Japanese yakuza + Chinese triads + long-time enemies make for a complex thriller that can only be solved by John Rain, Barry Eisler's Japanese-American assassin. Let's hope the title of the book is incorrect, and that the reader has not seen the last of John Rain.

Spellbinding. Page turner. You will not see the twist at the end coming

Rain’s attempt at being part of his son’s life of course goes violently awry. The Yakuza and Triad body count climbs. Dox (my favorite), Delilah, and Tatsu assist operationally and give Rain’s character some much needed humanity. I’m glad the author has kept the Rain universe going with new characters. The books are consistently entertaining. Also, where else would I learn what a balisong is?

Rain is pouring

Another fantastic book. Full life characters dealing with personal and life threatening problems. Again this would make a fantastic movie. Rain is strong yet conflicted. Dox is deadly and delightful. Delialia is beautiful, deadly and falling unexpectedly in love. What a wonderful script. I will miss our dear friend Tatsua.

"Extremis" is yet another excellent thriller by Barry Eisler featuring John Rain, hitman for hire. Although this one involves romantic relationships (John/Midori vs. John/Delilah) more than its predecessors, it still contains plenty of intrigue and action where Rain and his long-time sidekick, Dox, conspire against mob gangs from Japan and China. I highly recommend the entire series for those who like well-written and fast-paced crime thrillers.

Nu-mi vine să cred, o cărțulie de duzină să aibă un rating mai mare decât Zece Negri Mititei, sau cum s-o mai numi acum capodopera Agathei Christie?!?
Ceea ce practică dl. Eisler este în mod clar sub-literatură. Subiectul, stilul, acțiunea, toate se înscriu într-o cheie facilă și unidimensională. Băieții răi fac trafic cu droguri, se ocupă cu jocurile de noroc și prostituția, iar băieții buni îi omoară pe capete.
Simplu ca bună ziua, dar departe de a fi tentant, pentru un cititor obișnuit, cum îmi place să cred c-aș fi. Și aceasta fie și dintr-un simplu motiv: VIOLENȚA BRUTĂ, de care este animat pseudo-eroul nostru, domnu Rain.
Pot, la o adică, să înțeleg că Rain îi omoară pe traficanți, deși crima este o soluție extremă, dar mi se face silă atunci când iubita protagonistului îi rupe piciorul unui cetățean (care avusese proasta inspirație să-i facă curte, chit că un pic cam agresiv) ca să nu mai pomenesc de cei doi valeți uciși cu sânge rece, oameni care câștigau și ei, CORECT, o pâine.
Ca să fie șaroma cu de toate, nenea Eisler bagă și-o poveste gheboasă de amor. Rain nu știe dac-o iubește pe una, pianistă, da i-a făcut un copil, oarecum din greșeală. Asta-l urăște sincer, că doar el îl omorâse pe ta-su, da băiatu mai e cuplat cu una, foc de geloasă și dispusă să facă prostii. De orice fel.
Mai e și ceva umor, întreținut, din păcate, de o singură persoană, veșnic optimistul Dix. Mult prea puțin, fie și pentru trei steluțe leșinate...

The Last Assassin / Extremis is the 5th book in the John Rain series. Only two titles this time, as Eisler had more control of his work than before. This one wrapped up some loose ends and comes to a potential series conclusion, but is otherwise average.

Goodreads mentions this was a Barry Award nominee (named for a reviewer, not Eisler himself) in 2007 for best thriller. The only site I can find listing nominees and winners doesn't mention this book under either title.

I liked the character of Dox, though he is very 2D in this book. Rain, on the other hand, spends a lot of the story reacting and not thinking - digging himself deeper and deeper. Also, I wasn't convinced by the "love triangle" in the description. Jealousy screws some things up, but it's not really the focus.

Being such an excellent place to wrap up the series, I am very likely to do so. There are more novels with Rain, including two sequels, two prequels?, and two where his story intersects with other Eisler characters. Maybe I'll bump into a fellow reader who convinces me that book 6, or 8, or 10 is a must-read. Maybe I'll finally watch the Keanu Reeves show, mentioned after my first reread of the first book.

I wasn't too sure about this series when I first started it; an assassin who primarily uses "natural" methods to kill his targets. I wasn't crazy about the first couple of books but I'm finding it's really growing on me.

I guess I'm sold on Eisler...this series, anyway. Each book seems to do a better job of weaving in the unique lead character, John Rain, with the ones he's added along the way, Tatsu, Dox and Delilah, with the wonderful twisting plots and Asian-dominant settings. Its a very different series that gets better as Eisler introduces more influences from these characters that draw Rains out from his "lone wolf" approach to life and his vocation...independent contract assassin.

In this one, John Rain is trying to get himself to a position where he can leave "the life" and be free to involve himself in the lives of his son and her mother, his long unrequited lover, Midoro. He must eliminate his arch enemy, Yamota who is watching them so he can use them as leverage to find Rain. There are many twists and further complications via his relationship with the beautiful Delilah that complicate Rains' attempts and create additional pressures on him. Its all makes for a very good read.

Emotional roller coaster thriller

Another great John Rain story. This one had a slightly different take than the others but was very touching. The tears at the sight of his son and the loss of a good friend brought deeply moving story while still including tension and exciting action. Great book!

Extremis is probably my favorite of the John Rain series. (thus far, anyway!) The partnership of Rain and Dox solidified here, and those two scoundrels had me laughing hysterically from beginning to end.

When big, burly sniper Dox was reminded a normal person should be traumatized and he ran out of a public men's room shouting much too literally "I'm scared! I'm scared!", I thought I might die choking on the Mexican Coke I was drinking. (That pure sugar cola is better than sex, my friends)

If you haven't found Barry Eisler's books yet, YOU ARE MISSING OUT. Go get one of his books, make it the next on your reading list. n  You're welcome.n

(Previously published as "The Last Assassin")

I so enjoyed Tom Wood's series with Victor, that I went looking for another to feed my fix/need.

I stumbled across Barry Eisler and have read the entire 8-book series. And was very pleased. As such, this is the same review for all 8 books.


The author reads his own work, and after listening to Tom Wood's series with Rob Shapiro as the wonderful narrator, this took me a while to adapt to the reading style.

But don't let that dissuade you. Barry Eisler does a really really fine job of narrating, and you get to hear the different personalities, and understand who is who pretty quickly.

Barry Eisler has a nice knack of leading the reader on, enticing them to continue the story, and understand the predicaments the protagonist (John Rain) finds himself in. In addition, the growth of the character is wonderful. Kudos to Barry Eisler, and his real-life background that leads him to be able to write this well (check out his website as well!).

As I mentioned above, I have read all 8 books. Once I got through book 1, I could not put down the entire series.

I liked this series so much, I'd love to meet the author, and can't wait to read more of his works as well.

I’d just finished a thriller featuring a character who put me in mind of John Rain. Maybe I should check out the next book in the Rain series, I thought. I’d last read a book from this set,  The Detachment, about a year ago, though in truth I didn’t much enjoy it. In a mess of a plot, events just seemed random and jumbled to the extent I felt Eisler had maybe come to the end of the line with this character. But I do like the complexity of Rain: he’s conflicted about what he does (killing people) and the books spend quite a bit of time delving into the inner thoughts of the man – in this regard, it’s much richer than most action orientated thriller series I’ve invested time in.

Anyway, as I checked the list of books in this series I realised I’d missed one along the way (not unusual for me – I often read series in random order) so I decided to give that one a go. Good decision! This episode turned out to be, in my view, the best one of the lot. The cast list comprises a whole gang of interesting people from earlier books, including two lovers: one current and one past. In short, Rain finds out that his former lover is living in New York with his child and that she is in danger. He must try to help. To do this decides he needs to concoct and execute a daring plan.

As always, the detail here is meticulous, from the descriptions of how weapons are obtained (and the fine detail of the actual hardware) to the layout of key sites and a walk through of the plan itself. You know there will be problems along the way, but where’s the fun in following something that plays out exactly as expected? Just as importantly, we are inside Rain’s head as he calculates what actions he needs to take and why. It’s a complex, multi-site story but one that’s never so confusing that I lost the plot; Eisler keeps a tight rein on things and I was with him all the way.

The tension is never less than fully cranked up here but events follow logically and the interaction between the key players is deftly and sympathetically handled. Whilst the story itself ties up a number of loose ends in this series the book also provides the best insight yet into the psyche of John Rain. In many ways it might have been a brilliant book in which to have ended the series, but instead the author gives a clear lead that there is (at least) one more adventure to come.

I’ll no doubt go on to finish this series – after all, there’s only been one bad book so far – as I’ve had my appetite whetted anew. I’ll be surprised if I find anything there to beat this one though.

Afternote

At the end of this audio version, Barry Eisler – who’d competently competed the reading of the book – referenced his website and commented that here photos could be found of places featured in his books. On inspection, I was delighted to see that this was broken down by book and included not just broad street views but close ups of actual coffee houses and shops mentioned in this particular text. I wish more authors would do this, I know what I’m reading is fiction but what a great way of adding some additional colour and authentic texture to the tale. I loved it!

http://www.barryeisler.com/photo_la.php