Nova Books

The second volume of this trilogy introduces a few more original notions than were evident in volume #1. The historical basis is somewhat improved, noting that Vlad served as a page in the court of Emperor Sigismund and was a hostage in the Turkish sultan's seraglio, and the plot and characters are well conceived. The appropriately few erotic scenes are deliciously rendered, although the throbbing undercurrent of sensuality inherent in the subject is not as palpable as in the tales of Anne Rice. An excellent choice for Halloween reading.

Well the majority of this book was breathtaking, awesome, and just plain great. Arkady has matured, you are given an insight to his brain and his emotions like never before concerning his wife, Mary and his son as well as his ties to Vlad and his sister. He is tortured, heroic and beautiful in this book, a character of pity and beauty at the same time. Smooth and caring and almost human at times, Arkady is the highlight of the novel.

After Arkady leaves the story, however, the book takes a somber note, just lilting down towards the end of the installment itself. If this were my work, i would have seperated it into two installments instead of three... i think thematic and drama-wise, it would have worked better.

I am not complaining at all, but although the first book was better as a whole, i am giving this one 4 stars instead of 5. I was so heartbroken when Arkady left the story (trying not to give away anything here) and the book just seemed to fall through after that. I will have to find the third one and read it to get the complete story though i guess!

As a continuation of Covenant With the Vampire, in Children of the Vampire, Arkady Tsepesh lives in fear of the family obligation or curse to provide Vlad Dracula the first born male of each generation for a blood sacrifice. This has been a tradition for over 400 years and Arkady insists that this nightmare is going to end with him.

The book has the same dark atmosphere as the first in the trilogy and the suspense keeps building. Written in a diary format, you are able to get close to each person and feel their overwhelming hope, despair, tragedy throughout. This is an excellent sequel to Covenant With the Vampire.

This is the 2nd part in "The Diaries of the Family Dracul" trilogy, which is written in the same format as Bram Stoker's Dracula. This story takes place 25 years after the first novel. Arkady is still trying to find a way to destroy his uncle, Vlad, and release his family from an age-old covenant/curse.

I thought this book was great, better than the first. While I found myself wishing something interesting would hurry and happen in the first book, I didn't have that problem with this book. The action was fast-paced and tinged with a dark urgency, and I couldn't put it down because I was so anxious to see what happened next.

My only real gripe with this book was the "twist" it takes in the end. I thought that was somewhat contrived. It seemed to come right out of left field as if the author was really only putting it for a shock value -- especially considering that vampires supposedly taste the "truth" in the blood. However, it didn't hinder the story, and it definitely does give you a bit of a shock.

Anyhow, I thought the book was better than a 4-star rating, but not quite a five. Definitely another good addition to any vampire lover's collection.

The magnificent continuation to the previous masterpiece, Covenant With The Vampire. Arkady & Mary's childe has grown up, & Stephan, now in Amsterdam, has a brother, who has a hard time accepting the shadow world of the Vampire, & eventually comes to learn the horrible truth of it all, in the most personal manner. The psychological twists will set you reeling, as the twisted labyrinths Vlad has constructed unfolds. Zsusannah continues to improve & evolve in her new & glorious afterlife, & has come to realize her new abilities more intimately, & employs wicked trickeries taught to her by Vlad, & a secret society of Vampire Magicians.

The creative genius of Jeanne Kalogridis continues to delight & astound the Children of Darkness everywhere. She is the best new talent to creep forth from the recesses of the catacombes of horror-writers in quite awhile. She has become the Dark Goddess of this strange & compelling world where we long to be, & would swear upon our black souls, we have been. She has spread her black wings, & swiftly ascends unto the ranks of Anne Rice & Clive Barker.

The series, The Diaries of the Family Dracul, is truly an ingenious work, & bears boldly, The Draconian Seal of Approval. I do wish a movie lies in the future...

Although I've read enough Joy Fielding books to where I was able to figure out "who done it" pretty early on, "Don't Cry Now" still had surprises I didn't see coming.
Great book. A real page turner!

All of Joy's books are great, but this was one of her best. (See Jane Run is my personal favorite.
This has alot of mystery and some romance, just what her fans love!

This book started out sprightly enough, but was ultimately tedious and ending with some plot holes totally unplugged. Escapist fiction shouldn't leave the reader depressed. Avoid the Brilliance Audio version, which includes plot details that don't show up until cassettes 7 and 8 on the cover blurb.

This was a great read. I was in suspense until the very last page. A must read

After the thrill of reading See Jane Run and the utter disappointment I felt after reading Lost, I thought I'd see which way the balance went after reading my third Joy Fielding.

It's great stuff, and the ending was a complete surprise! I must agree with some of the reviewers that there is some heavy man-hater stuff here...but in a way, this is greatly necessary in order for the plot to unfold.

I liked this a lot...but not sure I would have stayed up all night to read it. It's more than three stars, but less than a full four stars. Still, I give it four...just because I went to bed last night and fell asleep while contemplating who-dunit!

Though some of John Gardner's earlier Bond Books were pretty good -- not up to Fleming's standard, but nothing to complain about either -- this one isn't worth the paper it's printed on, or the time you'll waste on it before abandoning it in annoyance. There's no spark, no wit, no style -- nothing, in fact, to distinguish it from some twelve-year-old's fanfic posted on the internet.

Also, there are no movie stills inside -- if you're hoping to get your Sean Bean (or Pierce Brosnan) fix, you'll have to satisfy it some other way.

After so James Bond novels with mixed results, John Gardner comes up with his best book to date. Based on the screen story to GoldenEye this is a good one. This is a tough and innovative Bond. Well done John!

Damn, that was a good book! For being a James Bond fan I sure say that the book "Goldeneye" was better than the movie "Goldeneye"! The book had an extra story line an parts that the movie left out. My birthday was yesterday, June 7, and my dad wanted me to help him pick out a good B-Day gift so I found the "Goldeneye" book by John E. Gardner. Believe me if I had to do it all over I would pick the same book.

This was a great book! Not only did it have everything you would expect from a Bond novel,and it even tapped into social issues, like racism, which we saw when Trevelyan explains his betrayal of MI6 to James. Very interesting account and very next level. It also gives some extra detail that you don't get in the flick! Check it out today!

GoldenEye is undoubtedly John Gardner's best James Bond novel. He really captured the essence of Bond as portrayed by Pierce Brosnan. I took this novel out and read it again when Pierce announced that his services were no longer needed as James Bond. It seems like he just got the part, and now, just like that, he is gone. I read this book again and savored each passage. It really brought back memories of the movie so vividly. It is so hard to grasp that ten years have gone by. I think this was John Gardner's last James Bond novel. Intuitively he must have known it and he put all the best he had into this one. I also love the cover. GoldenEye was such a special film at such a special time. One era ended while another began. This book is a record of those times.

As usual, Nora Roberts at her best. Great book. I didnt realize that it took place just miles up the road from where I live. Made it even more intersting.

Her best as usual, Nora knows how to draw you in & keep you satisfied in her world...I loved it!

Along with the other two books in this trilogy, this is an excellent Nora Roberts novel/romance- Highly reccomended book!

This book what shipped in a timely manner. Also, the trilogy was a couldn't put down type of series. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

This book, the second in the Dream series, is about Kate Powell, a distant relative of the Templeton's that comes to live with them after her parents are killed in a car accident when Kate is 8.

Kate is not beautiful like Margo or sophisticated like Laura. She is an over achiever. She feels that the only way to pay the Templeton's back for everything they've done for her is to be the best at what she does. She's a whiz with numbers, so she becomes an accountant at a well-respected firm, with the hopes of soon becoming a partner. She obsesses over everything, never feeling like she's good enough.

One day at work, she discovers that her father was accused of embezzling money and was faced with going to jail when he died. She also learns the Templeton's replaced the money he took, but never said anything to her. Shortly after learning that, she is accused by the partners in her firm of embezzling from their clients and is asked to take a leave of absence until it can be resolved. Destroyed and humiliated, she puts up a wall rather than fight the charges because she doesn't want her father's past revealed.

Enter Byron DeWitt, the new head of the Templeton hotel in Monterey. Kate and Byron start out detesting each other, but learn to tolerate each other and eventually become friends. The attraction between them develops over time. Kate suffers severe stomach pains in his company twice, the second time landing her in the hospital against her wishes. Kate finds out she has an ulcer and is near exhaustion. She is taken back to Templeton House to recover. Byron helps her begin an excerise and weight lifting program and that's when the attraction between them takes off.

With her career in shambles, Kate becomes a more active partner in Pretenses. She has never been a people person, preferring to be alone with her calculator and spread sheets, but to her surprise, she enjoys her work there. Of course, she is cleared of the embezzlement charges and is offered a partnership at her old firm, but she turns it down finally realizing that it wasn't as important as she thought it was. She also realizes how important Byron is to her.

This was a wonderful story. Nora Roberts knows how to develop her characters. She is at her best when she writes her trilogies. I highly recommend this series, but you should read them in order to follow the story from the beginning.

Before you purchase this book on the marketplace you should be aware that this 6 cassette edition is the entire 18 hours of the book. Back in the 20th Century, Brilliance Corp had a way of putting 3 hours on a 90 min. cassette, by separating the left and right stereo tracks. Most hand held cassette players do not have left and right balance control and you will need the adapter from Audiobookstand. I still had my adapter and so the purchase of the book at 35 cents was a bargain. As the tapes get old, the other track does tend to bleed through and so you just have to tune it out.

I don't believe the book is to long or that the ending is flat. B. E. takes the time to develop the characters [the husband who no longer can provide for his family and is in denial because he sees no way out; and the sister who longs for a husband, manor house and children of her own] and lets the horror build slowly to make it seem more real and the ending reflects the possibility of "what if this was real and not a novel". Not every novel needs to be the roller coaster ride of pulp fiction like the garish "Raiders of the Lost Ark" scene on the island where all the villains end up with their flesh melting off of them..

If you only want short, quick reading. Check out B. E.'s 3 volumes of short stories. Encounters, Distant Voices, and Sands of Time.

I'm a huge fan of Barabra Erskine and this book does not disappoint in any way!
Joss, a young woman with a new family, inherits an estate from her mother. She wants to make the fresh start and here is a place where she can learn about the family she never knew.
The only problem is that with the land and the house, Joss also inherits a legacy of revenge, passion and fear.
Erskine continues her usual fabulous writing to create scenes that jump out off the page and become so real you could swear you were there. Full of suspense, you won't be able to put this book down, so make sure you've got a free evening when you start this book!!

I have this on audio. Couldn't get into it at all. It needs a better beginning to get us hooked. sorry. only finished one CD gave up.

I am a great fan of Barbara Erskine, this book was the best to date. When Luke and Joss Grant face financial problems due to Luke losing his business and their home, they cant believe their luck when Joss inherits a beautiful old house from a mother she never knew. Along with Tom their small son they move into Belheddon Hall. When Joss becomes pregnant with their second child they thought that their happiness was is now complete.

How wrong they were.Joss starts hearing childrens voices and white roses start to appear on her pillow.After the birth of her second son Ned, things really start to happen.Tom starts having terrible nightmares and mysterious bruises appear on his
arms and legs. When Ned disappears and is finally found in one of the attic rooms Luke begins to think Joss is responsible. As the secrets of the old house unfold Joss realises that her sons lives are in danger. She enlists the help of a previous colleague David and together they try and fight the ghosts that threaten them.

From the first page to the very last this book was compelling . The combination of terror and historic events made it very hard to put down. Thank you Barbara Erskine,for a wonderful read.

Something terrible once happened at Belheddon hall.

It happened long ago, and the people caught up in the horrific events are long dead.

But the ghosts, the echoes, linger on.

Joss Grant was adopted as a baby, and she never had much of a desire to learn about her birth parents, until her own son was born. She finally tracks down a name, and a last known address of her birth mother. She is surprised when that address takes her to a beautiful old English manor house in the tiny village of Belheddon, and at first, delighted with the ghost stories that come with it. The villagers even believe that the devil lives there himself. The initial disappointment that her birth mother is dead is gotten over quickly.

As it happens, her husband Luke's engineering firm is bankrupted when his partner runs off with the cash, and they are forced to sell their home to pay off creditors. But all isn't lost; Joss finds out through an old parish priest, that her mother left her a letter with a lawyer, to be read only if she comes to find her seven years after her death. The letter leaves Belheddon hall to Joss.

At first she's overjoyed. The house is perfect. Luke can start a car repair business out of the driveway, she can write her novel in peace, and her adopted sister can watch her son Tom.

But things start to happen immediately. Tom complains of seeing a "tin man" in the night, and Joss finds white roses which no one else sees. Soon she discovers she's pregnant, but that isn't the reason she feels so odd.

When her son Ned is born, Joss and her sister Lyn start to notice bruises on the children. They disappear in the night and turn up in the attic. Lyn thinks Joss is hurting them, but Joss has just realized that never has a boy born in Belheddon lived to inherit the house...

This creepy ghost story was great. I loved it! It confirmed my previous decision to buy all of Barbara Erskine's books. True, the resolution at the end was a little wishy washy, and the extremely malevolent ghost seemed to give up haunting the house pretty easily, but this book is still amazing. The author is fantastic at suspense, and I was scared to read this while alone in the house. My absoulte only compaint with the book was the guy that Luke hired to help him fix classic cars, Jimbo, kept saying "I Reckon" which I think only people in cowboy movies say.

Five stars.

I read this book ages ago, lost my copy, and now wish I could find it to read it again. She wrote this before her "official" foray into "thrillers" and the romance is great (unlike some of her more recent ones). I love the heroine: a strong, intelligent woman, thrust into a situation she does not know how to handle, and the hero: sensitive, strong, and compassionate. He's not a wimp, though, and takes good care of the heroine.

I rate this book 5 stars because I remember it after reading it almost a decade ago. It definitely had staying power, and that says a lot to me.

EL's Tell Me No Lies is a fantastic book. I absolutely loved it. Could not put it down. I bought this book from a second hand book store and was planning to sell it later. I think I will keep it and read it later.

The hero Catlin is wonderful - strong yet compassionate. He is hard with everyone except the heroine Lindsay. It's nice to read a book of EL (unlike her earlier books) where the hero doesn't treat the heroine badly. Lindsay brings out the best in Catlin. His gentleness with her is so romantic. Even when he has to be firm with Lindsay and the events happening around them inadvertently cause her hurt, Catlin lovingly takes care of her.

Lindsay herself is no pushover. As a heroine, she doesn't irritate. Though she is naive and vunerable, she has what it takes to go through the bad times and at the same time heal Catlin with her love and passion.

A great book and certainly a keeper

The story is interesting, the characters are compelling, the atmosphere and history are very engaging, but ultimately there are just a few to many twists and turns for this book to make much sense.

Very interesting plot. As with all Lowell's books the language is highly offensive That's why I don't read her books regularly. If not for the language I would have given It 5 Stars.

I was put off by the title of this book, I guess Trust No One was taken. And I had to overlook the cover notes that said it was about Chinese art. I know nothing about the Chinese and thought I would get lost in a book about an ex-CIA operative in Asia. I was wrong. Before I completed the book I had spent happy hours on the internet looking for information on the art described in the novel and photos of the charioteer. Of course, a few years have passed since the book was written and the art is more accessable now, but for 20 years almost no one outside China saw these incredible bronze works. I learned a lot.

Aside from the intrique this book is hot. Lowell works the familar formula of ex-CIA undercover guy hero in a way that is credible. And Lindsay, our heroine, is not a virgin or 20 years old. She is an independent woman with a life of her own. She and our hero do not fall into bed the first night, it takes them weeks to determine what they want. The are partners, they are forced to live together, eat together, and have conversations. Doing the job they get to know each other, and eventually they deliberately consumate their relationship.

I recommend this book as the best I have read by Lowell and one of the best by any romance writer. Romance/suspense novels are uneven. I have yet to find a consistent writer who satisfies in everytime. I doubt that I will. This book has an unusual balance that is a surprise. I loved it.

This is one of the funniest novels I have ever read. Gay captures the mindset and cadence of the backwoods community in "Provinces of Night."

The story revolves around a teen-aged boy who is finding his way in the world amongst his father who is seldom present, his Uncle Warren who has moved away, his spell-casting Uncle Brady, and his grandfather, bluesman E.F. Bloodworth, who has returned to the small Tennessee community to make amends. There isn't a strong plot driving "Provinces of Night" so much as a group of great characters that pursue their own interests to comical effect.

Along the way there are plenty of jugs of moonshine to drink, women to be pursued, and blood ties to be tested. "Provinces of Night" is more raucous like Daniel Woodrell's "Give Us a Kiss," than nostalgic like John Grisham's "A Painted House." It would be difficult for me to decide which of these three 5-star novels I enjoyed more. I can say that I believe Gay to be the best of the three writers at turning a unique phrase.

Provinces of Night is a haunting, comic, bloody novel that takes the reader into a back country, intense world. The novel does elicit comparisons to Faulkner and Wolfe in that Gay uses the book to portray a very specific time and place while exploring universal themes of family and responsibilities. These themes go back to the earliest biblical stories, yet are fresh and evocative in Gay's beautiful prose. Provinces of Night is well worth reading.

(from my amazon.co.uk review: Gay seems to be getting some attention there)

I've lived in Tennessee for almost 30 years, in the urban setting
of Knoxville. I'm a caver, and the hunting for new caves takes
me to small towns and deeply rural areas in rugged terrain, where
one can be 40 miles from the nearest supermarket. You learn that
there are places to be avoided, where strangers are not welcome.
(You can also find such places in London, Glasgow, etc., as well
as in parts of the English countryside.) The law can be far away
and not impartial in some locations. Provinces of Night deals
with small-town Tennessee rather than the deeply rural and remote
parts. The central figure, Fleming Bloodworth, is not violence-
prone, but violence is often not far away. There is humor and
tenderness, as well as violence and death, but that's often how
life can be. Tennessee is not a slaughterhouse, but it's not
unusual to see "Three Dead in Cocke County Bar Fight" on the
evening news.

William Gay started writing at age 52. He seems to have been
strongly influenced by the novels of Cormac McCarthy, especially
those set in Tennessee (Suttree, The Orchard Keeper, Child of
God--all set in Knoxville and the surrounding counties). The
title comes from McCarthy's dark and brooding novel Child of God.
Gay's first novel, The Long Home, has a flavor similar to Child
of God, but Provinces of Night is closer to Suttree and The
Orchard Keeper. Gay's writing skills are on a par with McCarthy:
after reading Provinces of Night and The Long Home, I reread
McCarthy's novels, and took a long pause when I encountered the
phrase "provinces of night" in Child of God. I wondered in
McCarthy was writing under a pseudonym.

There's a great power and lyrical quality in Gay's writing. When
I got halfway through Provinces of Night I began to dread turning
the pages, since every page read brought me closer to the end.
So I ordered The Long Home from Amazon, taking comfort in the
knowledge that hundreds of more pages would be waiting for me.
Gay's third work, I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down, a
collection of short stories, has just been published, and it
contains some of the finest short stories I've ever read.
Gay is a great new addition to our current Southern writers.
He's the darker side to the rural South: for the lighter side
read T.R. Pearson's whimsical novel A Short History of a Small
Place.

No one writes like William Gay, period. He is an artist who paints pictures with words, and there is no one like him who is alive today. Imagine van Gogh painting a novel, and you will begin to understand William Gay.

One of the best novels I've read in the past few years, "Provinces of Night" shows the influence of Flannery O'Connor and of Cormac McCarthy, but is also highly original. The language and dialogue are what make it most enjoyable. The story is both funny and dark.

This book was phenominal!I loved The plot and I recommend it to all readers.The story was so suspensful. Every library should have this book! Look out for Joshua Gilder!!He has written another book called Heavenly Intrigue and it is on my top three!!Please write another book!

Fairly decent thriller about a plastic surgeon called to the ER one night when a severely burned and beaten woman is brought in. Though her face is mangled, he quickly realizes she is Allie, his lover. He manages to save her, but she is left in a coma for months while the police department searches for clues about what might have happened to her.

When she finally wakes, she doesn't remember what happened. And though Jackson stays by her side, his love for her never faltering, Allie soon becomes obsessed about her appearance -- and about the fact her boyfriend and his boss have the tools and the skills to fix her face. Her obsession turns deadly -- and so does, in some ways, Jackson's own obsession. With her.

All in all, a pretty original medical thriller. But this is Gilder's first novel and it really shows. The writing is good -- solid and well-developed. But, to put it simply, there's just too much of it. Which isn't the same thing as saying the novel is too long (although, that too), but more that sometimes sentences, paragraphs, or even whole chapters are superfluous. And, after awhile, I started skimming a bit. I wanted to find out what happened next, but was quickly becoming bogged down by the unnecessary parts. Still, ten times better than anything Robin Cook has put out in the last decade. Fans of the genre won't be disappointed.

Joshua Gilder's first novel, "Ghost Image," is a strange amalgam. It is part medical mystery, part psychological thriller, and part crime novel. Unfortunately, these disparate elements do not come together to form a satisfying whole.

The hero of "Ghost Image" is Jackson Maebry, a promising young plastic surgeon and protégé of the brilliant and successful Dr. Peter Brandt. Jackson's girlfriend, Allie Sorosh, is a beauty with a mysterious past whom Jackson has asked to be his wife. Allie puts Jackson off, and they have a terrible quarrel. Soon thereafter, Allie is admitted to the hospital in a coma, after being brutally beaten and burned almost to death. Who did this to Allie and why? Will Allie be able to recover from her horrible wounds, both external and internal? To make matters worse, the police begin to suspect that Jackson may have attacked Allie in a fit of rage.

Gilder does a wonderful job with the medical elements in this novel. The information about how a plastic surgeon does his work is detailed and fascinating. The psychological elements are less expertly handled. The characters of Jackson, Allie and Brandt are muddled and they become more so as the novel progresses. Gilder's plot starts out promisingly, but it lapses into implausibility as the book reaches its melodramatic climax. "Ghost Image" had potential, but Josha Gilder ultimately does not succeed in delivering the goods.

read a library copy but i intend to buy one for my library, it's that good. one's interest is kept throughout the book as gilder keeps throwing in twists to keep you wondering which way the story is heading. this book is up there with the best.

When Plastic surgeon Jackson Maebry is called to attend an emergency, he finds to his horror that the battered and burned young woman is his lover, Allie.A frantic race begins to save her life and to literally piece her back together.After other surgeons have mended her broken bones and skin, Jackson begins to do massive reconstruction on her face, having to peel it back and start from the beginning.He discovers that she'd had facio cranial surgery years before from the almost invisible scars in her bones.This is a story for those readers who enjoy medicine and forensics--sometimes rather gruesome but always compelling reading.

Everyone seems to focus on the age that Jenn Crowell was when she wrote this book. Why should it matter? Since the time I first read this novel, years ago, I have found the need to re-read time and time again. The writing is poignant, and emotion-filled. The story is woven amazingly and creatively, telling the tale alternatively through the past and then the present. The emotions and words are honest. The book is powerful. I do not care that she was 17 when she wrote this except that I hope she writes much more in the future. She could have been much older, and I would have been fooled. It is amazing story of the power within a woman, and I think all women should read it. Everyone has different tastes, of course, but I love it, and I find the need to read it over and over again. It's amazing.

I think alot of people look at this book and think this is not a good book about grief. But ofcourse it is not I don't believe it is suppose to be, and if you read this book with hopeing that you will learn something about grief from it, then you are reading it for all the wrong reasons.

I actually found this book by accident. I was looking up books on leukemia and stumbled on it. I bought it used and say all the great feedback it was getting and also some negative so I decided to give it a try.

I think this book is more or less a story of a woman coming to terms with her life, and what it took to get her where she is. I think it also gives alot of young adults a look at what a truly relationship is like, and the pain and agony that you go through when your time is cut short with that person. You know it is different to just end a marriage through divorce because you know that person still exist, but when someones life is cut short then it is quite a bit more difficult.

I stumbled upon the book-on-tape version of this book a few years ago, and found myself having to pull over on the side of the road because I was crying so much. The incredibly young age of the author, in combination with her ability to put these intense feelings into words, makes this an amazing book. I had just lost my mother about a year prior to reading this novel. While losing a mother and losing a husband are not the same, one cannot compare grief. I distinctly remember thinking "oh my god- she's saying what I've been feeling and unable to say".

Overall, an excellent, intense book.

Just seventeen when she wrote NECESSARY MADNESS, Jenn Crowell has fashioned a novel wise beyond her years. Her ability to tap into the deep, maddening ache of grief belies her age.

Gloria, while studying abroad in England, falls in love and marries a British painter, Bill, who is gentle and thoughtful and unpretensious. They are happy, gloriously happy: Bill paints and Gloria teaches. They conceive a son and life seems good, too good. Then Bill suffers from a loss of energy and bruises on his arms. Tests reveal cancer. Slowly, he dies. Gloria, bereft and adrift, tries to carry on, but she is unable to contain an unpredictable emotionality.

Since the book opens on the day of the funeral, we learn through flashbacks the history of their relationship as well as the history of Gloria's dysfunctional family -- a cloying father and a resentfully shrill mother, an American and a Brit, like Gloria and Bill.

This is curious territory for the debut novel of a college sophomore, though she handles it admirably, stopping just short of maudlin, mawkish sentiment. Her writing and pace are superb. She has a good sense of how to tell a story but falters in handling characters. Too often they fall short of the complexity and depth we expect (Gloria is the exception). Relationships often seem unsubstantiated, rushed, and one-dimensional. For example, Gloria's deep disaffection for her mother seemed unjustified and puzzled me.

Overall, I found the work engaging and worthwhile; its strengths overshadowed its soft spots.

Like so many others, I picked up this book based entirely on the fact that the writer was supposedly seventeen when she wrote it. From the first page, I was drooling with boredom. Actually- after the first paragraphy I was drooling with boredom, before that I was too incensed to drool. Crowell's premature style leaves a lot to be desired in the way of artfulness, subtlety and, most of all, originality. It's great that she can keep the plot moving along (as one editorial put it), but she didn't seem to concern herself with the accurate logistics of those points she dwelled on. The England details were so generic and Fodor's that I don't see why anyone'd boast that she wrote this book without having visited the country, first- or spent some time with its people. The poor son came in and out of the story on whim- I would've liked to see more focus on the mother-son relationship.

I've read somewhere that Madison Bell, who "discovered this gem" (how I loathe those words), read it and thought immediately of its marketability. I wish he'd instead thought of the girl who'd written it, spent a little more time encouraging her as a writer and getting the book up to standard (whatever that means these days) before FedExing it to his agent. Frankly, his haste doesn't speak too highly of his judge of quality.

And can I just say here (stop reading if you want) that I am not impressed with the OVERALL quality of "young prodigy writers" which have been published in the past few years? These poor kids are raking in nearly a million dollars before or shortly after they've hit twenty, but time will tell that they've been ruined. If Crowell had been twenty-three, or graduated from some stinking MFA program with that manuscript and scouted it out, she would've had a much more difficult time finding a publisher. And rightfully so. As a reader, I'm disappointed with the standards of the entire industry.

Finished Ian Fleming's "Thunderball" during my lunch break earlier today. Got the above Centenary Edition hardback with the painted cover. This novel is one of Fleming's most action-packed with Bond going after Emilio Largo who was planning to blow up Miami with an atomic weapon. It is also the first part of the "Blofeld Trilogy" featuring SPECTRE. Bond doesn't really run into Blofeld in this novel but his defeat of Largo is a prelude to their epic struggles in later stories such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "You Only Live Twice". Bond again teamed up with the American Felix Leiter and romanced the lovely Domino, who was cruelly tortured by Largo towards the end of the book. The main draw of the book is definitely the underwater fights. Fleming was obsessed with diving at this point and the prose descriptions of the underwater wonders are among the most breathtaking in the English language. There were two movie adaptations of "Thunderball" both starring Sean Connery (the second one was "Never Say Never Again"). Of the two movie adaptations, the earlier one is far more accurate and is still a joy to watch after all these years. The latter one is a total piece of crap - imagine Bond and Largo playing video games, Domino doing aerobics, etc.

The subject of this book (steal two atomic bombs and hold the world hostage) would be considered cliche these days, but only because this was the first book to use that formula.

Fleming wrote a pretty good one here, but it seemed to end in a hurry. You really don't get to know what happened with the SPECTRE operatives in full detail. The character of Domino was only seen briefly, and you don't get to see her tortured by Largo (thank God, though) but she's described well enough to be a "real" person. The beginning was a little slow. On the whole I'm really glad these novels aren't too long, they're exactly the length they need to be.

And those two points are the only complaints I have...it was otherwise a great book, certainly a classic James Bond, with enough excitement and detail to make it real. And I like the sexy covers on the new editions :)

With Thunderball, Ian Fleming's James Bond books take a new direction. Gone is the Cold War threat of SMERSH; now Bond must contend with villains motivated not by ideology but instead simple greed. In particular, Thunderball begins what I think of as the SPECTRE or Blofeld trilogy (along with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice), in which Bond battles his greatest opponent, the cunning Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who is also the inspiration for Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies).

Actually, Blofeld may be the ringleader of the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (no glossing over the evil of this group!) or SPECTRE, but it is actually his number two man who is the main villain. Emilio Largo is the head of operations for a global extortion plan: either pay 100,000,000 British pounds or SPECTRE will use two stolen nuclear bombs in a week.

Bond has initially gotten tangled up with SPECTRE in an inadvertent manner. During an idle period between missions, Bond has partied too hard and now requires time at a health spa; while recovering there (and briefly becoming something of a health nut), he crosses paths with Count Lippe. Their quarrel will inconvenience Lippe, a minor SPECTRE operative, and in turn cause a temporary setback for Blofeld, Largo and company.

Once out of the spa, Bond is briefed on the extortion plot and is sent to Nassau in the Bahamas to see if there are any leads there. He meets up with old CIA friend Felix Leiter and soon has reason to suspect Largo, who is maintaining a cover as a treasure hunter. In today's era, when there it is common to arrest possible terrorists and worry about due process later, Bond and Leiter's concerns about legality and probable cause seem almost quaint, but they do delay any action against Largo.

In a way, this is the first "cinematic" Bond novel. The copyright page indicates that this was not even fully Fleming's book; instead it was based on a screen treatment by Fleming, K. McClory and J. Whittingham. This shared copyright has definitely had its effects on the Bond movies, allowing an "unofficial" remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again. It has also stood in the way of a "resurrection" of Blofeld as a Bond villain, whose apparent death at the beginning of For Your Eyes Only was rather ignominious for the bad guy most closely associated with Bond.

Back to the book, Thunderball is a good enough read, but this is not Fleming at his peak (which is really From Russia With Love, Dr. No and Goldfinger). Perhaps his hope that this novel would be made into a movie made this tale a little shallower (although none of the books are really deep). Bond fans, however, should be reasonably pleased with this effort.

M has received Bond's medical report. Basically it says two packs a day smoking ain't good. He sends him to a health farm to get himself back together. He comes across a man from a Macao tong, who is also working for Blofeld, head of SPECTRE. A confrontation between the two is violent, and Bond is helped out by a nurse. He gets some of his own back.

Bond ends up in the Bahamas, and working with Leiter again, now back in the CIA. Emilio Largo is working there with his bombshell woman, Domino, and he is Blofeld's top man.

SPECTRE had hired Domino's brother to nick a couple of warheads, having access as a military officer to at transport flight. Then they offed him.

When Bond tells Domino this information, he turns her and uses her to his advantage. The book ends with a confrontation between Bond and babe vs Largo, and an American submarine vs Largo's crew.

Published in 1961, THUNDERBALL hit the bookshelves a year before Sean Connery debuted in the first film, DR. NO.

The Bond novels have always been very fluid and visual but THUNDERBALL reads as the most cinematic of the stories up to this point. That's for a very good reason: the project began as a screenplay between Ian Fleming and a producer, Kevin McClory, along with a screenwriter, Jack Whittingham. After finishing the short story collection of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY and suffering some health problems that would increase until his death, Fleming wasn't sure what to do with James Bond, especially after trying to kill him off in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE several books before.

The THUNDERBALL film project appeared to be stuck in development hell, so Fleming took the script and wrote a novel from it. Which promptly put him in court with McClory for the next several years. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the producing team who eventually did put 007 on the silver screen, had wanted to make THUNDERBALL their first film but as the court case continued, they moved ahead with DR. NO. The case was eventually settled but probably not to many of the participant's liking since Fleming had to share the rights to THUNDERBALL and another producer outside of Broccoli & Saltzman could legally use the character (which led to the "renegade Bond film" of 1983, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN).

The novel is fun to read because it has so many elements of what made the Sixties Bond films so much fun. A plot that involves saving the free world. The master villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld is introduced. The setting is incredibly exotic and beautiful. Domino is one of the more livelier Bond girls of the novels.

It's nice to have Felix Leiter along but...his condition after being fed to sharks in LIVE AND LET DIE stretches an already-strained believability to almost Austin Powers levels. I could accept him working for Pinkertons in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER but to get back into the CIA for THUNDERBALL...a bit much.

From reading Fleming's biography, I thought it was interesting that he would create SPECTRE about this time, the terrorist organization introduced here. In reality, he was bored with making the Russians his baddies all the time and--I thought this was funny--Fleming believed that the Cold War would be over before he could finish writing FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE!