Rating: Summary: Saving the world from the brink of destruction Review: Deep Fathom is an imagnative adventure tale that commences when a solar eclipse causing intense solar flar activity triggers a series of worldwide cataclysms. The resulting earthquakes and tidal waves destroy millions and change the landscape of the earth itself.U.S. president Bishop, escaping the disaster by flying out of Guam in Air Force One is lost over the Pacific as the jet mysteriously plummets to earth. Jack Kirkland, ex-Navy SEAL, ex-astronaut and sole survivor of a space shuttle accident is presently the skipper of the Deep Fathom. He and his crew are marine salvage expert and treasure hunters. While diving on a wreck containing a hoarde of gold bars in a submersible, Kirkland narrowly misses being consumed by an undersea volcano as a result of the eclipse. Kirkland and his trusty crew are son commissioned by his previous superior, Admiral Houston to salvage the wreck of Air Force One. While diving on the wreck, he discovers a huge crystal amid the pillars of volcanic lava on the ocean bottom that exhibits strange physical properties. A geologist aboard the Deep Fathom determines that Air Force One has fallen in what is known as the Devil's Triangle, an area of lost ships and missing aircraft in the middle of the Pacific. At the same time the eclipse has caused the upheaval of the ocean bottom near Okinawa exposing the "Dragons", two Mayan-like pyramids. Dr. Karen Grace, an anthropologist and her colleague and Nobel Prize winner in computer science Miyuki Nakano, while exploring the pyramids discover a star shaped crystal with strange markings that also exhibit unusual properties. While this is all happening vice president Nafe has commissioned devious CIA operative David Spangler to contaminate the Air Force One crash site to make it look like the Chinese sabotaged the plane. Spangler's sister Jennifer, an astronaut and Kirkland's fiance had perished in the shuttle accident. Spangler had never forgiven Kirkland and hated him for it. These scenarios serve as the backdrop for a fast moving and well conceived story that has a shocking ending. Rollins is a well versed adventure story writer with an expansive imagination.
Rating: Summary: Exciting- a real page turner Review: I read this book over one weekend, taking breaks only to sleep and go to the gym. The book is too hard to put down. I kept wondering what was going to happen next! Deep Fathom is packed with great characters: a former Navy SEAL fighting ghosts of his past, an anthropologist seeking evidence of a legendary race of people, a futuristic artifical intelligence computer, and a Vice President,CIA director, and Black Ops SEAL who are power crazed. While certain scenes (that I wont ruin for future readers) will call to mind James Cameron's "The Abyss," the main plot in Deep Fathom is original enough that it stands on its own and any sign of imitation is surely meant as flattery on the part of Mr. Rollins. I came across this title by accident, and picked it up because I liked the cover. Not the best reason to choose a book, but in this particular case I found myself pleasantly surprised to discover an author I'd never read or heard of. I will read other works by Mr. Rollins, and pass Deep Fathom on to my novel-reading cronies!
Rating: Summary: If you're a Preston/Child fan, this will not please. Review: I originally picked this book up in a bookstore on a whim. I regularly read the works of only three authors: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (co-authors of seven books) and Michael Chrichton. Every other attempt I've made to find an author that doesn't bore me has failed. So it was with James Rollins. The plot of this book leans much further towards science-fantasy than science-fiction. While that alone is not a bad thing, the... characterizations are. It takes very strong characters to make a plot like this really come to life, and this author doesn't even come close. A reviewer below described them as "...TV-Movie-Of-The-Week characters..." and that is right on the money. The characters are right out of every bad movie you've ever seen. Their dialogue is laughable, and their development is non-existant. The plot was interesting, but coupled with the poor characters it felt like watching a bad soap-opera where you'd like to know what's next, but you'd rather not suffer through the tedium to find out. When I finished the book I felt like something had been stolen from me (time maybe). Every time I click on a Preston/Child page it urges you to buy this book with it (where as when you go to buy this book it urges you to buy another Rollins book). Do Preston and Child have only one book? If you want to read some of the greatest fiction ever written, I strongly urge you to pick up one of the seven Preston/Child books (Relic, Mount Dragon, Reliquery, Riptide, Thunderhead, The Ice Limit or The Cabinet of Curiosities) instead of this.
Rating: Summary: For fans of Cussler and Preston/Childs Review: This is a good adventure story. Sunken pyramids off Okinawa rise from the sea during a series of massive quakes. What caused the quakes and how to prevent future a future world cataclysm are the jist of the story. This was a great read while campimg out this week
Rating: Summary: Unfanthomable Review: I liked James Rollins previous novels even when he tended to go a little too far into the unbelievable. They were still fun and like a Clive Cussler novel, you didn't mind how improbable the story was because it was well written. But when you read a novel that has you laughing at the incredulous plot, TV-Movie-Of-The-Week characters, villians derived from saturday morning cartoons, and then told at the end that everything is fine folks because we went through this time warp, (hey, how about the 'It's only a dream' storyline instead) something is wrong. Other Amazon.com reviewers have summarized the plot here already so I will not repeat it. I'd just like to say that Mr Rollins has done better and I hope will make up for this very bad book with future efforts.
Rating: Summary: Great 440 pages! Awful last 10. Review: What is with the ending? I don't want to ruin it for anyone that hasn't read it but...awful ending! I did give it three stars though mostly for the very creative history of this missing contineint of peole. I really enjoyed his first two books and was enjoying this one until the last 10 pages. Read it for the imagination the author put into a lost civilization just be sure to have a grip ball or something to take your frustrations out on when you get to the dreaded...What day is it????
Rating: Summary: Murky, But Salvagable Review: Apparently, Mr. Rollins couldn't seem to decide what kind of book he was writing. A military thriller? Science fiction? Suspense? Romance? The book starts by introducing several intriguing characters from different parts of the world. Then they all die. OK... Then we meet some considerably LESS interesting characters who do NOT die. Oh well. When all is said and done, we're left with two seemingly-unrelated storylines, and a couple of subplots. The story line involving the discovery of a lost Micronesian society was fascinating! I loved it. Every time the book switched back to the "real" main character and the military-style mission he was on, I wanted to flip the pages and find the really interesting stuff again. Of course, it all comes together in the end--complete with a trite and one-dimensional romance--all the wrongs are righted, and the earth is saved. I admit, I did read every last page, but I didn't enjoy all of them. More focus and a MUCH better editor would have benefited this novel. I found numerous gross grammatical errors which were very distracting, and suggested that even the person who was PAID to read this book couldn't seem to focus on all its inanities.
Rating: Summary: A great action novel full of twists and turns Review: I must confess to hating this book as I started it. I didn't like the introduction of characters that were killed immediately. From that point on, the book dragged a bit, but then suddenly, it started to hook me in and from that point on, I found it suspenseful and enthralling. Since I ended up liking it as much as it did, I still gave it five stars regardless of the slow start. The concept of a lost continent is one I found rather interesting. And the crystal pillar under the sea with the tie-ins to the Bermuda and Devil's triangles on opposite sides of the ocean was intriguing. I love and fear the ocean and find this story to be a plus considering most of it takes place on the sea and under water. All of the characters were well-written and the heroes likeable. This is a great action and suspense novel that keeps you reading until the end. In this one you get the sea, espionage, archaeology, not to mention physics and time travel. I liked the ending considering it redeems the few things I didn't like in the beginning. All in all, a great suspense novel that holds your interest. It would make a great film.
Rating: Summary: Deep Fathom Review Review: When I first started this book I got about 2 chapters into it and thought PUHLEEEAASSSE this is so cheezy. Some of the events that he started out with were like "didn't I see this in a movie or read it in a few other books before?" The whole space shuttle story with the main character was just a bit much for me along with the brother hell bent on revenge. I think that Mr. Rollins could have found a more creative or more unique way to establish the lost love and the contentions between the main character Jack Rollins and his nemesis David Spangler. Therefore one star gets knocked off the rating for that. HOWEVER, having said that, the rest of the book is AMAZING. It is very in depth, creative, and a thriller to read. Buy it, it's well worth it.
Rating: Summary: Terrible. Dreck. Review: Unlike most, I found Excavation to be much better than Deep Fathom. Rollins' strengths are in plot twists, engaging premises, and strong, stock characters. Unfortunately, he leaves all of this on the surface for Deep Fathom. In all honesty, I did not finish the book. I couldn't. It was simply too awful. Too many details rang untrue. Many of the stories premises were beyond the scope of believability. The characters were uninteresting, and the tensions between the characters was simply laughable. You can enjoy a book for what it is, but only if it is true to itself. This book came up empty on all counts. I have no problem with suspending disbelief. However, a book of this caliber has me running, not walking, back to better crafted novels.
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