Asian Trips - The Reckoning: A Thriller
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List Price: $7.99
www.asiantrips.info Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743463010
ISBN: 0743463013
Label: Pocket Star
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2005-04-26
Publisher: Pocket Star
Studio: Pocket Star
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Editorial Reviews:
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Bestselling author Jeff Long's apocalyptic thriller Year Zero was hailed as "superbly original...terrifying and exquisite." -- Dan Brown, ş bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code Now Long enters new territory with an intricate,suspense-charged journey into the Vietnam War'shaunting legacy. The killing fields of Cambodia hold nightmarish secrets of the past -- and the present -- for Molly Drake, an intrepid photojournalist covering the U.S. military's search for the remains of an American pilot shot down during the Vietnam War. A flight helmet buried among the Khmer Rouge victims is her first discovery -- and far from the most explosive. Led by a mysterious expatriate to the ruins of an ancient city, Molly embarks on a harrowing search for evidence of an entire GI patrol, lost thirty years ago. Now, as a typhoon descends on the remote jungle fortress, Molly discovers that a war she never knew never ended -- and it's up to her to solve a forgotten murder among the warriors left behind....Jeff Long's unnerving novel of predation, betrayal, and resurrection is a masterwork of "excellent storytelling" (Rocky Mountain News).
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not great.
Comment: This is a good book at the bargain price for a hardcover. Good archeology and ruins with ghosts and action. Came up a little short on the suspense aspect but good for the price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Little About Jeff
Comment: I've had the priviledge of meeting Jeff several times. He's the kind of writer that takes you by surprise. Not only is he one of the greatest writers in the entire world (not just my opinion) but he's an "older brother" or, at least, I consider him an older brother type. My actual older brother used to read to my when I was younger and now Jeff "reads to me" by telling me wonderful stories about human beings and the glories and tragedies of being human. He's reserved, quiet kind of guy, very personable, intelligent and also a gentleman.
The first of Jeff's books that I read was "The RECKONING." Now, it's very hard for me to describe what it's like for me to read any of Jeff's novels (those of you who've read Jeff's books already know). From the first page I'm lured into the story as an interested viewer - an outsider. Before too long, I'm swept along as a PARTICIPANT, living and striving right along with the characters!
People who LOVE to read know this pleasure of being INSIDE the story, and the satisfaction and sadness that comes when reaching the last page and closing the book with a loving hand an a sigh. This is what is readily available within the pages of a JEFF LONG novel - from the heights of the Himalayas to the depths of the earth, the human spirit is a force to be RECKONED with.
Pick up one of Jeff's books. Treat yourself.
Customer Rating:
Summary: boring, too short, rushed ending
Comment: I was a huge fan of the Descent, still one of my favorite books. Year zero was also a great book. This book seemed like it was building up to some climatic finish that never happened. I remember I had kept turning the pages, and as I got closer to the end I started to wonder how he would wrap everything up and have a great finish, it never materialized.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Old-Fashioned Thrills
Comment: When I read The Reckoning, I was impressed. Jeff Long is always to my taste, but with this book he hits a stride. There are fewer story threads than usual (usual for the detail-oriented Long, that is)and the result is a very readable, taut book that still contains plenty of plot. His characters are likable and the adventure into jungle ruins is eerie and fascinating.
Long creates compelling imagery, beautiful or horrifying, and, as always, there's an impending sense of the paranormal to his words, an air of more surrounding the characters than they can see or fathom. This author understands that what we don't see is more frightening than what we do. . . And whether or not something anomalous exists within any Long book is irrelevant. His style haunts.
For me, The Reckoning is the most satisfying of his books. It gave me what I crave most and I didn't even see it coming. When that happens, it's time to eat that cake, not just have it.
But wait, there's more! The cherry on top: I finished The Reckoning and immediately read Scott Smith's much-touted The Ruins. Essentially, it's the same story, but The Reckoning absolutely blows The Ruins out of the water. While The Ruins is a page-turner, it doesn't satisfy and it's difficult to care if the characters live or die. The Reckoning is a good old-fashioned science/adventure thriller with three-dimensional characters to care about. That's what works for me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Slump for Long
Comment: I find Jeff Long to be underrated among his often overrated peers. But he tries something new here, and I hate to say he fails but it just isn't as good or imaginative as The Descent was.
Long's writing is excellent, as always, but the book has a few problems. For one, the twists are virtually non-existent. You can assume what is going on within the first 50 or so pages if you stop and think about coincidences being too great. For another, the plot never feels as if it picks up steam. It meanders, not quite going anywhere. In some cases this is fine, in this book it just feels a bit off. There isn't enough to the characters to meander this much, although the scenary is certainly worth reading about.
Then there's the one enormous factual error. A great deal is made of trees growing, particularly ones with initials in them. However, as any Encyclopedia Brown reader knows, trees don't push up. Carve your name into a tree and the initials will always remain at the same height. Knowing this ruined too much of the story for me. C'mon, fact checking editor, where were you on this one? Certainly someone that read the book before it was published should have picked up on this.
Worth reading to support the author, and to take in Cambodia. But not a particularly great book. I expect more from Long.
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