Average customer rating:
- Good escapist fare
- Doesn't even follow its own formula
- Great book
- Convoluted but almost generic
- Running out of ideas
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Lost City (NUMA Files)
Clive Cussler , and
Paul Kemprecos
Manufacturer: Berkley
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0425204197 |
Book Description
The key to eternal life has been found beneath two thousand feet of icy water in an area known as the "Lost City." To a family of ruthless French arms dealers the Lost City is the key to world domination. To Kurt Austin, leader of NUMA's Special Assignments Team, and his colleague Joe Zavala, it may be their greatest-and deadliest-challenge of all.
Customer Reviews:
Good escapist fare.......2006-12-30
I've been a fan of Clive Cussler since I was a high school student in the early 80s. Lost City follows the Cussler formula of fantastic plots, easy female conquests, indestructable heroes, hair-breadth escapes, and fancy cars -- great stuff when you're looking for mindless entertainment. Suspend your disbelief for a fun ride as Kurt Austin, his beautiful female sidekick and his pals track down evildoers, discover the details of their nefarious plot to take over the world, and prevail against all odds to defeat the bad guys while dodging mutant zombies, robot submarines, flooding tunnels and other videogame obstacles.
Doesn't even follow its own formula.......2006-09-01
The story started off OK with the first two short chapters. Then it falls apart. The template is used but isn't filled out. The love interest isn't, the bad guys did it but we don't have a clue how the good guys know that. Getting into the clutches of the bad guys was done by following the script from the (imaginary) Scary Movie series for action fiction. Getting out of the clutches of the bad guys relied entirely on the stupidity of well-trained mercenaries (who could not have been trained to the level of Scoobie Do if they were really that stupid). There were a few interesting tidbits on history and historical paraphenalia, glaciers, old planes but the biology was 70's. A very disappointing read.
Great book.......2006-06-21
If you're looking for a good story with plenty of action and a great plot and you're not really concerned with the difference between so-so writing and good writing (this book is so-so), then this is an excellent book. I couldnt put it down.
I gauge the rating of a book by one thing; Am I able to truely come into the story? I am able to do this if the writing and word usage is at or above a certain level. I was able to "come into the story" when I read this book and to me, that provides for a good read. Bad writing can prevent this experience but I didn't think this book was too badly written.
Convoluted but almost generic.......2006-06-16
Clive Cussler made his reputation writing books with plots that are barely believable using characters that are totally unbelievable saving the world over and over again from his perch in an unknown but extremely powerful U.S. government agency. After many successful books, Clive perfected the formula and is now sharing it with Paul Kemprecos who co-writes an analogous series which uses the same agency, plots, and characters. Oh, this series does change some things, the main character is Kurt not Dirk and his sidekick is Mexican and not Italian. Also, there is a second pack of characters (Paul and Gamay Trout) who allow the plot to develop through a second set of eyes.
None of which takes away from the formulaic tone of this series and this book in particular. In typical fashion, the first chapter is a historical look that "sets the stage." In this case it is an aerial combat over the Alps in 1914 between an industrialist and six (6!!) combat pilots. Needless to say, the industrialist holds his own and manages to down four of his foes before he himself is shot down and killed. The next chapter comes to the present time and takes off a second thread - this time it is a "survivor"-type of reality show which is interrupted by an attack of some mutated beings. The third chapter starts pulling all these disparate threads together and off we go.
Unfortunately, this book is too formulaic. It does not take the reader long to realize who the threat is, nor does it take us long to see the connections between the various threads. The only real complication is a completely preposterous connection between the bad guy's attempt to take over the world and an infestation of some new kind of sea weed that tries to take over the oceans.
As is usual in these novels, there are high speed car chases, underwater action, aerial acrobatics (in world war 1 vintage planes no less!), underwater escapades and explosion galore. throughout them all, the hero gets a bit bruised but the thugs all manage to get killed (Even though they are supposedly highly trained special forces types) and the world is rescued by the effort of one man - Kurt Austin. There is a love interest (why a different one in each book? Doesn't he ever get to enjoy some time with his rescued conquest?) who is French, and side visits to Scotland and Massachusetts.
The only unique thing about this book was that it was the first time that I was exposed to the "Premium" format which is a slightly longer/taller book with more space between the lines. The book cover states that this format is "Specially designed for comfortable reading" but I cannot say that it improved things for me that much.
To summarize, as a Clive Cussler fan, I had to read this book to make sure I keep up with the adventures, but this one is not in the top two-thirds of his efforts. I am sure that Kurt Austin will reappear soon and hope that the next one will be more interesting and fun to read.
Running out of ideas.......2006-03-10
Old fan as I am, this one (and quite a few of the later ones) was a huge disappointment. Badly written, obvious plot, even more cartoonish characters than usual. Time for Cussler to retire methinks.....
Book Description
This stunning, interactive book is narrated by Nancy Drew herself. Inside you'll learn all about Nancy's favorite mysteries, meet the creators of Nancy Drew, and see the art from the 77-year history of the series. With interactive elements on each spread, and a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Nancy Drew, this keepsake book will be cherished for years to come!
Customer Reviews:
A Snoopy Reveiw.......2007-08-24
This book was great! I loved all the special pullouts. It was realy fun to run your hand over the page and wonder what else you'll find. It was so cool how some of the pictures looked so clear and real, it was almost as if you could touch them. This book gave great information. Just once bit of advice, make sure before reading all about the certain book it's telling you about, make sure you've read the whole book before. Because it basically gives you the ending. But other than that, its a really amazing Nancy Drew memorbilia book. I loved it!
The Lost Files of Nancy Drew.......2007-08-14
This book was purchased as a birthday present for my daughter. I would highly recommend it! The Lost Files of Nancy Drew is a fabulous interactive book that let's you look into Nancy's personal journal, notes, and items she has collected to solve many of her mysteries. When I asked my daughter if she enjoyed this book, she said: "It is really cool! It let's you see how Nancy thinks and solves her mysteries!" (Also, Amazon's purchase price was over six dollars less than my local super store!)
Really cool!.......2007-07-25
My daughter bought this book and says that it is "really cool!" It has lots of secret messages, pictures, and compartments throughout the book, that my daughter enjoyed a lot.
fun collectible.......2007-06-19
This is such a cute book!
Each double-page layout features a different Nancy Drew mystery, and gives information on how she solved the case. For example, the first layout contains notes from her first book "The Secret in the Old Clock". It has an entry from Nancy's Journal, a copy of the will she found in the clock, the charity tickets Nancy sold to the Topham's, and other fun things. The book contains pop-ups, pull-outs, ribbons, diagrams, and other fun "hands-on" things for kids to play with. You get to pull pictures out of sleeves, open envelopes, untie bows, and pull tabs (among other things). It makes you imagine that you are looking at all the original documents and clues that helped Nancy solve her mysteries over the years.
As a bonus: there is a package of Nancy Drew postcards that comes with each book.
Thumbs up!
Customer Reviews:
T_a_Y_l_o_R D_ o_O_l_e_y_ F_A_N.......2006-11-26
I am a great lover of these books, they are fun 2 read when u have time 2 read... you should read them because they are about a girl who has a pet doggie and a crush and a cool laptop she writes on.. Great book!
*To read more of my reviews look for the title on the reviews:
T_a_Y_l_o_R D_ o_O_l_e_y_ F_A_N
enjoy reading!
My favorite book in the series.......2006-01-26
This is my favorite book out of all of the Madison Finn books! In this book, Madison is snowed in, and she digs through the attic and discovers a letter she and Ivy wrote together a long time ago when they were best friends. Also she is nervous about a skating party that is coming up. I would only read this book if you have read books 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, or else it won't make much sense.
Love this book!!.......2005-10-29
This is one of the best Madison Finn book EVER!!!!! If you are a MadFinn addict(like me) you would want to read it over and over again(like me!) The storyline is awesome and I give full credit to Laura Dower for writing such a good book. I hope you enjoy it as much as i did.
Best book in the series.......2005-07-15
This book is another great book written by Laura Dower. Madisons Friends are throwing a skate party but Madison dosen't feel like going. Madisons wishes for snow so she dosen't have to go to the party. And sure enough it snows! On a snow day her mom decides to clean out the attic and Madison helps. While they clean out the attic Madison finds memories about Poison Ivy and other people. you'll be suprised about what she finds.
Read book number6 and find out what the memories she finds.
I liked this book because I learned about Madisons past.
I recomend this book for kids 9-up!! Because anyone can enjoy this book!!
jesi's thoughts.......2004-06-27
This is such an awesome book, I hope Susie's in some other books. I love to ice skate, even though I'm not that good. Madison on the other hand is wishing for snow so that it can put off. Why doesn't she at least tell her BFFS that she can't ice skate and leave it at that? I thought it was so weird to hear the letter from Ivy and Madison. I would have immediately told Ivy, maybe that way she wouldn't be so mean to me. Of course Madison opened it and THEN showed Ivy, what a lame brain idea.
Average customer rating:
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The Lost Episodes of Doom
Jonathan Mendoza ,
Christen David Klie , and
Robert Kiana Carter
Manufacturer: Sybex Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0782116744 |
Book Description
DOOM geniuses Jonathan Mendoza, Christen Klie, and Robert Carter join forces to create three all-new episodes of DOOM available only with this book/disk pack. The book annotates all 22 new levels of play; the disk supplies the new episodes and their levels, an easy installation program, and DEU-the world's best DOOM level editor-so you can create your own levels! Designer notes provide special insights into the world of DOOM level creation.
Average customer rating:
- Disorganized and Full of Errors
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Lost Creatures of the Earth: Mass Extinction in the History of Life (Facts on File Science Library)
Jon Erickson
Manufacturer: Checkmark Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0816049033 |
Customer Reviews:
Disorganized and Full of Errors.......2002-09-04
I wish that it wasn't so, but this book about mass extinction events suffers from serious problems with accuracy. There were so many questionable statements contained within this book, that I found myself running to the bookshelf to check the validity of my
objections with other sources.
Here are just a couple of examples. The author on pages 11 and 39 intoduces trilobites as "aquatic crustaceans". Trilobites are an extinct class of Arthropods (Crustacea is a another class) and were entirely marine in habitat. However, there follows a very brief (and confusing) description of dominant faunal groups of trilobites during the Ordovician, the Ibex and Whiterock fauna. It is far too complicated a concept to express, as the author attempts, in just two sentences, especially when neither term is included in the glossary.
In a section on extinct fish, Erikson describes placoderms as "ferocious giants that reached 30 or more feet in length", when in fact, nearly all placoderms were rather small. Only a couple of species within the arthrodire group of placoderms, such as Dunkleosteus, reached such proportions. Included in a section about the Age of Fishes, defined as the mid-paleozoic, the author refers to both sharks and rays. Rays don't show up in the fossil record until the Jurassic. That's only a couple a hundred million year off. One could go on and on describing other mistakes as blatant as these.
There are just too many serious errors to overlook and, in my opinion, additional problems with the organization and presentation of subject matter make this book tough to follow and a poor choice for those interested in extinct creatures.
Most of the illustrations are crude and the photography appears to be dated USGS and US Navy "freebies".
Skip this one and buy a copy of Richard Fortey's "Fossils- The Key To The Past" for accuracy and a more compelling overview.
Book Description
Master of the Impossible!
Joseph Commings (1914-1992) created one of the greatest investigators of locked rooms, impossible disappearances and other "miracle crimes" - the gargantuan, harrumphing Senator Brooks U. Banner. During his long career (Banner first appeared in the pulps in 1947), he investigated such crimes as murder at a séance where everyone is holding hands, a strange spectre causing death in the middle of a lake, a killing in a sealed glass case, and a murder by a sword which must have been wielded by a giant. The most extraordinary story of all is "The X Street Murders," in which the victim is shot in a guarded room and the smoking-gun is delivered, a few seconds later, in a sealed envelope next door.
This first collection of Senator Banner stories contains 14 cases solved by the buffalo-sized sleuth, including one co-written with Edward D. Hoch and another published for the first time.
Banner Deadlines is the 12th in the Crippen & Landru "Lost Classics" series. The collection is edited by locked-room expert Robert Adey; memoir of Joseph Commings by Edward DB. Hoch. The cover painting and layout are by Tom Roberts, and the Lost Classics design is by Deborah Miller.
Customer Reviews:
Locked Room Conundrums.......2004-08-24
The locked-door mystery appears to be a style of a bygone era and is rarely found nowadays. These intriguing types of mysteries usually involve a crime - usually a murder - involving a dead body discovered in a sealed room that is left in such a way that there can be no possible way for the murderer to have committed the crime and then gotten away undetected.
BANNER DEADLINES is a collection of exactly these types of locked-door short stories by Joseph Commings. They have been gathered from such old-time pulp magazines as 10-Story Detectives, Ten Detective Aces and Mystery Digest and put together in this wonderfully presented volume. The stories contained within range in publication date from as early as 1947 and as recently as 1984 and all feature New York Senator Brooks U. Banner, a huge, cigar chomping man with a passion for puzzles, magic and the art of criminal detection. He is loud, gruff and abrasive...and he solves some of the most impossible mysteries through 14 stories.
The book kicks off with a classic locked-room story involving a clearly murdered body found inside a room made entirely of glass and, most astoundingly, with no doors. Conundrums like these seem to be right up Senator Banner's alley as, story after story he is faced with the most perplexing crimes only to dispatch them with relative ease, usually revealing a delightful twist at the end.
As a taste of what you can expect among the stories, murders take place: at a séance; in a rowboat in the middle of a lake; inside a magician's escape box; in a cemetery; on a movie set; and, a personal favourite of mine, in an old haunted house. For the most part there are plenty of clues provided in each story to give you a chance at figuring out the puzzle, although vital clues are withheld in a couple of the stories until Banner makes his dramatic announcement about who the murderer is and how the crime was committed.
All in all this is a beautifully presented collection of intriguing mysteries that will send your mind bending in all sorts of directions as you try to solve the puzzles before Banner.
THE GREAT SENATOR.......2004-06-17
THIS ARE SHORT STORIES OF LOCKED ROOM MURDERS AND MYSTERIES, FROM THE GOLDEN AGE. ALL ARE VERY GOOD, AND THE READER WILL HAVE HOURS OF FUN. ANOTHER GREAT BOOK FROM CRIPPENLANDRU.
Product Description
6 Books: Nancy Drew Case Files: #66: Tall, Dark and Deadly / Mysteries: #162 The Case of the Lost Song , # 144 E-Mail Mystery / Other MYSTERY STORIES: #36: The Secret of the Golden Pavilion, #32: The Scarlet Slipper Mystery /Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Super Mystery: High Survival, (Unboxed Set of Nancy Drew Books from Different Series), in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one
package to save on shipping costs.
Average customer rating:
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The Fact or Fiction Files: Lost Civilizations (Fact Or Fiction Files)
Dorothy Hoobler , and
Tom Hoobler
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0802781527 |
Average customer rating:
- From comic book to television series
- one of the best books ive read
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Island in the sky (The Lost in space files)
John Peel
Manufacturer: Borgo Press
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0006ELB58 |
Customer Reviews:
From comic book to television series.......2006-03-18
This little booklet covers both the pilot episode of the television series, as well as the entire first season (episodes 1-14.) The episode guides give the original air date, the writing, directing, and music credits, the cast, and a one page synopsis of the plot.
There is an introduction covering the original inspiration for the show, and a brief discussion of the other work of Irwin Allen, the show's creator. It is noteworthy that this is one of the few places that credit is given to the comic book "Space Family Robinson" as to definately being the source of Allen's premise for the series.
There are many good, large photos from the show included: cast members, sets, hardware. Except for the cover they are all in black and white.
This is a nice guide for fans of the show- and for years it, and its companion volumes for the other two years of the show's run, were almost all that really existed for the general public to remember the show by (the card series being the other major source.)
one of the best books ive read.......2000-11-10
I personally thought this book was a wonderful book i only hope that the other people who read it have the same thoughts as i do about it i cant stress the end of this but i can assure that you will either love it or hate it
Customer Reviews:
Real linguists tell all!.......2000-08-15
There are three books in this series. Each contains autobiographical essays of 8 - 10 of the most influential academic linguists of our time. I read them during the summer before entering a graduate program in linguistics and was grateful I had!
1) Cautionary tales - Exposing dogma as fashion+personality cult: The field of linguistics is characterized by several schools of thought which can be nearly religious in their a) zeal and b) demands for credulity on the part of loyal students. The scholars in this and the other books in the series, many of whom were well into their professional careers when Chomsky and generative grammar came along and began their 40-year domination of syntactic theory, write of their regrets at the changes this wrought on the field. Some openly describe professional animosities, and dish the dirt on colleages!
2) Inspirational messages: Many of the linguists write of their humble beginnings, professional struggles, and the joy they find in linguistics that has kept them going in the field.
3) The big picture: The linguists included in the series are from many different traditions. I was really happy to know what some of those traditions were and get some perspective on where the field has come from.
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- Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (Library of America)
- Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young, Jr.
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- MUSTANG DESIGNER: Edgar Schmued and the P-51
- My Book Full of Feelings: How to Control and React to the Size of Your Emotions
- My Father, Marconi (Picas Series)
- My So-Called Digital Life: 2,000 Teenagers, 300 Cameras, and 30 Days to Document Their World
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