Rating: 
Summary: This book changed my life forever!
Review: I rate this book a Five because it is great and I happen to love adventure! If you are the same, I Guarantee you that this book will also make you want to keep reading untill the day is done. I have provided some information about the book incase you are a person in doubt of reading this book, thanks for reading my review and I hope that if you read this book you will enjoy it. Everyone knows that treasure makes you wealthy, very wealthy at that but would you risk your life to become very rich? This book Riptide by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is about this. It all begins with 2 young children named Johnny and Malin, their father goes away for the day and they are very obnoxious, wondering what it would be like to sail to Ragged Island. Ragged Island was a small island and the legend was told that it contained the treasure of the pirate Edward Ockham. This treasure was said to contain up to 2.8 billion dollars worth of treasure and large amounts of gold jewelry! The only problem was that ragged island was full of traps, when ever someone tried digging deep the hole would quickly fill up with water and after many years of digging the island surface became full of holes and the ground was unstable. Johnny and Malin were just going to "explore" this island so they took a small boat up to Ragged island in hopes of finding the treasure. When they got to the island Johnny got carried away and he found a tunnel, thinking the treasure would be there he went in Malin following behind him. Johnny lit match after match finally climbing his way to the end of the tunnel and as he looked in delight he saw a door with a fine embroidered seal on it. Johnny opened the seal and a giant boulder crushed him on the spot leaving Malin behind him, crying and no light to get back through the tunnel. Many years later a man named Hatch tries to find a man and crew brave and strong enough to find the treasure. Soon after a man named Captain Neidelman appears and is willing to take up the offer. He claims he knows who made the traps and who put the treasure there, but can the Captain and his crew really get the treasure out safely? Well the first day of digging hopes are ruined after a man gets his legs chopped off by a falling wooden beam that fell from aging. Will this stop them? Read the book and find out if they do get the treasure and if this incident stops the team from digging. This book was full of action and it kept me on the edge of my feet the entire time! I loved this book and once you start reading it you may never be able to put it down! I highly recommend this book to everyone and anyone because it is truly a best seller.
Rating:
Summary: A fun and wild ride!
Review: I'm usually bored with formula novels and I expected to be disappointed by this one as well. The buried pirate's treasure angle has been done numerous times since "Treasure Island", but never quite as well as the original. This novel, however, gave the story a unique twist that was entirely exhilarating and fresh. The story follows the latest (of many) attempts to retrieve the unheard of treasure of the pirate "Red Ned" Ockham. The book begins by giving a 200-year history of the fates of treasure-seekers and explains why they have all failed. The reason is the devious "Water-Pit" trap, designed by the architect Macallan, a man known for his church steeples and not for his booby-trapping ability. The story is believable and fun. The main character, Malin Hatch, is a lovable little schlep who occasionally grows cajones when they're needed. Unfortunately, his run-ins with Streeter and his bizarre love-life are laughable at best. His first-love, Claire, is a one-dimensional character easily forgotten. The exotic Isobel Bonterre is also easily forgettable, though much more interesting than the aforementioned Claire. The town preacher, Woody Clay, is as dynamic a character as Captain Niedelman, the leader of the treasure hunt. Both of them keep you guessing, which is odd, because zealots are usually uninteresting to read about. I don't want to spoil the book or the eventual movie for the reader. Just read it and tell your friends about it. This was my first Preston and Childs book and I'm sure it won't be my last. I enjoyed the mix of history, archaelogy, geology, computer science, medicine, cryptography, and architecture. This book made me feel much more well-rounded intellectually. Read it!
Rating: 
Summary: A fast book to read
Review: The book will keep you reading but many times it goes out of the main story and that makes a little bit boring the story, the story of the lost sword is good, but at the end I think that the writers just wanted to end the book and say that the sword was made from alien materials. It's not the best book but if you start this book you will end it because taking out the boring parts, the story of the island and the pirates will keep you interested, and is a really easy and fast book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic and intriguing, a real page-turner
Review: A great read; the story zips along at a brisk pace, and manages to be both terrifying and fascinating at the same time. I stayed up most of the night reading it; I had to see what happened next! One of the best things about this is that while the writers expertly move the story along, they don't cheat you of the journey. They give enough information to get your imagination going, then leave it alone for you to mull over for a while. Don't worry - you won't be left hanging forever.This works especially well in scenes involving Hatch's brother. We don't know exactly what happens to him (we know it isn't good), but it is far scarier not knowing than having it immediately described in dreary graphic detail. The eventual resolution of that part of the story makes for some of the most nightmarish and poignant scenes in the book. Everything feeds into an explosive climax, of course, but getting there really is more than half the fun. Get it. Read it. You won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing...most of the time
Review: I picked up this book at a local bookstore because I'd read a few Lincoln/Child books before, and liked their work. I was surprised to find it to be based of the Oak Island legend, which I had just recently read an article about, and that piqued my curiosity. Overall, I was fairly satisfied with the story, but there were a few weak points. First, I'll say good things. I liked the premise of the story. It's been a while since I've read anything about hunting for treasure, so it was a nice break. You don't see a lot of books on that anymore. Malin Hatch was an interesting character, with plenty of guilt and dysfunction to make him human, and brave enough when it counted. Riptide actually kept my attention fairly well, which is an accomplishment. I love to read, but that plot had better keep moving. Now, a few of the weaker points. Many of the characters were not developed well enough, and seemed to be mere fillers. In fact, I think Hatch was the only character the authors seemed really in touch with. That can make for some fairly disappointing reading. I also could have done without quite so graphic a description of being crushed to death(no, I won't tell you who), so if you're at all weak-stomached, skip that part. Finally, the end was a total let down. All this tension was built up throughout the book, only to be resolved in about a paragraph, and it wasn't a scary resolution. No exploding monsters, like in Relic. That was the major disappointment for me. Not the exploding monsters part, but the fact that the ending was so weak. Despite my complaints, I would still give it 5 stars. Well, I'd give it 4 1/2 if that was an option. It was a great read, awesome for curling up in a blanket in a comfy chair and letting the hours slip by. If you like mystery, archaeology, or treasure hunting, this is probably a good book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Preston & Child can do better
Review: I absolutely *love* Preston and Child, and normally their archaeology-thriller blend is right up my alley. But this is a lousy book, and even worse for having been written by people I know *can* write well. The plot isn't too bad, concerning a 17th century pirate's deathtrap of a treasure pit. As usual, Preston & Child have a nice sense of location, which in this case is a small island off the coast of Maine. But the characterization is absolutely nonexistent. Every single one is a stereotype (crude-but-brilliant computer geek, musty old technophobic historian, gorgeous French female archaeologist, brave-but-inflexible minister, etc), and all have been done better elsewhere. Yet this is a thriller, and as a reader I'm prepared to wince and keep reading for the sake of an interesting plot- too bad the plot completely breaks down toward the end of the book, hanging the climax on a transparent legal deus-ex-machina that rings false to anyone with even a TV-viewer's knowledge of law. Preston & Child have some good ideas here and some fascinating detail on cryptanalysis, but overall this book is a disappointing failure.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but not their best work
Review: Attempts to retrieve the pirate treasure of "Red Ned" Ockham from the Water Pit on Ragged Island have lead to nothing but death and bankruptcy over the years. Malin Hatch who owns the island lost his brother to the booby-trapped Pit in a childhood adventure that went horribly wrong. He has avoided his home in Maine and the dreaded island just offshore for decades. When Captain Neidelman shows up with considerable financial backing and a potential key to the Pit's obstacles, Hatch reluctantly agrees to another attempt to recover the treasure - now worth 2 billion and rumored to include the relic St. Michael's Sword. But the high-tech equipped venture quickly runs into problems and it's not at all certain that they will be able to defeat the 17th century architect of the Pit. With the exception of the main character, Malin Hatch, most of the characters are one-dimensional clichés and that makes it hard to care about them. Some of the characters turn villainous with no clear explanation of motives or reasons. The plot forges ahead quickly enough to gloss over the weaknesses in characterization. Unfortunately the plot also has several moments of feeling too forced. The general theme seems to be summed up by the Bible quote: "For the love of money is the root of all evil." Riptide is entertaining enough if you're looking for a lightweight thriller to read at the beach, but this is not the authors' best work.
Rating: 
Summary: The ancients had their own degrees of wisdom...
Review: This is one of Preston/Child's book that made me squeamish. Probably because I've seen some of the Discovery Channel and other education stories about the Oak Island treasure and the deaths it has caused to those searching for it. Besides, I'm not overly fond of the ocean except with my two feet on land, and looking out at it! Besides my husband's family includes Captain Kidd...there are loads of them out here in Beaver, PA. (poor guy, he was not really a pirate but that's another story). The basis for this story is the same as Oak Island. Someone gets this juvenile idea of getting rich quickly, and so they pounce on the owner of this island who has horrific memories of playing there as a child and losing his brother to it. These modern day treasure hunters are so arrogant, because of all of their machinery, that they continue the search regardless of the fact that the island seems unstable, people are dying with no obvious reason, and the electronic machinery is going haywire. But the 'captain' in charge of this treasure hunt is a bit on the manic side, and won't listen to anyone. He wants not just the gold but something called St. Michael's Sword, at any or all cost. Unfortunately, what he got is not what he imagined! This book was less enjoyable then the other Preston/Child books. It really gave me the willies, and punched up my anxiety a bit with the claustrophobic conditions. But it is still an enjoyable book, just don't go on the ocean and read it! Karen Sadler
Rating:
Summary: A great beach book
Review: This is a great book to take to the beach to read. Certainly it's a summer beach setting: a small town on the coast of Maine,late summer, searching for huge pirate treasure on a deserted island just offshore. And the story is actually plausible, because it's based on a true story. (More about that below.) Additionally, there was nothing overly objectionable sexually or otherwise in the book, so it would have the movie equivalent rating of about PG-13. I let my 13 year old read it right after me, and he devoured it in one day and loved it. This story is based upon the true story of the supposed treasure buried on Oak Island, Nova Scotia. You probably remember the story: the discovery was first made 200 years ago. When digging started, oak flooring was reached, then after digging deeper another floor, then a third, and a fourth, etc. You may remember the problem with the pit flooding, and the premise that the pit was booby trapped so that sea water would flood the pit and discourage any treasure hunters who didn't know the key to recovering the treasure. Why did I only give the book four stars? Just a few pet peeves that: (1) surely the good doctor would have "inquired" around about the company with whom he was negotiating before signing a contract, or at least see a lawyer, (2) why did he choose to become the doctor on the island and why that meant the company had to fire the doctor already hired (what's wrong with two doctors, or for that matter the doctor/owner just visiting each day?), and (3) the doctor most certainly could have gotten an emergency restraining order to stop the digging and it would NOT have taken weeks as the authors inject in the plot. But about 1/2 way through the book, I thought I had the plot "figured out", but didn't. The end of the book was first class story telling, after the plot drug a bit in the middle of the book. I wouldn't enjoy this book as much during the winter, I don't think, but it certainly was a great read at the beach earlier this month.
Rating:
Summary: Great... as always!
Review: This is the 5th book I've read by Preston and Child, and I finished this one in less than a day, so that should give an indication of just how good Riptide is. You will have a hard time putting this one down! Great suspense! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed any of their other books. A winner.
| 
