finished Hot Springs again and just love the scene towards the end when the mob is outside the hospital wanting to string up the black doctor and Earl stands alone on the porch. After they threaten him he shrugs his coat off showing the .45 he has in a shoulder rig, another on his hip and a 3rd in his waistband and tells them, "In the first 2 seconds I'll kill 7 of you, the next two, seven more and the next 2 seven more. Now you boys in the back, if u get a shot at me, hope it kills me because if it dont, I might get a relaod in and kill some more." thats why lone Marine VS Racist, drunk mob is no contest.

Stephen Hunter's take on the 38 Super

The Super .38

As someone said above...Stephen Hunter "gets the guns right" in his books which is a rarity. He loves his guns, loves to shoot and and deservedly won a Pulitzer (for movie reviews).
I've talked to him a couple of times and he is a hell of a nice guy too.
He has a new Bob Lee Swagger novel coming out in December..."Dead Zero".

I finished "Night of Thunder" a few weekas ago. It is Hunter's latest published Bob Lee book. It involves a NASCAR race in Bristol Tn- a crazy family of grifters, a multi million dollar heist, a chase sequence which will wear you out, and a final shoot out with Bob Lee shooting a Lady IDPA state champion. Its almost as unbelievable as Crazy White Boys was but for different reasons. But you know what, it was still a fun read. Stephen Hunter Rocks.

Among his older books, before Bob Lee and Earl, he wrote The Second Saladin, and The Day Before Midnight the latter of which is among my Hunter favorites.

Regards,

One thing I enjoy is he intertwines characters from previous books. The good russian in Havana was the bad russian in The Second Saladin. A good writer and helps pass the time.

I've read all of Hunter's books except a couple. Just picked up the New "I,Sniper" last night, finally out in paperback. Nobody beats Hunter for gun details.

One of my favorite Hunter novels is "The Master Sniper". It's a really good read and highlights early night vision scopes and technology. Hunter actually makes a fairly significant error in the novel, but he writes so well that I just try to ignore it and move on. One of the characters in The Master Sniper shows up again in Havana.

Best of luck,

Dave

Audie Murphy was a decorated WW2 vet, perhaps our most decorated. Bill Jordan a Border Patrolman in an era of many shootings, as was Askins also a combat vet. Elmer Keith was a little disappointed in the fact he wasn't sent to war when he volunteered in WW2 but had no problems killing anything that in his mind needed killing. The animosity between him and O'Connor was enough that either would try to outdo the other in anything they set out to do. McGivern? he was just the best in the world at what he did which was shooting a revolver fast. I believe he was in Law enforcement also, ,maybe in a County Sheriff's dept. but no idea in what role.

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Front sight and squeeze

LMAO, I was about to post the same thing but you beat me to it! (o;

I, too, am a Swagger fan. I just finished "I, Sniper". If you haven't read it yet, be sure to do so soon. You will not be disappointed if you are a Swagger fanatic!

Bob Lee Swagger is back in: I Sniper (now out in paperback)

Quote from the book:

If you want to see a lot of people dead in a hurry, you corner a former Marine sniper with a rifle, a bag full of ammo and no way out, and I guarantee you, you'll have body bags all the way out to the trees and back in the first two minutes.

Yep. I was re-reading "Hot Springs" again this weekend, and forgot that the Grumleys were in this book as well.

If I'm not mistaken, they also appear in "Night of Thunder", "Black Light", and probably one or two more that I can't recall right now.

Frenchy Short has been in several Hunter novels, too, namely "Hot Springs", "Havana", "Black Light", and "The Second Saladin" as well as getting his name in "Point of Impact" (although not actually making an appearance).

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Just got thinking about it, and I think I confused a scene that I thought was in "POI" with an actual scene in "Black Light", where Bob Lee was talking to Gen. Preece and saw a photo on the wall that had Frenchy in it.
So I don't believe Frenchy was in "POI" after all.

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I am going to reserect this old thread because I just discovered Steven Hunter and Bob Lee Swagger. It is a fantastic book!! I know, 'where have you been?'
I picked up 'Time to Hunt' to read on the plane trip this weekend and have it almost finished; great story. I think I'll find a copy of Point of Impact next.

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Ranger325

I've been a Stephen Hunter fan for years now....it get's frustrating that I can read them faster than he can write new ones.

I recommend new fans buy all the Hunter books from Amazon, then figure out what order to read them in.

So far my absolute favorite is Dirty White Boys!

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

"Just another peckerwood with too many guns". I love that line towards the end of the movie. Could describe a bunch of us.................................. or not.

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NRA Certified Instructor

I've read all but the last two or three. The ones I've read have been pretty good, but I have a decided slant towards Earl when it comes to favorites.

...I want more Earl Swagger stories.

There is an unofficial Stephen Hunter fan site here: The Unofficial Stephen Hunter Website Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's been updated lately. It does list most of his books in order here: Books by Stephen Hunter The newest two not listed are I Sniper and Dead Zero.

Hunter Books

• 1980: Master Sniper
• 1982: Second Saladin
• 1985: Target
• 1985: The Spanish Gambit
• 1989: Day Before Midnight
• 1993: Point of Impact
• 1994: Dirty White Boys
• 1996: Black Light
• 1998: Time To Hunt
• 2000: Hot Springs
• 2001: Pale Horse Coming
• 2003: Havana
• 2005: American Gunfight
• 2007: The 47th Samurai
• 2008: Night Of Thunder

I first learned of Hunter and his work when I read an interview with him in American Handgunner (reprinted here: The Unofficial Stephen Hunter Website). In the magazine they talked a little bit more about Pale Horse Coming, and I just had to read it. That got me hooked, and I've read all the rest of his books except Target, which is a book adaptation of a movie. I'm in the middle of reading American Gunfight, which is a factual account of the assassination attempt on Harry Truman in 1950.

Pale Horse Coming was a hoot, with thinly veiled characters based on real life gun writers and pistoleros. Totally implausible, but real fun to read.

Elmer Kaye (Elmer Keith)
Jack O'Brian (Jack O'Connor)
Ed McGriffin (Ed McGivern)
Audie Ryan (Audie Murphy)
Bill Jennings (Bill Jordan)
Charlie Hatchison (Charles Askins)

Hunter has a great talent at describing guns and shooting, with not just technical descriptions but is able to evoke the smell of burning powder, the greasy feel of lead bullets, the thump of recoil and slap of muzzle blast - the viscera of the experience.

His primary characters have been Bob Lee Swagger and his father Earl, but I love the way he interweaves characters from his earlier books - for instance the Russian mentioned in previous posts, and Frenchy Short. Havana has several characters like that. However Earl didn't live long enough to have a lot of adventures so that well is pretty much dry, and Bob Lee is getting too old. In his latest book Dead Zero Hunter has introduced a new character Ray Cruz whom he can continue with, thanks to a deus ex machina.

My personal favorite is Hot Springs, and I wish he'd go back to explore a character from that book - Charles Swagger, Earl's father and Bob Lee's grandfather. How did he actually come to be shot in that Hot Springs whorehouse? Did he really drive Earl's brother to suicide? Was he really as bad as Earl thought he was? I suppose it's possible, considering that Lamar Pye from Dirty White Boys shared some of Charles's genes.

Regardless, I'd like for Hunter to flesh out this part of the Swagger clan, and read his take on an early 20th century Bible thumping, head thumping, fire and brimstone Arkansas lawman.

I started with Hot Springs read it in a day.

Then started on Pale Horse Coming, took around a week.