Rating: 
Summary: Another fun Frankowski story.
Review: As with nearly all of Frankowki's books, the main hero is an engineer, so there are some passages that are best appreciated by someone with a technical background. These are few and don't detract from an enjoyable story line. The plot turns are unexpected and keep the story interesting. Overall a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Another fun Frankowski story.
Review: As with nearly all of Frankowki's books, the main hero is an engineer, so there are some passages that are best appreciated by someone with a technical background. These are few and don't detract from an enjoyable story line. The plot turns are unexpected and keep the story interesting. Overall a good book.
Rating: 
Summary: I was going to write a very in depth review
Review: but Jamie Jamison's review preety much said it all. Refer to his review for all of your questions. If you want a fun in depth read try this book. If you want an in depth book that is intellecually stimulating try something else.
Rating:
Summary: I was going to write a very in depth review
Review: but Jamie Jamison's review preety much said it all. Refer to his review for all of your questions. If you want a fun in depth read try this book. If you want an in depth book that is intellecually stimulating try something else.
Rating:
Summary: Can do better......
Review: Certainly the poorest book by this otherwise imaginative author. As Jonathan Swift used Gulivers' Travels to establish his views on the period's cultural and political establishments, so Frankowski uses this book for current day polemics. Character development is almost nonexistent, and the plot is thin and very predictable. One would almost think that this was an early rejected book that was dusted off and published after the success of the wonderful Conrad Stargard series.
Rating: 
Summary: Frankowski engineers another elegant Problem Solution
Review: Enjoyment of Leo Frankowski's books must come more easily to readers who are born to solve problems and bred to apply technology. An appreciation for the paradoxes involved in time travel often helps too. Want to know the dangers in over-engineering a ferrocrete yacht? Care to speculate on where and why Spam would be considered a gourmet food? Just want to get away from it all for a while so you can gain a fresh perspective on international trade and alternative political systems? Join Frankowski's daring duo of engineers on their round-the-world cruise. The story is told in the first person by one of the engineers, and his philosophical asides sometimes disrupt the flow of the plot; but I could not deny all five stars to any author who sends me looking for poems by Rudyard Kipling ["The Secret of the Machines"] -- even when he doesn't seem to know that the fiber component of hemp is the plant's vascular system and therefore not restricted to individual cells -- Super Hemp = No Problem. Good book, good problem solving, good way to spend a few summer hours.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Frankowski has always had a weakness for the Dea ex Machina solution to plot resolution, but except for the last entry in the Conrad Stargard series , he kept it under control. If you can't stand to watch your characters bleed (emotionally or physically), if you make it too easy, you leave your readers feeling dissatisfied when a Being With Godlike Powers bails them out with little or no assistance from your heros.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Frankowski's latest reminds me of many of the old SF short storys I read in the old Astounding magazine. Interesting but farfetced premise. I get the feeling that this is almost a libertarian tract disguised as a Science Fiction novel. In this book Frankowski has more in common with Jonathan Swift than with David Weber.
Rating:
Summary: A good, but not great read
Review: Frankowski's latest reminds me of many of the old SF short storys I read in the old Astounding magazine. Interesting but farfetced premise. I get the feeling that this is almost a libertarian tract disguised as a Science Fiction novel. In this book Frankowski has more in common with Jonathan Swift than with David Weber.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but disjointed
Review: I enjoyed this book. It was another fun read from Leo Frankowski, but different from his other books I have read. I was expecting that he had gotten tired of his Conrad books, as authors do, or felt that he had brought that story line to a natural conclusion, but was looking to do the same thing all over again with new characters in a new universe. It turns out I was wrong. He spends a few chapters in the beginning introducing and developing his characters to a much greater extent than he has before. I really feel like I know the two engineers. Then he puts them in an unusual situation by shipwrecking them on the floating island. So far all in line with what the jacket cover and reviews lead me to expect. His greater depth of character development, I chalk up to a more mature author. He did a similar job in the opening chapters of "a Boy and His Tank". Then he spends the whole middle of the book describing the Island, both the physical and social history. This is where I was surprised. Conrad, in the series which will always define Leo Frankowski for me, spent his time building things, and fighting. The new characters start off very action oriented, then turn into vehicles who ask questions so that the author can describe the Island. Then they talk to themselves about society in the real world and how it compares to the Island (the only part I didn't care for). They set out to build things, but don't have Conrad's luck, at least not at first. They try to avoid conflict, and in this they have more luck than Conrad, although they aren't completely successful of course. The Island is the main character in the middle of the book, not the people. But the Island is fascinating, and this is not a bad thing. Then the end, just kind of ends. The author did a good job of keeping me guessing. Right up until the last few pages, I wasn't sure which way he was going to go with it. But when he finished, it was a bit abrupt, and I said "oh" instead of "Ah!". I really got the feeling that the author reached the length the Publisher required, so he stopped writing. This book is a "what if" book not an action adventure book. What if this Island existed? Wouldn't that be cool. What if you were the ones who found it? Wouldn't THAT be cool! Guess what, it would be cool. Now that I'm done reading, I still think about it, the true measure of a good book. But I'm thinking about the Island, not the people.
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