Waiting

Rating:
Summary: I agree with many of the other reviewers...
Review: a really great story idea, that wasn't executed well. The whole "Suicide Club" seemed pretty pointless to me. There were too many extraneous characters. It didn't add to the suspense to expose the reader to characters that added nothing to the storyline. And the 'surprises' about some of the characters really weren't very surprising. Way too many, way too easy 'clues' were sprinkled throughout the story.

Also - it would have been more interesting if the author had spent some more time developing the idea of another hidden culture, the science behind the story, and filling in some of the holes in the story's logic. Although maybe that's not a fair criticism if this book is a "mystery thriller" and not sci-fi.

Finally...I thought the very end was really stupid. It might have been kind of eerie if there had been any build-up to it, but it made no sense to me.

But what the heck, still much more entertaining than most read-in-a-day fiction. I still think its worth three stars compared to the other stuff you can buy on the run at a newsstand.

Rating:
Summary: Well-Intentioned Environmentalist Propoganda
Review: Here's the story: clueless t.v. journalist Archie's friend is killed in an alley by a pack of wild dogs. When this happens, Archie believes his death is NO accident and begins to search for the killer. During the course of his investigation, he learns about the existence of another race of beings which has been living amongst us for centuries. Archie's investigations uncover a vast conspiracy of epic proportions... Can Archie save humanity? Or is it already too late?

Okay, I am as concerned about the environment as the next person. But when I pick up a horror/thriller novel, I don't like to be bludgeoned over the head repeatedly with paragraphs and paragraphs of environmentalist propaganda. The novel assumes that all humans are idiots, care nothing about the environment and live in an ignorant vacuum. Not so. Some of us are scientist, researchers, anthropologist, or just plain concerned people. Robinson goes a bit too far in my opinion with the sermonizing, and , painting humanity with a broad-brush as possible, while portraying his created race, 'the old people' as being 'good, kind, and saintly.' Please. I mean, we get it already, humanity= evil 'the old people' = good. What I don't get is if the 'old people' are so concerned about the environment.... Why do they drive cars? Don't cars pollute the environment? And what about killing people? Isn't that wrong? I mean, come on. This novel practices an alarming pseudo-science. Humans are mammals of the Primate order. So are Robinson's 'old people.' Primates (especially males), of most species are violent. I find it extremely difficult to believe the 'old people' are somehow SO much superior.

While I really liked the characters, and some of the concepts, I got tired with the author's soapboxing. I also found the ending of this novel to be, extremely irritating. I was unsatisfied with the relationship issue between Archie and his wife, and never quite understood, the author's inference about Mark. While I recommend giving this novel a listen, be prepared for long chapters of thinly-veiled neo-malthusian dialog about eco-issues ad nauseum.

Rating:
Summary: Premise with potential nullified by clichés
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The beginning is strange but if you can make it to about the middle of chapter 2, you'll be hooked. What I was amazed with the most is the way Robinson created a sense of dread throughout the entire book. It was like hearing the low bass tones in a scary movie that gives you that sense of anticipation and dread. I don't know how he did it with words. Definitely have to tip your hat to Robinson on his writing style.

I had a hard time putting the book down, staying up late at night but not pushing myself like I have done reading Stephen Hunter. The ending was not completely predictable but I did have my suspicions by the middle of the book. The ending was a little bit of a let down, not for anything other than it seemed like Robinson was trying to meet a deadline and rushed to a conclusion, but it didn't ruin the book by any means.

I would definitely recommend this to any one who enjoys minor amounts of science fiction rooted in fact or counterfactual thought. It reads very fast and would be good for travel of vacation. The message regarding our environment is timely also.

For more details, go to aj.huff.org. Thanks.

Rating:
Summary: a very poor 'thriller'
Review: I was given this book. Once I started I couldn't wait to finish it but for all the wrong reasons (I don't like to just stop reading a book halfway through). I was curious to see what others had to say about it so had a look at the reviews here and was amazed to see some positive reviews about it. I had no connection with any of the characters and the environmental issues side was very heavy handed. Put simply it is a very poorly written book.

Rating:
Summary: Desperately needs an editor
Review: I was suckered into reading this book by the notation on the title page that it was an NPR "All Things Considered" top 10 book for the summer. I'll not fall for that again. The book has an interesting, even promising, premise; it is in the execution that it is so awfully flawed. Had the author a decent editor, or even an editor, maybe the glaring inconsistencies that overwhelm the book might have been avoided. I found myself aggravated over and over again that I was wasting my time. Unfortunately I have the `finish it no matter what" syndrome.

The enemy demonstrates his super power by making a 76 year old man do what is physically impossible. He crushes dog's chests with a thought, is able to dispatch ordinary humans by inducing heart attacks, strokes, etc, but somehow finds it difficult, to impossible, to dispatch the protagonist for almost the whole book? Knowing the enemy is destroying all who even casually know about "them" the protagonist cavalierly and with no guilt ignores those about to be killed. And while the "hound" has the power to dispatch mere humans with a mere thought, he suddenly resorts to bullets? The protagonist's adopted son disappears but his search for him is so tepid as to be unbelievable.

I hate sloppy writing, inept editing and hubris. This is definitely an author I will avoid in the future.


Rating:
Summary: Just defending a really good book
Review: I would like to start out by saying that this is an exellent novel and I recommend it to anyone. Usually, after I read a book, I check the Amazon customer reviews just to see what other readers thought about it. What I saw about this book was expected, people going on and on about the rediculous environmental propaganda. While the book did mention some environmentalist views, I did not find it at all disturbing. Some of these reviews make it seem as if every page you look at will give you another reason to 'save the environment.' That simply is not true. There would be maybe a few paragraphs of it every few chapters, and even though I hate it when authors include political views in a book, I found it bearable, and anyway it was overshadowed by the book's plot which I found very intriguing.

(This is not a spoiler; it is the equivalent of what you will read on the back of a book.)

In Waiting, the main character, Artie, investigates the death of a friend and fellow "Suicide Club" member. He finds out about the existence of another species of human, dubbed the "Old People," who have the ability to send thoughts into the minds of others, and the plot goes on from there.

In another review I looked at, the reviewer argues that the "Old People" are not superior to humans, that they are just the same, and that even though they are supposedly so worried about the environment, they still drive cars and pollute. Well, the fact is that to Old People are superior; it is essential to the plot of the story. And Robinson, in my opinion, does not try to portray our race as evil, because in the story, both sides kill. It is human nature, and yes though the Old People are a different species, they are essentialy human, and their struggle to take back the Earth from Homo sapiens is also human, and I do not think that it has anything to do with the environment, though they use it as an excuse. It has to do with territory. They think they can run the world better, so they try (again, human nature).

Anyway, this is not a big book of propaganda as some would have you believe. Though this book was obviously written to get the author's "save the environment" message across, it is not the whole thing, and you should not start the book expecting that. It is instead about a war between two species of humans, one which has been waiting to take their world back.

Rating:
Summary: Just defending a really good book
Review: I would like to start out by saying that this is an exellent novel and I recommend it to anyone. Usually, after I read a book, I check the Amazon customer reviews just to see what other readers thought about it. What I saw about this book was expected, people going on and on about the rediculous environmental propaganda. While the book did mention some environmentalist views, I did not find it at all disturbing. Some of these reviews make it seem as if every page you look at will give you another reason to 'save the environment.' That simply is not true. There would be maybe a few paragraphs of it every few chapters, and even though I hate it when authors include political views in a book, I found it bearable, and anyway it was overshadowed by the book's plot which I found very intriguing.

(This is not a spoiler; it is the equivalent of what you will read on the back of a book.)

In Waiting, the main character, Artie, investigates the death of a friend and fellow "Suicide Club" member. He finds out about the existence of another species of human, dubbed the "Old People," who have the ability to send thoughts into the minds of others, and the plot goes on from there.

In another review I looked at, the reviewer argues that the "Old People" are not superior to humans, that they are just the same, and that even though they are supposedly so worried about the environment, they still drive cars and pollute. Well, the fact is that to Old People are superior; it is essential to the plot of the story. And Robinson, in my opinion, does not try to portray our race as evil, because in the story, both sides kill. It is human nature, and yes though the Old People are a different species, they are essentialy human, and their struggle to take back the Earth from Homo sapiens is also human, and I do not think that it has anything to do with the environment, though they use it as an excuse. It has to do with territory. They think they can run the world better, so they try (again, human nature).

Anyway, this is not a big book of propaganda as some would have you believe. Though this book was obviously written to get the author's "save the environment" message across, it is not the whole thing, and you should not start the book expecting that. It is instead about a war between two species of humans, one which has been waiting to take their world back.

Rating:
Summary: Premise with potential nullified by clichés
Review: This book was mentioned in Stephen King's reading list (as an appendix to his inspirational "On Writing"). The premise of a race of "superior" beings living among us intrigued me. Unfortunately, that was the ONLY reason why I endured the book until the end. I couldn't care less about any of the two-dimensional characters, the corny dialogue, or the repetitious spoon-feeding of plot detail (how stupid is the reader expected to be?). I sped through most of the novel because I was anxious to put it away and move on to a better book. VERY disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: What a find!
Review: This is one of those books that I picked up because I could not find the book that I came for. Cover art sells books for sure. I started reading this book and had to flip back to the cover to make sure that I had never heard of the author before. This book was extremely well written. Some of it is predictable but you get mad at the characters for not seeing the obvious, but that adds to the realism because real people would not see the obvious either. I really enjoyed this book. It is light science fiction that readers of Sci-fi and mainstream should enjoy. Books this good cross genre boundries.