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Summary: QUICK READ-- GREAT BOOK
Review: I thought LINK was an incredibly delicious read. It was fast, easy, and imaginative. I was really turned on by the world it presented and some of the hotly debated issues it presents. I got it from a friend who highly recommended it, and I feel compelled to do the same thing. Check it out. It's got interesting characters, a fascinating premise, and a pace that truly doesn't let up.
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Summary: Absolutely wonderful book!
Review: I thought LINK was one of the best action adventure novels I have read in quite some time. I was hooked from page one, and unlike one of the reviewers I was riveted until the very last page. I also don't have a problem with the science portions of the novel. I found them interesting found for thought-- but read the novel as a work of fiction. It seems that some people have forgotten it was just that. If I had wanted to look up anything the book deals with in depth, I would have chosen the NON-fiction section of the book store. Seems that some of these "science fiction" fans forget that. Besides, most time travel novels I've read are absolutely ludricous in their assumptions about the possibilities of time travel-- I just read them because they tell good stories. For any readers out there that are into reading adventure novels, just for the thrills and the characters and setting, check this novel out for sure. You won't be sorry!
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and thought provoking!
Review: I truly enjoyed reading Link. It opens a plethora of opportunity for fireside discussions concerning the possibilities, for and against the premise of this novel. A few of us even went to the public library and looked up some of the resourses listed in his bibliography. However, keeping in mind it is purely fiction, it is a great read, ... Mr. Becker has done a tremendous job, and I look forward to more of his novels.
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Summary: Not A Scientific Text
Review: This book is definitely not for rigid scientific minds who cannot think outside of the lines. Becker is not throwing out evolutionary theory, but questioning some of its unproven assumptions. That maybe too difficult for some readers, who treat evolution as a religion, to consider. Fundamentalist thinking in science is just as limiting as in religion. Too bad, one then misses out on enjoying a fast-paced, well-written novel that is fiction and not trying to prove anything. It's easy to suspend belief when you have an open mind, and your own beliefs are not threatened. Enjoy 'Link', I did.
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Summary: Someone buy the movie rights for this!
Review: Forget whether or not you believe the concepts. It is fiction, after all, in true X-Files form. This was a good entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: Link
Review: I have been an avid science fiction fan since 1950. "Link" has good artwork on the cover, and an interesting premise. However, despite the fact that I can easily accept time travel, interdimensional travel, faster than light travel, teleportation, telekenisis, telepathy, forcefield shields, I became incapable of suspending disbelief of all the really bad "science" tossed at me, one after the other by Mr. Becker. I could not finish reading the last half of the book, something that has not happened to me in many, many years. I thought the book was so bad that I went to the publisher's web page, only to find it was not up. Was the book actually edited? I am willing to wager 100 times the list price of this book, that it was written with Motion Picture Rights, not Pulitzer prize clearly in mind. Stanley R Goldfarb
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Summary: Link Throws Out Evolution With Bathwater
Review: Sure, "Link" is a lot of fun -- it would make a great Hollywood summer action flick. But intelligent readers will notice a lot of links missing. The characters end up dismissing all of evolution just because of one case of extra-terrestrial intervention with one species. They don't even pose the question that begs to be asked: even if extra-terrestrials did give humans a civilizing push, where did the ET's come from? The mysteries examined merit more creative conjectures.
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Summary: Exciting Read
Review: I picked this book up at the airport and was sorry when my flight ended and I had to put the book down. It's fun, creative, fast-paced and an easy read. It's pure entertainment! Enjoy.
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Summary: Bad science and shallow characters
Review: Walt Becker started with an interesting idea (aliens produced Homo Sapiens from Neanderthals 40,000 years ago) and some interesting characters (three paleoanthropologists and an arms dealer) and proceeded to push both of them too far. The premise becomes unbelievable (bipedal aliens that looked very much like humans who were able to breed with Neanderthals given a little help) and the characters never get beyond two-dimensional. It seemed like Mr. Becker had simply bit off more than he could chew, trying to explain dozens of unexplained mysteries while putting his characters through as many adventures as possible. It became very difficult to suspend disbelief (both at the underlying premise and the choices of the characters), a probablem that was compounded by the book's factual errors and inconsistencies.
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Summary: Stick to Creighton
Review: I see that many reviewers have compared Becker to Creighton. Although I'm no Creighton fan, I have to comment on this. Creighton writes about some wild stuff - a theme park with real dinosaurs, an enclave of Neanderthals who nearly survive to modern times and fight battles with Vikings. But as riduculous as his stories sound, the science is usually pretty solid. Only a small leap of faith or two is required and then Creighton has you. For example, if you believe that DNA can survive 65 millions or so (and paleobiologists still debate this) then Jurassic Park becomes entirely plausible. There's nothing plausible in Becker's book - it's all sheer fantasy. His geology, anthropology, archaeology, and paleoanthropolgy are all seriously flawed. And all this leads to a problem of characterization. It's hard to believe in characters who seemingly have no knowledge of the fundamentals of their field. The scientific characters neither speak nor act as scientific characters should and would. The excavation described in the book is a joke (I'm sorry - I've been on real excavations). I stumbled across Becker's bibliography at the end of the book and wasn't surprised to see that his reading list was a motley collection of science, psuedoscience, and pure scientic fraud. And although I have little doubt he read volumes of psuedoscience, I couldn't help but wonder if he actually read the scientific books included in the bibliography. Darwin was referenced which is ironic because neither Becker nor his characters exhibit any grasp of scientific methodology and Darwin is pretty thorough in this regard. To compound matters, the non-scientific characters are equally unbelievable for the opposite reason of behaving exactly as you would expect them to. The South African arms dealer is stern and ruthless. What a surprise! The Latina rebel is tough while beautiful and sultry. All the non-scientific characters are like this - they come across as stock-in-trade stereotypes. Usually I'm pretty pig-headed when I read a book and will finish it no matter how bad it is. But LINK got the better of me and I was forced to put it down about halfway. I gave the book only one star (the first time I've rated a book so lowly) not because there was nothing good in the book at all. But because the bad so overwhelmed the good that I couldn't finish reading it. Becker apparently has aspirations of being a screenwriter some day. If his goal is to revive the corny sci-fi 'B' movies of the 1950s, then he's on the right track. Only he needs to develop a sense of humor...
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