Jurassic Park gets bent through the theory of relativity in this ample first effort from Oregonian David: a time-wave fractures the laws of physics, transporting dinosaurs into the present and deranging the lives of a cast of dozens. In the wake of something called the ``Time Quilt,'' which has replaced chunks of the present with chunks of the prehistoric past, the US in thrown into chaos: Part of New York City is replaced by a meadow where a gentle dinosaur lives; Portland completely disappears; a gaggle of scientists go dinosaur hunting (with a few of the men being had for dinner); a vicious gang of biker/rapist/neo-cowboys also discovers the joys of dinosaur hunting; a presidential science advisor struggles to solve the Time-Quilt puzzle; and three romantic subplotsone involving evidence of a moonbase from the future, another featuring a woman kidnapped by dino-fish, the third setting up a mild flirtation between an expert rock-climber and a bungling state troopercompete for space with a family shipwrecked on a brontosaurus that's swimming to Florida. Yes, it's way too much to hang on even this innovative plot device. The author does a half-decent job of overlapping the many subplots, but the novel still ends far too abruptly, leaving a raft of questions unanswered and a pile of tensions unresolved. The best story strand by far pits a trio of teenagers and the mother of one of them against the bikers and some carnivorous dinos. Several scenes in which humans get munched on by enormous hungry lizards round out the not inconsiderable grisliness factor. And everything builds to the big convergence of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that the President hopes will right the temporal imbalance and bring back his wife, although by this point the novel has spent most of its adventure-yarn currency. A clever premise, but overlong and overcomplicated.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-85478-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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