Difficult to follow without any background on prior books in the series or characters.

A total waste of time. Macabre, juvenile pornography, and total nonsense as a storyline.

Unmitigated violence from start to finish with an implausible and fatuous plot!. A complete letdown from Mark Greaney's writing in collaboration with Tom Clancy. Skip it!

This novel was very disappointing. It doesn't seem to have any reason to exist - no plot, unbelievable characters, just a never ending description of ancient artifacts complete with time travel and a devil at the end!

Jack McDevitt has written some excellent science fiction. "Thunderbird", to me, anyway, was a complete failure. It is nowhere near what I have come to expect from his 'Priscilla' and 'Benedict' novels.

This is a humorous, clever book about football and hero worship. It is an engaging story written by a college teacher (Literature of the Sea) who is enamored by the New England Patriots, especially their cool-under-pressure, domineering and persevering leader Tom Brady.

A short, entertaining and pleasurable read!

A NY Times review of the original book published in 1930 is available from their archives at http://article.archive.nytimes.com. Unfortunately, it is only available in PDF and I am unable to copy and print an exerpt.

An interesting, though tiring, review of almost everything which relates to those bath toys. There are a lot of anecdotes, a lot of factoids, a lot of maritime history and a continuous parade of environmental concerns.

There are also some interesting comments regarding Moby Dick, the role of toys in society etc. etc.

To me, at least, the whole book was a bit overwhelming and, toward the end, a real struggle to finish!

The Fresco is an ecofemminist diatribe attempting to masquerade as science fiction.

I found this novel to be disjointed, confusing and little more than a cliche. An interesting premise throughly ruined by a lack of storytelling ability. An incoherent story to begin with makes for just awful reading!

A rather disjointed but moving story of the Wagner family. It was hard to understand the background without constant reference to both a dictionary and an encyclopedia.

I thought that this book was an outstanding historical novel. It lead me to watch several of the Wagner operas beginning with Lohengrin. This book was worth every effort to understand and appreciate the time between the World Wars. Excellent writing!

This is an outstanding book dealing with belief and error, certainty and denial. There are many interesting anecdotes and philosophical asides. Altogether an excellent presentation and discussion of being wrong!

There is not much originality (though plenty of cliches) in this novel! The story is a familar one with only a few interesting scenes along the way.

Considerably better than its predecessor www: Wake.

However, the writing and story line are just not up to his other works. Too much pop psychology; its more a 'coming of age story' than a hard core SF novel of ideas and technology.

There are some interesting parts, to be sure, but there is also a great deal of romanticised fluff . . .

Outstanding biography of U.S. Grant. I was constantly amazed at the misfortunes the man endured and his ability to persevere. I was also impressed by his dedication to equal protection under the law for both freedmen and Indians.

The book was a pleasure to read and very, very informative! First class!

An enjoyable and thoughtful discussion of the meaning of life. It's a quick read with a lot of humor on a pretty somber subject.

This is certainly not the best writing by Robert Sawyer. There is some interesting background information about consciousness but the chapter preambles are extraordinarily tiresome. Then there are a couple of odd ball side stories thrown in which, to me anyway, just muddle the main dialog.

This is the first book of the www trilogy, and, hopefully, the next volume will come closer to the excellent writing he has done for prior works.

The followup to Daemon is quite disappointing. It's just violence and more violence. There's not much of a story and very little technology!

There is some detail and background on gems but not much else to recommend this book.

The story, the characters and the writing are just one cliche after another . . .

An excellent book!

There is a great deal of information about violins, their history, creation and valuation.

In addition, there are many well written and touching philosophical passages about the process of growing older.

A fascinating and enjoyable book. There are many examples of literary hoaxes covering multiple genres. Just amazing!

An excellent, fascinating glimpse into the world of library science. The chapter on virtual libraries was especially interesting. There was also a lot of detail about the New York Public Library and the transitioning of libraries from paper to digital media that I found intriguing.

The notes and description of ghost writing was very interesting. The book also provides a credible speculation of the UK's backing of the Iraq War and US policy . . . I hope it is no more than fiction!

The story of the Mark I & II computers, the design of compilers and the origins of COBOL was quite interesting.

As a biography of Grace Hopper, however, the book is less successful and seems quite disjointed at times, particularly at the end.

An outstanding group of short essays! Interesting, thoughtful remarks from Brand and many others.

My favorites: "This world computer could easily become the Legacy System from Hell that holds civilization hostage: The system doesn't really work, it can't be fixed, no one understands it, no one is in charge of it, it can't be lived without, and it gets worse every year."

And "The debt we cannot repay our ancestors we pay our descendants."

An informative discussion of open source vs proprietary software and the future relationships between them. The comparison of IBM, Novell and other cultures with Microsoft was particularly interesting.

It was a bit(!) difficult to get past the continuing ego trip for David Shippy, but the technical description of chip design and manufacturing was very interesting.

The story of STI and the different corporate cultures was also fascinating - especially the philosophical differences between SONY, IBM and Microsoft.

A light, entertaining and occasionally informative book.

Another excellent Dortmunder novel. A clever plot with many, many witty remarks by the usual characters. My favorite:

"One time, in the can, I knew a guy, said he knew how to break out, we could use the ductwork from the main boiler. I was too big and I didn't like the idea, but this other guy said it sounded great, he'd go first, so he went first, only he went the wrong direction."

"Did he get back?"

"Some ash did."

In her own words: "And just as you supported and carried out a policy of not wanting to share the earth with the Jewish people and the people of a number of other nations - as though you and your superiors had any right to determine who should and who should not inhabit the world - we find that no one, that is, no member of the human race, can be expected to want to share the earth with you. This is the reason, and the only reason, you must hang."

A truly memorable book. So sad . . .

This is an outstanding presentation of the mathematical and philosophical views at the beginning of the 20th Century.

The graphical format is both unique and entertaining. The interplay of the various characters with the work of Bertrand Russell was very nicely done.

The intertwined themes of madness and logic was emotionally touching and quite thought provoking.