Facts are like fiction
937893
An interesting blend of history and mystery
4538468
I disagree with the one poster's assertion that it offers "few facts".  For a work of fiction, it actually contains quite a number of facts (though I understand the quote often attributed to Pope Leo X both in this book and elsewhere is misattributed).

If you're a gung-ho, believe it all (or most) Christian, you wouldn't like this kind of book anyway ... and could have guessed that you wouldn't by reading the description of the book.
2560178
You may have heard Frederick Raphael put it, "Fiction is truer than facts." But that is because it takes integrity, conviction, and a grasp of tautology (a formula which is true in every possible interpretation) to write something that gives the reader every opportunity to comprehend the truth about someone of recent history. John Beineke brilliantly succeeds with all this by giving the reader facts that read as exciting as great fiction but they know it is not. Hoosier Public Enemy: The life of John Dillinger focuses on his few years of notability as one of most notorious criminals in US history. I knew the basics of the man (how terrible he must have been) but after reading this work, which held my interest continually, I came out with more balanced sense of the reality of the times. A great combination of facts and fun reading seldom experienced with history. I suggest it for anyone with an interest of our history but highly recommend it for any school curriculum.
2383481
The accounts were pretty unbelievable. Facts are facts, though and I found this to be quite an intgreging novel. I would recommend it to anyone.
4212125
The scenario is this, Dick Cheney & Donald Rumsfield are on trial in hell.  Written in a fictionalized way, with the facts coming from visitors speaking for or against the two burning forever in the afterlife.  Stopsky uses various real life people such as Michael Moore to present the material, most of which not surprisingly puts the two in a bad light.  The other side of the argument is also presented to show how politics comes down to telling a lie so many times that people start to believe it.

By showing what the right uses in their defense and explaining it further, you don't feel like you are getting the same information over and over like many political books.  In fact some of the characters have better arguments in the book then in real life.

Is it going to change your opinion?  Probably not.  But if you're tired of the same political books, this one will certainly give you something new.  And despite the vast amount of information presented, it is an easy to read.
4725150
Having spent some time in Palestine, working as an aid worker, I have to conclude that this book is a work of fiction. There are so many glaring inaccuracies that you would have to be quite ignorant about the geography of the West Bank, the political situation and Palestinian society to accept this book as some kind of truth.

Yes, honor killings and attacks happen. Too bad that there are people willing to profit from that fact by trying to parade fiction as fact. This is not the first false account of this kind, and it will probably not be the last, as long as there are willing buyers.
4519861
I would have to say that these books are fiction. No other witnesses from the range weather stations have come forward. The commercial airliner that he saved had events such as reportedly closing and foaming a major highway, yet those news articles have not surfaced, nor the first hand testimony of the hundred passengers who personally thanked him when they were landed in a military base. There are other unbelievable aspects to these stories, like the fascination with his theodolite and the balloons. Even if they had this fascination, why wouldnt the government who are providing them huge hangers and materials for inter-solar crafts, buy them their own telescope and balloons? I do not think any human is as special as Charles paints himself to be. Just the fact that so many people would take these books as fact makes them a very valuable study of human behavior and the want or need to know about the truth of contact in the human psyche.

  I have read five books in this series and think that they are an interesting fictional account of what contact might be like. The fear of encountering superior alien intelligence (the tall whites) and especially encountering them on their own terms would definitely shake a human to their core. The instinctive coping methods of denial and even outright mental blocking of the memories are well documented in real encounters. I cannot say if there are aliens like the tall whites or if he had any inside information to base them on. Some aspects of their nature seem believable and others seem hard to believe, but then alien implicitly implies beyond our ability imagine or rationalize from our human perspective.
4679589
I'd really like links to all the facts in this book. Are they all real? I'll have to look. Thanks!
4259052
It reads like it is coming straight off a news wire, just the facts without literary pretense. In othervwprds, pure story. Well done.
2385737
Book is entertaining; but the factual accuracy is dubious at best.
3252198
This book is amazing! I read it on my kindle, this copy was for a friend. Though written as a fiction it is very factual,lots of footnotes.
3246981
Yes, the plot has many, many coincidences. Yes, there are rather bizzare things happening.  Yes, there are indeed many factual inaccuracies. Still, "The Afghan" is immensely gripping and very, very enjoyable reading - typical Forsyth.  As to the factual inaccuracies, I have to point out that this is a novel; it is fiction and does not purport to reflect reality.  As to the coincidences in the plot and implausibilities, while the conventional wisdom prescribes that fiction must be plausible to convince, reality is under no such constraint and can be much stranger than fiction.  In this sense, the seemingly too many coincidences make the plot closer to perfectly possible reality, not farther from it.  In my experience I have witnessed crap happening in most implausible ways.  That it had never happened does not mean that it cannot or will not happen.  Just remember, prior to 9/11, how Hollywood reportedly rejected a scenario about terrorists attacking the World Trade Center towers in New York, slamming them with hijacked airliners as "implausible".
792711
State of Fear by Michael Crichton is entertaining fiction with lots of factual meat.

The basic story is about a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by the small island nation of Vanutu over global warming.  The contention is that the island was in jeopardy of being wiped out by rising sea levels due to global warming.

Although the novel is fast paced and well written, the best part of the book is the way that it entwines tons of scientific fact in the story.  It even contains numerous footnotes and an extensive bibliography.

It is fiction that should be read even by those who normally limit their reading to non-fiction.

Crichton contends that the PLM (Politico-Legal-Media) complex (which replaced the old military-industrial complex) flourishes by promoting an ongoing state of fear in the population.  He asserts that the PLM has used environmental and other crises to serve their own ends.  The politicians use the fear to control the population, the lawyers need the perceived dangers to sue and make money, and the media exploits the same stories to keep readers buying papers and viewers tuned into TV news.

He also takes on university professors whom he says no longer teach, but leave it to the graduate students who know much less and `speak English poorly'.  He outlines how universities have transformed themselves from `bastions of intellectual freedom' to the `most restrictive environments in modern society', and that they are the creators of the new fears that the PLM promotes.  He contends that universities now are not liberal at all, but are `fascist to the core'.

Speaking of the effect of the PLM fear mongering, he reminds the readers that the industrialized nations provide their citizens with `unprecedented safety, health, and comfort' and that the average life span has increased by 50% in the last century.  In spite of this, he says `modern people live in abject fear'.

Crichton does an outstanding job of exposing numerous fears manufactured by the PLM including global warming, the contrived DDT crisis, rising sea levels, expanding deserts, melting glaciers, increased numbers of weather catastrophes, silicon breast implants, cancer from power lines, etc.

The book is a gold mine of information complete with references to back up his claims.  Those who have closed minds and blindly believe in all of the contrived crises will not like this book.  Those who are open minded and interested in the other side of the story will love it.
147479
I was nearby when all this went down but never got the details. This is NOT fiction, but heavily affirms the statement: The truth is stranger than fiction. If you didn't know this really happened youd never believe it. The book does not take liberties with flights of fancy. i.e. it pretty much sticks to the facts. Which is good because the facts are unbelievable. Read the book and then watch some of the clips about this on YouTube. MUCH stranger than fiction. Im surprised Hollywood hasn't made a movie about this. But, after all is said and done, an interesting and fun read.
4853485
In an age when writers are seeking to make the top dollars, historical accuracy can be compromised for the sake of a good story.  "Pop History", as some call it, surely make for a good read if the reader is willing to suspend disbelief; yet these stories often offer up a few slices short of the whole pizza pie.
The is irrefutible proof that the Imperial Treasure fleet was real, that it travelled around the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and that it was disassembled around the year 1421.  These facts, in combination with what Mr. Menzies believes to be proof of a Chinese pressence in the Americans, lead him to put forth several interesting theories.  Revisionist Historians, ex: Howard Zinn, have been searching for ways to discredit Columbus's discoveries, and Menzies's book seems to follow along with the current trends of thinking.  Eastern, rather than western, settlement of the "new world" would render everything Each AMerican learned in High School about American History,and face it folks isn't that the farthest that most of our fellow countrymen choose to pursue this path, wrong.
if it were true.
Although Mr. Menzies can tell a good story, he was unable to convince me of the soundness of his argument, however hard he did try.
1261284
HISTORY IS A SET OF LIES AGREED UPON. The title is a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte not a man respected for his honesty, yet this statement is pregnant with truth.  Exactly how much of the history we accept unquestioningly is fact and how much is fiction.  What part of reality is hidden by myth?
.
On Sunday, 15 July 1815 the French fought the British under Wellington and, against all odds the battered Prussian army arrived on the field of Waterloo just in time to turn the tide of battle against Napoleon Bonaparte, who reluctantly surrenders to the British. The question now is , Was he really stripped of every vestige of power, and exiled to the stifling, windswept island of St. Helena to fight the endless boredom awaiting him there or was that the fate of an unknown and here-to-for unnamed double?  Was Napoleon, in fact, given a new identity and under the guidance of a British agent named Bernard Lacey, hidden in plain sight on the Isle of Wight in order to assist the English in establishing and maintaining peace by putting an end to the perpetual threat of war with France (the two countries had been at war almost continuously from 1066 to 1815).

Author Carolyn McCrae has offered a fresh perspective on this oft-told story by imagining for us an alternate version of the life of Napoleon in her gripping historical novel that portrays him not as a prisioner but as a family man, friend and neighbor as she takes the fate of this well known historical figure and modifies everything we thought we knew about him.

Moving smoothly between the 1800s and the present day and utilizing themes of family secrets, dangerous deceptions, conflicting loyalties as well as spotlighting the duplicitous political double talk and paranoia that has survived throughout the centuries we are transported back and forth in time as modern day historians attempt to unravel the secret chronicles compiled by Bernard Lacey and discovered quite by chance some 200 years later.

Entering into this narrative and enjoying it does not depend on having an interest in Napoleon nor an in depth knowledge of history .  This book should appeal to a plethora of readers since it is a richly imagined novel of what ifs that reads like part biography, part family saga, part mystery and part modern romance. What more could you ask for?
3308827
I can only corroborate what other 1-star reviewers have said.  Under no circumstances read this book as a historical account of Descartes' life or adventures.

The real problem here is that there is just enough truth to make the fiction seem real.  You read it, and two years later forget which tidbits about Descartes you've learned from academic resources and which pieces have attached to your memory from rubbish like this.

I hope one day the author re-writes this book replacing Descartes with a fictional character.  It's a great and intriguing read - but a terribly falsity with respect to history.

I also agree with others that exists at least one fake review here.