Any Bob Lee Swagger fans in here?

[Whitens Moss]

No doubt many of you are familiar with Stephen Hunter's series of books whose main character is Bob Lee Swagger, a retired Marine and top sniper. I enjoyed "Point of Impact," the first Hunter book I read and now am working my way through "The Third Bullet," about the JFK assassination. Both good reads. Unfortunately, Point of Impact did not make a good transition to film as "Shooter," starring Mark Wahlberg as Swagger. Although Walhberg is a decent actor and the film was watchable, the director ruined the story by taking major liberties with the plot and did not do justice to the book.

Hunter clearly is well-versed on the topic of weapons in general and firearms in particular. He's a gifted writer and also works for the Washington Post as a movie reviewer. There aren't that many good books or movies on military snipers with the possible exception of "Enemy at the Gates."

After The Third Bullet, I likely will read some more Swagger tales -- I think there are about 7 books in all -- and was wondering if any of you had a recommendation.

This is a great site. Gunners are not only intelligent folk but also well-informed and interesting, rather than the stereotypes fostered by the mainstream media.

Thanks all for your comments!

 

[Onomea]

Fan here. I think I have read them all, and perhaps my favorite is Dirty White Boys.. Happy reading!

 

[redlevel]

First off, welcome to the best forum on the interwebs!

I am more of an Earl Swagger fan. Every time I read one of the books featuring Earl, I want to rush out and buy a 1911 in .38 Super!

You realize there are now a couple of books out featuring Bob the Nailer's long lost, half-Vietnamese son.

 

[Onomea]

Yeah, that's right. So there are three generations, right? Earl Swagger, Bob the Nailer, and the long lost half Vietnamese kid?

I thought the one about Earl or Bob running around in Japan with a samurai sword was a bit over the top tho!

 

[jdlii]

Master Sniper was a good read, as were the rest.

 

[radar1972]

I haven't read any of the books.... maybe that's why I enjoyed the movie "Shooter" so much.

And that's not the first time that's happened to me. Seems if I read a book first, then I end up disappointed at the movie version. Conversely, if I see a movie version first, I think I enjoy it more.

Anyway, thanks for making my "To Read" booklist even longer.

 

[WPWarhawk]

I've been waiting for the next Stephen Hunter book since I read Point Of Impact.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Fan here. I think I have read them all, and perhaps my favorite is Dirty White Boys.. Happy reading!

I still have some Bob Lee books left to read. But I think I am more of an Earl Swagger fan, too. The first Hunter I read was Dirty White Boys. It was worth another read ten years later, and it is still my favorite.

 

[medic15al]

Dirty White Boys Can make you feel how brutal a gunfight can be.

 

[steelslaver]

Add me to the list.

 

[tompehret]

I've read all the Swagger novels and some of the others by Hunter too. Hunter is a good writer for sure and I give him credit for creating the Swagger clan. The Swaggers (father, son & hopefully the long-lost son too) are the best fictional heroes I've had the pleasure to know, bar none. And yeah, the samauri one was a bit much but it did bring in a new character, CIA agent Susan Okada who had some appeal.
The end of The Third Bullet makes me think Bob is finally going to hang up his spurs which is why I hope the newly found son takes up where Bob left off. Hate to see the series end; it's that good.

 

[Tom K]

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

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

It's probably best to read the books in the order that they were written, rather than trying to read them in "chronological" order or at random. Point of Impact is the first Bob Lee novel - his earlier works are only tangentially related to the Swagger world, if at all.

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 finished his latest book The Third Bullet a few weeks ago - not bad. His previous book Soft Target was not worth reading - skip it.

Pale Horse Coming was a hoot, with the last third containing 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 a Russian mentioned in several books, and the character Frenchy Short. Havana has several characters like that, including one from his first book Master Sniper. 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 old. In the 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 Charles actually come to be mortally wounded in that Hot Springs whorehouse? Did he really drive Earl's brother to suicide? Was he really as bad as Earl thought he was, a hypocrite quoting the Bible on one hand and consorting with black boy prostitutes on the other? But what do we really know about him? Only what small amount Earl described in bitter memory that may be tainted. I think it'd be extremely interesting to read stuff set in the Roaring '20s, Depression '30s and early '40s.

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.

*edit* According to Amazon his newest book is titled She, Sniper and is due to come out May 2014. There was a short excerpt from it at the end of The Third Bullet and the scene is set in WWII at the siege of Stalingrad. No idea what the rest of the book is like....

 

[2fingers]

Reading White on black is great, Reading Blue on black really not so great. Please post so we can read the post please.

 

[straight stick]

I would recommend that you next read; Hot Springs, Pale Horse Coming and Havana, in that order. In these books, Bob Lee's dad, Earl is the main charactor and helps to fill out, provide background, context to Bob Lee. Then I would suggest, Dirty White Boys. Next would be, Black Light and Time to Hunt. Then, The 47th Samurai, Night of Thunder, Dead Zero, I Sniper & She Sniper(I think that is the right title, it won't be released till May 2014?). Can you tell that I'm a fan of Stephen Hunter?

 

[wheelyfun66]

Loved all of his earlier books, but like most good things, I think he might have gone to the well one too many times with the Swagger characters!

Dirty White Boys remains my favorite book from this author.

 

[safearm]

I'm a fan too. It's nice to see that someone thinks old guys can remain dangerous.

 

[Tom K]

Reading White on black is great, Reading Blue on black really not so great. Please post so we can read the post please.

If you're referring to the hyperlinks in my post, they automatically show up in blue. You can change your background to the light blue type with the Quick Style Chooser in the far bottom left corner of the page, you may find it more to your liking. It's what I prefer.

 

[Malpasowildlifer]

Huge fan here. Still looking for one of the "Ten Black Kings"

 

[ferretray]

Has it been 20 years since the introduction of POI? Wow.
Point of impact remains my favorite, followed by Black Light.
Too bad hollyweird always has to screw up a good thing. Shooter could of been a great movie.

 

[ordy]

"I still got the shovel"