Rating: 
Summary: Thought Provoking Thriller
Review: I usually read Mr. Carr's works but due to a bad review run by the local paper, I decided to check it out on abridge tape from my local library. The review stated that the book was too detail oriented ala Jules Vern. I found the abridged version to be delightful with only one section towards the later quarter of the book that was bogged down. The characters were fun and memorable. His reading of the story was another enjoyable aspect of the book on tape. Carr brings the ideas of information doesn't equal knowledge and the world wants to be deceived home with the story. While very different from his Alienist & Angel books, still a very enjoyable work.
Rating: 
Summary: Could not stomach it
Review: Yes, I kept an open mind DESPITE the fact that Carr's old New York setting was half the reason I loved his other novels so much. Killing Time sounded intriguing, and the first chapter swept me in, but soon into the book I felt like I was being lectured, scolded, tortured, and labotomized. I cannot get over how preachy this book is. Preachy, over the top in the sci-fi area, and in more than one place so violent that I had trouble getting terrible images out of my head. I certainly hope that this truly is a novel, and Caleb Carr has an ounce of hope for the human race -- enough for him to think we're worth reading another of his GOOD books.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: Like other recent reviewers, I'd read Carr's other books and enjoyed them, but this one was simply too off-the-wall and unbelievable to be enjoyable. The only saving grace was that it was a short, easy read. The "elevator talk" for this book, on the other hand, is a very interesting plot -- it's the execution that was the problem.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting extrapolation
Review: Although different from Carr's earlier work, Killing Time is an interesting extrapolation of current environmental and political trends into the near future, by a knowldgeable historian. I especially liked the narrator's attempt to look at all sorts of topical issues without illusions or political correctness.
Rating:
Summary: Wish I'd got it from the library.
Review: I was so anticipating this book since I LOVED his previous work. I kept looking-up "Caleb Carr" on this site and last summer I pre-ordered this book and waited longingly to receive it. I am, as many others are, disappointed. I couldn't get into the characters and the "techie" future. It may be a good book in and of itself--but as a Carr fan it just seemed wrong. Sci-fi fans will probably enjoy it. I can only hope that we will see more of him in the style we've loved for years. It is definately not a book I would have bought if Carr's name wasn't on it. PS--Did anyone else notice Carr sitting at the bar in the movie 200 Cigarettes?
Rating:
Summary: How could this be?
Review: While reading this insipid, uneventful, and (thank goodness for somethings), brief exercise in comic book-like drivel, I kept checking the jacket of the book cover to truly discover who might have authored this waste-of-time book. Certainly it couldn't have been the Caleb Carr who so deftly brought 19th Century New York and the dark themes it embraced to life in his previous two novels. I'm still shocked at the insignificance of his words in this one. Caleb, how could you?
Rating:
Summary: Unmitigated disaster
Review: "Killing Time" is yet another of those supremely implausible books that project a future world gone to hell (wars, disease, famine, ecological disasters) YET, absurdly, scientific progress seems to continue unabated. I would have liked to have given a negative rating if it had been possible. The story is so disjointed and uneven it truly makes for a difficult read. I detected several novels here - Atlas Shrugged (smart people take down the evil guys), Captain Nemo, The Time Machine, a Ludlum conspiracy. His "philosphy" is trite and juvenile: the internet causes the end of civilization (plus the wornout "evil rich guys" thrown in for good measure). He makes no distinction between a corrupt CEO and a dictator who kills millions. And his merry band (surely the most improbable group outside of X-men) try to "correct" this wrong through such means as assassination, forgery, planting evidence, covering up crimes, etc. The science would make a high school sophomore blush and the mad rush to complete the action makes it nearly impossible to get to know - much less empathize - with a single character. This is an unmitigated disaster.
Rating:
Summary: Do we have to beg?
Review: Caleb, PLEASE, PLEASE make this go away ! Its a bad dream, I didn't read it, its not true ! Its impossible that you wrote this. Please write another book about 19th century NY, bring back those characters, help me erase this book from my brain. I tried re-reading your other books, but it only mitigated the pain. Please help us, we are all suffering from this book !
Rating: 
Summary: Jules Verne for the new century?
Review: Caleb Carr is best known for mysteries set in nineteenth-century New York. This book is set in the twenty-first century but reads like nineteenth-century SF i.e. Verne or Wells. The parallels to Captain Nemo and the Nautilus are especially strong. So fans of Gibsonesque cyberpunk won't like it. The technology is sketchily described and blaming the Internet for the virtual collapse of civilization is a little simplistic. There are also logical lapses. For example in one chapter Carr descibes how dead the ocean is, fish having been wiped out by pollution and overfishing. In the next he descibes the teeming seabirds on the Scottish island of St. Kilda. So what exactly are the birds feeding on? On the other hand the story really moves and the characters are well drawn and likable. All in all the book might be worth buying used or checking out at the library. But I don't think I'd pay full price for it.
Rating:
Summary: Forget his previous novels and keep an open mind
Review: What the heck? Everyone attacked "Killing Time" because it didn't read like Caleb Carr's previous historical fiction works. And while I admit it wasn't as intriguing as "The Alienist" or "The Angel of Darkness," (and fortunately, also not as long), I thought it WAS perfectly acceptable science fiction, albeit clipped, serialized sci-fi. If you read the note at the end of the book first, you'll see that Carr was asked to write a serial story of life in the near future. I thought he did an admirable job with his "internet information controls convential wisdom" plotline. And the ending was surprisingly upbeat considering the apocolyptic tones of the rest of the book. I would've given the book 3 1/2 stars if able because, while "Killing Time" wasn't as good as Carr's first two books, it was perfectly acceptable as science fiction. So keep THIS day job, Mr. Carr!
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