LENGTHY @ 1 HOUR & ADVANCED PLOT
920907
VERY lengthy for a silent movie!  Did not expect an hour long movie & with a pretty advanced plot considering the era it was made in.  If you enjoy silent movies or have been interested in them enough to have watched one when you've had the opportunity, you'll enjoy this one.
980879
It is unfortunate that a novel of with such tremendous potential winds up being an overly long, often confusing piece of science fiction.  In the case of "Lucifer's Hammer", there are simply too many people and too much story to keep up with.
 The premise is interesting enough...a newly discovered comet on a collision course with Earth.  This in and of itself made me pick up the book initially.  But the sheer number of characters and various subplots doomed this story.  The fact that it is over 600 pages, in small type, doesn't help, either.
 Still, for the hard-core science-fiction fan, "Lucifier's Hammer" may be worth the purchase, simply because of its historical value and significance.
3201468
Well -- there was a story here, with predictable heroes and predictable villains, a few heroic deaths, and a somewhat unexpected resolution that incorporates a believable (or at logical) explanation for a mystery in human evolution. I think this is a movie screen play in light disguise. It has all the ingredients. Watching it play out in 90 minutes on a screen would Not so easily allow the audience member to ferret out the illogical progression in the plot.  Good luck - I'll watch the movie!
2614063
Don't know why i stayed with this movie over an hour! Gave it waaaaay too much time. Women gets pushed into a married against her will, husband's friend lusts for her,. wife reciprocates. The sordid two do away with husband but find they don't want each other anymore after the murder.
What a pile!
427536
This story is probably worth more stars, but after several hours of reading I made a note in my book list to stop buying/reading this author's books.  Of course, I'm not a quitter, so I gave no thought to not finishing the story.
It was extremely slow and too many things going on having no part of the main plot.  It would have been much better with a single plot and about 300 pages.  The closer to the end I got, the better I liked it.  Whether the action improved or I was glad it was almost over, I just don't know!  Suspending Sachs was a completely wrong police action, but I guess it was explained on the last page:  she was destined for a different activity!  So now I'm curious!
Norm
3932473
This series has a tempo similar to the Spooks (MI-5) British series but the adaptation is not successful.  The intent is to cover 1 day (24 hrs.) in the life of Bauer (the main character) who is part of a counter terrorism government organization, with assorted subplots involving other characters.  One episode = 1hr, consequently, all plots move slowly and are subjected to different kinds of complications for entertainment purposes. The plots introduced in Episode 1 get resolved several episodes later requiring a big investment of time on the part of the viewer to bring closure to the various stories.  I prefer the MI-5 format with, essentially, one plot per episode.  Bauer's opponents are a bit demonized in their portrayal, looking more like James Bond's bad guys than real human beings. Bauer's stamina and abilities appear at times superhuman.  Watch these programs when you want to be simply entertained.
1011602
wound not have minded a more elaborate plot description
3264000
Just too much "thinking" & "plotting" & "investigation".  Feels like Childs is just trying to stretch the whole plot out to make a decent length book.  I'm thinking I'll look into some other authors.
886350
Having read all of James Rollins' previous novels, I couldn't wait to get my hands on "Sandstorm" and dive in.  While Rollins did a good job setting the stage for the plot, I found myself soon losing interest in the story as I got 100 or so pages into it.

Rather than waste your time with another plot synopsis of this book, let me just suffice to say that there are plenty of well-developed characters (a Rollins strength), but his over-wordy style took a book of about 300 pages and turned it into a 500+ page novel.

If you're new to Rollins, start with any of his earlier works to get a better feel for his talent (and he is a talented writer).

This reviewer's recommendations are in this order:

  1.  Subterranean (his first and still best IMHO)

  2.  Amazonia

  3.  Deep Fathom

  4.  Ice Hunt

  5.  Excavation

  6.  Map of Bones (to be read yet)
4246722
What a weighty book, in more ways than one.  I was encouraged to read it from an old review I read somewhere, but by the time I got around to it, I'd forgotten the story. So I was disappointed to realize that it was another book about a virus ending the world as we know it. It took forever for the story to get started, which might by why the book was well over 700 pages long. The story was okay, nothing outstanding, more like something I might expect from a better-than-average TV show. Cronin certainly took time to develop his characters, but was puzzlingly silent on their physical descriptions.  And for heaven's sake, how long can you expect your reader to wade through endless dream sequences? Man, those people slept more than anyone I've ever known.

Although I often complain that a book could have stood a good editing, it was especially true for The Passage. There were many sections that did not contribute to the story or move it forward in any way. (Might have ended up around 350 pages and been better.) My final complaint is the device Cronin used to create tension. I understand that only partially telling the story, using flashbacks, or convoluting descriptions in an effort to make things interesting is often effective and partially worked here, but it was over used to the point of frustration. The book held my interest just long enough to make me keep reading, but made me long for an hour-long episode of The Walking Dead instead.

And the ending was so abrupt!! (like this review) Only one character survived to carry on in the inevitable sequel.
948703
There actually is a lot of plot in this book, a group of terrorists trying to set off a nuclear bomb in New York City, a child-torturing devil-worshipper turned skid-row serial killer, Vietnam horror stories, the Sorbonne riots of the 60's, a mafia mass-murder, an American drug courier's unpleasant stay in a Mexican prison, and a former junkie disfigured by his own mother turned arsonist. Not to mention  appearances by a ghost, a few cases of spontaneous human combustion and a very Dostoevsky-ish devil.

Yet for some unknown reason, Bell decides to start off with a longish episode of the main protagonist watching the changes in the sky. (This follows a Roscoe and Enos prologue where if you blink you might not realize a murder just took place.)

After about the first hundred pages, it's a tough book to put down, but those first hundred or so pages are a bit more of a struggle than they should have been.  Bell knows how to tell a story but for a while there he seems more intent on showing he can write pretty.

Two stars off, one for the slow pacing at the start and one for a bit too much magical realism,  (the ghost added nothing and made me start to resent the devil worshipper and the spontaneous human combustion cases as well.)
746266
Great story, but it needed to move along faster. A lot of set-up to get to the actual payoff if the finale
4019537
This book was an uncharacteristic A.C. in that it contained many sub plots, sub plots that distracted and confused me at times(Although I knew that all of these plots somehow shared a common denominator of the main plot).

What I found to be particularly peculiar was that there wasn't a single murder until over a third of the book was read!

Also, the ending, having the signature twist, was a bit predictable. I, of course, wouldn't have figured it out to the very last detail, but it wasn't by a far stretch of the imagination, either. That's a first for me w/ an A.C. book.

The chief inspector came to the solution, but I was still left scatching my head as to HOW he figured it out. It wasn't thorough enough of an explanation for me.

Overall, this wasn't the best A.C. featuring Miss Marple. As one reviewer pointed out, Miss Marple was instrumental in the investigation, but she wasn't the anchor in solving the crime, although the chief inspector leaned on her at times for help.

I would strongly discourage you, a would be 1st time A.C. reader, in picking up this book. Read some of the other classics of A.C. before reading this. Ones w/ one-dimensional and faster plots,confined settings(And Then There Were None is an excellent start). You'll quickly become a fan and will be able to still appreciate a declining A.C. book like ABH if you do.
1052561
Has potential though I think just spends too long on building the story at the beginning.  You are watching it for the action and it seems like it took almost an hour to get there.
1524719
Interesting French history and hypothesis about the grail, but tedious detail. Needed a good editor to cut 1/3 of the words. Plenty of gratuitus violence, blood, gore and agony. Plot too complex, too many coincidences and too dependent on smart people doing stupid things. Characters are sterotypical without character development. Some beautiful pictures painted with words, but also too many trite and tired phrases. The suspense kept me going to see how it would end, while resenting the tedium of all the words and preaching along the way. A mystey well told does not require voluminous instructive dialogue to help the reader understand character motivations and solve the puzzle.
4118473
Adventure, monsters, fighting, plots within plots.  So much to go through.  And it's long!  I'm an avid reader and this took me about a week and a half of before bed reading!  Highly recommended.
1929602
If the reader has to have a smooth and orderly plot, look elsewhere.  The plot is very intricate and well laid out.  Bear with the story as much of the book sets up a great climax.  A fun read!
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