Repairman Jack Redux

I used to like F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack character. In fact, back in 1987, when I first came across the character in Wilson's novel The Tomb in a Michigan library, I used to visit the local library every day just to read another few chapters of that book. (I didn't have a library card for that library so just checking out the book like a normal library patron wasn't an option.)

And yet Wilson's new Repairman Jack novel Infernal makes me wonder why I bothered.

Repairman Jack has gone from being a genuinely interesting character to a fairly predictable one. Nor is the plot any help. Yet another mysterious relative of Jack's -- this time his brother -- is introduced, yet another mysterious entity shows up and yet more time is marked between the events of The Tomb and its sequel (of sorts) Nightworld.

I realize Wilson doesn't exactly have a lot of room for flexibility in this storyline, but geez, he used to be better.

Perhaps the adventures of Repairman Jack were better ended with Nightworld. After all, it's a little hard to care too much about Repairman Jack's latest adventure with the Adversary when we readers of Nightworld already know what happens to Repairman Jack in the long run.

Besides, I for one would like to see F. Paul Wilson move on to a new character. Preferably before readers like myself start moving on to another author...