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Secret History of the World Read - elnino14 - 04-13-2018
Young Jack Trilogy:
Apologies, I initially wanted to talk about these books individually, but after I read the first one I just jammed through the next two. And after that I went down with a few illnesses that messed me up for three weeks. After that period of time, the three books kind of blend together.
I was a kid once, but just once though. It's fascinating how universal youth is. Even material aimed and starring essentially kids, can move adults, as they are taken back to a time of their own youth. It's is a nostalgia trip (even if my own coming of age was in the 90's), echoing The Goonies and E.T., flashing me back to a time of riding bikes, imagination, and adventure all within a 5-10 mile radius. Heck, Netflix hit Stranger Things is fueled on this type of nostalgia, so clearly there's an audience for it.
I'm not quite sure if I am that audience. The story never edges far enough from the YA line for me, characters pop in and pop out (much which I presume are winks and nods to the future of Jack) without much purpose for a new reader but to add to the mythology of the world. If I had more familiarity, I might even dislike that, as every instance I've seen do that with prequels or origins, makes the world feel a lot smaller, shrinks the scope. But right now it's entertaining in a, "oohh I wonder what role they'll play in the future." The difficulty is without the deep knowledge of what's to come, it's hard to get a grasp on what's superfluous and what's relevant (maybe it's all relevant!).
Nonetheless, as much as I hate to admit it, the Young Jack stories got to me at times. The friendship between Weezy and Jack (and Eddie), in particular, felt genuine. It harkens back to a time of my own youth, where feelings become complex, ideas of revenge, loyalty, and compassion are areas that you just begin to grasp and you begin to decide what type of person you become. Jack learns some neat skills (lockpicking I'm sure will come in handy), gets exposed to some crazy secrets (some within his own family, his dad during wartime), and begins to see how crazy the world really is (all the weird stuff, the pyramid cage, the embodiment of death roaming around, the buried pre-history city, freaking Ernst.)
I have the highest appreciation of Teen Jack maturing, by experiencing a world that is not only stranger than he initially thought, but also darker and strikingly gray than the black and white world of his youth. A teenage Jack being slowly exposed to more and more mature, and frightening topics as each book progresses, (the dead body in book 1, the abusive father of a family friend in book 2, and the attempted date rape of a friend, and the murder of a highschool colleague.)
[INDENT]
[/INDENT]
Things for me to remember (Spoilers abound):
- Teen Jack Series - Secret Histories/Secret Circles/Secret Vengeance: All three books takes place near the Pine Barrens...Weird Shit happens there. The Order (a freemason/illuminati style organization) mentions possession of the Compendium. Jack and Weezy end up flooding a pre-history city hidden under The Order's clubhouse. Erskine with the dat-tay-vao power is a gloved drunk who is friends with a lady (Cleavenger) people associate as a folk-tale witch who has a strange three legged dog. Erskine uses his power to heal one of Jack's friends, but it takes a lot of out of him and he gets amnesia. Ernst shows up in the Pines and says he's an "actuator," he seems to hold a high level position in The Order. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch as there's so many people roaming in an out of these stories.
[SPOILER]
- Dat-Tay-Vao: Dat-Tay-Vao is an ancient power, so far it includes healing by just placing the hands on wounds (no self-healing), that is stored in an individual but transferred from individual to individual at the time of death. Found in Vietnam (?) and ending up with an American soldier named Erskine. I imagine we see him pop up later in the US.
- Reborn: The Adversary (Rasalom? or something greater?), found its way into trapped into Jim, a clone born in the 40's (timeline matches up to events in The Keep and Rasalom's death). Jim impregnated wife Carol and thus the Adversary found his way into the embryo (oh hey, Demonsong reference?!). Carol's baby is alive and well in the womb, protected by Jim's adopted father, Jonah, an agent of The One. With the Adversary surviving, his influence spreads across the world. A supporting character, Mr. Vielleur shares a striking "resemblance" to Glaeken, except this time aging, and referenced having completed his mission.
- The Keep: Rasalom (Molasar) was kept in the Keep as a form of prison for all this time, has an unending hunger for death. Rasalom disintegrated into specks of dust in the climax, supposedly killed, yet Glaeken was able to survive (more human this time), so I assume Rasalom was able to survive as well.
- Aryans & Absinthe: Ernst helped Hitler survive an assassination attempt committed by his friend. Even though he profited off the economic and political chaos of Germany and was faced with an embodiment of evil with disastrous consequences, he still stops the assassination. Who is this man, Ernst?
- Compendium of Srem: The Compendium is indestructible and still out and about/ never buried and contains information about pre-Biblical times. I expect this to show up again.
- Demonsong: Rasalom was creating an embryo for himself to be reborn in before he was thwarted by Glaeken, he's still around out there having disappeared.
Next up: "Faces"
Ranking Secret History Stories:
- The Keep
- Reborn
- The Compendium of Srem
- Aryans and Absinthe
- Jack - Secret Vengeance
- Jack - Secret Circles
- Jack - Secret Histories
- Dat-Tay-Vao
- Demonsong
Secret History of the World Read - fpw - 04-14-2018
I find this a very valuable thread. Keep it up. (BTW, I've always said the Teen Trilogy was best appreciated after reading the adult series)
Secret History of the World Read - elnino14 - 08-06-2018
Note: I didn't skip "Faces," I read it, and enjoyed it but I was so busy that I kinda forgot that I read it. I'll come back to it a little later and post in here.
Let's talk about Cold City:
It's so unfortunate to start off a post this way, but I was disappointed with Cold City, not due to the "to be continued..." feeling of the ending, which I was forewarned about by goodreads. I think I was disappointed mostly due to the excessive leaning on stereotypes. I always had the feeling that Wilson has a penchant for drama and 80's style "bad guys" villains, since reading Midnight Mass, but I didn't expect so much of it here, Italian mobsters, Machete wielding Puerto Ricans, Scary Eastern Europeans (Russians?), and my personally least favorite Arab Terrorists. Where was the beautiful nuance that existed in The Keep with good people forced into horrible positions, bad people becoming worse, and good people giving into their worst desires almost becoming inseparable from the bad. I like put it in my head that the Ancient Evil seeping into the world is causing not only more suffering in the world but the world to revert and lose any subtlety in ethnicity.
Moving past that, the book felt very episodic in a sense, like glimpses into a series of subplots. If any of the plots was the A-plot it was the extended emphasis on the cigarette trafficking and eventually human trafficking sequences. Unfortunately from a plot perspective (Sex trafficking), I can't help but compare it to a book that I read two years ago and really enjoyed, Greg Rucka's Walking Dead - Book 7 of the Atticus Kodiack series. (Frankly I enjoyed that whole 7 book series even if my enjoyment peaked at book 3 and 5). This episodic feel might be due to the very much part 1 style of the book, where little trinkets are left everywhere for Wilson to play with later, I actually didn't mind this that much as it stylistically reminds me of life, people move in and out in importance throughout and some moments (i.e. the long tense night with the girls in the truck in this book) have strong resonance and a lasting power on who we become. Thankfully these moments of tension are strong and continue Wilson's trademark moments of absolute dread. And I really enjoyed the concept of the two murderous vigilantes, achieving some sort of street justice.
Another Wilson trademark is sprinkled through-out, although not nearly enough for my liking, is the meta story. There is a lurking terror throughout, with a variety of people positioning themselves to pull the strings, and also a mild sense of destiny, teased at with Jack in the ending, a series of coincidences have put Jack here, have given these women an intense amount of luck. It's an intriguing thought and one that I hope continues to be explored as we intertwine more with the Adversary cycle further down the road.
Given that we've got 5 months left this year, my aim is to finish The Past (except Black Wind) and Year Zero Minus Three before the end of the year, which adds up to 5 more novels and 4 shorts (one novel a month is very do-able). Given that "Fix" is currently unavailable and does't seem integral to the rest, I'll skip that one.
Secret History Clues (Spoilers abound):
- Cold City: Ernst is revealed to be Ernst Jr., which is strange because I've always imagined the Ernst in the Teen Jack saga a smuch older than the 40 year old Ernst we've met here. We're also intoduced to a lot of supporting characters, the ones that I imagine stick around longer term are Abe, the seriously connected Jewish pawn-shop / underground gun shop owner and Julio from Jack's go to bar, The Spot.
Previous Stories:
[SPOILER]
- Teen Jack Series - Secret Histories/Secret Circles/Secret Vengeance: All three books takes place near the Pine Barrens...Weird Shit happens there. The Order (a freemason/illuminati style organization) mentions possession of the Compendium. Jack and Weezy end up flooding a pre-history city hidden under The Order's clubhouse. Erskine with the dat-tay-vao power is a gloved drunk who is friends with a lady (Cleavenger) people associate as a folk-tale witch who has a strange three legged dog. Erskine uses his power to heal one of Jack's friends, but it takes a lot of out of him and he gets amnesia. Ernst shows up in the Pines and says he's an "actuator," he seems to hold a high level position in The Order. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch as there's so many people roaming in an out of these stories.
- Dat-Tay-Vao: Dat-Tay-Vao is an ancient power, so far it includes healing by just placing the hands on wounds (no self-healing), that is stored in an individual but transferred from individual to individual at the time of death. Found in Vietnam (?) and ending up with an American soldier named Erskine. I imagine we see him pop up later in the US.
- Reborn: The Adversary (Rasalom? or something greater?), found its way into trapped into Jim, a clone born in the 40's (timeline matches up to events in The Keep and Rasalom's death). Jim impregnated wife Carol and thus the Adversary found his way into the embryo (oh hey, Demonsong reference?!). Carol's baby is alive and well in the womb, protected by Jim's adopted father, Jonah, an agent of The One. With the Adversary surviving, his influence spreads across the world. A supporting character, Mr. Vielleur shares a striking "resemblance" to Glaeken, except this time aging, and referenced having completed his mission.
- The Keep: Rasalom (Molasar) was kept in the Keep as a form of prison for all this time, has an unending hunger for death. Rasalom disintegrated into specks of dust in the climax, supposedly killed, yet Glaeken was able to survive (more human this time), so I assume Rasalom was able to survive as well.
- Aryans & Absinthe: Ernst helped Hitler survive an assassination attempt committed by his friend. Even though he profited off the economic and political chaos of Germany and was faced with an embodiment of evil with disastrous consequences, he still stops the assassination. Who is this man, Ernst?
- Compendium of Srem: The Compendium is indestructible and still out and about/ never buried and contains information about pre-Biblical times. I expect this to show up again.
- Demonsong: Rasalom was creating an embryo for himself to be reborn in before he was thwarted by Glaeken, he's still around out there having disappeared.
Next up: Dark City
Ranking Secret History Stories:
- The Keep
- Reborn
- Aryans and Absinthe
- The Compendium of Srem
- Teen Jack - Secret Vengeance
- Teen Jack - Secret Circles
- Early Jack - Cold City
- Teen Jack - Secret Histories
- Dat-Tay-Vao
- Demonsong
Secret History of the World Read - fpw - 08-11-2018
The Early Years Trilogy is best appreciated after you've read the main line
Secret History of the World Read - elnino14 - 09-14-2018
Note: I didn't skip "Faces," I read it, and enjoyed it but I was so busy that I kinda forgot that I read it. I'll come back to it a little later and post in here.
Early Repairman Jack Trilogy Cold City, Dark City, Fear City:
I think both of the early Jack Trilogies worked better as trilogies (and probably work better in hindsight to the mainline series as the Author suggests). Reading them independently of each other as individual books doesn't really work and after reading Fear City, with all of the subplots wrapping up from the first two books, makes the third book all the more worthwhile. Granted tying the plot of the third book into a major event (one I don't know too much about) of a 1993 bombing of the WTC, and a murderous rampage a few days before at the traffic light makes the book feel a bit heavier while also adding in some level of gravitas and real stakes.
The trilogy feels a bit sporadic, anecdotal throughout. It's frustrating though we spend so much time with these bit players (a lot of our antagonists/villains) that never really evolve into something more than what they were at the start. The mob plot in particular seems to have a very tangential connection to Jack's story when all is said and done. Yet, most of the plate spinning of numerous subplots comes to a devastating head in the conclusion with a lot of collision between the subplots. Regardless of how I feel about our characters, I love this style of storytelling, seeing different corners of the entire city, the different viewpoints and how they all intertwine. And there's a fantastic linking from Book 1 to Book 3, where Jack learns a valuable lesson of leaving enemies alive and having a past that can come back to haunt you. The spirit/theme of vengeance is laced throughout the book, from both angles, from Jack to the villains, from the villains to Jack, from the villains to each other. It's a properly brutal pay-off to our trilogy.
Sibs:
Nice to have a bit of break from The Order and Jack for a hot second. Grabbing hold of my attention from the get go with an opener that splashes through the mind (and on the sidewalk), reminding me of the opening to Lethal Weapon for some reason. Establishing a tone that revels in hyper-sexualization and psycho-analysis. It's a slow burner of a book, doling out revelations at a steady pace, but never alleviating the creepy factor that something is not quite right.
My favorite "scene" in the book is the first time you realize Kara is possessed, she's under hypnosis and just smiles at Rob, legit gave me goosebumps that I haven't felt since reading The Keep. Once the big twist is revealed, Wilson has a nice game of cat and mouse that leads us to the end. Obviously since this came out way before, I started making a lot of parallels to Get Out which shares some psychological thriller elements.
There's a lot of interesting thematic ideas around gender identity, sexual identity, and chauvinism/chivalry surrounding this book. I found it interesting that I associated the villain as male, yet, to their own admission, they would have a hard time identifying. I quite enjoyed the psychological thriller aspects, the creep factor, and the plot, even if I didn't care for the characters that much.
Secret History Clues (Spoilers abound):
- Sibs: Not sure what to take away from this one. I think Gabor's deformed birth and ability to take over people's bodies has something to do with the evil seeping out into the world. We've seen other people with powers before, and thus probably they are all linked. There's also a mention of Julio's bar in here.
- Early Jack Trilogy: Ernst Jr. is an actuator who is trying to live up to his daddy's legacy (the original Ernst seen in Aryans & Absinthe). Introduction to a lot of supporting characters, Abe, the seriously connected Jewish pawn-shop / underground gun shop owner, Julio the bartender of Jack's base of Operations, the Mikulski (vigilante) brothers, and the SAS men, and the scary Doctor who puts people in a state of living hell. Also The Order has a rule not to mess with the World Trade Center Towers.
Previous Stories:
[SPOILER]
- Teen Jack Series - Secret Histories/Secret Circles/Secret Vengeance: All three books takes place near the Pine Barrens...Weird Shit happens there. The Order (a freemason/illuminati style organization) mentions possession of the Compendium. Jack and Weezy end up flooding a pre-history city hidden under The Order's clubhouse. Erskine with the dat-tay-vao power is a gloved drunk who is friends with a lady (Cleavenger) people associate as a folk-tale witch who has a strange three legged dog. Erskine uses his power to heal one of Jack's friends, but it takes a lot of out of him and he gets amnesia. Ernst shows up in the Pines and says he's an "actuator," he seems to hold a high level position in The Order. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch as there's so many people roaming in an out of these stories.
- Dat-Tay-Vao: Dat-Tay-Vao is an ancient power, so far it includes healing by just placing the hands on wounds (no self-healing), that is stored in an individual but transferred from individual to individual at the time of death. Found in Vietnam (?) and ending up with an American soldier named Erskine. I imagine we see him pop up later in the US.
- Reborn: The Adversary (Rasalom? or something greater?), found its way into trapped into Jim, a clone born in the 40's (timeline matches up to events in The Keep and Rasalom's death). Jim impregnated wife Carol and thus the Adversary found his way into the embryo (oh hey, Demonsong reference?!). Carol's baby is alive and well in the womb, protected by Jim's adopted father, Jonah, an agent of The One. With the Adversary surviving, his influence spreads across the world. A supporting character, Mr. Vielleur shares a striking "resemblance" to Glaeken, except this time aging, and referenced having completed his mission.
- The Keep: Rasalom (Molasar) was kept in the Keep as a form of prison for all this time, has an unending hunger for death. Rasalom disintegrated into specks of dust in the climax, supposedly killed, yet Glaeken was able to survive (more human this time), so I assume Rasalom was able to survive as well.
- Aryans & Absinthe: Ernst helped Hitler survive an assassination attempt committed by his friend. Even though he profited off the economic and political chaos of Germany and was faced with an embodiment of evil with disastrous consequences, he still stops the assassination. Who is this man, Ernst?
- Compendium of Srem: The Compendium is indestructible and still out and about/ never buried and contains information about pre-Biblical times. I expect this to show up again.
- Demonsong: Rasalom was creating an embryo for himself to be reborn in before he was thwarted by Glaeken, he's still around out there having disappeared.
Next up: Revisiting Faces (probably)
Going to take a break before I step into the Jack main-line with The Tomb. Might be a good time to revisit Black Wind.
Ranking Secret History Stories:
- The Keep
- Reborn
- Aryans and Absinthe
- The Compendium of Srem
- Early Jack - Fear City
- Teen Jack - Secret Vengeance
- Early Jack - Dark City
- Sibs
- Teen Jack - Secret Circles
- Early Jack - Cold City
- Teen Jack - Secret Histories
- Dat-Tay-Vao
- Demonsong
Secret History of the World Read - fpw - 09-18-2018
I'm digging your analyses.
Secret History of the World Read - Jayrox_ca - 11-21-2018
I gotta weigh in here elnino14...
I too am really enjoying your analysis as well. You should listen to Dr. Wilson tho, Read the Adversary Cycle completely and make your way through the Repairman Jack series then swing back and read the Secret History in chronological order.
I just did this myself and it's worth the effort. I felt just gutted at the end but the journey is so worth it.
I discovered the Adversary Cycle (years ago) with the Keep and was thrilled to find there was an entire series of books. I read them voraciously. I fell in love with Repairman Jack almost immediately and lo and behold if Dr. Wilson wasn't continuing the Jack stories as I was reading them. Pretty exciting and frustrating times (waiting for each new story was brutal!) I got to a point where I too was losing track of who was who and how things all fit together. That was at Ground Zero, so I decided to stop and go back and read the Secret History from start to finish. Your keeping notes as you go is great, wished I'd done that.
I don't think it's a bad thing you read the Young Jack books first but it might prove a little distracting. There's a wealth of back story there (thanks again FPW!) and it would be awesome if we got a few more stories in this time period. Can't blame a guy for trying...
I read the original version of Nightworld before Dr. Wilson edited The Tomb, Reprisal and Nightworld to bring it in line with the new Jack material. I couldn't wait to get to the end and re-read it with all the new stuff. It did not disappoint, everything tied up neatly in a bow.
Now I'm working through the short stories in Barrens and Others, Aftershock and Others and Quick Fixes. I'm going to snag The Fifth Harmonic and re-read Panacea and then pick up The God Gene. Have to wait for The Void Protocol but I'm sure it will be worth it. And I am so stoked for Wardenclyffe, Tesla has been once of my favourite historical characters, can't wait to see how Dr. Wilson treats him.
Keep it up!
Secret History of the World Read - Walker - 11-23-2018
Jayrox_ca Wrote:Tesla has been once of my favourite historical characters, can't wait to see how Dr. Wilson treats him.
Keep it up!
Plus 1
I have really enjoyed the bit and pieces about Tesla that Doc has slipped into his other novels. Really excited to take a look at Wardenclyfee.
Secret History of the World Read - Cavie - 06-20-2019
Thought I would join this thread since I'm also reading the Secret Histories in order of timeline (my first post on the forums!).
I've been more of a lurker here on the website and finally decided to join in after taking on the challenge of reading the complete Secret Histories back in June of 2017. Just finished Infernal today and moving along to Harbingers (also found out today that I need to add The Last Christmas to the list!).
Great reviews here of what you have read so far. I've read most of the books a while back starting with the Adversary Cycle and then went on to be a Jack fan and read all those. Been getting the books I missed along the way this time around.
Looking forward to seeing more of what you have to post here as I move along the timeline with these books this time around.
Secret History of the World Read - fpw - 06-21-2019
I'm always interested in hearing about inconsistencies (and trust me, they're there) so they can be corrected in later editions.