Rating: 
Summary: Not The Alienist or Angel of Darkness....not terrible though
Review: I pre-ordered this book on Amazon before any information was available. His two previous works about the NYC gang hooked me. This book is nothing like those titles.Once I stepped back and took an objective look, I discovered that this effort is really not that bad. I was expecting more in character development and the plot was not as interesting as I had expected, but not every book you read has to be seemless. Let your imagination go and consider the topic he sets forth. I recomend Killing Time as a great book to read as a quick excursion. At only 274 pages, there is no reason to worry about "wasting time." Give it a try.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed!
Review: I had not read any novels by Caleb Carr when I picked this one up. His work had been praised by friends and I thought this a good opportunity to get aquainted (with the holidays coming the size of "The Alienist" was daunting). How disappointed I have been! I can sum up my review very quickly-this is a poorly written Sci-Fi novel with shallow characters I cared nothing about. The premise that "Information is not Knowledge" (the first chapter was the best writing in the novel) is proven true by Carr himself. His information and knowledge used in the novel to create his world of the future is on the money, but still does nothing to produce a novel worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Throw away expectations
Review: Carr is a historian, his message here comes through both in the telling of the story and in the way he tells it. Reading Killing Time is like reading Verne if he had had a glimpse of 1999. Killing Time has a timelessness about it; Carr's weaving of the classical science fiction style with a modern emphasis on psychology is masterful. The characters themselves could very well have traveled Around the World in 80 Days or 20,000 Leagues under the sea, and yet they seem perfectly fit to live in the 21st century. Killing Time doesn't fit in with either contemporary science fiction or Carr's own previous work (Perhaps this is where the criticism seen in earlier reviews comes from). It is both an historical novel as well as a look at the future. Tough mixture, but Carr pulls it off without a hitch, almost. This novel has a cliche ending that doesn't sit well with Carr's previous works or this novel itself. Carr's prose is fascinating, engaging, and uplifting. It is a surprisingly uplifting novel that is worth reading. Just don't expect a contemporary science fiction novel, it isn't one. Come to it without expectations. Killing Time is intelligent, fun and amazingly worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Knowledge of Time
Review: Carr's new novel proves without a doubt that here is an author that can successfully write books with scenarios set in the past and in the future. Killing Time is right up there with books authored by writers like Jules Verne. It brings to mind the sci-fi novel,"l984". It is a good read. Perhaps readers like myself, who could not put this book down, spend a lot of time on the Internet and the portent for mind control, given human nature, is there. After all, are we not all being presently fed "information" via the media about the election of the President of the United States that, daily, has turned out to be mostly "misinformation"? If one likes sci-fi novels that are well written, they will love this one.
Rating:
Summary: What a Disappointment
Review: This is the most disappointing book I have read in a long time. As with the other reviewers, I became a Caleb Carr fan through his previous two books, and I bought this one as soon as I saw it. I can only think he decided to make a quick buck off of his name or he simply wanted a vehicle for his book long diatribe against modern society and its technological trappings. The plot is contrived and illogical, and the characters are shallow to the point of cartoonish. Even the science, what there is of it in the book, is bad. The hand held "rail gun" that purportedly delivered enough energy to disintegrate a human body into small pieces would have enough recoil to kill the user. In the chase of the fanatic terrorist the group had ample opportunities to eliminate him but the author contrived illogical reasons why they could not do so in order to keep the chase going. I just wish the rating system allowed for zero stars. This book earned it.
Rating:
Summary: Pulp Genius!
Review: Judging by some of the other reviews here I think people missed the author's intent. This book is an homage to Jules Verne, HG Wells, and other lterary science adventures of the past. Coincidentally I had read 20,000 Leagues, Master of the World, and Journey to the Center of the Earth just a few months ago. Carr captures the flavor of those books perfectly. Channeling the confident passion with which they were written. I wish I had a better understanding of the era when those Verne books were first published. I surmise the world was on the cusp of tremendous change fostered by science and technology. Times similar to our own. When I read those Verne books I didn't quite get their appeal. I was coming at them from a modern perspective. But after reading Carr's book, I understood how it must've felt to read them when they were new. Does any of this make sense? Put Killing Time in the proper context and you'll be blown away by it's brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: And now for something completely different
Review: As a great fan of the first Carr books -- the historical mysteries set in Old New York City -- I looked forward eagerly to his third. It is clear that Carr wants to get out of his historical niche and try his hand at something new; he has set his new book in 2024. His determination to break with the past may be what Carr wants, but it is a great disappointment to this reader. The novel is filled with the coy prognostications of doom and hindsight that seem more smug than inventive and are so familiar in trite examples of that genre. True, he has attempted to create a strange book universe as he did with the New York City of 100 years ago. But it comes off as more a draft for a sci-fi movie than a satisfying read. In fairness to potential readers, I only made it to page 100. It may have gotten better thereafter. Somehow I doubt that.
Rating:
Summary: Do not waste your money!
Review: If you've read Carr's earlier books, and had filed him away among those reasonably competent authors with some promise of future improvement, now is the time to strike him off your list. Killing Time isn't just a bad book, it displays levels of incompetence that would have been laughed out of a junior college freshman writing seminar. It also puts his other work in a new context. The only conclusion is that Carr's numerous editors made the cynical decision to milk this cash cow down to the last drop. Don't waste your money, this bucket is empty.
Rating:
Summary: Carr Crash
Review: I expected Alienist II but got Plan Nine From Outer Space.... The premise was interesting but didn't go anywhere. Please stick to historical not hysterical
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious but messy sci fi novel.
Review: I agree with most of the other readers' comments. The idea about how the Internet could be overtaken by one group and then used to throw the world in chaos by illusionary "discoveries"( that are forged) is unique and interesting. Unfortunately, the characters and their motivations are not! We never get to care for the people in the book because they are all bad in some way. The only interesting plot line was the one in Africa...and that's 25 pages til the end. Even chasing Dov was boring and the result predicatable and not enlightening. Totally dissappointed by this author who's last 2 books were brilliant. I wonder if this being a serialized novel in the magazine TIME first was part of the problem?? Just a mess, really. Buy THE WALKING by Bentley Little instead.
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