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Summary: Full of suspense! Hard to put down. Keeps you guessing.
Review: These two authors are top-notch. After finishing Riptide I can't wait to read their next novel. Riptide is captivating! A genuine page-turner toward the end. Most of the chapters are filled with suspense. I was kept guessing till the very end!
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Summary: Excellent
Review: Preston and Child have done it again. Riptide is an excellent tale. Lots of good clues throughout leading the reader to suspect what might happen. I could hardly put the book down to go do what has to be done during the day. I hope this one is translated to the big screen. Keep up the good work.
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Summary: An awesome thriller
Review: The legend of Ragged Island off the coast of Maine started due to the discovery of a "water pit" over two centuries ago that have stymied engineers ever since. The legend that has evolved around the "water pit" is that a notorious but successful pirate buried his treasure (estimated to be worth over $2 billion in present money) underneath the island, but set it up so that the maze of tunnels would constantly flood. Various efforts to extract the treasure have failed, leading to the deaths of several individuals. Dr. Malin Hatch, whose brother died thirty years ago in an attempt to excavate the treasure, leads a high-tech team in the latest effort to find the pirate's treasure. This time around, with computers, infra-red photography, an experienced treasury recovery team, and stronger metals like titanium available, success seems inevitable. However, human greed leading to treachery may prove more perilous to Hatch than the pit. There is also the realization that if by some miracle they can reach the treasure, what awaits them may turn out to be more hazardous to Malin and his accomplices than the pit could ever be. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, writers of THE RELIC, have scribed a fast-paced, action-packed adventure story loosely based on the infamous Oak Island pit. The characters, including the villainous "Water Pit", are more stereotypes than authentic people, but surprisingly that seems to add to the overall suspense. The crisp story line of RIPTIDE will be devoured by fans of the action novel, who will ultimately want to see the movie version too. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: It will be at least a 8 all books by these guys are great.
Review: Both of there others are great so will this one.
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Summary: Riptide is riproaring pirate treasure ride
Review: After reading Relic, Reliquary, and Mt.Dragon by Douglas and Child I was eager to see where they could take their talents next. And Riptide will not disappoint. The story takes place off the coast of Maine and for centuries treasure seekers have tried to recover the fabled treasure of Red Ned the Pirate. But all have failed until a secret code is discovered and a modern computer must match wits with 17th century cryptography and the computer does not fare well. It takes human ingenuity to prevail. Action and Suspense galore in this entertaining tale.
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Summary: NON-STOP EXCITEMENT
Review: I'm a fan of Preston/Child books, so when I saw this was based on the infamous "Money Pit" on Oak Island off Nova Scotia, I had to read it. In the case of the Money Pit, the mystery has to do with who built the pit (which, as in Riptide, has claimed many lives of would-be treasure hunters) and how it was built, as well as what exactly is hidden in the pit. In Riptide, the whole mystery is around how the pit was built and why no one has been able to penetrate down to the treasure. We already know WHO build it (the pirate Ockham) and we know he had amassed incredible treasure from his raids. So the whole problem is why the pit defeats everyone. The island's owner, Malin Hatch, gets a visit from a man who has discovered an old book that holds clues in the form of cyphers written in invisible ink. Crack the mysterious code and you'll learn the secret of the pit. This new source is the key to who was its ingenious architect and why for 300 years no one has been able to get the treasure. Okay, that makes having another attempt make some sense, but I could not understand why the Captain (and his salvage company, Thalassa) would begin the attempt before totally cracking the code. Wouldn't you want to learn everything BEFORE starting on a search that had claimed so many lives from previous seekers? Even if you had millions of dollars to throw at the project? I liked the characters in this story and, as in the authors' other books, characters come to learn about themselves as the tale unfolds. Events of the past come into focus as Malin Hatch returns to his quaint seaside hometown to find the answers that mean more to him than the treasure. But the lure of gold and untold wealth casts its spell and each character reacts in his own way, some being seduced. The character of the minister Clay adds a dimension to the story, as does the interplay between Hatch and the sexy archeologist Isobel Bonterre. Lots of people end up dead as diasaster after bone-chilling disaster befall the treasure hunters, and the truth is finally revealed in the last pages of this exciting story.
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Summary: Fast paced action packed!
Review: This is my second book by Preston and Child and I must say I was very impressed. This book was so hard to put down I found myself thinking at work when can I sneak in a page or two, whats gonna happen next? The characters are great and Stormhaven seems like a sleepy old seaside town. Great read give it a try you wont regret it. Pirate treasure, greed, and suspence!
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Summary: Riptide by Douglas Preston: the best book in the universe
Review: I am a new convert to the Preston/Childs books. I read the Relic and now Riptide. I thought it was a good book, not great but good. I liked the thought behind it. It amazed me that a pirate in the 1500-1600's could have built a trap like that under water.
I can't wait to read more of their books
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Summary: Could have been better!
Review: Having read other Preston/Child books, I was disappointed with this book. It centers on Malin Hatch, a middle-aged doctor whose family owns an Island with a buried pirate treasure. The island itself is loaded with booby-traps that have claimed treasure hunters over the years including Malin's father and brother. Each company that has tried to recover the treasure has gone bankrupt trying to overcome all the perils of the island and the traps that were put by its builder.
A team of high-tech fortune hunters approach Malin and convince him to let them try to get the treasure. Malin is haunted by the death of his brother and not knowing exactly how he died. He feels that he may uncover clues to exactly what happened to him. Malin must return to his home-town which is situated in a remote part of Maine (the town is close to the island) and reacquaint himself with the townfolk that he hasn't seen in over 25 years.
Of course as the team starts the operation, almost immediately one of their crew is killed. Then equipment malfunctions and computers seem to not work right. So begins the whisper that the island is cursed and any that try to get the treasure will be doomed. This is enforced when the crew decrypt a message left by the builder of the treasure vault, which says that he specifically built the vault with no way to open it and to kill all those who try.
Unlike Preston/Child's later book, The Ice Limit, this book seems to move at a very slow pace. There seems to be a lot of unfinished business between Malin and some of the townfolk, specifically his old girlfriend. While this seems to be very interesting, the authors chose to keep these interactions to a minimum. Most of the interactions are with the treasure hunters. The captain is as boring as a character can be. The only interesting character is a French archeologist, who happens to be a beautiful woman (is this an oxymoron?). Of course, she is attracted to Malin, but Malin seems to have his mind occupied by other matters such as lingering guilt from his brother's death.
There is some interesting history presented regarding pirates. It is stated that some pirates were Asian and there were many women pirates.
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Summary: Money is bad for you, especially in a Money Pit...
Review: First things first. The Money Pit is a legendary pirate treasure hoard that has been inviting - and claiming lives - a lot of treasure-seekers for years. No one really for real knows whether it is a location of priceless treasures or just a buzz that grew into preposterous legend. Several excavations had been done there but none came up with anything save for a puzzling slab of stone with some inscriptions that meant, for the moment, nothing. And also, the further they dug into the hole, the more perilous it became. This was because the location of the Money Pit was on a beach, where the tide can rise faster than you can say the book title. With those facts, Riptide cleanly incorporated these problems and puzzles into itself. The result is a hole where the promise of great riches lure, but the outcome is very questionable. Kinda like the stock exchange. On the bad side, the characters seems to me a tad underdeveloped. None of them stands out as memorable. That said, I'm a sucker for adventures, and this sucked me right in and I was happy to go along for the ride. This was a great book, especially when Michael Crichton's reign in techno-adventure seems to wane. Although there were a few techno-jargons, technophobes need not fear. And the ending is literally explosive. You will discover who and why Sir Christopher Wren is important...
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