Rating: 
Summary: A MUST READ for ACC fans!!!
Review: I thought the book was WONDERFUL!! It seemed like pure Sci Fi.
Clarke with McQuay did much better than Clarke and Lee! (read this the the first 2 Rama books and you will see what I mean)
You have to read this book if you love Sci Fi and reading!!
Rating: 
Summary: What a Disappointment!
Review: As a geophysicist and a serious sci-fi fan, I had high hopes for this book. What a disappointment. I was glad to see that Arthur C. Clarke had not in fact written the book, but shame on him for allowing such drivel to be printed under his name! First, the "science," or lack thereof. The continents began with Pangea, before which there were no earthquakes or volcanoes? Huh? So all the hero needs to do to rid the earth of evil earthquakes is to "spot-weld" the plates and stop plate tectonics. (No mention is made of what the earth would do with the tremendous heat trapped inside, which is what drives plate tectonics in the first place.) A.C.C. should have spent an afternoon reading the most basic modern geology textbook before he gave the book his stamp of approval. The idea of earthquake prediction is an interesting one, but a reader would never know it from reading this book. The mixture of pseudo-science and hocus-pocus (the protagonist's arm aches as an earthquake approaches, no kidding!) was a mess. I am willing to suspend disbelief when reading sci-fi, but I don't expect to have to suspend it anew with every paragraph. The societal underpinnings of the book were no better than the science. There seems to be no concept of societal inertia; the whole society accepts radical swings in social order and national identity over less than thirty years without even a reminiscence of the "good old days" (or bad old days for that matter). The cultural and racial stereotypes are tiresome, and all the convenient falling in and out of love is a bore. There's even a poorly developed but emotionally manipulative infanticide thrown into the mix. I trudged through the book to the end so I would know what to say when one of my students asks me about it. I'd advise everyone else not to bother.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs to be Streamlined
Review: As a student of fiction writing, I'm seeing ever more clearly that "if it don't add to the story, subtract it" is a valuable maxim to remember. "Richter 10"'s story, in my opinion, could be accomplished with half the bloat I've encountered so far in my reading. The basic gist: Protaganist Lewis Crane predicts an earthquake with some accuracy on Sado, flubs it in Middle America, and has to re-establish his credibility in order to predict a much more deadly quake...but now he wants to stop it, and all future quakes. A sufficient basic plot line that can be fleshed out in several ways. How it was done troubles me. Nation of Islam stereotypes, China taking over America (yet leaving a farce semblance of American life and gov't intact), a woman posing as a man/spy, and perhaps my biggest concern...I find it hard to like the protagonist. He comes across as a drunken crazy man seeking vengeance against Mother Earth for the death of his parents during the Northridge Quake of 1994. His idea to "spot weld" tectonic plates, thereby stopping tectonic movement and future quakes, using nuclear blasts...how sane is that? And scientifically responsible? Other reviewers have already noted the problems with this plan. I've never read any other Arthur C. Clarke work before this book. Perhaps I should read 2001 so my experience with this author is broadened. Science Fiction is a tricky genre to write for...I want to give the guy a chance this book hasn't yet done for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Not excellent, but pretty good
Review: As an Arthur C. Clarke junkie, I was surprised to find a book by hin that I hadn't read that was also eight years old. Well, it turns out that it wasn't really written by him, but he had enough input into it (see other reviews for details) that he got authorship credit (although he shouldn't have been at the top). About the only thing I had trouble with was the rash of intense and destructive earthquakes that kept showing up in the book. If such disasters happened at the rate and scale they did here, the world economy would really tank, but somehow they just seemed to cause ripples. I found the characters to be quite interesting and pretty believable, except for the male impersonator (no really good reason for that, and when the character was discussed, it was a bit confusing when folks called her "him" and when she was alone, she was "her"). This book is a definite page-turner, with just a few minor issues.
Rating:
Summary: Not excellent, but pretty good
Review: As an Arthur C. Clarke junkie, I was surprised to find a book by hin that I hadn't read that was also eight years old. Well, it turns out that it wasn't really written by him, but he had enough input into it (see other reviews for details) that he got authorship credit (although he shouldn't have been at the top). About the only thing I had trouble with was the rash of intense and destructive earthquakes that kept showing up in the book. If such disasters happened at the rate and scale they did here, the world economy would really tank, but somehow they just seemed to cause ripples. I found the characters to be quite interesting and pretty believable, except for the male impersonator (no really good reason for that, and when the character was discussed, it was a bit confusing when folks called her "him" and when she was alone, she was "her"). This book is a definite page-turner, with just a few minor issues.
Rating: 
Summary: Arthur C. who??
Review: At least Mr Clarke is honest enough to admit that
this book is (the late) Mike McQuay's work based
on an 850-word movie outline penned by A.C.C., to
which it bears only a passing resemblance.
Mr McQuay apparently forgot that GOOD science
fiction should still be plausible. Earthquakes
predicted to the hour and minute? I don't think
so Mike! Asian candidate for the US Presidency
with a very hard to hide secret? Nope again.
Plus we get a collection of stereo-typically crazy
Islamics to 'spice' this patchy plot up and some
1960's style nuclear fallout 'drama' as well.
And that ending - sheesh!!
A dissapointing mish-mash that really shouldn't
have Clarke's name on it at all - and certainly
not in big letters above the title.
Rated 3 (add 1 or 2 if you're undemanding)
Rating:
Summary: This isn't even by Arthur C. Clarke!
Review: Before you pick up Richter 10, read the authors notes at the end of the book. You will discover that this book was not written by A.C.C. The idea was concieved by him, but then handed over to Mike McQuay. A.C.C. is NOT to author of this book. In fact, he didn't even talk to Mike McQuay during the writing of the book and never even met him. So any reviewers who say that this is one of Clarke's best, you are wrong. This is one of Clarke's mistakes that somehow got his name on the cover. Im not critisizing Mike McQuay, but he simply isn't as good as A.C.C., so don't expect to much.
Rating:
Summary: This isn't even by Arthur C. Clarke!
Review: Before you pick up Richter 10, read the authors notes at the end of the book. You will discover that this book was not written by A.C.C. The idea was concieved by him, but then handed over to Mike McQuay. A.C.C. is NOT to author of this book. In fact, he didn't even talk to Mike McQuay during the writing of the book and never even met him. So any reviewers who say that this is one of Clarke's best, you are wrong. This is one of Clarke's mistakes that somehow got his name on the cover. Im not critisizing Mike McQuay, but he simply isn't as good as A.C.C., so don't expect to much.
Rating:
Summary: Not Clarke, but not bad, either
Review: Clarke fans may be upset to learn that he did not write this book, but come on -- the man is about 500 years old and still cranking out good ideas for stories. If you like "mad scientist" stories, then this is definitely one to add to your collection. Although it deals with an area of science that doesn't captivate me (seismology) I enjoyed the fast pace and the strangeness of McQuay's near-future America.
Rating:
Summary: horrendous dreck
Review: Disclaimer: This book was so bad that I was unable to force myself to keep reading after finishing about 3/4 of it. Also, it was such a bad experience that now I'm trying to forget it. But from what I can force myself to recall painfully, this was not just Clarke's worst ever, but one of the worst books I've ever read, period.
| 
