Nova Books

Reading Unzipped is like following someone around for awhile and just observing their life. It's written in a Helen Fielding/Brigit Jones type format although not as funny but interesting just the same. It's basically a bunch of girlfriends, some married some not talking about sex or lack there of. It's honest and sometimes a bit shocking,(as with main character Courtney's friend who leaves her husband to become a slave in the S & M culture) It's a very easy, fun read.

This book is funny and charming and as I was reading, it seemedobvious that Courtney Weaver was the model for Carrie in HBO's series"Sex and The City." If you enjoy that show, you will enjoy this book immensely. Weaver writes in a breezy, conversational style that is light and easy to read. The book isn't about sex, per se, although there are many references to it, but about relationships and being single in your 30's. Very enjoyable.

An interesting non-fiction book on "the extraordinary sex lives of ordinary people".

Perhaps it's the openness in our society now, but I've failed to see what was so "extraordinary" about the sex lives of the people in the book.

Take Marie, a hairdresser who encouraged her husband to look for sex with others during her pregnancy, albeit jokingly, and got what she wanted. It is in my opinion that such things are happening all around us and that there is nothing shocking or alarming to it.

Guys and girls looking for a partner but at the same time sleeping around, women trying to find a husband and going through relationships that fail one after another; these are all nothing 'extraordinary'. I would think that the 'e' word was used with injustice for this book.

The main theme of the book is not about sex, but the role of it and how sex changes a relationship and the dating game.

I got tired of the book after awhile and there is nothing "funny" in it, as the backcover claimed. It is, however, fast moving but not an easy read.

Read this to help you get to sleep.

I picked this book up for the same reason that I pick up a Cosmo at the grocery store checkout every once in a while -- to get a flavor for what hip young women supposedly think about relationships and sex. I was not disappointed . . . at least at first.

I zipped through the first 100 or so pages, enthralled by the insidious, gossipy quality of it all. The wry humor was initially amusing but eventually began to wear on me. I think maybe it was just too much of something best imbibed in small portions. For example, I love "Seinfeld" but don't think I would be able to stand a feature-length movie starring those characters.

I think what soured me on the book in the end was the realization that I really didn't LIKE any of the characters. The women were all neurotic, self-obsessed, and shallow. The guys actually come off much better (which I DO NOT think was the author's intention) because they seem comfortable with who they are.

As a thirtyish guy who is suddenly "out there" after a failed ten-year marriage, I found this depiction of single life depressing. While I realize that it was at least partly fiction and probably intended as satire, its depiction of the relationship games that singles play (especially women) made me want to flee to a monastery.

Utterly contemporary, intelligent and witty, Courtney Weaver's "Unzipped" is a delicious page-turner. Sex and mating rituals are explored with a clear, ironic eye, and though she boldly mines her friends' private lives, I never had the feeling she was exploiting them. As she reports from the front about what it's like to be a single woman in today's confusing world, she comes across as strong yet vulnerable, charming and good-humored. She is also pitiless and self-deprecating in chronicling her own neuroses, which makes her all the more endearing. Telephone dispatches from her diverse friends, from San Francisco to New York to London, were endlessly fascinating installments of their latest dramas. I've already given the book to two of my girlfriends and they also enjoyed it enormously. Weaver's fresh, insightful voice made me eager to read a follow-up.

It's true, I always enjoy a Barbara Delinsky book! She's someone I read sort of off and on. I run across one of her books, read the back and usually end up buying. And often, their short descriptions on the back does not do them justice! Wonderfully, each of her books is quite different from the next.

Most women enjoy a great romance book, I am no different. Although, I prefer one with substance, a little more than the Harlequin's. Thus, Commitments is a great romance novel! It's got a steamy love affair, one that floats right off the pages. But it also has a story behind that love, one that I found inspiring, on many levels. Redemption, forgiveness, courage, commitment, unconditional love, dedication...the two people in this story have them all!

If you haven't read Barbara Delinsky, I'd recommend picking up one of her books. This one would be a good one to start, I also enjoyed Coast Road, Vineyard and Lake News.

What happened the book overall was good, but boy was I disappointed by the end. I felt that Ms Delinsky got tired and wanted to wrap up the story, The ending will make you wonder what
did the ballatine files contained, did sabrina have a girl or boy and what about the antagonist Geer did he get his in the end.I've read several of Ms.Delinsy's books and this was about to be my favorite if not for the end, she left so many potenial story lines loose and I felt cheated out of a potential good book

I remember reading this book of Delinsky's sometime ago and recall that it was an overall pretty good read. Sabrina Stone had married a little too hurriedly, and not wisely at all. When her son Nicky was born with many special needs, her husband of course, couldn't handle it at all. So Sabrina struggles along taking care of his needs on her own most of the time as her hubby is never around.

Meanwhile, she meets a reporter, Derek McGill, to whom she is very much attracted to. It is a shock later, though to learn that Derek was unjustly convicted of murder and sent to prison.
Sabrina however, with unconditional love for Derek, visits him in prison, and falls in love deeper and deeper unbeknownst to Nick.

As the book moves on, there is some mystery to be solved about some files that will help Derek's case, and Sabrina tries to help him all the way. The ending is unclear here, but Sabrina sticks with Derek no matter what. Some people have problems with her commitment to this man in her family.

I enjoyed the book very much.

Delinksy is always interesting. I have read almost all her books. In my opinion, this is not one of her best, but it is still a good book and will keep most readers interested throughout the duration. She gets better and better as time goes on. Her later books are all wonderful. One can see how her writing has improved when comparing early books such as "12 Across," "Bronze Mystique" and some of her early Harlequin stories to her later novels. If you have not read her before, start with "For My Daughters," "Suddenly," Vineyard" or "Coast Road." This is a good one to check out at the library, but not necessarily to spend money buying and keeping.

Of all places, I found this book when cleaning out my storage shed ~~ and this book is really a light read and a welcome break from my normal reading.

Sabrina Stone looks like a society wife ~~ all glitter and glam only to show Derek McGill that she is a woman made of substance. And their love story takes you from the top of a Manhattan rooftop to the farmland in Vermont. There are murder, intrigue and steamy sex scenes written in this little book.

If you're looking for something to read while taking a break from house cleaning, painting or any of those tiresome chores, this book is one I would recommend. It's not the deepest read of the year, but it is fun!

This was my first Evan Hunter read...and now I'm hooked. A friend passed it along and I couldn't put it down! That was two years ago, and I'm still talking/raving about it! It's exciting, but easy to read!

I'm a big, big Ed McBain fan from way back, though a bit leery of the author when he puplishes under his real name. If you set aside the graphic sexuality deplicted and gratuitous profanity, there is little left in this book. The police and district attorney machinations are very routine and the relationship difficulies deplicted in the prinicipal marriage are trite. The resolution of the affair is also a bit rushed and convenient. Not one of his best works under any name.

Three things stand out in this novel - wonderful characterization, sure knowledge of crime syndicates and an eroticism that threatens to approach soft porn. The story is simple - a mobster falls for a married lady whose husband, a district attorney, happens to be in the midst of an investigation of said Mafia guy. After Andrew rescued her daughter from drowning, straight-laced Sarah falls for and plunges into a dark, forbidden affair with a man 6 years younger.

She is consumed by the passion even as her marriage to her hard working, dull, good husband & father drifts slowly apart. She is suddenly desired & wanted & all her pent-up lust is released. At the same time, hubby is moving in for the kill by planting wire taps around the place and sure enough, one night, he hears his wife with another man - the one he wants. The ending is bitter sweet but faithful to the book - in fact, it is quite logical.

Sarah steals the show with her wistful longings, motherly concerns, spousal obligations and deep needs. The happy go lucky character of the criminal is well described as well as the day to day grunt work of the law enforcement team. Altogether, a great read.

What a fantastic book! One thing I've noticed about Evan Hunter's novels is that he is able to write about female characters in a way that is utterly convincing to me, a female reader. I still have a little difficulty getting to grips with the fact that Sarah could have been written by a male author!

The novel is more 'adult' than Ed McBain novels generally are, and this is worth remembering if you don't like that kind of thing, but this is a great book, and a very good read. Very highly recommended.

Forget the background of the mob story, although it is interesting, and realize that this is just a thrilling book about a woman having an affair. I couldn't wait to find out what happened and read the last 250 pages in one day.

I enjoyed this book so much because you could look at it from so many different angles. First of all, since I am a married male, I looked at it from Michael's point of view. His wife is cheating on him and I wanted to see what he would do when he found out. Then you could be Andrew, the man who seduces Sarah, Michael's wife. What are his motivations? Then you want to know what motivates women cheat on her husband (or a man on his wife). Thinking about that can be both chilling and thrilling.

While I liked this book a lot, I think it had a few weaknesses. Hunter does not do enough at the beginning to establish that Michael and Sarah have a great marriage or even a good marriage. I think if he had spent more time convincing the reader that these two shared a strong bond, then what had followed would be that more devasting. We know Sarah has an affair, but to be able to know exactly what she was betraying would have made her betrayal that much worse.

Also, it seems that Sarah gave herself to Andrew rather easily (not a spoiler). I guess that Andrew was charming and handsome, and that was all it took for Sarah to give away her life. Again, it would have been better to know specifics in her life with her husband that she was very unhappy with. Instead, we just get veiled references to the fact that he was working a lot.

This book has a good ending I guess. Sarah was a frustrating character because I was never truly sure why she totally abandoned Michael and surrendered to Andrew. I guess it was nothing Michael ever did, it was just that Sarah was a bad person.

I plan on checking out some more books by Hunter/Mcbain to see if they are as good as this one.

I read it through, just to see what happened, but I really should have just quit early on. I found it to be a terrible read. The technology was very dated--many sci fi authors are able to write about technology in ways that won't make readers ten years hence laugh. I could even forgive that, honestly, if the rest of it were so damned bad. Perhaps his other works are better, but the characterization in this one is completely juvenile.

Many authors introduce a character, and give little bits and pieces of description and characterization over the course of interactions with them. Bova introduces a character, then spends a paragraph describing that person, then giving them a nickname, then not using that nickname. He also seemed to think we'd forget the character's whole names if he called them by only their first names, because Victoria Kessel was hardly ever seen as just Victoria or Vicky. Same with many of the other characters.

The protagonists were unlikeable. There was actually one passage where it described the woman demanding her job as a reference librarian allow her to work from home because she had a BAAAAAAAAAYBEEEEE...and that if she didn't get her way, she'd to to the press and stomp her feet and tell them that the mean, evil library was discriminating against mothers. They agreed to let her do this, and she then proceeded to start charging people for her services as a reference librarian--even while she was being paid by the library--until she'd built up enough clients for a small business, ditching the library. Nice.

This book may have been significantly better if it had several things: A strong editor, fewer name brands of machines, and more cryptic treatment of the plot exposition. We learn MUCH too early on what is going on behind the scenes, and this makes the resolution very anticlimactic.

One more thing: The sex scenes are pretty juvenile. Considering the rest of the book reads like it's written for a pre-teen audience, they just feel incongruous.

This book was written very well. Featuring a slew of fun, dysfunctional characters, it would only take a small stretch of existential angst for me to give it a 5th star. As it is, though, it is merely a precautionary tale of the dangers that virtual reality may bring to the world. Precautionary tales are nice, and sometimes they are fun (like this one is), but they don't really have the meaning to earn that 5th star.

This is the first book I have read by Mr. Bova, and I think that it is good, with some small imperfections. He has a certain writing style that is somewhat stilted to me, and it is sometimes hard to read. I can't place my finger on exactly what it is, though. It may be overusage of the character's names, or it may be the fact that the characters are a bit hackneyed, but whatever it is, it is somewhat annoying, like a tiny piece of flesh hanging from the top of your mouth...you know what it is and you want to fix it, but you can't really get directly at it, so you just worry it around with your tongue.

Other than the lack of any real substance and the small writing annoyance, the book was very good overall, and I am quite impressed. Don't get me wrong, the book is fun to read, and I will read it again sometime in the future, it just won't alter my perceptions of the world in any measurable fashion.

It is an exciting book, though, and it is fun to see Kyle Muncrief's whole world fall down around his sick, twisted feet, and I can't see why anyone should have to face repercussions for the consequences of his last VR sim.

That's just me though. Read it, enjoy it, and pass it on. Definitely a buyer.
Harkius

The theme of manipulation through virtual reality is unsettling in that it is so possible, but the book is well done and interesting to read. One of Ben's best efforts.

This is my first taste of the prolific and lauded Ben Bova. He is a good writer, he is definitely strong on character development. This is one of the drawbacks of this book. We get to know the characters well enough, but in doing so, Bova stifles the pacing of his book. This would work great on the movie screen; there are some really original and exciting virtual "games" going on here. There aren't a lot of characters to like in this book, although Dan certainly goes through hell to best his lifetime friend, Jason. Dan's wife, Susan, is whiny and sometimes I wanted to slap her; the daughter is a typical little brat, and what Uncle Kyle wants to do to her is pretty sick. WE get a lot of background on why Kyle Muncrief wants little Angela so bad, though.
If Bova had cut some of the excess fat off this book, it would have been a stunner!

My initial thoughts when I saw a VR related story made me cringe. All I could think of are all the Late Night B Movies that so make VR an unattractive subject.

I got the audio version from the library on the simple fact that Ben Bova is an established fiction author. Suprisingly I enjoyed this quit a bit. The audio version had me anticipating what would happen next more from the story than from the reading of the story.

If the reading was done a bit more like acting things out I probably would have gave this a five stars. At least they had some different sounding voices for some of the characters but the reader's ability to switch between character voices had some flaws.

This story based on VR technology really did get my thoughts going on the dangers of other pieces of technology. Interesting and entertaining story.

After howling in Bump and Run, I couldn't wait to listen to Full Court Press.

The first half of the book continues at a great pace with a slew of colorful characters. The last half was a let down. I enjoyed it, however, it wasn't as crisp as Bump and Run.

With that being said, I would still recommend either buying or listening to this story.

If you want to read a book from an extremely bright, informative, and seasoned sports journalist, read Full Court Press. Lupica is at his best in this epic basketball drama. Not only does he accuratley portray NBA life and off the court hardships, but he also portrays this from a woman's point of view. Amazingly descriptive, dramatic, and full of excitement, this book has Best Seller written all over it.

Lupica's got a great ear for the banter of the game and the City. He needed every bit of it to penetrate the blanket of intense namedropping, a syncophantic suck-up to Imus (Mo Jiggy in an Imus ranch hat) and overreaching for similes and metaphors (how does Earthwind snort the GNP of a city, Mike, and what is a "Gulfstream ex"?). I had it at 4 stars most of the way, but the last third really bogged down.

Eddie Holtz, jock with a blown out knee now scouting for the NY Knights (how many times has that set up been used?) discovers Dee Girard at a charity game in Monaco. She's the ultra cool 32-year-old daughter NY playground legend Cecil "Cool Daddy" Cody and the beautiful Swedish dancer Cool Daddy hooked up with in the late 60s. Eddie thinks she's as good as any point guard in the NBA, and Knights owner Michael De la Cruz sees headlines and ticket sales.

Some great characters: Knights Coach Bobby Carlino is a blatant composite of Rick Pitino and PJ Carlessimo complete with a bad boy player shoving his whistle down his throat when the coach lets his team rough Dee up. Eddie brings in Mo Jiggy, rap star turned sports agent from "Bump and Run", and the partnership of two super bright street-smart kids from the hood is born.

The last 40% or so isn't really a plot but a bunch of games, name dropping and trivia (like the female AAU phenom from the 50s who drops in on Dee in Minneapolis). The real story of Cool Daddy comes out. So what if he's more of a hustler than a hoopster, but bringing him back from the dead was a little much.

It had some great dialogue, fun characters but a little too much junk in between to make it a top tier story.

Mike Lupica's "Full Court Press" is a sports fantasy in which the flamboyant owner of the worst team in the league signs the first woman to play in the NBA. Dee Gerard is the illegitimate daughter of a New York playground legend and a star in Europe who impresses a scout for the New York Knights. If you hear echoes of the real world twisted this way and that (Dr. J's daughter, Nancy Lieberman, etc.), then you realize that is part of the game here (is Dee's teammate a "nice" Dennis Rodman?). Try not to get caught up in figuring out if you are dealing with stereotypes or Frankenstein like creations composed of the parts of various real people.

Understandably Lupica has to tweak things to put Dee in a position to play in the NBA once he sets up the desperate franchise idea: she is basically a female John Stockton (sees the court, knows the game, can make the pass) with a healthy injection of Globetrotter style and flair. She is also the fastest woman ever to play basketball, which works for me as the secret ingredient. However, in terms of the story "Full Court Press" reminds me of the old Sammy Davis, Jr. joke: Sammy is on the golf course and somebody asks him "What's your handicap?" Sammy does a double-take and points out that being a one-eyed, Jewish, black man is handicap enough. Lupica saddles Dee with similar baggage: she is having an affair with her coach and sometimes she gets what is basically acute stage fright. So being a woman is, ironically, the least of her problems in this book. Fortunately she is pretty much the most level headed person in the book and so most readers will be inclined to wish her well and remember this is a sports fantasy, not a social argument (Earl Monroe says it will happen one day; anybody out there got the chops to argue with the Pearl?).

I watch ESPN's "The Sports Reporters" on a regular basis, so I have to admit that the Mike Lupica who wrote this novel does not "sound" like the same one who goes from articulate rationality to passionate diatribes at the drop of a hat (or one liner from a cohort). There are insights into the world of sports in general and professional basketball in particular (they might not know the game, but these kids today are FAST) scattered throughout the book, and I found a really good insult for somebody from a farm I would dearly love to use someday. Certainly Lupica has a feel for the game (so does the dust cover, where the basketball feels like a basketball). The resolution leaves a lot to be desired, but the journey is fun and it is a good read. "Full Court Press" can keep you occupied during the first three quarters of a NBA playoff game when nothing is happening.

As a working sportswriter, like myself, the author should know that there is not a single player in today's NBA who would knock an opponent to the court, then utter the words: "You went down harder than the Hindenberg!" I doubt whether there is a single active pro basketball player that could even identify the Hindenberg, let alone use it as a taunt. (Who edited this novel?)

That sort of preposterous dialog -- and the hackneyed romance between Dee and her coach -- made it difficult to fully to enjoy Lupica's well-intentioned little fantasy.

I really like the way this was written, great directions, information about the trails. The GPS information would most likely be useful to people who had their GPS device...another purchase in the future. Highly recommend this book for those visiting the Cape Breton area.

I bought this book before our recent vacation to Nova Scotia, where we spent most of our trip on Cape Breton Island. This book covers only a small fraction of the available trails. We did "Middle Head" (which is covered in the book), but, at the suggestion of the ranger at the National Park information center, we also did Franey Mountain (just a short distance from Middle Head) and Skyline (on the other side of the park), both of which were more substantial and rewarding and not even mentioned in the book.

Save the cost of the book and stop by a visitor information center or National Park information center. You'll hear about a lot more choices.

It was a very good and detailed discription of the trails. The dis cription of the where the trail headsnare was excellant, even giving the GPS coordinates.

After doing my homework on the internet and searching for areas of great hiking in Nova Scotia,I came across the Cape Breton Highlands National Park area, the Cabot trail scenic drive, etc...and although I understand that the author/hiker wanted to include all regions of Nova Scotia in his book, I was terribly disappointed to see that there are only five hikes mentioned from the Cape Breton Island area. To be honest, I was able to retrieve much more info, simply by doing searches on the internet. L'Acadien, Skyline trail, Corney Brook, Coastal trail, and many more of what seem to be the most significant hikes in this area; were all left out of this book. On the positive side, it seems to include many great details about the wildlife in the area, the topo maps look like they will be helpful, and and directions to the trailheads seem thorough.

This is an excellent guide that we found useful throughout our stay on Cape Breton Island. The maps are excellent and the descriptions of the trails and how to reach the trailheads is great. The topographical maps were also very useful. I will comment on some of the great hikes included in Haynes' book.

As you leave Cheticamp and enter the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, you are given three immediate trails from which to select. Because of intense rain, we had to skip these trails and move further north into the park. Along the way, the ocean views from the Cabot Trail were incredible, some of the most beautiful and dramatic scenery in the world.

Our first hike within the park was the Skyland Trail, a 3 hour hike on a high mountail plateau. The vegetation is naturally pruned and stunted by the ocean winds. The views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are stunning from this height. We looked for moose but saw only pheasants.

Our second hike was to MacIntosh Brook, where the spruce trees create alpine odors as you hike and Aspen trees were turning gold. The old growth Sugar Maples were turning flame red in our September trip. The Sugar Maples are propagated by a root system that allows saplings to develope all around the parent tree. These small saplings may remain short for decades in virtual shadow, nourished by the root system of the parent tree.

Our third hike was to Lone Shieling, a short hike that offered a stone replica of an ancient Scotish hut, a short walk along a brook, and another short hike through Sugar Maple forrests.

Our fourth hike was very short since a dirt road will take you almost to the Chutes Beulach Ban Falls. Our fifth hike was cut short due to lack of time. We tried to hike to the Glasgow Lakes Lookoff but the round trip takes 4 hours. We turned back before completing the hike but we did reach an altitude to see vast vistas.

We spent the night at the Markham Resort cottages in Dingwall and had a gourmet dinner at the Morrison restaurant in Cape North. The Markham cottages allow for wetland or beach front hikes where the granite pebbles offer infinite varieties of colors and shapes. Here we saw a young bald eagle just getting the white feathers of the mature adult.

We drove to Bay St. Lawrence where we went for a whale cruise. We saw two pilot whales, hundreds of curious seals, and an adult bald eagle. We were late in the season so I suspect most of the whales had migrated to the Carribbean. While on the road we found the convenience stores offered many quick meal selections. In Cape North, I was able to get a lobster sandwich and chocolate milk. An odd combination, but it tasted great.

Our sixth hike to Broad Cove Mountain was short but offered great views above the treeline. However, our seventh hike, to Middle Head, was one of my favorite hikes. The trailheads start behind the impressive Keltic Lodge hotel. The hike offers high cliff hanging views of the Atlantic.

Our eighth hike was up Cape Smokey, a long hike but which has 3 vista points along the way with incredible views of the Atlantic ocean and the rocky wave battered cliffs and rocks below.

This book was a great resource by which to sxplore one of the most beautiful areas in North America.

There is a great difficulty in finding all the works of this author and that is a shame. They would be a great series especially for those of us entering retirement and preferring to listen to books rather then reading them. They are well written and fun and thoroughly enjoyable.The author needs to have all of the series put on tape or cd!!

_Mrs. Pollifax Pursued_ is definitely candy for the mind. It's a very quick read, entertaining precisely long enough to be a treat, contains nothing challenging and nothing difficult. The characters are fun, the plot isn't too unbelievable, and the writing is excellent. It should be just the thing if you're in the right mood.

Mrs. Pollifax finds young Kadi hiding out in her closet, and takes her on the run to escape her pursuers. The Bishop stashes them in a rather unusual safe house-- a carnival in rural Maine-- and together they need to discover why Kadi is in so much danger.

Mrs. Pollifax is an senior citizen who works for the CIA. When Mrs. Pollifax finds a college student hiding in her storage closet, she soon becomes the target of hitmen. Can Mrs. Pollifax elude her pursuers and protect Kadi (the college student) from harm?

I am a big fan of Mrs. Pollifax, but I found Mrs. Pollifax Pursued to be a bit disjointed, and cluttered with too many annoying minor characters. I liked the circus theme, but I found Kadi very irritating and too helpless for my taste. She acts like an infant, rather than a college age adult. I also wished the author had stuck with the Circus theme. I found the dynamics of the sideshow much more interesting than the farfetched African theme. Overall, while I enjoyed Mrs. Pollifax pursued, I wished it had been a tad more realistic. This novel was too farfetched for me to find it as enjoyable as the other adventures.

This time Mrs. Pollifax begins her adventure right in her own back yard when she discovers Kadi, a young woman who is fleeing her pursuers and is hiding in Mrs. P's house. She tries to help the girl get away, but the pursuers are right on her tail, so she appeals to Carstairs, her CIA contact, who sends her to a "safe house". Much to her surprise the safe house turns out to be a carnival and Mrs. Pollifax and Kadi learn some new skills to become part of their new environment. Someone who is also on the run and is hiding in the carnival is badly beaten and Mrs. Pollifax has a new angle to explore. This is all tied in with Kadi's friendship with a young man from a small African country and the disappearance of a wealthy American businessman. Before it's over, Mrs. P. and Kadi are whisked to Africa and new problems surface before a satisfactory ending is achieved. This is a delightful romp with the intrepid 60-something heroine and most of it is set in the United States, a nice change of pace from her other adventures.

For a change, trouble finds Mrs. Pollifax instead of the other way around, when she finds a young woman hiding out in her closet. An extended chase ensues, ending up with Mrs. Pollifax and Kadi, the young woman, hiding out in a carnival subsidized by Mrs. P's CIA friends for just such a purpose. The threads are complex, and there are a few more coincidences than are comfortable, but it all boils down to a plot to take over the African country where Kadi grew up and where her friend Sammy has a politically prominent position.

It's another enjoyable Pollifax romp, weakened a bit by the coincidences, but again brilliantly read by Barbara Rosenblat, whose skill I admire ever more increasingly with each new voice she comes up with.

I started this book with great trepidation. Any book with the title 'The Colonel' had to be lacking in some department or another. At least thats how my thinking went until I became engrossed in these pages. The plot surrounds the brutal murder of an investigator of air force planes. Her job was to look into air-craft and see if they were sound. As the story progresses, we learn more and more about this situation and it really is both at the same time compelling as far as pushing the story along and ever more outlandish as far as conspiracy wise. I think that this aspect of the story both intrigued me and caused for my review to get notched down to just four stars.

The main character is Marty, an investigator who works as a consultant on military homicides. We follow him as he interrogates an ever more elaborate set of characters. You are never sure just who is in the wrong here or where the story is going. A couple of characters that help Marty along are also important. One is Simon Santos who is a character that mightily reminds me of the slick genius from Douglas Preston and Licoln Child's series of books. Simon knows everything, is wealthy, and a mysterious character to say the least. Also, Patrick Davis gives us an assistant to Marty, a young officer who prides herself in her ability and prowess.

All in all, this is a very fun book if just to see where it might be leading. Its worth reading.

Patrick Davis hit a home run with "The Colonel". I found it fast moving, full of suspense (the butler didn't do it) and a fast read. It is worth the price.

Patrick Davis has a real winner. You may think you know who dunnit but you don't. This book is one of the best I have read in a long time. Suspense from start to finish. I would love to see a new series started with Simon and Martin. You can throw in Amanda too. Bravo, great book!

I enjoyed this book. The characters were likable and well drawn out, the story very interesting. I love a well written conspiracy theory, but love it even more when people who gamble with others lives get what's coming to them. Mr Davis novels centering around the military are really well written, never a disappointment. I recommend this, and await his next.

I read this book and one of the author's other books, "The Passenger." Davis writes well and obviously intimately knows the kinds of characters, places, scenes, etc, that background his novel. Perhaps it is me and not Davis who is at fault for not awarding this book five stars, but I feel it is missing something. You are whisked along, helter-skelter, through a plot with the requisite twists, turns, and roller coaster plunges... but I want more. I want it to MEAN something. This book is solid entertainment, so maybe I am wrong to want it to snare me at gut level as well as taking me for a damn good carnival ride.

This book is crap and you can find out by the editorial review 'book description'. It says 'serbians have been fericious fighters against Hitler' - EXCUSE ME??? - 'What you know in comparison of what you dont - is nothing' - READ PHILIP J. COHEN's BOOK 'SERBIA's SECRET WAR' and then you'll get to learn how accurate this book is and also 'fericious serbian fighters against Hitler' who cooperated with him all the time.

Don't you just love DEMOCRACY, and the freedom of speech and publications??? I LOVE IT SO MUCH, it is the only way people and
writers such as the one of this book reveal their ugly true self, often for the sake of money.

This book is truly GREAT! The only people who will not like it, are ALBANIANS hidding from their Nazi past (those who are ashamed to say that they are Albanians, but call themselves KOSOVARS or ILYRIANS). This book is most detailed work on Kosovo, its people and its culture with a focus on Western actions and involment in this Serbian province. Serbs, the greates fighters against Fasizm in Balkans, are being ETHNICALLY CLEANSED since II World War by Albanians, who were running this province and who were fighting for Hitler....Author explains in detail history of both nations, Serbian and Albanian and relates it to the present situation. His knowledge is deep and his writting is clear and bursting with little known facts.....If you want to get to know Kosovo, do not miss this book.

Great book if you are a firm believer in the old saying; "there are two sides to a coin"

If was a marvelous book about NATO's unjustifiability in bombing a sovereign nation, Serbia. It paints a good portrait of Kosovar Albanians, and that they aren't peacful prairie dwellers. However, it would be nice to update this book, including the fact that the KLA, and its member are being funded and trained by Osama Bin Ladens networks. This book really covers every aspect of why this was an "unjust war". Every nation in the Balkans went through their nationalistic expansionistic era, unfortunately Albania didn't, and i guess they haven't learned from history either, so now they want a greater ALbania, and America supports this corrupt, undemocratic entity.

It's amazing what can be accomplished by coming to a conclusion first and then only paying attention to those few facts that support it. I bought this book with the thought, "know your enemy," and upon finishing it I now know what my enemy is. It is a malignant, pervasive ignorance of the facts. You can make Mother Theresa look like the anti-Christ if you really attempt to and this is what Mr. Colombus is intent on.

Not everyone in a people is a criminal because a few are Mr. Colombus. If that were the case the US would be a nation of murderers, rapists and con artists. While I'm sure this is the image you are intent on portraying, both of the US and the Kosovars, it is a blatant lie.

A people are not martyrs simply because they feel persecuted Mr. Columbus. Too imply that they are is simply to feed the flames of ignorant paranoia which caused slaughter after slaughter in Yugoslavia.

For those who like space opera, this will be a bit of a disappointment. The first two installments of the Grand Tour opus have remarkably little science, and instead focus much more on political machinations in a world dominated by the USSR (Privateers) and then by a a global economic organization which seems to be the target of organized crime. Throw in a bit of sex, some greenhouse issues (explained in a very elementary way), and you have quick, light reading. Suitable for a beach or subway ride, perhaps an airplane trip? But not Bova at his best.

This book, my first by Ben Bova, started out very well. Dan Randolph was an amusing character and the overall setting was interesting. Bova generally did a good job of detailing the Grand Tour universe and began to develop a sense of doom from the impending environmental crisis. However, ultimately, the book was let down by three problems: 1) Jane Scanwell was a terribly weak character, especially for who seemed to have been a master politician, and it was hard to understand why she appeared to hate Dan so much at the beginning; Kate Williams wasn't that much better; 2) the irrelevant submarine earthquake; 3) the ending simply degenerated into a feel-good Hollywoodian James Bond rip-off.

A good start, but ultimately disappointing and unsatisfying.

Everything in this novel is too simplistically told - the greenhouse cliff that could be avoided by a conversion within 10 years to all fusion engines, to Dan Randolph who double dammed and said rain don't make applesauce too many times for me. The characters of Fletcher and George were better drawn.
Give me Bova's Mars book.

This is really a unique novel. I don't recall reading anything by Ben Bova before this book. After reading this novel I decided that Mr. Bova wrote a good novel and I bought several more of his titles to see if he is consistent. Well, that is not the point of this review. This is a review of `Empire Builders' not Ben Bova.

What a really good novel this was. The protagonist Dan Randolf is a wonderful creation on Bova's part, as a previous reviewer noted. I don't know how much of the science involved in the book is realistic but it was written in such a way that I found it believable. The motives of the key players were logical and the plot made sense. What more can you ask for.

Amazon did an adequate job of giving the plot overview so I won't waste your time here with the same. I will only add that this novel succeeds in nearly every particular. As you are reading the novel you are constantly confronted with actions and reactions that are surprising to you, as the reader, but seem like the only logical event after reading them. A definite recommend on my part.

Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

STORY: From back cover - "Dan Randolph, has become Dan Randolph, empire builder. His staff has found evidence that the greenhouse effect has been gathering speed and that soon, Earth will be on the edge of the greenhouse "cliff". Millions will die unless humankind changes its ways immediately."
On the run from the world government and other forces, Randolph battles to regain all that he has lost and save the world at the same time.

MY FEEDBACK:
1) At first I was groaning at the thought of some extremist "tree-hugging" storyline. Yet Bova handles the subject matter VERY well without getting overly preachy.
2) Some nice plot twists and believable opposition established
3) A complaint (not the only one) is that the end seemed to get wrapped up a little too swift and nicely. It ignored some issues that normally would carry on a lot longer considering the "history" Bova built between characters and the world they live in.
4) The character of Dan Randolph was enjoyable to read and the people who help him at various turns are a nice mix to watch
5) The audio book reader does a good job and even had different voices for different characters, which I always prefer.

OVERALL: It was interesting and entertaining. The "hard science" of the book was ok...nothing spectacular. It is worth the effort if you don't have anything else pressing to read.