Engrossing but a bit preposterous
933255
This was one of those books that were engrossing while I was reading it -- and became faintly ridiculous once it was over. It reminded me of Emily Dickinson poem, "Because I could not stop for death."

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

The book concerns a group of characters, loosely connected, all of whom encounter death in different guises. Some see death in dreams or visions, others experience him as a character in their own lives. The main characters are a terminally-ill former TV children's show, a retired film star and a photographer who is HIV positive. There are also some others, all trying in some way to come to terms with death.

Death himself, once we meet him, is revealed as a petty, vindictive, bully who decides on a whim how each individual should die. If he likes a character, that person may die peacefully in bed. If he takes a dislike to a person, he or she is liable die a long, awful, painful death.

Ultimately, this book is supposed to be life-affirming. Death, we are told, is always obsessed by human beings and Death claims each and every one of us in the end. But despite knowing we must all die, humans win temporary victories over Death by going about their lives and ignoring Him.

Is this a deep message to take away from what is quite a morbid book?
You decide.
3432332
I warily recommend this book as a very interesting and informative read, but one that is pretending to be something other than it is. In the Authors' Note at the beginning of the book the writing duo strenuously claim strict impartiality, saying of their central characters, Bush and O'Keefe, "The authors make no attempt to judge their actions as being good, bad or indifferent to the nation's interest."

This supposed impartiality is quickly shown to be an utter charade. Within a few pages, former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin is described as being in charge of a "nuthouse," a "Machiavelli" who is "dripping with ego and suspicion." Throughout the book he is described as demonic and incompetent in his personal and professional life. Others such as Bill Nelson suffer similar treatment, and even peripheral characters just as John Kerry are hauled into the fray to be swiped at and sniped at.

It is certainly an opinion, and the authors are entitled to it. However, to pretend that this book is not anything but heavily judgmental and biased is, frankly, laughable. A more accurate title for it would have been "Goldin Bad, O'Keefe Good." I am sure Sean O'Keefe loves every word in this book, but even he would not pretend it is impartial and must cringe at some of the more venomous attacks on his predecessor.

It's a great shame, as it is actually a pretty good book. The bureaucratic foibles of the Goldin era are in many cases reported very accurately, once you set aside the poisonous delivery. It's also very well written, in an engaging style that keeps you turning the pages through what could have been some rather dry bureaucratic deliberations. The authors' white knight on a charger, Sean O'Keefe, is thankfully shown to be human also at times. Once the rather fawning justification of his every action is skimmed over, there are some very insightful descriptions of the confusion in his inner circle on the day of the shuttle disaster, and other very illuminating glimpses at some key moments of recent NASA history. It's hard to know what to trust, however, when the book is so heavily slanted, and the authors do not admit their biases.

One of the authors, Keith Cowing, ran a website for many years called 'NASA Watch' which did a very important, in fact a vital job in pointing out many of the sillier bureaucratic decisions during the Goldin era. It appears that, with a change of administration, any critical thinking skills he had vanished, and he has now become the kind of apologist he once criticized. The book supports many of O'Keefe's decisions - such as the writing off of the Space Station when it was almost complete and finally ready to begin what it was designed for, and the ludicrous decision to abandon the Hubble space telescope - decisions that I suspect this book would have spent whole chapters criticizing if another administrator had taken such weak backward steps.

The long-term value of this book will only be known in a year or two. At the present time, it glorifies an event which so far has been a press conference with no real results. I support the aspirations of the authors for a reinvigorated NASA, but I suspect this book will turn out to be no more than a one-sided chronicling of another bureaucratic backwater in history.
1727047
Good story for the most part, but with great detail followed by large gaps carrying the reader to the next level of the story.  Improbable, almost magic ways of surviving dangers, as if in a kid's cartoon or animated superhero movie, intermingled with quasi-scientific scenes and discussions of, for example, a character with a psychotic illness.  Over-focus on a central lesbian relationship and pop-psychology.  All that sort of suggests that the author is a gay female psychologist or psychiatrist who needed to put the homosexuality in the reader's face a bit, and whose book misses the mark a little. (Note that the material is not graphically sexual or prurient in the least.)  Still, it kept me -- a straight, older male -- interested.  Most of the general writing is competent, with good grammar, etc.
4900462
I downloaded the book because it was inexpensive and had a five-star rating from all of the first dozen or so readers.  The author can write interesting scenes, and I found the book readable enough.  However, stories like this need to be believable enough in order to be thought-provoking about how a world political situation (the Middle East in this case) might actually play out.  This one was a bit far-fetched for my taste.  For example, one of the main plot lines was that you can use genetic engineering to develop a bio-weapon that will assassinate just the intended victim without harming anyone else.  The author never convinced me you can do this, or could likely do it in the future, so it seemed more like science fiction than a current-day thriller.

If you are just looking for an action-packed story to keep you turning pages, this one is good enough.
4391663
A good story, and excellent insight into the days leading up to the 6-day war, with plenty of, what seems to be, in-depth research from the point of view of Israel and her people. More's the pity that the text contains several small and easily avoided errors, thus calling in to question the whole edifice of the plot. For example, The Dome of the Rock, is not, and never has been, a Mosque, as stated by the author on a least two occasions. Anybody who understands anything about Jerusalem will know this. An ultra-orthodox Rabbi would not wear a watch on Shabbat. Several times characters say sentences in French or German - obviously an attempt to create  greater realism. It should not be too difficult, however, for an editor to find some native speaker who could ensure that these few words are grammatically correct, rather than the "Monty Python / Carry On" type nonsense which the author would have us believe real French and Germans would speak. ( President Kennedy might be able to get away with calling himself a doughnut - Ich bin ein Berliner - but it grates when a native German character makes the same mistake ). I found myself thinking - if he makes such elementary mistakes about things I happen to know about, what kind of falsehoods is he serving up about things of which I know nothing ?
1718848
This was an engrossing novel and I appreciated its relevancy to current events, but the author goes a bit overboard to espouse his personal philosophy concerning actions by our government leaders.
2305501
3.5

This book is definitely a page turner and it is so rich in detail- it really transports you. It takes place during the French Revolution and I never thought about the relationship between events taking place in France so soon after our American Revolution and how that affected things. Though it does take time for information to cross the ocean, it does make it eventually and I cannot imagine witnessing the horrors committed or feeling so trapped.

That being said I took issue with Vivienne's character. It just didn't seem realistic to me that someone who had been through what she had would be so naive and trusting. I would think it would make a person paranoid. **SPOILERS** Without giving too much away, let's just say that she ends up knowing something that could make her a serious political threat. Instead of being proactive and having explanations ready or being very guarded about revealing information, she carelessly has candid conversations in public areas (multiple times), confides in people left and right, and ignores red flags. If I had been her, I would have relocated pretty much immediately to some remote, unrelated place, perhaps multiple times. I would have given myself a new history and started over. From scratch. It just didn't make any sense that she would be so unaware of the constant serious threat to herself and others, which made it frustrating to read, when I kept thinking, "How did you not see this coming?!"
2973108
**spoiler alert**

I thought this was an interesting read.  The characters were well developed, there was a fair amount of tension and suspense, and the writing was crisp and colorful.  Overall, I liked the book.

What made it difficult for me to love the book instead of just liking it, was the implausible setup.  In a nutshell, an arrogant and egotistical billionaire operates a company which trains armies of mercenary soldiers, using the latest high tech weaponry, and the most sophisticated mental and physical training techniques.  These are truly the best soldiers in the world.  Sensing that something is amiss behind this patriotic front, a journalist, a schoolteacher, and a couple of kids take on this man and his army, and win!

As they dispatch these highly trained killing machines one by one, I was constantly thinking about how unlikely and implausible it was. They were essentially unarmed (with one exception), and untrained, yet they survived countless encounters with the best soliders in the world.  That sort of killed it for me, or at least dampened my enthusiasm for this book.

If you can get over the fact that a couple of untrained civilians can conquer a billionaire war monger and his highly trained soldiers, then you might enjoy this.  I ended up with mixed feelings about the book myself, but at the end of the day, I did find it entertaining, and pretty good read.
1022303
I like to work logic puzzles and I love a good plot-filled mystery with lots of surprises, and this one had them in abundance.  And the city of Paris in general and the Louvre museum in particular are made to order for heart-pounding thrillers, and this book is no exception.  The symbolism is wildly fascinating,the characterizations are good, the pace is fast, and the twists and turns of the plot kept me on the edge of my seat.
However, I had two problems with the book -- or maybe I can say ONE objection with two aspects, and each objection cost it one star in my evaluation.
1.  There are a lot of historical "facts" given here that challenge the teachings of Orthodox Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant).  I won't go into detail about them here, but I'll say this:  I wish the author had given some good, solid sources so that we, the readers, could have checked on the sources ourselves.  One of the characters in the story states that many "respected" historian-scholars could corroborate the view about the "real" meaning of the Holy Grail and the "real" history of Christ.  I would have liked to know who they were.  I also would like to have known if the story's take on the life of Christ, the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail legend was an honest-to-goodness historical view or one invented by the author for the story's purpose.
2.  I also felt like the author was "blaming" Christianity for the bad treatment of women.  Maybe he wasn't, and I misunderstood him.  But I feel it is important to mention that the church did not invent the bad treatment of women.  This is important to know, because while the church(both Catholic and Protestant) has left a lot to be desired in its treatment of women, the view of women as inferiors (which is unBiblical, by the way) was in existence long before the church ever came into being.
Anyone who has studied Western Civilization and/or Far Eastern history will know that ancient cultures, many of whom had a plethora of female deities, still treated their women like dirt.  The ancient Greeks held women in contempt -- just read Aristotle, who lived before Christ. Ancient and not-so-ancient India and China have historically mopped up the floor with women, female deities in their culture notwithstanding.
I know what an extreme patriarchal mindset some churches have -- as a woman I have been on the receiving end of it.  But let's not blame Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular for causing it.  Misogyny is extremely ancient!
The book is worth reading, but before taking any of its claims as truly historical, it behooves us all to check out our facts!
169385
Sterling has an impressive imagination. He's created a rich, complex, and intriguing universe occupied by a range of so-called `posthumans', chief of whom are the Shapers and Mechanists. These two groups have opposing philosophies and are in conflict with one another throughout these stories. This is reflected in the work, which is heavier on both personal and political machination than on story. There's nothing wrong with that except Sterling sometimes fails to keep the reader sufficiently informed. Clearly he had a clear history of this universe in his head while writing. But the reader does not, and the convoluted nature of the feuding and intrigue can be somewhat impenetrable at times. Compounded with Sterling's often dense, overwritten prose, this detracts from what could have be been an excellent body of work. It's still a good read though and deserves 3.5 stars.
4414243
Interesting read, although pretty far fetched, with a few holes in the plot
269224
This book was highly entertaining. Dando-Collins does just what the description claims- he creates a web of suspense that kept me reading until the last page. I figured out half of his idea of "whodunit," but the other half came as quite a suprise (although, like with any good mystery, it made me bop myself on the head and say "Oooooh!").

That said, while it's an enjoyable read, I didn't find his conclusion terribly convincing. Although he does bring up some interesting evidence that shows that there is more to the story of his main suspect, I was not convinced that that person was connected to *this* story. His theory is not backed up by any real evidence, while other theories are done away with using incomplete logic. Much of his case is circumstantial and relies on guesses or holes in the historical record. Seeing that it is a two thousand year old mystery, no one will ever know for sure.

For a work of non-fiction, I found his scholarship in some places to be spotty, not just with regards to the murder of Germanicus, but with other dates, places, and people. Some seem like careless errors that should have been caught upon revision (such as claiming Tiberius was the younger of Livia's two sons); others undermine his vision of the story by changing the timeline of events, seemingly to suit his purpose.

The claim that the death of Germanicus lead to the eventual fall of Rome should be treated with skepticism. For an idea within the subtitle of the book, it didn't take up much space, and rightly so. I found that claim much more improbable than his idea of who Germanicus' murderers were.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and would recommend it as a fun read, especially due to its novel conclusions, but not as something to base opinions on or to be taken as fact.
4103284
While I trust the author has thought much of his novel through, especially alien biology, attack vectors, etc, the details of the heroine's flight are astoundingly bogus. Perhaps it's that I have extensive experience with hiking, camping, bicycle tripping and shooting. The details just don't add up and for me, it's hard to suspend disbelief so massively.
2820333
Don't get me wrong; this is a really good book, but there's too many totally impossible and unrealistic things taking place.  I like the lead character, Lucy, the FBI agent.  She's real, as are all the characters, and they're richly described and fleshed out.

My problem is that the author "assumes" our knowledge of all the government acronyms currently in use, and more often than not, doesn't actually tell us what some of these things mean.  That's not the worst of it; I did find it truly impossible to imagine that everything taking place occurs over one single weekend, especially when our lead character has a 6" piece of metal imbedded in her back, and blithely has it removed with no anesthesia, dresses, leaves the emergency room and actually goes back to work.  Really?  I'm thinking NOT!

Then there's the light bulb that comes on over her head (literally) all of a sudden, and she knows who the "bad guy" is, without the reader ever having gleaned any kind of clue as to how it could be that person (no spoiler!). The storyline is excellent, thought out well, described in vivid detail so that you're "seeing" these things and getting into the story.  There are a great many formatting/spelling/grammatical errors, which in my world, takes away from a book's rating, because I feel the author, or their representative, should have done a much better job of proofing.  You can't have characters changing names, then going back to the original, correct name, and that happens in this book.

The story is worth reading, and it does grab your attention and keeps you entertained.  Just be aware going into it, that there are some highly improbable (if not impossible) scenarios that take place, and that the formatting lacks quite a bit.  It's well worth your reading time, and I'd probably read additional books by this author.  Thank you.
2555972
This book was fascinating and riveting.  As it's sometimes been said, fact is often better than fiction.  However, my problem with this book is that much of this book could easily be make believe.  Perhaps it's reality. But who knows.  There are so many "coincidences" that it strains belief -- and that's coming from a person who believes in the concept of synchronicity.  Anyhow, it's a good read.  If you're not wedded to it being true and just stick to the story (i.e., accept that it might not be all true but enjoy the prose and the theme), you'll enjoy it.  It certainly will change the way you view the world and read/listen to the "news."
2648048
It is an entertaining story, albeit a bit far-fetched in the mixture of persons involved in an overlapping sham intrigue.
453457
***CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

An engaging novel, well-written and imaginative. The biggest plot problem for me was understanding the motivation of one of the main characters to commit not only espionage, but treason. Nothing in this person's background or character gave a good explanation for it.

The whodunit becomes or should become apparent, at least in its broad outlines, about two-thirds of the way through the book. Thereafter, much of the intrigue revolves around which individuals played which roles.

I loved the fact that Mr. Steinhauer was linguistically meticulous enough to use haceks (the eastern European accent mark that looks like an inverted circumflex) on Yugoslav names and places, like Ustae. I'm less pleased with the book designer. The margins are tackily narrow and the font for the hardcover edition is the Windows version of Garamond, a pedestrian typeface (not the beautiful rendition of Garamond you'd find in the French Bibliothque de la Pliade by a long stretch).

If any corrections can be made to an e-book, I might note that Austria's monetary unit before the euro was the schilling, not the mark (see page 16 of the hardcover version), and that the date 2019 on page 62 should be 2009.