Review: Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this case, Special Agent Pendergast doesn't want only justice; he seeks revenge. His wife Helen has been murdered, and his hunt for her killer will take him to faraway places and lead him to dangerous contacts. As his search takes him ever deeper into the secrets of Helen's life, he comes to the realization that the woman closest to him had held her secrets tightly. An exceptionally strong number of a bestseller series.

Preston-Childs fans unite, but be warned. This book is best read with the others underneath your belt. A least the one before it, Fever Dream, if you want to understand this one. The other ten if you want the full impact. Do not pick this book up going, ‘Oh! A week-end beach read!’ This is not a beach read. If you want knitting patterns and recipes, the cozy mysteries section is out back.


Once again Preston and Child both grasp the mysterious aspects of their most memorable characters, this time with the biggest mystery of all; whatever happened to Pendergast’s wife? Killed in Africa, or something else?


This review will be extremely short for many reasons. These books are to be shared among fans once completed. There is something of a following, where at the last page we grip out fellow fans by the shoulders in an overdose of joyful emotions and express our hopes and fears about the upcoming book and the book now finished.

This is one of the best in the series, sending the characters, and readers, off a precipice where we’ll have to wait and see where and how we land.

For those of you considering the series, please pick it up, and stick with it. The books are always beautifully written, the characters become instant favorites, and there is no genre or category with enough strength to keep these novels in. I love the style the prose, and the plots that I can never compare to anything else I’ve ever read. Some people have the ability to describe these books to inquiring fellow readers, I do not. I can only tell you to read them.

(If you are interested in discussing the book further because you have read it, feel free to message me.)


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Review: Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Thunderhead by Douglas Preston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Archaeologist Nora Kelly is adrift in her career and her personal life when a violent, inexplicable incident leaves her in possession of a mysterious letter. Written by her father, who vanished sixteen years ago in the remote desert, the letter reveals the location of a legendary site hidden in the red rock canyon country of southern Utah: Quivira, the Anasazi Indians' wondrous lost city of gold.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child know how to scare the shit out of people.


I am a huge fan of Preston and Child. They have a way of writing thrillers that hit every emotion, that are unlike any other novel I’ve ever gotten my hands on, and they just plain make an impact.


Nora Kelly, an archeologist, receives a letter from her father who has been missing and presumed dead for decades. At the same time she is attacked by creatures that haunt her daydreams for weeks after. The letter tells of the legendary city of Quivara, a city of gold. With an expedition in toe, she leads the group into the canyons of the American west in search of the city and, unknowingly, danger.


As usual the authors are amazing writers, and I love their styles. It’s simple with a dash of something exotic. The characters are all fleshed out with an accuracy that helps you to follow their every move and believe their dialogue. They’re grisly, make you shudder and produce horror on an entirely new level.

There’s a mystery, which is answered with a twist and the most curious of answers. It’s never a cut and dry source for suspense, there are more elements that drag the reader deeper into the story.


Biased I may be, but I’m extremely picky when it comes to mysteries. I’ve read ones that are pure cliché and thrillers that just bore me with their corny premises. I praise these authors, and this book, because of how well it was written, how on the edge of my seat it pushes me, and because it’s a damn good thrill ride.


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Review: The Lost World by Michael Crichton

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Lost World is a techno-thriller novel and a sequel to Michael Crichton's earlier novel Jurassic Park.


The Lost World concerns an expedition to an isolated Central American location where dinosaurs roam - recreated by genetic engineering.

‘The Lost World’ is proof that the sequels can be better than the originals, grown ups can still love dinosaurs, and even the most rigid reader can indulge in a little adventure. Michael Crichton returns to the world he originally introduced to us through Jurassic Park with new vigor. The sequel to the famous dino-zoo thriller may have blown its prequel out of the water. With more likable characters, more blood and grit, and more scientific spark, this is a must read for adventure fans.

‘Something has survived…’ is scrawled across the back of my library copy of this novel, and it speaks the truth. For fans of the first book, this is a must read for even more thrill. This time, the story takes us to an alternative site for InGen, Site B, where the dinosaurs were originally bred for Hammond’s state of the art theme park. Ian Malcolm, the dark and brooding mathematician, remains of the original cast, and somehow finds himself back among the Jurassic tenants for one last time.

The plot this time is a group of scientists, bent of observing dinosaur behavior, opposite a group of competitive researchers working for one of the world’s leading DNA companies, out to steal the technology InGen left behind, patent it, and make millions. Of course, the third group playing it’s part in the book would be the dinosaurs, who could care less what the humans are doing, since they’re just plain hungry.

The book, in my opinion, is better than the first. The characters are more likable, more three-dimensional, and there’s just more interaction and tension. The book has more ‘side-plots’ happening, you aren’t just following a couple of linear paths with a handful of characters, it’s a network of events. Crichton truly stepped up his game and style with this book.

My issues? First, sometimes his characters, albeit brilliant men and women, come out with these very complex ideas and theories that have holes in them. I am no mathematician, animal behaviorist, biologist, or paleontologist, but even I had to stop and read over what they were saying and go, “Wait, but that doesn’t make sense, you’re contradicting yourself…”

And the kids. I hated the kids. The reason they were there was absolutely ridiculous, I didn’t understand why they had to be there at all. There was no point in having them there, since at times their presence in the plot seemed a little forced. (Although, they were less annoying than the kids in the first book…)


I really did enjoy this book, though. I’m a sucker for a good science thriller. Give me a creature, but give me the science behind it, and that’s exactly what Crichton does. I’m slowly becoming a fan of his work, and I’m looking forward to reading more of it in the future.



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Review: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy....

'Jurassic Park' is one of those books you sit down, fully intending on reading a relation to the well-known film, and then realize the two have about as much in common as a Vegas stripper does with a Brazilian nun.

Then after reading through 400 pages of a novel you shut it, sit back, and curse yourself for believing it could have been anything like the movie. Then you experience this awkward moment of thinking, 'What did I just read?' And then you realize what you've read is a novel that, looked at in the proper light, was a hell of a lot more entertaining than the movie.

The characters are nothing alike, for those of you who've seen the movie. The plot is a bit shaky when it come to the film version as well.


Crichton paints this scientific symphony of genetic engineering marvels; the re-creation of prehistoric dinosaurs on a small island off the coast of Costa Rica. Hammond, the man with the dream, wants to create a theme parker/zoo/resort for the entire world to marvel in, charge thousands of dollars, and laugh in the face of impossibility. He invites paleontologists, mathematicians, big-game hunters, his lawyer (of course), and, because where would a novel be without annoying children? his grandkids!

And then all hell breaks lose.

The novel was enjoyable, fast-paced, and gritty in a good way. The characters were either likable, or you hated them s deeply that you could not help but love to hate them. The science was interesting, premise understanding, and it was just a novel that I believe should be counted among the modern science-fiction classics.


The only part of the novel that had me not enjoying it was the author. That's right, he's a clear example of the target for which I can scream 'Show, don't tell!' at. He had a lot of stopping in the middle of dialogue or action to explain something in a long drone in which he could have explained in a different, and much better, fashion. There were times I loved his writing and the power it carried, and then other times I was a little surprised at his inability to carry that power along.


In all, I'm glad to have had the chance to read the novel, despite its few but still recognizable flaws. I'm looking forward to reading more of Crichton's work, now that I have an eye on how to handle him.




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