Fans of F. Paul Wilson drew a lot of inspiration from his early works, such as Healer, Wheels Within Wheels, and An Enemy of the State. These had very prominent pro-liberty themes. Since then, Wilson has continued to produce novels and stories with satisfying, well-paced prose and with plots always sympathetic to individualism and justice. He is also an accomplished and popular author in the horror genre, though even there he always depicts heroic struggles against horrific forces.

One of his most popular series is undoubtedly the Repairman Jack tales. He announced the last one a few years ago, but ardent fans pressed him so hard that he promised a couple more additional novels and has started a YA series of Jack in high school.

While the Jack tales do not clearly push a libertarian theme, Jack himself lives a vividly libertarian life. I expect many thousands of readers have become advocates of rational individualism simply from reading about a man who lives “off the grid,” virtually invisible to the IRS and other authorities, while still maintaining a social life and high standards of justice and personal responsibility.

As the Jack novels continued, they increasingly included plot elements from Wilson's horror writing, the “Otherness series.” While these story elements are immensely entertaining, they did not always focus on issues of liberty or stick to the hard science that some readers prefer. Nevertheless, Jack's impressive courage and determination in the face of evil made for an engaging read!

Wilson did not limit Jack to his novels. As the years passed, he would occasionally weave Jack into short stories he produced. In 2011 he released Quick Fixes, a collection of short stories featuring Repairman Jack. These are cleverly plotted, told in Wilson's trademark fluid, page-turner style, and good luck for libertarians—have almost no Otherness but a lot of Jack's taking action to right wrongs independently of government.

There are ten stories in this collection, three of which have been incorporated into novels and hence may seem familiar to some readers. All of them show Jack doing what he does best: fixing problems, usually for a fee. Each story is preceded with a brief introduction by the author, and these are as interesting as the stories themselves. In one very harrowing story, Jack's worst fear comes to pass: he gets involved with the police; but the predicament is resolved in a way that reminds us of what a great story teller F. Paul Wilson is. The book is available in paperback.