Rating: 
Summary: Great reading
Review: This book was awesome. It showed that you do get second chances in life.
Rating:
Summary: The Christmas Train
Review: First rate audio production, a thoroughly enjoyable jaunt across America. Okay, okay, so I now want to schedule an Amtrak ride from coast to coast - which was probably the intention. So what's wrong with that? It was great fun, I enjoyed the characters and their shennanigans, recognized a lot of the scenery, and finished with a surprised chuckle - and a desire to write my first on-line review. Hats off to you, Mr. B - and thanks!
Rating: 
Summary: Sponsored by Amtrak
Review: I generally find David Baldacci to be a fairly middling writer of second rate, though enjoyable, thrillers.And I love books about trains. But the Christmas Train is a third rate book which reads like it was writte by Amtrak's publicity department. It is boring, trite and an insult to all good Train books. Don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Average adolescent fiction; bad adult fiction
Review: This is the only David Baldacci book I've ever read, and if the rest are as bad as this one, it'll be the last. This book was written in the style of a Hardy Boys novel, only without the exclamation marks: "Tom walked down the passageway, not knowing what a surprise was in store for him (!)." That's a paraphrase, but there are many sentences just like it, and the whole book is written in that tone. Actually it's not good adolescent fiction either, due to the occasional sex scene. This should have been a short story in Reader's Digest (minus the sex). A lot of people will excuse its faults, claiming it's just a fun Christmas story, but that's no excuse for poor writing. The characters are barely two-dimensional, and he relegates all the African-Americans to caricatures of proud but subservient railroad employees. You can tell he did his homework when it comes to details of life on trains, which is spouted by the characters like speeches from a museum tour guide. This book was a real disappointment, billing itself as warm and humorous, but's it's really a Grade B whodunit.
Rating:
Summary: Good!
Review: This is the first Baldacci book that I have read -- I understand that it is a different style than he normally writes, but I really liked this one! It makes you want to book a ticket on Amtrak -- of course, not in the winter!
Rating: 
Summary: Cute Presentation of Facts
Review: In THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN, Tom Langdon wishes to travel from D.C. to L.A. to visit his girlfriend for Christmas. He decides to take the train because he is permanently banned from flying on the basis of a post-Sept. 11 incident in La Guardia. While taking the train, Tom learns many things - a lot about his surroundings and a lot about himself. David Baldacci went to great lengths to find out facts for this book. Being a railroad buff, I was amazed to find that not only the technical parts, but even the character of the fellow passengers was very accurate. When you ride the train, it's almost like everyone is in the same class of society and no one criticizes anyone over things. This is exactly how Baldacci sets up the characters. If you want some laughs, some facts, and perhaps a fictional idea of what it is like to ride the train (if you haven't already had the pleasure of doing so) I reccommend this book. The only drawbacks I found are 1) some parts are a bit corny, 2) although every question was answered, the end was abrupt and the last 10 pages were perhaps the most corny because of it.
Rating:
Summary: Slow, Simple, and Shallow
Review: I did not find this book interesting, except in a few places. I gave the book a rating of 4 only because it did have a few areas that held my attention for more than 5 minutes. I agree with other reviews that our famous authors are not writing with the thought and dept they once wrote. The books seems to be written in a hurry maybe to meet a deadline and not to entertain a reader.
Rating:
Summary: story dragged on for too long
Review: The core of this book is a love story, surrounded by a passenger cast on a cross continental Amtrak train. Overall the novel is a disappointment. Basically the first two thirds of the book was a painful read. It drags on and on with dull and what-is-the-point subplots that prompted me to give up reading several times. But I managed to endure until the part where the train was hit by the avalanche. So it finally got to the climax of the story and it gave me a reason to keep going. The union of Tom and Eleanor is sweet, though the love story itself is so contrived and unreal. 2 stars for adding some twists at the last couple chapters of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Contrived
Review: This book was terribly disappointing. All of Balducci's
books are contrived but this was ridiculous. It read
as if a child had written it.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Let Down
Review: 6 February 2003 I just finished reading "The Christmas Train" and I must say that this novel was a huge disappointment - it lacked everything that we readers have been expecting from a Baldacci Novel. Raw energy, fizz, suspense, intricate plotting and deft characterisation. I am one of his ardent admirers and therefore the disappointment is more acute. This novel must rank as a dud amongst his novels so far. Hope his coming novel shall prove that "The Christmas Train" was an aberration. Intelligent writers like Mr.Baldacci are far and few in between. Please don't disappoint the readers again. Regards: R.S.Bivalkar
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