this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 45 points 7 hours ago (5 children)

Any of the Reacher books. God, they're terrible. They're just about a guy who jumps to outrageous conclusions and is always right nlbecause he's just so special. He's also big and tough and the best sniper in Army history.

In the first one, a guy skips town because he's a witness, and Reacher finds him in a hotel instantly because of the following logic:

Clearly he would have changed cities every night going in clockwise order or whatever - except for the one night after the place he was in was closer to the city he was fleeing - he'd rest 2 nights in the next city because sleeping thay close was so exhausting.

Because Reacher saw a Beatles album in the guy's house, he just knew he'd be using the last names of the Beatles, but keeping his own first name (which was Paul iirc), cycling them at each hotel.

So he walks into a random hotel near a bus stop in a random city and asks for the room of Paul Lennon and finds him because Reacher is just so smart!

And in the second book, he comes upon a woman being raped, kills the rapist, and the woman has sex with Reacher instead because he's a big, tough hero. And nothing like attempted rape puts you in the mood to fuck a stranger.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 36 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Here's a condensed version of all the books ...

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

[–] Aralakh@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 1 points 13 minutes ago

Served al dente

[–] tehBishop@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

Wow haven't seen that meme in so long I forgot about it, thanks!

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Haha, jeez i forgot about these.

I think I read the first three? Such a tropey train wreck i actually had fun for the first couple.

But I was well and done after two, I was like well this is just unhealthy now by the second book you can tell childs isn't paying any attention to plot or character development or anything that would make a story interesting, he was actively shutting my brain down.

it felt like that episode of The boondocks where Huey exclusively watches UPN as a social cognitive experiment.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds like Republican erotica basically.

[–] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago

It's definitely incel erotica. Saw a video once demonstrating that Reacher never actually needs to initiate anything with a woman, show any interest whatsoever, flirt, etc. He just sorta exists in proximity to women and they just sort of "give" him the sex that they apparently owe him for being the main character.

[–] flamiera@kbin.melroy.org 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Holy shit that just sounds like some conservative, gun-toting, military cosplaying wanna-be tough guy's wet dream in the form of a novel.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Except Childs also does know shit about guns.

In the first book Reacher carries a Desert Eagle, and anyone who knows anything about guns knows the Desert Eagle is a range queen. They're unreliable, eject shells into your face, not terribly accurate, have a tingly ammo capacity and don't make a person any more dead than a 9mm.

Then in the second book he shits on Glocks for being unreliable, and describes the Barrett 50 cal as a sniper's weapon of choice. The Barrett isn't a sniper rifle - it's an anri-materiel rifle made to break shit. The only reason it even exists is because the Army wanted foot soldiers to be able to use the 50 BMG round to take out enemy equipment without having to carry a 130-pound gun that had to be assembled to use.

Basically, he gets his gun knowledge from video games.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 1 points 36 minutes ago

To be fair here, the sniping distance record was made with a Barrett M82 multiple times. A Browning M2 also held the record for nearly 20 years.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 3 points 6 hours ago

https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=travis+mcgee

Travis McGee is what Reacher and Dirk Pitt dream of being. He lives on a houseboat he won in a poker game, and solves crimes when he finds himself low on cash.

The author died in 1986 and the books are still being published.