Jack Wakes Up
Seth Harwood was a fan of what Scott Sigler did, and decided to take the plunge into making his own podiobook. Check out our latest title, Jack Wakes Up:
What does a movie-star one-hit-wonder and ex-drug-addict do when he’s cleaned up, down on his luck, and running out of money?
In the three years since Jack Palms went clean — no drugs, no drinking, no life — added fourteen pounds of muscle, read 83 books, and played it as straight as anyone can ask him. Now, when an old friend from L.A. calls, he signs on to help a set of Eastern Europeans score enough coke to settle down and set up shop. All Jack has to do is keep them entertained and get them through their purchase.
But when the plan runs into a few problems, and Jack starts getting phone calls from an old friend on the police force, he realizes that this business will take a lot more acting than he first assumed.
November 8th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Seth,
Love your book. You’re supplanting Sigler (look out Scott) as my favorite author, since I prefer the detective/mystery genre a bit mmore than SciFi. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to more.
Matteo
November 10th, 2006 at 4:35 am
Hey everybody,
Sorry about the long delay. But Episode 15 is in the queue!! Hopefully it’ll be up in the next day or so. I apologize for the wait and will explain more in the episode.
I’ll also ask you to donate there and the good news is that for the whole month of November, I’ll be getting 100% of all the money you give. Thanks so much for listening, for waiting patiently, and thanks in advance (I hope) for giving.
All best,
Seth
February 14th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Thanks for the great pod, Seth and Podiobook staff. It reminds me of Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto in style, meeting a need on this website.
I do, howver, have a problem. There is a problem when trying to subscribe using iTunes, wierd given that other podiobooks seem to be working.
And finally, I look forward to your next book, Seth. I am really excited about this because your first podiobook so far is fantastic!
February 14th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
There is no sound for episodes 10 and 11.
The rest seem to be working but I hate missing important parts of a storyline that I am so addicted to.
February 15th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Dianne,
I’m unable to replicate the problem. I went to the JWU page, clicked on the links for episodes 10 and 11 and am getting sound. It sounds like something has happened to the file you downloaded. I’d suggested re-downloading the files by visiting the page and clicking the links.
E.
February 15th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Okay, I will try it again and let you know if the files work. Thanks for checking it out for me.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Dianne,
Great to hear your comments. Glad you liked it and thanks. Stop on by sethharwood.com and join the mailing list to get more info on what’s coming next. A Long Way from Disney starts Feb. 28th!
Hope you get those missing episodes.
Seth
February 16th, 2007 at 8:12 am
I haven’t tried the crime/suspense/mystery material for a while, because things have started to get very predictable in that realm for me, especially with all the big name authors I used to follow. This made a refreshing change from fantacy. My sister hated itand didn’t finish. I thought it was fantastic. I was getting ready to be upset over the romance angle, but he ends up with something at least as good in the end so all is well. Thanks for keeping him on the wagon. You really had me worried there for a while. Looking forward to the new book in March.
February 19th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Thanks Seth. I will be sure to set up a subscription. As far as those files go, I tried over and over again to get the few with the problem to work but after it didn’t work I went over to your blogsite and snagged the few (there was only like 2 with the error) so that I could listen. The next day I finished the entire podcast. Great ending! It left it open for more to happen to Jack which I guess it a good thing if you intended to write more about Palms.
April 9th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
A well written crime/noir story about a man try to navigate the “grays” of a new life. At the end of the day, Jack Palms wants to believe he did the right thing, but he learns that staying straight and sober doesn’t involve a path directly from A to B. Highly Recommended.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:59 am
Seth, congrats on the book deal. Jack Palms is an awesome franchise. If you need cash between now and when your writing career takes off you should shop yourself around as a audiobook narrator. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and you are a highly gifted narrator. You blow ninety per cent of the guys the big boys use away. You totally slay guys like Scott Brick.
October 5th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Thanks, Bigp13!!
Who the hell’s Scott Brick? (don’t answer that)
You rock! –Seth
October 15th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I love this story! I became addicted after Episode 2…love the characters, love the action!
October 18th, 2007 at 11:56 am
This book hooks you quick and keeps you coming back for more, Jack Palms is a great character, loved the book Seth cant wait until “Palms Sunday”!
November 10th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Hey Seth,
Lovin’ the book. It’s like Raymond Chandler, George Pelecanos and James Ellroy have been put in a blender and out came Seth Harwood!
Keep it up!
January 19th, 2008 at 9:29 am
First off let me say that I really did enjoy this book, and though it may be a little late for constructive criticism, I’m going to throw in my two pence anyway.
I consider it a sight of a good story when I go back for more, and with this sotry I practically listened to the whole thing end to end in just a few days. Seth Harwood is a great story tellerand has done a fantastic job in laying this one out with considerable flair. The story is tight and well paced. The characters have depth and substance, and I found myself rooting for the good guys, and jeering the bad guys with some enthusiasm as the sotry gripped me. The dialogue is very good, and Seth Harwood has done a fantastic job of integrating it into the story seemlessly.
However, there are just a couple of aspects of the story i didn’t like either. Firstly there is an element of incongruity in some of the characters. It takes a considerable leap of faith to buy into the fact that all the people who Jack questions throughout the story are so readily prepared to give him information or comply with his wishes. Almost everyone on the ‘good guy’ list seems to end up being his best friend after only a single encounter, despite the fact that given the circumstances of the story, you would expect them to be considerably more guarded. Ok it’s only a small annoyance, and I enjoyed the story was quite happy to let it slide as a script for Jack’s next move ‘Shake em up’.
My second gripe was with the reading. This story is probably 300 plus pages long. It’s well written and engaging, so I know Seth Harwood has put a lot of time and effort into it. So why do I get the impression he did no practice runs, and laid down the audio straight off the bat. Even worse is the fact that he has such a good voice and reading style, so I consider this oversight almost sacrilegious. If this were his report card at the end of the semester, the summary would unfortunately be tainted with the phrase ‘can do better’. Still, he does get an ‘-A’
March 21st, 2008 at 11:55 pm
In Jack Wakes up, Harwood gives us a new twist on the old noir heist formula. Jack Palms, out of work actor, is tapped by a friend to play second fiddle on a giant drug dealer. He needs the money. He needs the distraction. He’s so amazingly bored that when bullets start flying and people start dying, he finds it exhilarating. In this, his first outing, Harwood combines the classic noir sensibilities of James M Cain with the quck-clipped plot movement that children of the nineties have come to expect from Tarantino films. He also gives Jack Wakes up an unusual but indispensable element: A sense of place. Not content to use just the familiar landmarks, Jack moves down in the older, decaying parts of San Francisco and other flavorful parts of the Bay Area.
In short, Jack Wakes Up is an excellent crime noir, and it keeps you on your toes with hundreds of little surprises, such as a trio of Czech gangsters who want nothing more than to tour the USA on Harleys bring a touch of the tragicomic (reminiscent of the gangsters in Ludlum’s “Road to Gandolfo” without descending into farce). Add to that the use of present tense narration (the last time the present tense used this well was in Scott Turow’s “Presumed Innocent”), and you’ve got the recipie for a novel that moves fast, keeps you on your toes, and has some delightful and moving twists that leave you sincerely caring about every one of the characters, from the buffoons to the monsters.
With the superb use of language, the far-above-par-writing, and the hopping story, Harwood’s debut is the start of a promising career. Highly recommended.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:24 am
Hey Seth,
Lovin’ the book. It’s like Raymond Chandler, George Pelecanos and James Ellroy have been put in a blender and out came Seth Harwood!
Keep it up!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:42 am
Seth, I absolutely love JACK Wakes Up and the rest of the JACK PALMS Novels. Keep them coming. JP2 with the Barrett 50 Cal. was very scary. JP3 is Rocking right along, lots of action. Can’t wait for more.
May 25th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Jack kicks ass, not to put too fine a point on it.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Superb.
The first podcast book that I have felt confident enough to tell everyone i know to listen to.
I am looking forward to going to and from work, which is where I listen to the book, often find that I’m dawdling to get more of the story in.
Good characters and storyline, fast pace that is well controlled, very well written and generally a lot of fun