Waiting

Rating:
Summary: Great story idea; it put me to sleep.
Review: Great story idea - parallel species, end of homo sapiens. The characters are never developed; the dialogue is weak; the science is mainstream sound-bites; the story-line falters, and finally fails. Doesn't mean that someone won't make a movie from it, though. Check this book out of the library - use the public's money.

Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and a great read!
Review: With "Waiting," award-winning author Frank M. Robinson once again proves that he is a master craftsman, particularly when it comes to dialogue. He's on the money in terms of our (humankind's) utter failure as stewards of this planet. A thoroughly riveting and frightening tale, in large part because so much of it rings so damned true.

Rating:
Summary: the best millenium thriller to date
Review:

For thirty-five thousand years, they have remained in hiding, waiting for their chance to strike. Now on the brink of the new millennium, they are preparing to surface because it has become nearly impossible to remain in the shadows without being detected. They feel that the time has come to put in motion their strategic objective to simply take over control of the planet from the inferior Homo Sapiens.

In San Francisco, someone stalks Dr. Lawrence Shea, a member of the Suicide Club. Ultimately his assailant kills him. Another club member, Arthur Banks strongly feels that something sinister is behind Shea's death. Being a TV reporter, Artie cannot help but begin to investigate. He soon uncovers the frightening fact that another species is beginning to place in motion their action plan of superseding the humans before the habitat is fully destroyed.

Readings who have patiently been WAITING for the millennium novel need to know Frank M. Robinson has just written it. The frightening part about this novel is that it seems so real that readers will look carefully at their significant others. Picture a genuine version of The Invaders that combines the terror with a believable premise. Rod Sterling would be proud of this novel except that it could take place here and not the Twilight Zone.

Harriet Klausne

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: 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: 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.