Here are the essays submitted (in no particular order):

I was browsing the forum yesterday afternoon, and happened across your
contest. I immediately thought "that's really cool," and immediately
thereafter thought "too bad I don't have time to do it." Well, it's
now 6:46 in the morning, I've got to be at the airport in a few hours,
and I've finally managed to register and log into the forum, just for
the opportunity to try and convince all comers that the most memorable
scene in all the RJ books is unquestionably Jack's showdown with Kusum
at the end of The Tomb.

How can I be so sure? So nonchalantly certain that in a series filled
with hyper-paced action sequences and scenes that if filmed would
require cutting-edge special effects to effectively render, that the
best scene is a simple standoff?

That's easy. It's because one of the men in the standoff is Repairman
Jack.

What we see in the showdown is Jack's essence. He becomes a 20th
century ronin, or perhaps a modern day gunslinger: a mysterious
renegade cowboy preparing to clean up the town, guns blazing with
lighting an' fire.

Or in this case, one gun blazing only with fire. Regardless, recalling
the way Jack's final approach is preceded with the hoarde of flaming
Rakoshi, as he "(strides) down the darkened corridor like the avatar
of a vengeful god" is enough to send chills down anyone's spine.
Incidentally I'll bet my Semmerling and a carton of fragmentary rounds
that when the RJ movie comes out, the soundtrack of the afore
mentioned scene is scored with swelling brass and filmed in slow
motion.

"What sort of a man was this?" Kusum wonders, doubtless echoing the
thoughts of the reader. And that is the million dollar trick question.
For at this point, Jack is no longer a man. Nor is he the "avatar of a
vengeful god." Rather, he has become a vengeful god - an Old Testement
embodiment of fury, "cruel with wrath and fierce anger sent to make
Earth a desolation and wipe the sinners from it." The name of this
angry god is Jack, and he's in love with a blonde-haired child named
Vicky.

It's a twist, isn't it? Another reason why this scene is so great -
until now, the "business" and "personal" of Jack have been kept
separate. Now they collide, and feed each other. Jack's flamethrower-
wielding fury is perpetually stoked by his love for Vicky and Gia, a
curious balancing act that forces me to paraphrase Laurell K.
Hamilton's description of her uber-professional hitman Edward. "I
thought nothing could be scarier than (Jack) at his most cold. I was
wrong. (Jack) the family man was downright terrifying."

But in the end, Jack isn't about unbridaled rage so much as just
getting the job done, a mentality that we could almost forget, were it
not for the final twist in this scene. Jack and Kusum agree to settle
their fight honorably, by hand to hand combat, an opportunity Jack
relishes...

...and then declines, roasting Kusum with his flamethrower as soon as
he releases Vicky. With that simple pull of a trigger, Repairman Jack
pays homage to Indiana Jones and his famous non-fight with the Cairo
Swordsman, and then stands alongside Jones, as one of entertainments'
most memorable heroes.

For cementing Jack's asscention to the ranks of "legendary
protagonist," surely you will agree that the Jack/Kusum fight is the
best RJ scene ever.

Most memorable scene? Well, Legacies was the first novel I read and
that's the one that hooked me on Jack. Now, every time I get in an
elevator, I think, now if this elevator broke down and got stuck
between floors, WWJD? Well...he'd find a way to get out, and that's
what makes Jack so great. He's real. Never mind the Otherness, Rakoshi
and portals into other worlds; I left Legacies wanting more Jack
because everything in that novel was believable and scarily possible.
Only after I went back to read The Tomb that I realized there was a
strong sci-fi twist to these novels. But that didn't put me off,
because reality is so prominent in the series. When Jack is on the
elevator ceiling, crouched there muttering his "oh shit" line, I had
to laugh and admire him at the same time. Here was a person who's
pretty much unafraid of what scares most people like violence, guns
and death, being both cowed by and fighting the fear of doing
something foreign to him. Though the elevator scene certainly wasn't
the most exciting, funny or even my favorite in the entire series,
it's the one that I still connect instantly with Jack, because it
could actually happen, has certainly been done before, and because
Jack faced it with both trepidation and guts; from then on, he became
a real guy to me.

I gave this some thought and it simply comes down to the very ending
of The Tomb with the scene of Jack laying there badly injured, Bati
walking out on him, and the phone ringing while Jack is wondering if
it's Gia. For some, they may ask why this is the most memorable scene
but for me it's an easy answer. I read this book shortly after Reborn
came out. At this time, there was no Reprisal (where Jack reappears)
or RJ series. This was one character that I fell in love with and to
leave his possible death hanging in the air like it did really left me
wondering and praying that Jack would somehow live through this. It
was the classic cliffhanger with no answer in sight at the time. Your
only option was to have friends read the book too and then sit around
and debate Jack's future. Thank god FPW gave Jack his life, because of
this, I've had many other RJ adventures to endulge in.

Bonus essay question: "What is the most memorable scene in all the
Jack books?"

I was going to mention a scene from Crisscross, however you gals my
not have read it yet, and I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.

So, my most memorable scene will have to come from Hosts, not my
favourite of the series, but it had one of the scariest sequences
involving Jack.

The dream sequence was exhilarating, thrilling and horrifying.
Apocalyptic nightmares don't come much worse than that and Paul's
imagination flew right off the page and sent chills down my back.

It wasn't an apocalypse about monsters, or our environmental downfall.
It was about people. Your next door neighbour could be your worst
enemy. And if you fell victim, you could do nothing whilst your body
was used by the hive mind to harm those you loved. Terrifying on a
global and personal scale.

It also highlighted that Jack is human, not super human, and against
forces as powerful as that he doesn't stand a chance. You felt his
vulnerability.

Talk about bigging up the enemy.

To me, the best scene in all the RJ books remains the rooftop fight
between Jack and the mother Rakosh, and the moments leading up to it.
It remains the quintissential "Jack" moment.

His improvisation (which he hates to do), his quick realization that
his gun just won't stop her, his usage of anything and everything at
his disposal. It is also a great scene because it typifies the world
Jack lives in; not just the supernatural, but the human "weird".

In the first book, we learn a little about some of the other residents
in Jack's building, some of them a little . . . odd. This is one of
the things Jack loves about the city, and knows and enjoys about the
people he circulates around. As he says in The Haunted Air "They're
real. Their weirdness comes from inside. They wake up weird." In
addition, we learn that they pitched in and bought a generator for the
building. Another of Jack's themes--he's all for neighborhood
teamwork. When he sees people retreating from the streets, he gets
angered. Despite being a loner, he believes in people working together
against adversity (also witnessed by his helping organize his block in
the Hosts dream sequence).

If not for Neil the Anarchists flagpole, Jack would not have survived.
If not for the generator (or, more specifically, the gas), Jack would
not have survived. Finally, if not for the self isolation Jack had
thrown himself into, the fix it situations, the daily work outs, the
trade Jack was in . . . he would not have survived. The events that
contribute to his survival run the gamut from internal necessities to
those outside of himself, but they all remain consistent with Jack as
a character and the RJ books as settings.

It's a great scene not just for the action (which is incredible in its
own right), but because it is a compact scene that describes Jack and
Jack's world. The physical feats, the mental agility, and the
situations he places himself in all contribute to it.

Here are the essays submitted (in no particular order):

Susan--

in no particular order is right; I'm not even in there. Where's mine?

--Barry

Susan--

in no particular order is right; I'm not even in there. Where's mine?

--Barry

Holy Cow, Barry! Sorry about that. My Co-Queen isn't on IM yet, but you can e-mail it to me and I'll paste it into one of the original posts.

Susan

Ooops, sorry Barry. That's my fault, as I was the one who put the essays together for Susan to post. I missed yours by mistake.

Here is Barry's essay question answer, for anyone interested.

Bonus Essay Question: What is the most memorable scene in all the Jack books?
Note: this is a subjective question, so there's not really any kind of "wrong" answer...so for me, here it is.

I'd say when Jack was being "paralyzed" by...er, The Adversary, down in the Everglades. The "R" man was going to deal with Semilee repeating his name which is forbidden to all, and when Jack heard it, he thought to himself, "So that's the fuck's name." Such a simple sentence, even with its curse word, is the perfect sum of all of Jack's thoughts. Jack's life has been careening out of control for the past two years, and it is in part due to this one man, this one being, that has eluded him so. Eluded him only in person, actually; he killed Jack's sister, caused death and misery for many around him, and shortly after the aforementioned scene, promised much misery to come into Jack's life. All of Jack's fury, towards life, towards existence, towards the great battle between the Otherness and the Ally, and ultimately towards the foul being standing so close (in the air) nearby, is summed up in such a simple, slightly vulgar, and ultimately perfect sentence. This, to me, is the most memorable scene in all the Jack books.