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Review Date: 12/2/2009
Helpful Score: 1
The day after the bomb dropped, the thousands of years of "progress" that had covered the treacheries and weaknesses of ordinary men with a thin veneer of civilization were dissolved and melted like snow on the desert's dusty face. Then - the law of the jungle reignes, but in the wreckage a few courageous survivors, men and women with the guts to have hope, were determined to build a new and better world on the ruins of the old. This is their story.
Perhaps the first post-apocalyptic book ever, and still one of the best. Written in 1959, the early days of the cold war in the shadow of the nuclear bomb, a well-imagined description of the end of the world as we know it - and what might happen next. I first read this as a teenager, and it has informed a small part of my world ever since: how to survive the worst imaginable disaster.
Perhaps the first post-apocalyptic book ever, and still one of the best. Written in 1959, the early days of the cold war in the shadow of the nuclear bomb, a well-imagined description of the end of the world as we know it - and what might happen next. I first read this as a teenager, and it has informed a small part of my world ever since: how to survive the worst imaginable disaster.
Review Date: 1/10/2011
Helpful Score: 2
For any hardcore Falco fan - like me - this is a must-read ... but maybe not a "keeper". Reading along, I kept being waked up out of that "lost in a book" state with the recurrent thought that "Alexandria" would have benefited by red-penciling by a stern editor. Beyond that, it just wasn't as charming as every other Falco book up to this: more plot-driven than character-driven, with a jarring excess of current British slang. It wasn't even necessary in order to keep up with the life story of Falco et al. A pity, really.
Review Date: 4/4/2010
Helpful Score: 3
If you like a "quick read", you won't like this book. There is no "tightly plotted action that pulls the narrative forward", and none of the central characters can be adequately described by three adjectives and a noun which tell you what the narrator and the larger world think about them. Sebold gives you the facts as they happen, and then loops back through history, so that your moral assessment and empathetic reactions evolve. The writing is not difficult; you can read all the words inside a few hours. But to do it justice, you will have to stop and think through your reactions to it after almost every chapter. Much of the significance of the story is not actually written down.
Distasteful or not, almost every note rings true throughout. Fifty years from now, this will be a minor classic of the western canon.
Distasteful or not, almost every note rings true throughout. Fifty years from now, this will be a minor classic of the western canon.
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Curse of the Damned - Book 3: The Scoundrel
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
3
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
3
Review Date: 11/19/2014
This is how writers sell out now - they don't write fast sloppy bad novels, they "write" GRAPHIC novels - ie authorize someone else to make up a comic book using their characters.
I'm really sorry I wasted a credit on this ineffable piece of crap.
I'm really sorry I wasted a credit on this ineffable piece of crap.
Review Date: 1/12/2011
Helpful Score: 2
Winner of the Prix Goncourt and the Prix de Roma de l'Accademie Francais, written from the research notes of Honore Balzac who had even interviewed participants, this book came crowned with glory for the writing and plaudits for accuracy by reviewers.
They must have read it in the original French.
The prose was so creaky, I got 46 pages in and started skipping. No doubt the quality of the writing itself was the translator's fault; however, the story follows a number of distinctly unappealing characters through brutal, nasty, and violent scenes. We see evilness enacted in every way possible by soldiers occupying a conquered city: looting, rape, and casual murder - and that's BEFORE the battle started, wherein the author lovingly dwells on all the ways to die in war: beheaded by a cannon ball, disembowelled by a blade, hacked to pieces, etc etc etc ad bloody nauseam.
If you enjoyed Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels", you probably won't enjoy this.
Strictly for the serious blood-and-guts lover, and it would help if the reader has a touch of sadism and enjoys seeing the confirmation of a VERY low opinion of mankind.
They must have read it in the original French.
The prose was so creaky, I got 46 pages in and started skipping. No doubt the quality of the writing itself was the translator's fault; however, the story follows a number of distinctly unappealing characters through brutal, nasty, and violent scenes. We see evilness enacted in every way possible by soldiers occupying a conquered city: looting, rape, and casual murder - and that's BEFORE the battle started, wherein the author lovingly dwells on all the ways to die in war: beheaded by a cannon ball, disembowelled by a blade, hacked to pieces, etc etc etc ad bloody nauseam.
If you enjoyed Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels", you probably won't enjoy this.
Strictly for the serious blood-and-guts lover, and it would help if the reader has a touch of sadism and enjoys seeing the confirmation of a VERY low opinion of mankind.
Review Date: 9/1/2012
Helpful Score: 1
An excellent spy novel, set (mostly) in WWII London during the Blitz. Lovingly detailed setting with a running commentary contrasting British vs American customs and mores, engaging characters, altogether a great read. Be warned, however - this is the same book as "Rip Tide".
Review Date: 2/28/2010
Helpful Score: 2
This was the seventh book I've read on the 1996 Everest tragedy, and - hands down - the worst, by far. It is really poorly written. REALLY. POORLY. WRITTEN. The bland prose may be the translator's fault, but the accumulation of sentences that never lead to a conclusion is all Lene. The book, also, is all Lene, all the time. It's all about her. And since by the end of the book, I didn't like her very well, reading this qualified as worse than just a waste of time and tree pulp. Save yourself the annoyance - give Lene a miss.
Review Date: 7/3/2011
Science fiction is supposed to be based on science. Greg Bear uses scientific knowledge about the genome fairly well up to the point where "Darwin's radio" comes into play - which is the notion that a stem cell genome can sense the viability of genomic rearrangements already out there and make a new and appropriately improved rearrangement. Added to that, cardboard characterizations make this a major waste of time. Two points for giving a reasonably accurate picture of the politics and bureaucracy of science - but by the end of the book, who cares?
Review Date: 9/26/2009
The courageous and ingenious Jane Whitefield has worked as a "guide" for over a decade, helping people in danger disappear. Now she has promised her new husband, Dr. Carey McKinnon, that she will never work again. But then Carey's mentor, a famous plastic surgeon, seeks him out, desperate and pursued, wounded and wanted for murder. Carey asks Jane to perform her dangerous magic one last time. But as Jane tries to save her husband's friend, she uncovers the perverse activities of the Face-Changers, who, using Jane Whitefield's name, reputation, and techniques, they are destroying human lives rather than saving them. Nonstop action, spine-tingling suspense, wonderful writing, and absorbing characters combine to make this the best book yet by this author.
All that was the jacket copy, but it's all accurate - if you like Robb's Jane Whitefield series, you'll really enjoy this book.
All that was the jacket copy, but it's all accurate - if you like Robb's Jane Whitefield series, you'll really enjoy this book.
Review Date: 1/25/2010
Helpful Score: 1
Purely on the basis of the few chapters I could read before Amazon decided to cut me off, I am not going to get the book - I'm pretty sure I'd toss it out. It's an interesting set-up for a murder mystery: our hero knows only a few facts and knows what were the reactions of each of the major players. It would be fun to watch him tease out the truth of the matter, but ... Lawson's prose is so clunky I would not be able to bear it. Lawson uses way too many similes and metaphoric characterizations; he can't arrange the clauses of a complex sentence to unambiguously communicate who did what to whom and with whose whatsit; he does not even have an interesting inner life. Life's too short to spend it in the company of Lawson and his creations.
Review Date: 12/2/2009
Helpful Score: 3
One of the original five Miss Seeton books actually written by Heron Carvic - so charming that publishers made numerous attempts to find a ghost-writer to continue the series, always under a nom-de-plume with initials of H.C., and all abysmally failing to copy Carvic's delightful writing style. Here is Miss Seeton's review of the opera Carmen which opens this first book in the series: "So colorful. Not romantic -- no, one couldn't call it that; if anything perhaps a trifle sordid. Carmen, herself, for instance, no better than she should be. In fact, if one were frank, worse. And the other girl, the young one; it was difficult to feel sorry for her. Her fiance, quite obsessed with his mother -- obviously weak and easily influenced -- would have made a most unsatisfactory husband in any case. Still, for him to stab Carmen at the end like that -- so unnecessary. Almost contrived. Though, of course, one must not forget that foreigners felt differently about these matters. One read that people abroad did frequently get emotional and kill each other. Probably the heat." After which rumination, Miss Seeton observes a girl being struck - stabbed, as it turns out - by a young man, and her indignation causes her to prod the young man in the back with her umbrella to remonstrate with him: a gentleman does not strike a lady. But the girl is not a lady, and Cesar Lebel is not a gentleman, but a pimp and a murderer - and now he's after Miss Seeton.
Classic English village eccentrics, county gentry, and British police. Gentle humor, unique and wonderful writing. A true delight - but ONLY those actually written by Heron Carvic: Picture Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton Sings, Witch Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton Draws The Line, and Odds On Miss Seeton. The others are pale and unsatisfying counterfeits.
Classic English village eccentrics, county gentry, and British police. Gentle humor, unique and wonderful writing. A true delight - but ONLY those actually written by Heron Carvic: Picture Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton Sings, Witch Miss Seeton, Miss Seeton Draws The Line, and Odds On Miss Seeton. The others are pale and unsatisfying counterfeits.
Review Date: 9/1/2012
An excellent spy thriller, set in WWII London during the Blitz. Interesting commentary on British vs American customs, engagingly drawn characters, an excellent read. Warning, though - it IS the same book as "Bluffing Mr. Churchill".
Review Date: 7/25/2010
Helpful Score: 1
This is the first book of this series that I've read and then posted to pass it on instead of keeping it ...really not up to her usual standards. Unreasonable emotions and behavior, and an unfair choice of villain.
Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: And Other Adventures on the Way Back Home
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
30
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
30
Review Date: 11/26/2009
Helpful Score: 1
Bailey White's stories are really very funny ... but after a while, you start to notice that she's kind of mean-minded. I don't believe I'd care to be marooned with her on a desert island with limited resources.
Review Date: 10/4/2009
Helpful Score: 2
Perhaps my favorite murder mystery of all time, a police-procedural with engaging, fully-realized characters, and a back-story laid out in a second plot line narrated by Jane Doe, who went to Africa to study their cultures and came back an apprentice witch. Gruber manages to suggest a scientific biochemistry/physiology explanation for the witch-work, so that it does not read as fantasy, but even as you emerge blinking from the world of this novel wishing it could go on for a thousand pages more, you are glad it isn't really true. Brilliantly imagined, beautifully written, a superb work of fiction.
Review Date: 9/27/2009
One of the most delightful regency romances ever. Venetia Lanyon had been forced by her stern father to live a dull and secluded life in the country with only her brother for company. Her neighbor was Lord Damerel - a notorious gambler, a shocking rake, a man with whom no girl's virtue was safe. When he unexpectedly returned home after a long absence, he caught Venetia trespassing, and immediately found her to be the most fascinating and wittily perverse woman he had ever encountered. Venetia found him rude, arrogant, frightening ... but exciting beyond words.
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