Copyright © 2009 by William Malmborg - All Right Reserved.
F. Paul Wilson is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and for good reason; his Repairman Jack novels, which feature a man who lives off the grid of society who provides fix-it services for people who can't go to the police, are some of the most exciting, well written, creative pieces of fiction I have ever read. Repairman Jack is just one of those characters you love and wish you could live like, while at the same time realizing that such a life would not really be suitable in the long term game, especially outside of the world of fiction, which is why these novels are so great, because they
Book Reviews - F. Paul Wilson - The Touch
give you a couple hundred pages worth of time to live through Repairman Jack without actually having to risk your life, freedom, and sanity. By themselves the Repairman Jack novels would be a monumental achievement for any author, but the fact is, they are only a small portion of F. Paul Wilson's work, and, unfortunately, the only items that seem to be stocked at the bookstores despite the fact that his other novels are equally amazing and will always leave readers wishing for more, which is why I now have dozens of boxes coming in the mail from used bookstores, because that is the only way I can find most of F. Paul Wilson's novels.
The Touch is one of those novels I had to order online. I did this through the used book section of the Barnes and Nobel website and was impressed with the service I got. For two dollars I ordered a hardback copy of The Touch and without having to pay anything extra for speedy service got the book in less than a week (the other book I ordered, however, took three weeks, so this might have just been a one time thing), and then, in my excitement of having the book, read it in one sitting while at work (security job), and, like always, wished there had been another hundred or two hundred pages, because the story was so good.
Published in 1986, The Touch asks the question of what would happen to a man if he could suddenly heal people by just placing his hands on them. At first this power seems like a gift, one which humanity has been waiting for given all the sickness that is out there, but then quickly becomes a curse because of all the sickness that is out there, one which slowly but surely ruins his life, first because people think he is a scam artists, and then because people won't leave him alone, ever, and take it personally if he decides not to treat them right then and there, which is often necessary since the power only works for an hour two times a day, a time which gradually changes every day.
The Touch is the second book in what F. Paul Wilson has called The Adversary Cycle, which, in a way, eventually does connect with his Repairman Jack novels, but one doesn't have to have read all these books to enjoy this novel, which is very much a stand alone book, though I encourage you to read them all just because of how good they are, though if you are going to read his Repairman Jack novels make sure you start with The Tomb, which is the first of the series and go from there because there are several stories of his life that follow throughout that a reader wouldn't understand if starting in the middle of the series. When it comes to The Adversary Cycle, however, one doesn't have to have started at the beginning; at least one doesn't in order to enjoy The Touch.
