Man on Fire: The man whose eyes irradiate vengeance

When your line of duty is going from war to war, as a mercenary, there is a big chance that you forget who you are. You live to fight and at some point you just don’t care what life is all about, your mission is to kill, that’s what you do, and eventually you become really good at it. Until it stops. Suddenly you have no reason to keep on living, you find yourself fighting to live, a fight that you are sure you can’t win. That’s Marcus Creasy situation at the beginning of Man on Fire, by A.J. Quinnell. And, of course, he finds a new purpose for his life, which is taken from him right away. That’s when the whole story starts getting interesting... and bloodier.

Perhaps you think you already know how it goes because you’ve seen the homonym movie (there is a pretty good one you should watch starring the one and only Denzel Washington) but you don’t. The book, as always, is way better. For instance, it is set in Italy and has a lot of Mafia in it, instead of the United States and Mexicans. But mainly because it shows you step by step Creasy’s way of thinking, how he justifies his actions and handles his rage. Also, let’s say the movie is a slightly soft version of the real thing.

A.J Quinnell (whose real name is Philip Nicholson) gives us a story that is about plain and simple revenge. It is indeed a simple plot and sometimes predictable. Nontheless, those flaws seem to be compensated by an enjoyable and spellbinding pace that takes you through pages full of deception, action, violence, passion, intrigue, fury and some nice plot twists. It definitely makes you wanna read it avidly till the very end.

The main character, Marcus Creasy, is the typical ‘lone wolf’ tough guy who doesn’t talk much but that can kill you in the blink of an eye. It reminded me of a similar character, Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne (another book series that is better than the movies, though Matt Damon does a fantastic job). Of course the main difference between them both is that Bourne was trained by the government during some kind of Black Op, whereas Creasy just developed his almost natural abilities going from war to war. He is an American born soldier, former member of the French Foreign Legion, who fought like no other in Africa and Vietnam (Bourne also fought in Vietnam). Curiously, both Creasy and Bourne first books where published in 1980 (Ludlum’s in February, Quinnell’s in September).

There is one fact that should be said about Man on Fire and it’s that, although it was written almost 40 years ago, it’s still fresh. Meaning that you don’t realise how old it is. That’s a score for the author, no doubt about it. I know nowadays there are a lot of heroic fiction characters like this one, but back in the day it wasn’t so (besides Bourne, maybe).

Now, the novel does have some low points it is important to note out and which are responsible for my downgrading of its overall rating. First of all, despite its (minor?) plot twists, it is very easy to predict, at least the general idea of it. Second of all, the simplicity of it, everything is so straight forward that it leaves you thinking that it could have been a little more complex for the sake of the story. And finally, towards the end the plot twists tend to become, somehow, forced. But again, I already named other factors that counteract these topics, plus the text is well organized and the secondary characters add some depth to the whole thing.

In conclusion, Man on Fire is a good thriller and the beginning of a book series I now want to buy. It’s a novel you will inevitably read in a jiffy and which will make you feel connected with a man who is a killing machine (maybe like the Dexter TV show). And if you are like me you’ll end up wanting to listen to the song ‘Blue Bayou’. Funny thing though, is that what makes it so compelling to read is also one of its weaknesses: its simplicity. It makes it predictable from time to time. But in the end is a decent and enjoyable (and bloody violent) novel about a man who wants to avenge the loss of a very special friend.

My rating for the book: 4 stars (maybe three, but not really). A fine read, no doubt. And if you are into the action genre, this one is elementary.