Repairman Jack - Series Plot

Series Plot

Jack lives in what appears to be the normal modern city of New York; he gets involved in many "mundane" fix-its where he deals with gangsters, criminals, cults, con artists and kidnappers, but he also runs into supernatural creatures and beings that are often tied to the illegal dealings.

Typically, Jack gets involved in multiple fix-its in each novel, usually one of those turning into a large issue that leads him to use his skills to battle supernatural forces. Jack also begins to find his loved ones threatened by these forces, and while he struggles to maintain some control over his life, he is also faced with internal challenges, such as facing the possibility of having to give up his entire adult lifestyle.

As the series progresses, the appearance of supernatural beings and situations lead Jack to become entangled in a larger, universal fight. While he protests his involvement, he is dragged deeper with each novel into growing unrest and chaos - the observable effects of a cosmic battle for all existence. The two major forces involved are called (by their earthly agents) the Ally and the Otherness. The Ally "collects" worlds as souvenirs, the Otherness "consumes" worlds as a predator. The conflict is thus not so much a matter of "good and evil" as "indifferent and inimical".

It is stressed repeatedly in the novels that though both forces require control over all of existence, the value of individual worlds is negligible - but it is also stated that Earth is of greater-than-average value as it is a world containing sentient life. Sentience is rare, making this world more attractive to the Ally - much like a stone with a distinct shape or pattern. The Otherness (and its agents) derive sustenance from destruction and thus finds sentient life useful as it can be guided to destroy its surroundings and itself - like self-slaughtering cattle. This is the reason the indifferent force has been dubbed the Ally - but this definition extends to humans only so long as they serve its ends.

The Otherness has a powerful champion dubbed the Adversary - an evil magician once known as Rasalom. Ages past, Rasalom made a deal with the Otherness; in exchange for power and eternal life, he would lead the Otherness' minions - malevolent supernatural entities - in its campaign against the Ally. Jack has met him several times, each time barely surviving the experience.

The Ally once had a corresponding champion dubbed the Sentinel - a warrior known as Glaeken. Soon after Rasalom was empowered, Glaeken was given a magical sword that strengthened and healed him while weakening and harming agents of the Otherness. Thus empowered, he was directed to lead the Yeniçeri - orphaned children raised to fight in the Ally's cause - against Rasalom. It is interesting to note that, at some point more than 1000 years ago, Glaeken became estranged from the Yeniçeri and left them to their own devices.

The battles between the Adversary and the Sentinel continued - to the point of Glaeken temporarily slaying Rasalom multiple times - finally, Glaeken succeeded in overpowering him approximately a thousand years ago. However, Glaeken had grown to enjoy his agelessness, and knew that it would end with Rasalom's death. He thus sealed him in a keep in the Carpathian mountains by use of the sword's hilt. This imprisonment came to an end during the events of The Keep; Rasalom was (seemingly) destroyed along with the sword and Glaeken began to age as a human. Glaeken has since been aging normally since the late 1940s and is now an old man.

However, Rasalom's demise was purely temporary - he was able to resurrect himself during the events of Reborn in the late 1960s. Shortly thereafter, a pair of superhuman beings known as "The Twins" (responsible for the worldwide sightings of men in black) took leadership over the Yeniçeri. Since his rebirth, Rasalom has been keeping a low profile so as not to attract the attention of Glaeken, The Twins or the Yeniçeri.

In modern times, Jack has found himself chosen, against his knowledge and will, to represent the Ally. The phrase, "a spear has no branches" is applied to him often, as the Ally attempts to hone him into a lone, hardened warrior by killing those he has emotional attachments to. He later finds out the Ally has specified him as the second in line of the Ally's forces. The Twins have been destroyed by the Otherness and the Ally's original champion Glaeken, nicknamed the Sentinel, is old and failing. At this point, Jack is known as the Heir, because should Glaeken die, Jack will become the Ally's new champion - or leave Earth defenseless. The Nightworld series, parent to the Repairman Jack series, already names Jack as a main fighter in the cosmic war.

Several novels in, it is revealed that a third force in the power struggle has been making its presence known through various representatives: The Lady, seemingly a series of different women with nothing in common save strange canine companions and oracular knowledge. The force the Lady and her dog represents is unclear at first, but she dislikes both the Otherness and the Ally. However, as she is openly sympathetic and helpful to Jack, her agenda tends to parallel that of the Ally, though she, like Jack, wishes neither force were present. She can see into the future and command certain superhuman powers. The force she represents appears not to be as powerful as either the Otherness or the Ally: she cannot drive out the Otherness and various forms of hers can be killed by Otherness creatures (though seem immune to any earthly danger), and she cannot over-ride or over-rule the Ally. Rasalom knows her as The Lady, and initially appears to fear her. It was first speculated that The Lady is a representation of "Mother Earth", because she repeatedly calls herself Jack's and other people's "Mother". Also, when an agent of the Otherness was burying supernaturally dark artifacts across the globe, all her forms simultaneously showed a pattern of scarring that mapped the artifacts' locations. Another clue was that her yard, in the midst of a ban on watering, was incredibly lush and verdant. A final clue was that she at one point called herself Herta, an anagram for Earth. In Ground Zero, however, she reveals that this was misleading, and she is in fact the physical manifestation of the noosphere: the emergence of sentience. She, and her dog, are a living (and semi-immortal) beacon proclaiming that Earth is sentient. Should she be extinguished, the Ally will lose interest in the Earth.

In Bloodline, Jack discovers he may be more closely linked to the Otherness than he had previously realized - a scion of an ancient and powerful bloodline with a proven potential for violent conflict. It remains to be seen if Jack will have new abilities bestowed upon him at some point to level the playing ground, or if he will continue to remain a character firmly rooted in the "real world".

In the novel, By The Sword, the cycle is nearing completion as the early events of Nightworld are re-introduced; Jack meets Glaeken for the first time, and the confrontation with The Adversary is drawing near.