Rating: 
Summary: Ancient Times Today
Review: A scientific accident breaks a hole in time! Terrorists go thru it to change history and three people from today and a shepherd boy from the past are sent back to save the world. Do they? Don't they? The read is fast and fascinating, and provacative. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen...think again. The ending caught me completely by surprise. The twists and turns of this story were incredible and the scenes taking place in the ancient world were riveting. It's a great read that is totally entertaining and thought-provoking!
JR
Rating: 
Summary: Implausible
Review: Consider the problem of having one automatic rifle with 200 rounds, and attempting to conquer or hold off an enemy like ancient Rome. There is just you and a friend. Well you have problems. For one, a Roman legion has several thousand soldiers; many more than you have bullets. And in close quarters, like a town, you are vulnerable to enemy arrows and spears. Having a rifle does not make you invulnerable.There have been great, classic science fiction stories written starting with such a premise. For example, "Janissaries" by Jerry Pournelle, the Lord Kalvan stories by H Beam Piper, and the Nantucket trilogy by S M Stirling. In all of these, the protagonists soon realise that they must start producing firearms for their allies. And in doing so, they must start with the simplest firearms. In fact, they must recap the Industrial Revolution. This book by Podrug does not address these issues at all. Two Muslim terrorists flee back in time to the time of Christ, intent on overthrowing Roman rule, for their own aims. Their characters are cardboard - the stereotypical Muslim terrorists. Though I grant that to many American readers, that might indeed be plausible. But as far as practical implications of what they are attempting - the book says nothing. The depictions of the Roman rulers and their puppets is right out of 'I Claudius'. Perhaps the author wanted to impress us with his erudition. Or maybe he was just being slack, and took his historical backdrop straight from Robert Graves' work.
Rating: 
Summary: Disapointing
Review: Dark Passage contains all of the elements that should have made it a must read for beach goers this summer. Ultimately though the author leads his readers down a well traveled path who's ending disapoints rather that surprises. Anyone who has read Michael Moorcocks Behold Man will recognize the ending with but a small twist to seperated the two. If the ending had been more original Mr. Podrug would have deserved a slightly higher rating possibly three stars. While some of his characters are mere cardboard cutouts IE: the mad general and the terrorists. The three main characters do stand well on their own especially Marie and David Ben-Dor. Overall this book was a two star read that with a little originality could have been much more.
Rating:
Summary: Totally enjoyable reading
Review: I bought this book on impulse. I wasn't sure it would be interesting. After just a few pages, I realised I had picked a gem. It has a lot of history of the area tied in but I didn't find it intrusive at all. I am not the type of reader that likes endless detail and desription. I felt that this had just the right amount. It kept my attention thruout and I wholly recommend it
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Average
Review: I usually do not like this type of book. I find many examples of time travel fiction are just kind of hokey, full of unbelievable characters and silly stories. One notable exception was Crichton's Timeline, which was a very good time travel book. Dark Passage is also pretty good, but it does suffer from some problems. The story is not part of the problem. It is very interesting in fact. Because of a top-secret government research project, a split in the time continuum appears. The government is shocked to find that this warp has created a connection between our modern world and ancient Israel in the year 30 AD. Before the government can figure out what to do with this new discovery, 3 Islamic terrorists manage to get through the tear in time. They're mission is to kill Jesus before he ever was crucified. With that, Christianity would be robbed of its seminal moments, and Western civilization of its guiding faith. To counter this nightmare, the governments of the world assemble a specialized team of rogues to go back and protect Jesus. The plot is fairly exciting, and the tension leads to a fairly entertaining story. The down sides of this book is the kind of corny, sappy science fiction writings. It always amazes me how sci-fi/fantasy writers can simply not write military thrillers well. The characters were kind of interesting for a while, but they quickly bored me. The process in which the terrorists got back to Israel was stupid and rushed. I made it all the way through however, and if you are interested in time travel or fiction set in Biblical Israel, this should be a fairly readable story.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but Average
Review: I usually do not like this type of book. I find many examples of time travel fiction are just kind of hokey, full of unbelievable characters and silly stories. One notable exception was Crichton's Timeline, which was a very good time travel book. Dark Passage is also pretty good, but it does suffer from some problems. The story is not part of the problem. It is very interesting in fact. Because of a top-secret government research project, a split in the time continuum appears. The government is shocked to find that this warp has created a connection between our modern world and ancient Israel in the year 30 AD. Before the government can figure out what to do with this new discovery, 3 Islamic terrorists manage to get through the tear in time. They're mission is to kill Jesus before he ever was crucified. With that, Christianity would be robbed of its seminal moments, and Western civilization of its guiding faith. To counter this nightmare, the governments of the world assemble a specialized team of rogues to go back and protect Jesus. The plot is fairly exciting, and the tension leads to a fairly entertaining story. The down sides of this book is the kind of corny, sappy science fiction writings. It always amazes me how sci-fi/fantasy writers can simply not write military thrillers well. The characters were kind of interesting for a while, but they quickly bored me. The process in which the terrorists got back to Israel was stupid and rushed. I made it all the way through however, and if you are interested in time travel or fiction set in Biblical Israel, this should be a fairly readable story.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Passage
Review: I was looking forward to reading this book. Mr Podrug seems to have an excellent nack for painting a visual picture of exotic locations well. Without giving anything away, I was extremely, extremely disappointed with Podrugs interpretation of Jesus being some ghostly zealot in cahoots with violent Jewish rebels. Add to that the extremely terrible ending where Jesus is painted as some less than god like weakling where the main characters must 'save the day' for him and the world and I might add most unconvincingly. The ending truly kills the entire book. I sincerely hope Podrugs next book is better thought out. His first book, 'Frost of Heaven' is a far superior book in every way.
Rating:
Summary: Potential plot leads to awful book
Review: Podrug's "Dark Passage" has a plot that could lead to great things - going back in time to stop people from killing Jesus! The premise is that terrorists have used a secret US time device to go back in time to kill Jesus before he's crucified and the US sends in three people to stop them. At times it seems like the author would rather talk about sex than about the plot, as the sex pops up throughout this book. The suspense is mild as the three have 2 weeks to stop the terrorists. I won't ruin the ending for anyone still interested (even after reading all of these reviews), but I'll just say it was disappointing. After spending so much time talking about semi-pointless information, the author ends the book in such quick and unsatisfying fashion that you wonder if you read it all correctly. (I went back and re-read the ending, thinking "That's it?"). Save your time, please. If you feel like you have to read it, go to a library and save yourself the money!
Rating:
Summary: The worst
Review: This is my first ever review and I'm only doing this to warn everyone else - this book is awful! I saw it on the shelf of my library and thought it might have a cool plot - WRONG! I like the idea of time travel but this one didn't think much through first. The characters are hollow, the action is semi-interesting, the author digresses into detail that doesn't help the story, and it sounds more like a romance novel with all the sex in here. This is the worst book I read in 2004, and I read over 150. Save your time and go find another book to grab.
Rating:
Summary: west coast reader
Review: What I liked about Dark Passages was that the three characters who save the world were basically people although each one had a talent. One was an ex-nun who speaks an ancient Biblical language, another an architect, and the third an actor. The actor had been with the CIA but was not a trained agent. W.E.B. Griffin called them "unlikely heroes" who have to save the world. I am bored with super heroeswho are invincible killing machines or who have sophisticated weapons. Having three reasonably ordinary people deal with the ancient world and evil, was interesting. I also liked the idea that they had to rely upon their wits and not modern weapons. The way the ancient world was described was interesting. It was well researched. I highly recommend the book.
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