Rating: 
Summary: Tale of Two Tired North Carolinians
Review: Cold Mountain is an interesting story, not of the Civil War, but of two people trying to survive in the midst of the Civil War. The book is widely noted for its imagery, which in my opinion was a bit overdone. If Frazier had reduced the amount of labored poetry just a smidgen, this would truly be a five-star novel. It's a good story about a man and woman of the rural south whose love for each other sees them each through a gauntlet of troubles, that they might be reunited. It deserves to be read because it is a unique perspective on life during the period, partly based on true characters.
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Summary: Simply Beautiful
Review: A civil war age odyssey that somehow tackles the contrast of humanity's goodness and evil without being cliche. Wonderful.
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Summary: Interesting prose, but too weird to believe
Review: Although I enjoyed Frazier's prose for the first hundred pages or so, that alone was not sufficient. I could not buy into the storyline for this book. The characters that Inman meets along his walk back home just were too strange to believe. Maybe one such odd character would have been acceptable, but this book is full of them. The ending was predictable and therefore rather boring. I picked up this book after reading a lot of nonfiction on the Civil War (McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and Shelby Foote's 3 vol series Civil War: A Narrative) in the hope of getting a more personal view of the common person's life during the war, especially in the south. This book did not fulfill my hopes in these respects. I finished not believing much that happened as really being true to everyday life in the south. Cold Mountain is a fantasy written in a historical setting.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible and Boring
Review: I'll be brief.. This is a horrible book. It gets negative 5 stars. Intensely boring. Strange for such a short read. I found myself waiting...hoping...praying for the characters to be killed off. Sadly, they mostly evade that fate, in the most unbelievable, unconvincing plot twists. Twists, that although weird, fail to ignite any enthusiasm for the storyline or evoke any emotion for the characters. People seem to enjoy this tripe, but I just don't get it. And I'm very glad of that fact.
Rating:
Summary: best fiction I've read in 20 years
Review: The other reviews say it all. I rarely read modern fiction because it's just so bad, but this one stands out as a must read, enjoyable cover to cover.
Rating:
Summary: Great Writing
Review: I don't feel the need to add to the many reviews that already lies in your web pages; all I want to do here is to let you know that this edition may require a magnifying glass for some because the print is so small. Other than that, I stand way back in awe of Mr. Frazier's fresh spin on language. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and gripping journey home from the war
Review: This is a must read for anyone who enjoys the historical period of the civil war. And also for those who enjoy colorful, complete, and descriptive writing. Frazier captures each and ever frame of this journey and pulls you in with his beautiful and haunting descriptions.
Rating:
Summary: this book is over-hyped
Review: I bought this book with great expectations. Was I sorely disappointed! I was forewarned that it started out slow but eventually would pick up. I was down to the last 10 pages and I was still waiting for it to "pick up." Granted the writing is very well done, the message is good, but I never got into the book. I felt like I was reading an updated version of the Canterbury Tales. Every chapter about Inman was about the people he met on his journey. The chapters about Ada were a chore to get through because they were so boring. And the end was just out of the blue. It was way too sentimental and sappy. I do not recommend this book to people unless they are English majors who can appreciate the prose.
Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a favor and skip this book!
Review: Cold Mountain started out well and went downhill with the crude descriptions of a sleazy female. If you don't want to read crude and degrading literature, skip this book. The ending stunk as well. I was very disappointed considering the rave reviews it received. If you want to read historical fiction based on the Civil War, try Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels."
Rating:
Summary: It started out beautifully!
Review: "Cold Mountain" is the story of Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier who opts out of any more pointless carnage, and begins a long trek home on foot. At the same time, his love, Ada, is struggling on a farm, without money or survival skills after the death of her father. Charles Frazier tells their parallel stories with grace and realism. "Cold Mountain" begins to succeed as a novel about the journey to self-discovery. Frazier's sharply descriptive prose, though exquisite, takes time. This is no fast-paced novel. It takes some getting used to, but once you settle into the rhythm of the narrative, it's a pleasure. Things happen as they happen. Even the many minor characters -- heroes and villains and their stories -- are full-bodied. As events progress, we come to know Inman and Ada well, and to appreciate their experiences and growth. And then, poof! It's all snatched away, in an ending that makes neither sense nor poetry, in literature or otherwise. The reader is wrenched from the story and the epilogue falls... and fails... like a lead balloon. The magic is gone, and in retrospect, "Cold Mountain" seems not nearly the masterpiece it might have been. The audiotape version is finely read by the author, whose voice and cadence are particularly well-suited to telling this story.
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