Taken

Rating:
Summary: "Taken" - A sci-fi classic
Review: "Taken", by Thomas Cook is the thrilling tale Randall Keys, an Air Force pilot who was flying on the night when a suposed alien crash took place in Roswell, New Mexico. Keys is traumatized by the events that he witnessed that night. He claims to be abducted and is set on telling the world of what is ou there. If aliens and abdutions arn't your thing you can still get into this one because of all the interesting sub plots. This book is very good and has been on bestsellers list for long periods of time.
This book is so popular it even has a tv series of the same name. I haven't seen the series, and I can only hope it is as good as this book. The only thing more I can hope for out of the series is an different ending so I can compare the ways the book and show differ. The plot pulled me in and the characters came to life on the page. Although, many people are complaining about the end, but I think the end was just fine. My only problem with the book was the aliens motives. The explanation for the abductions was absurd. Even I didn't believe the explanations, and I believe a lot of things. For anyone who isn't a hard-core, let's-all-go-to-Roswell UFO fan, I highly reccommend this book. Anyone who doesn't fit in that catagory should read something that isn't "fiction", however some may get into it.

Rating:
Summary: "Taken" - A sci-fi classic
Review: "Taken", by Thomas Cook is the thrilling tale Randall Keys, an Air Force pilot who was flying on the night when a suposed alien crash took place in Roswell, New Mexico. Keys is traumatized by the events that he witnessed that night. He claims to be abducted and is set on telling the world of what is ou there. If aliens and abdutions arn't your thing you can still get into this one because of all the interesting sub plots. This book is very good and has been on bestsellers list for long periods of time.
This book is so popular it even has a tv series of the same name. I haven't seen the series, and I can only hope it is as good as this book. The only thing more I can hope for out of the series is an different ending so I can compare the ways the book and show differ. The plot pulled me in and the characters came to life on the page. Although, many people are complaining about the end, but I think the end was just fine. My only problem with the book was the aliens motives. The explanation for the abductions was absurd. Even I didn't believe the explanations, and I believe a lot of things. For anyone who isn't a hard-core, let's-all-go-to-Roswell UFO fan, I highly reccommend this book. Anyone who doesn't fit in that catagory should read something that isn't "fiction", however some may get into it.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to adapt
Review: A twenty hour mini-series is difficult to adapt as a novel. I think Cook did an adequate job, but the book varies little from the series so if you've seen it--- there's not much point in reading the book. There are other variations out there in novel form on this subject matter that take it to a deeper and more intriguing level. I'm anxiously awaiting the publication of Area 51 The Truth right after Christmas-- the 7th and concluding book in the Area 51 series by Robert Doherty. You might want to check out his take on the alien angle and conspiracies.

Rating:
Summary: A Reversal of the Usual
Review: A very quick, entertaining read. Cook said in an interview he was concerned with the pace of the novel, and pace is sure not a problem. It zips along. The problem is, it zips too quickly. In novelizing Leslie Boehm's epic teleplay, Cook adapted the equivalent of 10 TV-movies ... and rather than expanding upon the material (at least somewhat, as is the wont of most novelizations), he has streamlined -- summarized non-essential scenes, dropped tertiary characters, etc. At times the book reads like a riveting "treatment," a story expertly compacted, rather than a "real" novel. And I have a feeling that TAKEN might have benefited from allowing the story to breathe more -- not sprawl, but allow the characters to be more than essences and archetypes.

That said, I don't know that Mr. Cook is at fault. His contract may have mandated getting the final product down to a limited word count ... these novelization gigs don't come without strings, and the final drafts have to be approved by the film's honchos as well as its editor. If a distillation was, in fact, his job, he has done it well. Whatever else is true, he keeps the tale interesting and taut ... and the book is never dull. (There's no time for it to be!)

Rating:
Summary: TAKEN IS WELL WORTH READING AFTER WATCHING THE MINISERIES.
Review: After watching Taken, the two-week long, miniseries, you're left with questions in your mind. This book answers them. Maybe it isn't the most exciting reading, but it's sort of like Cliff Notes on the miniseries. I think it's great.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the Miniseries but still a good read.
Review: After watching the telivesion event I thought it would be nice to read the book. The characters arn't explained and two of my favorite scenes (In my opinion also important) was droped. To not spoil it if you haven't seen it I'll give you little clues: The scene were Chet Wakeman sends a very special E-Mail to Mary and the scene were Allie demonstrates here powers on Charlie. Anyways it was an interesting read, probably worth it, missing descriptive details though. Try it out for yourself, see how you like it.

Rating:
Summary: Wasted money--don't waste yours!
Review: Although I did not see the series, I gather from the book jacket that Taken was based on one. Whatever the quality of the acting may have been, the quality of the written work is quite good. It's not exactly major literature, but it definitely has major entertainment value-and how many of us would actually sit down with Tolstoy for an afternoon without a grade point average hanging over us?

The characters are made multidimensional through a series of individual vignettes that carry the reader through the lives and interactions of several people in at least three families. The perspective changes in each of these vignettes, which allows the reader to take in more information than any one of the characters has, much like the diaries in Dracula do. The tale itself is not given in any great depth. There is no build up based entirely on the emotive impact of colorful imagery; the narrative is primarily responsible for giving information on the settings and that alone. The mini-chapters last mere paragraphs and the drama takes place predominantly in dialogue rather than descriptive form and are designed to engage the reader in the lives and personalities of the characters. This probably reflects the cinematic venue of the original work where The Character is everything. This makes the story a rapid read and difficult to put down; I finished it in a matter of hours despite multiple interruptions.

I wasn't quite as enamored with the ending, though. It was as if the author enjoyed tailoring his characters and telling the story of their experiences, but couldn't find as tailored an ending for the work. It just sort of stops, as though he wasn't sure what great message he was trying to convey. There doesn't seem to be any impacting moral or definitive statement to be made, no real purpose to the story that would bring the whole to a conclusion. The little girl brings all the pieces together, but that is all that is accomplished. The only surprise is that there isn't a surprise. (I wondered if the little girl wouldn't turn out to be the second coming of Christ, or something similar). I suspect that this too is a function of the story's original starting point. A series based on a collection of characters and their interactions isn't really designed to have a "point" only to entertain and keep the audience returning every week. Although there is an effort to provide continuity from week to week, the end of the series is not necessarily designed into the project from inception. One presumes the authors hope it goes on for some time. Certainly endings can be designed to meet the need when a series ends, but that usually arises when the need for it does. In fact the finale for a popular series can be a media event.

The book is a quick and satisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: A quick and satisfying read
Review: Although I did not see the series, I gather from the book jacket that Taken was based on one. Whatever the quality of the acting may have been, the quality of the written work is quite good. It's not exactly major literature, but it definitely has major entertainment value-and how many of us would actually sit down with Tolstoy for an afternoon without a grade point average hanging over us?

The characters are made multidimensional through a series of individual vignettes that carry the reader through the lives and interactions of several people in at least three families. The perspective changes in each of these vignettes, which allows the reader to take in more information than any one of the characters has, much like the diaries in Dracula do. The tale itself is not given in any great depth. There is no build up based entirely on the emotive impact of colorful imagery; the narrative is primarily responsible for giving information on the settings and that alone. The mini-chapters last mere paragraphs and the drama takes place predominantly in dialogue rather than descriptive form and are designed to engage the reader in the lives and personalities of the characters. This probably reflects the cinematic venue of the original work where The Character is everything. This makes the story a rapid read and difficult to put down; I finished it in a matter of hours despite multiple interruptions.

I wasn't quite as enamored with the ending, though. It was as if the author enjoyed tailoring his characters and telling the story of their experiences, but couldn't find as tailored an ending for the work. It just sort of stops, as though he wasn't sure what great message he was trying to convey. There doesn't seem to be any impacting moral or definitive statement to be made, no real purpose to the story that would bring the whole to a conclusion. The little girl brings all the pieces together, but that is all that is accomplished. The only surprise is that there isn't a surprise. (I wondered if the little girl wouldn't turn out to be the second coming of Christ, or something similar). I suspect that this too is a function of the story's original starting point. A series based on a collection of characters and their interactions isn't really designed to have a "point" only to entertain and keep the audience returning every week. Although there is an effort to provide continuity from week to week, the end of the series is not necessarily designed into the project from inception. One presumes the authors hope it goes on for some time. Certainly endings can be designed to meet the need when a series ends, but that usually arises when the need for it does. In fact the finale for a popular series can be a media event.

The book is a quick and satisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: Why is their a different endind?
Review: Duh. The ending on Taken: the novel by Thomas Cook is different from the ending on the tv mini-series by Steven Speilberg. I think that what people don't nottice is that the book is copy writen and came out somewhere from the end of october to november (according to the copy rights on the fourth page of the book). This means that the ending and the character development would be different because it would be like giving away the story before the series comes out. I am sure that alot of people may not have been so attracted to the series if they did not make it a little different.

Rating:
Summary: hope the movie is as good as the book
Review: Excellant from front to back.Based more on fact than fiction.Spooky,check it out.I was there in Roswell 1947.