but this tells a story of a caveman like adventure. This is a better book suited for ...
927052
It's not really the same as the other adult coloring books, less geometric patterns (almost none), but this tells a story of a caveman like adventure.  This is a better book suited for a younger child I think, the lines are thick and the areas are fairly large.  Most of the pages are close to the same, more cartoon/comic book like and tell a story.  Pages are quite thick and glossy, can color on it without having a table as well.  Has a nice ring binding so the pages can easily be flipped around.
3572790
Overall, it seems a readable story with lots of adventure, careening from one situation to the next, like a juvenile Indiana Jones. On the good side, it exposes readers to lots of different times and places around the world, and name-drops scientists and explorers from the past.  I was excited to begin this book, but ended up finding the action frenzy sort of tedious.

From the description "packed with puzzles", I thought the book contained puzzles for the reader to solve.  Rather, the reader observes as the protgonists figure out what various clues mean, at times based on knowing other languages.  So, as far as puzzles go, it is a fairly passive experience for the reader (though there is at least one place where the reader can stop reading and pick up a penci), and less engaging than I had hoped.

However, as it turns out, it is the first of 12 books involving clues and some overall search contest, which might be a lot of fun for the readers, but makes it sound more like a marketing scheme than someone with a great story to tell.  However, if you tween gets hooked they may really enjoy the series.
1884754
This book is a little hard to read but if you like adventure books then you should get this one
199806
I purchased "Eaters of the Dead" because I watched the movie "The 13th Warrior"  and had enjoyed the story line very much. Unusually for me, I found the book less interesting than the movie. Michael Crichton actually based the  story on the epic poem Beowulf but was looking for a protagonist to describe the feats of the Scandinavian hero from a detached third-party perspective. He chose Ahmed ibn Fadlan, an ambassador from Arabia, who by ill-luck falls in with the band of Norsemen on their way to assist a King being harassed by a monster. Think American at the Court of King Arthur. The joy of the movie is how the effete Arab ends up proving himself (and his horse) to the Nordic giants who love to fight and drink themselves into oblivion. In the book Ahmed is really more of a storyteller who stands on the sidelines and recounts the exploits of the Norsemen, often with distaste. It's a good story though but I'm not sure that it wouldn't be better to read Beowulf itself.
1975808
Interesting subject but author's style doesn't convey an easily followed story. Attempt to create a 'dream' culture of the time and preserve a compelling story doesn't quite make it. Jack Whyte's stories based on the Arthurian legends does a much better job of making the reader feel like you're actually there.
4776615
The book Galapagos is unlike any other book I have ever read before it takes you back to one million years ago then to the year 1986. The book is about a group of unwitting passengers who go on a cruise where they end up crashing into the Galapagos Islands where they have to survive. However the book to practically the beginning of time when humans are evolving then to the passengers of the ship and what they are like. The author also talks about what will eventually happen to them as well. The book seems to jump back and forth a lot from one million years ago to the year 1986 so personally I got a little confused and lost. Yet I did gain some knowledge of what the author was really trying to say but for the purpose of the review I won't go into detail about that. I can tell you that the story is told from what I understood as a ghost that died aboard the ship. The "ghost" guides you through the voyage of the Bahia de Darwin and sort of shows you that evolution isn't just a game of survival but of risks as well, which I found to be pretty cool about the book. Personally as a high school student I wouldn't exactly recommend it to other high school students because its not really fast paced the author seemed to take to much time trying to get the point across which bored me a little and got me off track. However don't get me wrong the book was very well written and interesting to read.
502562
Ralston's book, while occasionally engaging and heart-felt, suffers from an over-abundance of mountaineering description.  I frequently found myself skimming the text to avoid the details of a traverse or descent.  Perhaps if I were a mountaineer too, these parts of the book would have meant more to me?

Quick read option: Aron gets stuck ca. page 23, and he gets free ca. page 280.  You can flip through a few mountaineering sections in between these two major events, but really, I found Boyle's movie "127 Hours" a much better way of consuming the narrative of this book.

On the plus side, I got a better sense of Aron's character and motivations from the book.  The parts of the book I felt more emotionally connected to were the latter parts where his parents and friends were beginning their investigation and the rescuers were beginning their search, before they found his truck.  The book does a better job of giving us a more complete story of his getting to the hospital, but in essence the movie captures and condenses most of what I found tedious in the book.
1006302
Good survival story, but not the best. Book is too long. While reading, I was more interested  about details related to life and culture of religionless valley natives, than about rescue mission for plain crush survivors. The way, these natives happily existed and fought their small wars for nothing, is fascinating. Of course once white discovered them, it meant the end of it all. Like elsewhere, they live now in poverty. Truly sad.
3001421
It's okay, more like a memoir of a guy's experiences than a how-to or a field manual.
2623426
The beginning of this book really drew me in. The plot is not unique, but the first chapters were interesting. However once the book was well under way and the survivors were running around in the caves it got a bit tedious and fantastical (fantasy) for my tastes. I can see how the story can keep an interest for other readers, however it became too cliched for my own personal preference. Despite that, Beck's writing style is well done, one can vividly imagine the scenes.
1766583
I've read a fair amount of survival stories.  This one was good, not great.  This one had a little more of anthropological angle than some, which was interesting.  Overall, this is a worthwhile read but perhaps not up to the level of other survival books like Unbroken.
1053672
Show me a book with "lost world," "ice ages" or "human origins" at me and I'm hooked. However,  "The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene" by father-daughter writing team Stephen J. Pyne and Lydia V. Pyne was a narrative the last great ice ages like no other I had ever seen, less a history of an age than a history of the ideas about that age and an exploration of the way science is written.

"As a geologic epoch, the Pleistocene . . . includes an ice age, a shakeout of seas and land, Earth's fifth great extinction event, and the appearance and evolution of the hominins. It's a world of mammoths and woolly rhinos, erectines and Neanderthals, ice sheets and warm spells," Lydia Pyne, an anthropologist as well as a historian of science, in her prologue. "However, the Pleistocene is also an idea. . . appear(ing) in the early nineteenth century," which also underwent an evolution of its own.

At first it may seem odd that the Pynes (Stephen is an environmental historian) begin their story of ice ages in Africa's Rift Valley, a part of the world subjected to glaciers only on its highest mountains.  But the Rift is also the site of some of the earliest known remains of members of our own genus, Homo, alternately pushed and pulled by the changing climate to begin their journey out of their tropical home and around the world.

And while Pleistocene researchers tend to insist that science has triumphed by disregarding such other human activities as philosophy and art, "it is doubtful the public which supports (scientific) research) so enthusiastically" cares whether "a particular bone was scratched by a hyena or a stone flake. . . They want to know who we are, how we came to be, and how we might act in the future."

It's in that landscape whose opposite sides -- humanities on one, science on the other -- mirror the geologic stresses of the Great Rift, that the Pynes take their stand in the intellectually and emotionally challenging pages of "The Last Lost World."
1945649
I've read too many accounts of our "pioneer" ancestors, and when I think of our forefather and mothers, I somehow picture in my mind "the cavemen".but what about the ones that enabled humanity to still exist despite the difficult conditions of 500 BC!!!!  This book will make you feel like you were there tying down masts, fighting with swords, actually growing food or starve, traveling extremely long distances to rescue a loved one, not to mention the intricacies of what a love life was like in those daysso many of the political aspects seem like they are mimicking the ones of today, and even the weather of today (typhoon, tsunami).  Characters like the ones in "Beyond the Bitter Sea" are truly the ones we should thank. If it wasn't for their tenacity of mind and spirit, this race as we know it would not exist.  You will receive an education while being entertained.but, be forewarned.the food descriptions will make you head to the kitchen for something like a nice bowl of Lentil soup..and also be warned that if you read this in bed, you will stay up so late that your neck will hurt in the morning.  I guess not being able to put a book down is a compliment to the chef, oh I mean author!
3565939
Not my favorite book.  It was ok - I enjoyed it.  The whole premise is just a little over the top.  The cave scene - I could relate to that.  True story - I live in T.A.G. which if you're a caver (not a spelunker) you know what that means.  Cave country.  I've done plenty of caving and rock climbing in my younger years.  So one Sunday we were in Franklin N.C. after a day at Whitesides doing the original route -on Saturday - I was sort of hungover.  We (me, hubby, and friend) decide to go find a granite exposed face that my friend thinks has great potential for a new route. (spoiler alert - it doesn't) I'm packing the gear in a Kelty frame pack - the guys have the ropes.  We park at the base of a mnt. and start climbing. It turns into 5.5 rhododendren climb from hell. My pack is getting hung up and I'm hand over hand climbing bushes while hanging veritical off of this friggin cliff face.  At one point we actually tie up together because it's getting terrifying. After a few hours we get to the top - exhausted and bloody - and machete through more brush and then hear voices.  WTF?  There are about a dozen women in bikinis drinking wine and sunning themselves.  They're looking at us like the Bigfoot family just came out of the woods.  There's a path that leads down the other side of the mountain to a golf course.  The SAGA continues - we still need to get back to the truck - but you get the point.

Sorry - I don't have a good pig story.
4254358
A Meeting of Clans is the story of two groups of pre-historic wanderers (clans) who discover they are not the only people in Southern Mexico 14,000 years ago, and what happens when they discover each other.

As I read the book, there were a number of isms that came to my mind, including realism, mysticism, and empiricism.  First and foremost, the book tries to give a realistic picture of life 14,000 years ago.  Today, we have to dodge traffic and avoid our boss when he/she is in a bad mood.  The individuals in this book had to dodge stampeding mastodons and avoid hungry saber-toothed tigers.  The world has changed, just a bit, and Rollins does a great job in describing the nature of those differences.  But she does so in a way that also reveals some significant parallels to modern-day life  a drive to understand and control, a need to belong, a drive to explore.

The book is also sprinkled with magic and mysticism.  In some cases, the myths are well-known; in others, they are less common but with a familiar feel.  And they add a spice to the story.  The author is giving us a view into the minds of these peoples and the ways they perceived the world.  (Unless, of course, you believe these events really happened as described.)

But the ism that captured my thoughts in A Meeting of Clans is empiricism, e.g., the role of systematic observation in the formation of ideas.  It is a matter of academic debate exactly what science and medicine the peoples of the Ice Age would have mastered  even the possibility that humans inhabited this region 14,000 years ago is not known with certainty.  But Rollins weaves an interesting story around clans with considerable skills ranging from medicine and dentistry to astronomy.  Would people of this era have these skills?  Or would they still be so focused on meeting their biological and safety needs that no one could devote the time needed to understand the movement of the stars?  Would someone with a broken leg be nursed back to health or would they be abandoned because they put too great a strain on the group?

Finally, as this book is part of a series, Ill mention that this novel is self-contained and so, you could read it without reading the previous books.  However, as someone who read one of the two previous books, I can say that I felt much more comfortable with the clan that I knew from the previous reading compared to the peoples that were new to me.  The familiarity gets you into the story more quickly.

A book such as this in the magical realism genre may not be everyones cup of tea, but if its yours (or you want to dip your toe into this literary style), I can recommend A Meeting of Clans as a well-written and engrossing example.
344595
Not quite as good as Hatchet, as the struggle to survive is contrived to begin with. Military experts want him to go thru a similar experience while being observed so they can figure out how he was able to survive. They need to know what about him helped him the first time. What he teaches them could help others who might be in similar situations. When things go wrong Brian has new problems to solve. He is responsible for another person who has been struck by lightening and is in a coma. There is less focus on how painful and consuming hunger can be. More focus on making critical decisions. How to get the injured man back to civilization, building a raft, learning how to navigate on the river. There are periods where Brian is exhausted because he is trying to get to the trading post as fast as possible. He falls asleep, dreams and hallucinates for portions of this excursion. Still a good story. We will look for the next one in this series.
3449657
This is book two in Chamberlains Ancestor Series, and as you may or may not remember (because I know yall are hanging on to my every word), I didn't love the first one.  I felt like it was confusing and super long and it just wasn't great. Im happy to report that this book was much better. First off, I feel like the writing was better. Even though Chamberlain was no novice when he wrote The Mountain Place of Knowledge, I could tell that he had improved with this book. It was much clearer what was going on, which was one of the big issues with the first book. Secondly, the story flowed more consistently, although it still wasn't completely seamless. For instance, the book starts out with an earthquake (and not just any earthquake, await for itcombo quake), and Im still not sure what that earthquake had to do with anything. I mean, I could tell that the earthquake led to the scientists discoveringwhat they discoverbut it seemed a little far-fetched why the one would cause the other. It was also unclear why the same scientists from the first book would be involved with the activities in this one because at first, they appear to be unrelated.

I think that the underlying issue is that Chamberlain has a very detailed story going on in his head and he knows where he wants it to go. He has characters hes built up and wants to use, and he does keep things exciting with lots of thrilling adventures going on, but in the end, I don't think he is able to translate all of that perfectly into a story because I was still left a little confused. Its like when things are getting exciting and events are really happening, the story just sort of glosses over it or leaves out details that just leave the reader confused. Like I said, this is much better than the first book, but it still left me confused. I have wondered before if the confusion and missing details come from poor editing. Maybe the editor just starts cutting and cutting (and I could see how this could happen for length, because these books are quite long) and isn't careful about where they're cutting and then the reader, who is less familiar with this somewhat complicated story, is left in the dark along with the dangling participles.

As in the first book, there are lots of characters, and some of them only appear for a little while, so its hard to keep track of all of them. Theyre not very developed, and that makes it hard to remember who is who or who works for who or whatever. There is a somewhat developing love story (I think?), but it is handled awkwardly and Im not actually sure if that was what the tinglings he described meant. Maybe that was annoyance?  Anger? Rage? Im not sure.  I think that Chamberlain is just excited about writing a fun, fast-paced story, which this is, but because of that he doesnt spend much time character-building and that makes it difficult to understand what is going on from several different angles.

Overall, I feel like this was a much better read than the first, and I think the story has potential and definitely has some exciting things going on, but Chamberlain could use more finesse as a writer, and I think part of this could be accomplished with a really talented editor as well who could guide Chamberlain and also make decisions about what to keep and what to cut in the book to make it easier to read overall.

And there better be a next in the series. Because this one definitely leaves us hanging.