This one gets a 2 out of 5 from me. The plots and characters in Cussler’s books are becoming very formulaic. There’s no surprises in this one. The story is mostly one long flashback to Issac Bell’s early detective days sandwiched between two modern day chapters. Consequently it’s no real spoiler that the woman for whom he falls in the story and who is not his wife in the modern day first chapter must have had something prevent her from being his wife now. We also know from the start who the bad guys are. It seems to just be a lot of running from place to place to get to a predictable end with a predictable middle.   posted May 22, 2013 at 10:34AM

Definitely no hero in this one. Even the characters who aren’t trying to manipulate others and are being manipulated seem to generate little sympathy for being so clueless. It has that Jane Austen feel in terms of historical setting without being a romance story as such. Since there isn’t really a protagonist, nor a distinct story with an ending, it may be hard for some to follow through a 2 DVD set. If you’re happy with a story that isn’t a couple-meet-at-the-beginning and couple-marry-and-live-happily-ever-after-at-the-end then it’s kind of fun following it.   posted Feb 28, 2013 at 4:24PM

A prequel to the The Alien series of sci-fi horror/shocker movies and definitely made in the same style. I guess the scientists figure they only have the 124 minutes movie duration in which to achieve exploration of a new planet which explains why they rush into things without consideration or due care. Perhaps the faster they move along the actual drama the more time they have for gore.   posted Feb 28, 2013 at 4:08PM

There’s at least 3 unidentified skeletons and they keep on switching the identity of them, so I started to lose track. There’s also a handful of living characters, some of whom have false identities and are interchangeable with the skeletons. I just kept on losing track of who was currently who. Perhaps this isn’t a bedtime book but one to be read when you’re more awake and can keep track.   posted Feb 16, 2013 at 8:38PM

It is natural for this kind of book to be written from a certain political/philosophical perspective. The genre is, after all, about "good" guys and "bad" guys. The nature of the "bad guys" changed since the first books a few decades ago to track the world political scene; first the Soviet Union, now Middle Eastern terrorists. Still, it was always just a USA vs. some other element, and the values being defended were pretty broad ones that I suspect most people of any political stripe would support. Unfortunately Clancy has now started going beyond the world stage and included the domestic political scene. I remember this starting in the Rainbow Six book where environmentalists were cast as the super-villains. It continues in this book where all the clear non-Republicans (if you read carefully you will see it finally stated Ryan is a Republican) end up being criminals or traitors to the USA in one form or another. Of course this political perspective isn’t surprising from Clancy given the type of book he writes, but now it is pretty overt. I used to be able to just ignore this element of the books, but now it is there in your face and it is politicizing the books.   posted Feb 1, 2013 at 10:43AM

This movie has a very seventies feel to it and it isn’t just the hairstyles. Basically about a Vietnam vet who is on the run from the police and is adopted/coerced by a movie director as a stuntman. The whole thing has a bit of a surrealistic feel to it. The scenes of the movie being shot sometimes go beyond the script and the director seems to be directing not only the movie but the lives of the main actors. They could do a lot more drawing parallels between what the vet’s experience in Vietnam days and the war movie in which he is starring, or maybe they are just leaving this up to you. Peter O’Toole definitely is the memorable actor from this one. The protagonist is, unfortunately, a bit bland. If you’re willing to accept this as a slightly older movie with a faintly psychedelic flavor to it then it might be worth watching. Not a kid’s movie. There’s interesting stunt work but nothing special by today’s standards, the plot has that, "Huh? What?" component, and there’s nudity (rated R).   posted Dec 15, 2012 at 12:30PM

Another in the Pendergast series. You don’t have to read them in sequence but there is a background element that is easier to follow if you do. Like the other books this has a touch of supernatural, a touch of science fiction, a touch of superhuman protagonist, a touch of whodunnit.   posted Sep 27, 2012 at 1:44PM

It seems a number of earlier comments are confusing this book and the 2012 movie with the first book in this series, The Hunger Games. While this book reiterates elements of the first book, it takes a few radical departures as well as building on elements outside the Hunger Games themselves. There is an underlying tone of melancholy in this series, but that adds to the plausibility of the story. The people do live in an oppressive society and are forced to do things very against their nature. Still, they find ways to game the leadership and rules from within the very games in which they are forced to participate. While the age of the protagonist targets this book at the teen demographic, it is very much a young adult or older series.   posted Jun 22, 2012 at 10:33AM

I believe this was first published in 1969. In a little way this book resembles The Hunger Games in that it is predominantly a personality play set in a deadly scenario, though in this case it is the maze that is deadly. A good book for young adults up.   posted Jun 20, 2012 at 11:38PM

This was my favorite book of the series. I like action but this one also has more plot twists and personal interaction that make the story interesting. You keep wondering if it’s going to be Gale or Peeta or neither (or both?) right up to the last pages. Yes, the ending isn’t the "live lived happily ever after" style, but frankly people, Panem has been through a civil war and the teenage heroine has killed many people. I’m not sure it is happily ever after yet for the people or vets of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, or even Vietnam...   posted Jun 11, 2012 at 12:21PM