Deckard’s three

For the last few months, I was lost in the world of war memoires and literature of fact. Honestly, I kind of couldn’t find the right mood for some fictional book and really preferred actual memories of real guys. That changed when I noticed Jack Murphy’s books just laying on the table and waiting for me. I bought them long time ago and simply forget about them. And do you know what, it was a big mistake. It was mistake, because Deckard’s badass stories and author’s lightweight style of combining actual experiences and fiction made me interested in fictional books once again.

Art of the straightforward narration

I’ve already mentioned name Deckard, who is main hero of all 3 books (Reflexive Fire, Target Deck, Direct Action) and one of the most badass dudes I’ve ever read about. Same as Jack, he is former soldier, who is now in charge of the private military company called Samruk International and in some way true protector of the world. But I don’t want to speak about his adventures so much. Instead of spoiling, I would just like to use this fact and point out, that Jack in really smart way uses autobiographical motives and makes made-up story totally believable.

You can find detailed descriptions of guns and other equipment same as vehicles or as simple think as soldier’s and leader’s mindset in all 3 books and I believe that everything is genuine and based on Jack’s own adventures. That makes Deckard’s stories very interesting and I would say more sophisticated than is normal in the field of action novels. Actually, I want to specially mention some really tiny details like portraying characters through the songs in their iPods or textbook example of showing action from various angles and character’s perspectives.

However, books aren’t extremely long and even despite achievements described above, Jack Murphy manages to tame individual story layers and through simple and easy going writing style delivers narration with right momentum and never-ending background literally soaked with adrenalin and empathy with heroes. Deckard is of course amazing character, that type of guy you want as a best friend, but actually there is whole bunch of remarkable characters and I have to confess, that even nasty antagonist forcing you to have ambivalent emotions.

But I really mean it, give it a try

You can argue with me that I didn’t mention anything negative about Jack’s books, but truth is that it’s not necessary. Yeah, I can criticize some humble leaps in narrative angles or usually one sided description of things strongly focused on good guys and their motivations. But it’s simply authors writing style and it didn’t disrupt you or ruin reader’s impression from book. On the other hand, all 3 books are fairly entertaining, educative and simple badass and I really enjoyed them. So give them a try.