When 24 originally ended four years ago, Jack Bauer was a fugitive on the run after killing multiple Russian diplomats, kidnapping a former US President, and stopping just short of assassinating Russian President Suvarov. 24: Deadline picks up roughly one hour later and gives us another thrilling day in the life of Jack Bauer.
Deadline is a smaller scale, more personal storyline. Both Kiefer Sutherland and the producers of the series often say they desire to go back to smaller storylines, but Deadline actually delivers on this promise.
The story in Deadline is exciting and well paced. It doesn’t get bogged down with any of the tiresome CTU drama – there’s no moles or office romances. There’s no presidential storyline, no nuclear bombs or World War III scenarios. Just Jack Bauer fighting to see his daughter again. It feels most similar to the first season of the show, which still remains my favorite of the series.
There’s a few more things it has in common with the first season: Jack eats and drinks, he gets stuck in traffic, he gets tired and dozes off. These small touches make Jack feel more human and relatable and it’s something that hasn’t really been done much since the first season.
The driving force for Jack Bauer is keeping the promise he made to his daughter Kim and granddaughter Teri in the eighth season premiere. Jack is determined to see his daughter one last time before fleeing the country. He’s already vanished on her once and doesn’t want to put her through that agony again.
It’s not going to be easy for Jack. The FBI has assembled a task force to bring him in dead or alive and a covert operations unit of Russia’s SVR has orders to kill Bauer on sight. His friends are either all dead or arrested, so he doesn’t have any backup. He can’t rely on Chloe providing him satellite assistance or sending schematics to his PDA; he’s forced to fend for himself and use his wits to stay alive. Jack starts off without a gun, vehicle, or any method of communication and is forced to improvise in clever ways.
It’s still very much an authentic 24 storyline. Frequently heard phrases like “within the hour” are used, there’s shootouts and car chases, Jack puts people in sleeper holds, he threatens to shoot others in the kneecap, and all of the other things you’d expect. There’s plenty of physical confrontations with brutal hand-to-hand combat. Many of these bone-crunching fight scenes would make even Jason Bourne green with envy.
More than one character from the past makes a surprise reappearance in 24: Deadline. These aren’t just small cameos either, these familiar faces play an integral role in the storyline. The first return was expertly handled and is the kind of moment where you fist pump the air and let out a loud cheer. The second return introduces some fun scenarios, but will require readers to suspend disbelief a bit more.
There’s plenty of references to past events including Jack’s time in Delta Force, Operation Nightfall, the Salazar sting operation, Palmer’s assassination, the nuke that went off in Valencia, and even something from 24: The Game. Over two dozen previous characters are mentioned in the book including Jack’s former lovers Teri, Audrey, and Renee; former CTU colleagues Nina, Chase, Tony, and Chloe; and villains Cheng, Saunders, Mandy, Victor Drazen, Fayed, and Marwan just to name a few. All of these mentions are very organic and do not simply feel like fan service.
You’ll find out more about Kim’s husband Stephen (including his last name and occupation), you’ll read about what happened to Russian President Yuri Suvorov, and catch up with an old character or two that we haven’t seen in a while. You’ll also discover which villain still haunts Jack Bauer to this day and gives him nightmares. Since this is a prequel to Live Another Day, we already know Jack survives, but other characters might not be so lucky…
Many tie-in stories are often shoddy cash grabs that fail to capture the essence of the original work. But author James Swallow appears to have a very good understanding of what makes 24 tick. He respects the source material and you can tell the story was crafted with lots of love.
Besides consulting with 24 showrunners Manny Coto and Evan Katz, Swallow gives a shout out to the fans of both 24 Wiki and 24 Spoilers in the acknowledgments. There’s an impressive attention to detail, from using the same fictional CNB news network occasionally seen on the show to mentioning somewhat obscure facts like Jack’s history of riding motorcycles in his youth.
When the series originally ended four years ago, we were promised Jack Bauer would make his long-awaited debut on the big screen but that never happened. 24: Deadline feels like the 24 movie we never got.
Deadline is the first of three “24” novels planned by Tor/Forge Books and it sets a high bar for the next two. James told us that he’d love to write more 24 stories if this book is successful, and I hope he gets the opportunity to do so. If the TV series gets renewed for another season, the producers would be smart to bring him on board as a writer or consultant.
I recommended this to all fans of the show, especially if you like the first three seasons. You can purchase 24: Deadline on Amazon, iBooks, Google Play, and book stores near you.
James Swallow is a British author and scriptwriter. A BAFTA nominee and a New York Times bestseller, he is the author of several original books and tie-in novels, as well as short fiction, numerous audio dramas and video games.
His writing includes The Sundowners series of steampunk Western novels, and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Warhammer 40,000, Doctor Who, Stargate and 2000AD. He lives and works in London.
61 Comments
Comments ClosedBrad
August 5, 2014 at 11:31 pmXAM
August 6, 2014 at 2:44 amGet James Swallow in the writers room, and fucking listen to him!
Fazil's Beard
August 7, 2014 at 3:29 pmDon J
August 6, 2014 at 1:36 amC
August 6, 2014 at 9:22 amHoward
August 6, 2014 at 4:07 pmPhee
August 7, 2014 at 1:56 amJoseph
August 7, 2014 at 6:29 pmHoward
August 6, 2014 at 4:06 pmAZA
August 6, 2014 at 5:48 pmBruce
August 6, 2014 at 6:30 pmPhee
August 7, 2014 at 2:00 amBruce
August 7, 2014 at 7:43 amPhee
August 9, 2014 at 1:02 pmSpencer
August 6, 2014 at 8:36 pm24 Spoilers
August 7, 2014 at 2:09 amWouldntYouLikeToKnow
August 7, 2014 at 4:38 amGerry Mander
August 8, 2014 at 2:32 amXAM
August 8, 2014 at 10:43 amWouldntYouLikeToKnow
August 9, 2014 at 3:40 amSamurai Snake
August 11, 2014 at 11:29 amSpencer
August 8, 2014 at 2:05 pm24 Spoilers
August 8, 2014 at 2:23 pmAnd it’s unlikely this information will ever be contradicted by future episodes of the series because there was pretty much no chance of
Gerry Mander
August 9, 2014 at 11:54 pmIt’s probably a ripping good read, but some things should be left to the imagination and go untold; the ’24’ video game and the various tie-in novels/comic books are undoubtedly solid entertainment, but at the end of the day, only the show remains canon.
Clayton
August 7, 2014 at 2:33 am24 Spoilers
August 7, 2014 at 11:27 amThere is one sort of diversion where Jack gets caught up dealing with an
AAA
August 7, 2014 at 6:53 amBrian W.
February 9, 2015 at 11:09 pmdavid hughes
August 7, 2014 at 7:38 amTony Almeida
August 7, 2014 at 11:43 pmJack Bauer
August 7, 2014 at 11:42 pmAngelika Kanis
August 8, 2014 at 4:53 amTrevor
August 8, 2014 at 2:41 pmFinished the book yesterday though. Loved it!! Awesome character returns… never saw
John
August 8, 2014 at 4:21 pmPhee
August 9, 2014 at 12:56 pmOn the whole though I’m finding it very well written, the characterisations ring true and the action builds well and it all feels like what you get on the show itself.
24 Spoilers
August 9, 2014 at 1:36 pmAngelika Kanis
August 14, 2014 at 3:11 amdon de mille
August 8, 2014 at 7:03 pmI heard an excerpt and I thought it was awful.
dotd
24 Spoilers
August 9, 2014 at 2:50 amAaron Pearse
August 9, 2014 at 3:01 amXAM
August 9, 2014 at 7:21 amdavid hughes
August 9, 2014 at 7:39 amdavid hughes
August 9, 2014 at 7:40 am24 Spoilers
August 9, 2014 at 1:02 pmPhee
August 9, 2014 at 1:09 pmGerry Mander
August 9, 2014 at 9:51 pmCreating a new story where none was needed also takes away the pathos of the Day 8 finale; it had dramatic and emotional weight in my opinion that was tragic yet stoic; the hero who saved his country many times over, now a wanted outlaw by that very same country he helped defend, and whose sole aim throughout that day was to leave it all behind and be with his family, but whose own actions have meant he may never see that family ever again, a bitter irony that gave the finale resonance, that last shot of Jack seen on the drone feed the perfect image to leave it at… until the events of ‘Live Another Day’…
Just my own humble opinion of course, I don’t feel the need nor do I believe there to be a need to see every last dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’ of an ongoing serialized story, this current obsession of having to literally tell every last drop of story, leaving nothing to the imagination, is detrimental to storytelling integrity… I don’t want to see how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, I don’t want to know where the deserted ship in ‘Alien’ came from, and I don’t think filling in every last detail of Jack Bauer’s life between seasons either makes those seasons work any better or furthers our understanding and enjoyment of said seasons overall… that’s what exposition is for.
What’s next, ‘Mandy: The Early Years’? Actually, on second thoughts…
Phee
August 9, 2014 at 11:56 pmActually it makes a lot of sense IMO, and his thought process is explained, that he can’t just disappear on Kim again without seeing her one last time to explain, especially not after having told her he’d see her in LA. PapaJack has always had a special place in my heart, so I love and believe that he’s making the effort to see her one last time, despite the extreme risk.
He’s aware he has very little time to do it. He doesn’t just jump in a car and go, he has to get around the obstacles of the FBI in order to get there and he’s also well aware of the Russians being after him too. The book cuts between Jack and the two parties searching for him, and how they’re gaining on him. It’s not a simple cross country joyride just because he wants to make a pitstop in LA. Even just getting out of NYC to begin with is a major obstacle he has to deal with.
His lack of sleep is addressed, that he was trained to be able to stay up and effective for 72 hours, but in his current physical and emotional state, he’s not invincible and the man actually sleeps.
You won’t lose out in terms of the overall story if you skip the book. It doesn’t add anything that’s vital knowledge for Day 9 to believably follow on from Day 8. But the way the story has been written, it fits, it makes sense, and it’s a nice bonus to expand Jack’s personal story a bit more. It may not be necessary, but nor is it detrimental IMO.
Gerry Mander
August 10, 2014 at 1:01 amGerry Mander
August 10, 2014 at 4:06 amIt would be foolhardy in the extreme for Jack because that’s the very first thing the Americans and Russians would think of, Kim’s phone and e-mails would be bugged in all likelihood and her house would be under constant surveillance, they would be lying in wait for him long before he got there and he would be either caught by the feds or killed by the Russians.
Jack would know that attempting to contact Kim would not only automatically put her and family in potential mortal danger, it would also potentially put her in a very dicey legal quandary… and he would know that, and why he wouldn’t put her in that position.
That’s just how I see the stuation, but if the book takes those things on and resolves them, then I’m all ears…
Phee
August 10, 2014 at 9:18 amdavid hughes
August 10, 2014 at 8:13 amdon de mille
August 10, 2014 at 2:46 pmI’ll pass.
WouldntYouLikeToKnow
August 10, 2014 at 7:53 pmJustin
August 14, 2014 at 7:43 pm24marathonman
August 14, 2014 at 10:16 pmJohn
August 16, 2014 at 10:18 amXAM
August 16, 2014 at 9:07 pmSo we now need sources to reveal to fans… how they feel as fans?
Richer
August 15, 2014 at 12:20 amJoseph
August 30, 2014 at 10:13 pmPhee
October 28, 2014 at 11:57 amBrian W.
February 9, 2015 at 10:25 pm