Perhaps the ultimate model for the Tanner Series is The Odyssey (c.1050-850 B.C.) with the hero traveling through the world, meeting adventures, some of which threaten to keep him from getting home. In Tanner's Twelve Swingers, Tanner keeps picking up impedimenta, people who want him to rescue them, making each new stage of the journey more difficult.

The first Tanner adventure refers repeatedly to James Bond, distinguishing Tanner from the glamorous super spy. Tanner can be seen as an antiBond. Tanner has no license to kill and he often chooses guile rather than brutality in the series. He does not have the sophisticated technology of Bond's tricky concealed weapons. Technology requires the backing of the system, and Tanner is on his own. In the Tanner books the world is not divided into two camps with the angels on the side of the superspy and...