Smuggling Books

A high-adventure cum romance novel for men, set in the future. Kinda. (Ladies, imagine a Black Brad Pitt.) Written passably enough, and I did read the whole thing, but only because it was such an interesting male fantasy piece. (I mean, DUDE! Check it OUT! WALK IT!)

No, really, I am perhaps being overly harsh. It's not my idea of great literature, but it's a good escape of an afternoon or two. The overall premise of Worldfarm One (WF1) is interesting. The plot and characterization is kinda J Bond of the Jungle. It's action-packed, and so I can imagine it being made into a movie. (Although not with Brad Pitt in blackface, no....)

I somehow came upon this book when I was looking for books about Mexico (thinking we might want to move there when we retire). It's funny how sometimes you get surprised by what turns up in your searches; what you'll buy in the middle of the night for your Kindle habit if the price is right, not knowing what you're getting into.

But I kind of enjoyed it. I'd say to the author: Keep writing.

I admire the work of paleontologist, John A Long, and gave a very enthusiastic review of his fine book, The Rise of The Fishes. Unfortunately, Long, like a few other academic paleontologists, has dropped the requirement of scientific accuracy, in favor of a biased polemic when it comes to the subject of fossil ownership. For the record, I have no problem with private ownership of fossils legally collected on both private and public lands. Regardless of where you stand on this controversial issue, readers of this book will be disappointed to discover Long's gullibility as he follows "America's self appointed, "top fossil cop" on an around the globe boondoggle to construct a documentary film. That officer, Steve Rogers, has Dr. Long hoodwinked into imagining shady characters at every location. At one point, he's even advised to glance at customers shoes in a fossil shop, because, according to Officer Rogers, high-roller fossil thieves are particularly keen on expensive footware. Trust me, the paranoid "cloak and dagger" scenarios become laughable in short order.
The whole mess of a book winds up at the Tucson Fossil Show where Long enjoys the company of friends he asserts are "legit dealers"- who, nonetheless, market fossils to the general public. At the show, he expresses childish delight in securing a fine fossil fish for his museum collection - an option I assume he would deny others without academic credentials. Reader's should remind themselves that fossils kept in private collections are not usually lost, and that most of the world museums are filled with specimens donated by private collectors. The record of major museums in documenting and maintaining collections has been spotty, at best. There are fewer and fewer displays of fossils available to the general public. More specimens are stored in basement boxes than can ever be displayed. Dr. Long never mentions the fact that many of the illegal or stolen specimens he describes (most notably from Russia and China were removed from institutions by those scientists and curators in charge of protecting them) While on the subject of protecting fossils, we should consider that our own Smithsonian Natural History Museum has a loathsome policy that states, if a fossil is no longer needed, it must be destroyed rather than sold. (Note: Unless the original donor can be located or another recognized public institution will accept the specimen as a donation - a time consuming task that is not likely to occur unless the specimen is a major find worth a great deal of money)
In the end, Long suggests that academics, governments, commercial fossil dealers and collectors open new lines of communication to work together and find a common ground where all can benefit. The inaccuracies and tone of the Dinosaur Dealers is hardly a step in the right direction.

The book is really rather interesting, although there is still the feeling that they are fighting an uphill battle, and attitudes such as the previous reviewer's rather narrow political rant are exactly the reason for that.

Why someone should have an inherent right to own a peice of history is beyond me.

The fact that John Long is an Australian has little effect on it; neither Australia nor America fail to recognise property rights, and neither Australia nor America allow the insanely unrestrained greed-based capitalism (as opposed to rights-based) that some Americans seem to promote.

Perhaps what we need, in addition to this book, is a philosophical tome outlining the reason why a right to an education, and a right to access the fruits of scientific endeavours, sometimes override the rather obscure "right to take anything thats in the ground and abritrarily claim to have a property right to it". I wonder why they left that out of the UN DHR?

This book needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Long, an Australian paleontologist, has a very different view of private property than most Americans and this socialist outlook tends to color an otherwise potentially interesting book. While most of us would be horrified at the idea of allowing the government to arbitrarily seize private property, Long continually espouses the view that "science" should take greater precedence than property rights in regards to fossils without ever actually making a convincing case for why this slippery slope should even be considered. He seems to think it is self-evident that citizens have no right to private property if a paternalistic government thinks your property has significance to an elite few who study an otherwise highly esoteric subject that contributes little real value to society. Over and over he argues that the United States should adopt laws like South Africa (the originators of apartheid -- good choice Mr. Long) where the government has the right to seize what private citizens find on their land so that people like Long can study it. Clearly, we don't allow the government to uproot yew trees from our yard just because the taxol in them can make cancer drugs, so exactly why does the interest of a group of people who study dead animals override the long history of private property in the United States? We are never told. I suppose if you ARE a member of that elite it's just obvious.

Because of this paternalistic socialist attitude, he takes the claims of opponents to the private ownership of fossils at face value without checking his facts on such a regular basis that the book attains a silly, preachy tone well before getting half way through it. In one bizarre example that should be an insult to American veterans, he cites well a known blowhard Wyoming policeman who claims to have been awarded the US military's Purple Heart medal for participating in a fossil "sting" operation in Wyoming that didn't involve the military at all! The same policeman claims to have netted over [money amount]in illegal fossils in a single day, yet a quick internet check of the Congressional Record shows the sting in question netted only about [money amount]worth of fossils in ALL OF 1995. Long also fails to mention that this same sting operation fell apart at one point when it was discovered that a fossil assumed to be stolen had actually been legally purchased from a private quarry. Still more obfuscation comes when Long fails to mention that of the various potheads and rednecks this backwoods investigation successfully prosecuted, virtually every one was for things unrelated to fossil theft! In fact, the Congressional Record indicates that Long's figures regarding how many people were prosecuted at all is wildly inflated. Long claims over 100 people were prosectued -- the Congressional Record for 1995 says 2. Hmmm....someone seems to have pumped up the number a bit.

Obviously, if Long can't even check his most basic facts there can be little doubt that while his book reads like an adventure, it's really little more than propaganda disguised as a detective story. I have no doubt this book will be used as a rallying cry for all sorts of draconian government regulations attempting to criminalize a perfectly legal trade, but then again it wouldn't be the first time a bunch of hogwash has been used to justify the use of stormtroopers.

This book needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Long, an Australian paleontologist, has a very different view of private property than most Americans and this socialist outlook tends to color an otherwise potentially interesting book. While most of us would be horrified at the idea of allowing the government to arbitrarily seize private property, Long continually espouses the view that "science" should take greater precedence than property rights in regards to fossils without ever actually making a convincing case for why this slippery slope should even be considered. He seems to think it is self-evident that citizens have no right to private property if a paternalistic government thinks your property has significance to an elite few who study an otherwise highly esoteric subject that contributes little real value to society. Over and over he argues that the United States should adopt laws like South Africa (the originators of apartheid -- good choice Mr. Long) where the government has the right to seize what private citizens find on their land so that people like Long can study it. Clearly, we don't allow the government to uproot yew trees from our yard just because the taxol in them can make cancer drugs, so exactly why does the interest of a group of people who study dead animals override the long history of private property in the United States? We are never told. I suppose if you ARE a member of that elite it's just obvious.

Because of this paternalistic socialist attitude, he takes the claims of opponents to the private ownership of fossils at face value without checking his facts on such a regular basis that the book attains a silly, preachy tone well before getting half way through it. In one bizarre example that should be an insult to American veterans, he cites well a known blowhard Wyoming policeman who claims to have been awarded the US military's Purple Heart medal for participating in a fossil "sting" operation in Wyoming that didn't involve the military at all! The same policeman claims to have netted over [money amount]in illegal fossils in a single day, yet a quick internet check of the Congressional Record shows the sting in question netted only about [money amount]worth of fossils in ALL OF 1995. Long also fails to mention that this same sting operation fell apart at one point when it was discovered that a fossil assumed to be stolen had actually been legally purchased from a private quarry. Still more obfuscation comes when Long fails to mention that of the various potheads and rednecks this backwoods investigation successfully prosecuted, virtually every one was for things unrelated to fossil theft! In fact, the Congressional Record indicates that Long's figures regarding how many people were prosecuted at all is wildly inflated. Long claims over 100 people were prosectued -- the Congressional Record for 1995 says 2. Hmmm....someone seems to have pumped up the number a bit.

Obviously, if Long can't even check his most basic facts there can be little doubt that while his book reads like an adventure, it's really little more than propaganda disguised as a detective story. I have no doubt this book will be used as a rallying cry for all sorts of draconian government regulations attempting to criminalize a perfectly legal trade, but then again it wouldn't be the first time a bunch of hogwash has been used to justify the use of stormtroopers.

This book is an interesting read and it provides a lot of background industry information and makes veiled allussions to diamond smuggling and diamond trafficking and maybe this book would be helpful to someone who is buying rough diamonds on the black market in Zaire (I doubt that anyone doing this would need the tidbits of wisdom that this book has to offer, it all seems like pretty basic stuff), but if you are looking for a diamond for that special someone, this book is of almost no use to you.

I bought this book thinking that it might contain a few tips on how I could buy diamonds at the insider price or maybe a few helpful hints on how to get a better deal or what sort of scams to look out for. I was wrong. Like I said -- an interesting read but ultimately not very useful.

It was an ok book because alot of it was quite boring and it never kept me on the edge of my seat. Somtimes the book lost its meaning. My favourite part was at the start when Magaret got kicked in the gut because I don't like her personality.

This book was a very, very bad novel for me to read. It was as exciting and interesting as washing the dishes. Even the boring bit at the start when they were getting to the plot was better than the middle where it is supposed to be the most exciting part of the book. The reason is, because this is one of the most talked about subjects in our community today and I have heard so many of these things happening. I definately won't recommend this to children of my age (11).

Unless you want a copy of ICE's old website on CD-ROM, this might not be the best choice for you. It's just all the images and documents that were contained on ICE's site before it was redone. There is nothing on this disk that couldn't have been accessed by surfing to the site.

It's a waste of twenty-five bucks.

This pulication as many others done by this publisher are extremely vague and usually it just reflects previous opinions and researchs. Nothing new to add to the phenomena.

Not what I expected. I need to know specifically which items I can ship outside the US and which I can't. This did not help at all.

did this writer absolutely hate the heroine? Everything bad that could happen to her did and the violence and sexual degredation just became too much barely halfway through the book. if you like that kind of stuff, this is your kind of book but if you are looking for an "erotic thriller", which is what the cover of my copy stated, this is NOT it. Only for selected tastes and not for a novice to erotica!!

Readers in the US might know James Herbert better as the creator of Fluke, the dog. His excellent book was taken totally out of context and turned into a kids movie. How Mr Herbert let that happen I have no idea!!!

I have been reading Herberts books for years now and have enjoyed every single one of them... except this one!!!

I read this about 3 years ago. It has to be the worst James Herbert book there is. Not only is the story slow, boring and badly written, the ending is terrible.

The only blessing is the fact that its not too long although it still feels like a slow death.

If you are new to James Herbert, avoid this one and go for Magic Cottage, Ghosts Of Sleath or The Shrine (the best).

cheers

Don't bother wasting your money on this article. It is less than a page and doesn't offer any insight!