John Rain by Barry Eisler

[Mia]

Who's read this series? And what did you enjoy about it?

[Kaiju]

I read the first two and liked them. My wife has a copy of Rain Storm but I haven't read it yet. They are good but not great thrillers.

John Rain is damned good at what he does but he isn't Superman. His actions have big time reprecussions. He's a killer but not a monster and he would like nothing better than to just disappear but his skills are in high demand and the CIA and others keep pulling him back in.

[sabongero]

Mia, I just reading Rain Fall. I loved this book. The protagonist John Rain, somehow reminds me of a more stoic-like Nicholas Linnear from Eric Lustbader's books.

Some of the killing methods are described in detail. Then again, Barry Eisler is a former CIA man.

[Bookman]

I've read the whole series. They are very good. What I like about the books is not so much the story itself, although I did find it engaging, but the character - John Rain. He is a reluctant hero and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the conflict he experiences between wanting to leave his world behind while at the same time, needing to continue on and see justice satisfied.

The last book in the series ends with a twinge of sadness. (I won't include spoilers!)

Overall, I thought the whole series was well worth reading.

If you like this kind of thing, I would recommend Greg Rucka and Daniel Silva.

[Libaax]

I love this series.

John Rain is brilliant character. Street smart,human despite his work.

I liked the realistic spy feel with a taste of James Bond coolness of Rain's lifestyle. His nomadic,hotel living style. His age,martial arts makes more interesting. He doesnt kung fu people down but use attacks that are believable for a guy in his age.


Im very dissapointed Eisler is wasting time on some other spy book.

[Subotai]

Definitely a cut above the norm for the genre. For those interested, he also does a decent blog:


http://www.barryeisler.com/blog.html

[Libaax]

It driving me crazy that i dont have a Rain book to look forward to :P


Which one is your favorit subotai ?

[Deathstroke]

I read the first book and while I found it to be pretty good, I had a hard time with the first person narrative.

I guess I prefer the thrillers in the third person. But when I have time I may end up picking up the second book in the series.

[Descartes_Lives]

I've really been enjoying this series. I like the evolution of the character. Plenty of flashbacks and retellings about his wild days when he worked alone, and by the end of the most recent book, he's assembled a whole crew of allies to spring Dox from confinement.

Des.

[Mia]

Mia, I just reading Rain Fall. I loved this book. The protagonist John Rain, somehow reminds me of a more stoic-like Nicholas Linnear from Eric Lustbader's books.

Some of the killing methods are described in detail. Then again, Barry Eisler is a former CIA man.

I actually got into The Rain books via a search I was doing on Lustbader's Nicholas Linnear books on Amazon.com. Nicholas Linnear is like reading about the adventures of Batman without the costume. Incidentally Lustabader is a Batman fan.

I like Eisler's books, I find it reminiscent of the Bourne movies. But I also find that his narrative is just short and straight to the point. Unlike Lustbader who resorts to gratuitous sex scenes that are just pointless. I also find that Lustbadder's books are a touch on the pretentious side, as if he's trying to show off how much he knows.

[Subotai]

Lustbader is brutal - unfortunately his books are successful, so he has no incentive to improve his writing.