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Shadow of the Templar rec & fav. non-spoilery snippets
Several of my post titles since April are quotes/snippets that have compelled three of you to wonder, "Who's Simon?"

Simon 'Templar' Drake is from Shadow of the Templar series, which some of you probably have heard about from sansa1970's rec last year. The series follows an FBI team and a world-famous jewel thief in a series of cases. The main pairing is Simon Drake (FBI team leader)/Jeremy Archer (thief). Banter, random geekery...oh and Archer is British =P What's not to love? ;-)

Shadow of the Templar doesn't eat your brain as much as Manna Francis' Administration series, but it's as addictive as a huge, buttery bag of Kettle Korn. You'll contentedly munch on the stories for days in a row.
The first book is just so-so, but do persevere! Skim if you have to! Because things will get awesome fun starting from the second book =D

To this end, I shall motivate you through the first book with some shiny moments of banter from the characters. Mild spoilers, obviously, but I'll try not to ruin the plot for you.
Stats are summarized from the author's characters bio. Lines beginning with "*" are my own comments.

Simon Drake aka Templar 29 y.o., 6'3", team leader, defender of the free world, an all-American middle-class boy from the Midwest.
* Good-looking and knows it >=D
* Repeatedly tell Archer point-blank that his job and his team members are way more important than him. Ouch. IDK why Archer doesn't just dump him. Oh right, because he is SO FINE.

Jeremy Archer aka Shadow aka 'James Crown', and dozens other aliases
27 y.o., 5'10", criminal, adversary, pain in the ass, British.
* I have to stop picturing him with blond hair =P Blinding Malfoy hair isn't exactly conducive to a catburglar career...
* My T-mobile G1 is named Archer <333 My tablet PC's named Mildmay (the thief from Sarah Monette's Melusine series). The car is named after Gen (Megan Whalen Turner's Thief series). I'm running out of thief character names. HALP.

Jeremy and Simon quotes:

"In that case, hell, I'll even spring for the coffee. Unless you're some kind of damned tea-drinking Englishman, in which case you can buy your own dirty leafy water."

"Drink tea in America?" Jeremy's eyebrow twitched upwards in disbelief. "I'm not that sort of masochist. Coffee, at least, has the benefit of being horrible the world over, so it doesn't matter where you get it."

Simon eyed him narrowly. "And to think I was almost not hating you."

Jeremy blinked, feigning confusion. "Goodness. Did I say something wrong?"

--Shadow of the Templar, Book One: The Morning Star, Part Two: Compromise

Simon's love for coffee transcends all:

Jeremy shut his eyes and drank some of his own coffee, feeling a bit like he was a performer in some kind of fetishistic peep show. "Well, you can certainly have real coffee if you insist, but I think Ms. Leone might be slightly put out with me if you died."

"I know! Christ." Simon took another sip, wrinkling his nose. "At least it's... sort of like coffee. Kind of like how blow-up dolls are like real women."

"I'm sure I wouldn't know," Jeremy said equably.

--Shadow of the Templar, Book Three: With a Bullet, Part Four

Simon not-so-sekkritly loves all of Jeremy's Britishness strangeness:

"You know, far be it from me to question your godawful fashion sense, but most people work out in plain shorts and a t-shirt, thereby avoiding looking like a tremendous faggot. Were you aware of that, or is this some kind of huge revelation for you?"

[...]

Jeremy's little smile curled on his face. "Oh, heavens, the American doesn't approve of my fashion choices," he said, heading for the bathroom with the top half of the unitard dangling loose about his hips. "It's like being advised on my choice of wine by a mumbling toothless fellow who lives in an alley."

"Yeah, well, so's your mother," Simon said, picking up the remote and unmuting the television.

----Shadow of the Templar, Book Four: High Fidelity, Part Eight

Nathan 'Nate' Waxman aka Specs 28 y.o., 5'9", tech (hardware), bomb disposal, all-around mascot, a nice Jewish boy from New Jersey.
Has a crowbar with "Speak Friend And Enter" etched down the length of the grip.
A more user-friendly nerd than Rich.
* I saw this guy who just fits my image of Nate, except more good-looking and fey.
* Can't believe he's older than Archer. He gives the vibe of being at least five years younger, haha.
* I don't like him that much in Book One, because I have this automatic resistance against characters that are clearly set up to be the cute, lovable mascot. It almost feels like he's OoC in Book One >_> He does grow on me as the series progresses, but I still don't like him as much as [SPOILER] this other nerd character.[/SPOILER]

Nate quotes:

"You speak Klingon," Rich pointed out.

"Not any more!" Nate flushed a little. "I mean, come on, that was in college, it was a long time ago..."

Rich snorted. "Verengan Ha'DIbaH!"

"Mu'qaD!" Nate automatically snapped, then yelped and pointed a shaking finger at Rich. "Oh, you jerk, and you were making fun of me for speaking Klingon!"

--Shadow of the Templar, Book One: The Morning Star, Part Two: Compromise

Michael 'Mike' Takemura aka Honda aka 'that crazy bastard' aka 'the loose cannon'
27 y.o., 6'1, undercover work, combat/tactical driving, general muscle, crazy
The Brooklyn-born son of a first-generation Japanese-American father and a mother of Hispanic descent.
* I just LOVE that his nickname is Honda. Not as bad as Toyota, but still.
* I keep on thinking his name should be Takamura (高村) =P But Takemura (竹村, 武村, etc.) does exist. (I love this Online Japanese Dictionary Service)
* Unapologetically sexist, yet turned on by domineering women, haha.

Mike quotes:

Mike made an irritated little gesture with the chopsticks in his hand, hitting himself in the eyebrow with a flying droplet of sauce. "Man, why does no one ever believe that I can cook?" he said peevishly, scrubbing the back of his hand across his face. "For serious, that's all I ever get from anybody: 'you cook?' I live alone, who else is gonna feed me, the Dinner Fairy?"

[...]

"I, I'm sorry," Diana said, hunching her shoulders a little. "It... just didn't seem like something you'd do."

"'Cause I'm so tough and macho and all," Mike said, his good mood rebounding. "Yeah, that's totally true, I am the manliest individual what ever wielded a spatula, I can see how it might confuse and intimidate you."

--Shadow of the Templar, Book Three: With a Bullet, Part Seven

Sandra 'Sandy' Leone aka Springheel 28 y.o., 5'7", second-in-command, undercover work, general muscle
Came from old New England money. The best martial artist on the team. Have kicked Mike's ass so bad on numerous occasions.
* The only woman on Simon's team, but she doesn't feel like a token female character at all.

Sandy quotes:

"Gosh, kids. Remember when the public library was your only source of dangerous information?"

"Oh, yes," Sandra said. "Back in the Dark Ages. Tell us about the fabled '80s' again, will you, Templar? Is it true that our ancestors didn't have ATM machines?"

Simon shook his head sadly. "Kids these days," he said.

"And their twenty-four-hour access to a vast cultural wasteland full of porn, illegal downloads, and bomb schematics," Sandra added.

"... there's porn on the Internet?" Simon asked. "You don't say!"

--Shadow of the Templar, Book One: The Morning Star, Epilogue: Coda

Jonathan 'Johnny' Pilgrim aka Texas 33 y.o., 6'0", weapons wrangler, general muscle
Started his law enforcement career with the local police force.
* I like his interaction with Specs, mostly. So awesome protective =3 Like his jibes at Honda too.

Johnny quotes:

"Actually, I told them not to leave any marks," Simon said, wandering back out of his office now that the fuss was over. "And hey, you look pretty unmarked to me. Good work, team. Bonuses all 'round."

"Could punch him in the kidneys a couple of times," Johnny offered. "Won't bruise but he'll piss blood for a while."

"I'd really rather you didn't," Jeremy said.

--Shadow of the Templar, Book One: The Morning Star, Part Three: Coalition

Richard 'Rich' Story aka Specs Two, 30 y.o., 5'6", tech (software), hacker-of-all-trades
A computer genius par excellence (and a nerd in the most classic socially-awkward sense). Native Seattleite.
* Total jerk to Archer, but you can't help but like him.

Rich quotes:

"So what was his point total anyway?" Rich asked, easing the van to an equipment-preservingly gentle stop at a red light. "You never said."

"Pretty high," Simon said casually, after a nearly unnoticeable hesitation. "Man's got some class, I have to admit, much as it pains me to do so. Plus there was the whole 'not shooting at me' thing."

Rich eyed Simon narrowly. "You can't give criminals points for not shooting at you. Once we start giving them points for not doing things, we might as well abandon the whole system."

--Shadow of the Templar, Book One: The Morning Star, Part Two: Compromise

You wish Rich is in charge of the whole Internet:

Rich had disabled every 'Reply To All' button in the building three years ago (after one infamous email exchange about reserved parking spaces that had grown, like a tumor, to be almost a megabyte in size) and no one had bothered to fix it yet.

--Shadow of the Templar, Book Four: High Fidelity, Part One

I want to include another fav. character of mine (after Archer and Simon), but it'd be spoilery. And their background story is so interesting too! (More than Sandra's, even). Ah well.

Again, the best thing about the books is the banter. There's a bit of a suspension of disbelief because you feel predisposed to like almost every single character in the series.
Only one character has almost no likable qualities. And he's sort of one of the antagonists but not really.

Hope that was informative. Enjoy!

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