Rating: Summary: Love it! Review: As usual, these authors came through again! Starts a tad slow, but keeps you riveted, nonetheless. Can't get enough of their books!
Rating: Summary: Ice Limit Review: I'll Make this quick. I loved the book. I have a science backround, so books like these are my baliwick. Very believable and I liked the characters.
Rating: Summary: A pleasant surprise Review: This book was a relief after Robin Cook's "Shock"(don't read it unless you want an example of how not to write a book)and I enjoyed it greatly. The authors were unknown to me and it was the luck of the draw that I stumbled on this jewel. I say jewel because whenever I had to stop reading it I felt a pang of regret, wishing I could read just a little further. The characters in the book are well developed, interesting, and plausible. This plot seemed to slowly unfold as one read and it was full of creditable surprises. The only reason I did not give it a five star rating was that I felt the book would have been better served by ending a hundred pages sooner than it did. In the last 5th of the book the characterizations seemed the lose some of their credibility and the speciousness of the story seemed to suffer from it.
Rating: Summary: Suspenseful and fun, but disappointing ending. Review: This is my first Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child novel. I can tell right of the bat that they are great storytellers. I was hooked on the first page. Basically this story is about the discovery of a huge meteorite on a island near Antartica. A wealty collector is willing to pay any price to obtain it and display it in the museum. As the story unfolds, a scientific team is send to retrive the meteorite. Of course, this rock is no ordinary rock and to survive, they must find out more about its nature a origin. The strong point of this novel is the heart pounding action scenes. You felt like you are there with the characters, whether they are escaping in the rough seas or lifting the meteorite. The weakness of the story is the characters. Although all the characters have a strong role, they are not well developed and there is a lack of main character. Sam McFarlane, the meteorite hunter, who seemed to be the main character actually took a much lesser role after 170 pages or so.The other big problem of the story is that the authors never explained fully about the nature of the meteorite (I don't want to give the ending away) and at the end, you wondered if there is going to be sequel. Despite these flaws, the book is more than readable. And very enjoyable.
Rating: Summary: Ice Limit Review: This is the ultimate read for the thinking person! Adventure, thrills and totally believable concepts.
Rating: Summary: Typical, Reliable Work Review: Let's see... take vaguely defined, mysterious intro, throw in generally one-dimensional characters who don't always get a long very well, send them to some off-the-beaten-path location, kill a few of them and save all the frantic action for the last 50 pages. Throw it in a blender and you get a typical Preston/Child thriller. The characters are underdeveloped, the plot is thinner than Godzilla 2000, and nothing really happens until page 400. But I didn't care. This is anything but high literature; it's page-turning pulp that would make a pretty entertaining movie and I enjoyed it very much.
Rating: Summary: Frozen solid Review: Hundreds of millions of years ago, a meteorite crashed on Earth near the country of Chile. What makes this phenomenon so unique is the size, weight and properties of the object. The existence of this mysterious rock has been unknown for millions of years until it was discovered by Nestor Masangkay. For some reason while the scientist is studying the rock a bolt of lightning hits and kills him. It will be a while before anyone expresses any interest to what happened in Isla Desolacion in Chile. Palmer Lloyd is the seventh richest man in the world. Whatever he wants, he gets. It does not matter what he has to do in order to get it. He will buy out, outbid or steal in order to fulfill his wishes. He is interested in the meteorite and he wants it no matter if it creates an international incident. Palmer hires a troubleshooter who in turns hires a group of disgraced professionals who see this mission as their last shot at redemption. The doomed crew will go to Chile, get the rock, and then get involved with a mad captain of the Chilean navy. The story has a lot of action and suspense but it is all for naught. The story does not finish with this novel that has an ending reminiscent of the Twilight Zone or R. L. Stine novels. Out of all the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child novels this one is definitely the weakest link. The characters are complete stereotypes that we do not learn much about until it is too late. Some of the characters previous acts are put into question that are not particularly cleared up. Sam MacFarlane had a falling out with Nestor Masangkay in the past and the story is not clear. The ending is open-ended leaving a chance for a sequel to pop up. It might answer some questions or not, only the authors will know. Try reading their latest work THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES. It makes up for this one.
Rating: Summary: BECAUSE THERE ARE ONLY 5 STARS! Review: LINCLOL & CHILD ARE THE BEST WRITERS OF THEIR GENRE, PERIOD!
Rating: Summary: BECAUSE THERE ARE ONLY 5 STARS! Review: LINCLOL & CHILD ARE THE BEST WRITERS OF THIER GENRE, PERIOD!
Rating: Summary: "The Ice Limit" is a chilling adventure! Review: In reading some of the other reviews of this book, it seems that there's little "gray" in the feelings people have about it. They either find it great fun and adventure or useless tripe. I choose to align with the first group! "The Ice Limit" is a novel set along the lines of what fans of Preston and Child have come to expect...good characterization, great gadgets, and "off-the-wall" plots. They certainly cover all three bases in this book! The 400+ pages in this novel seem to fly by due to solid writing and some rather short chapters. When the world's 7th richest man decides that he wants to add to his eclectic collection of world's "greatest and biggest", the reader is set forth on an adventure of grand proportions. What he seeks is a red meteorite weighing in at 250,000 tons. Money becomes no object in this billionaire's quest, so he hires the best experts and scientists and biggest ship that money can buy. Greed is the motivating factor for most of these people, except for archi-geologist Sam McFarlane who wants to study the meteorite for science's sake and Ship Captain Sally Britton, both of whom are seeking to put troubled pasts behind them. Weather and the Chilean Navy play big roles in the success and/or failure of this venture. Without giving away too much of the plot, let me suffice to say that there are twists and turns every few pages with an ending that certainly leaves the door open for a sequel. For those of you who like the novels of Cussler, Crichton, James Rollins, Robert Darnton, or a good "Indiana Jones-type yarn", you won't go wrong with "The Ice Limit". While perhaps not as good as the authors' eariler hits, "Relic" and "Reliquary", this book stands on it's own merits and would make a great motion picture.
|