Helpful Score: 3
This is one of my favorites by this author. The non-stop action kept me up well into the night thinking with just one more chapter I'd be able to put it down and get some sleep. Wrong! It's one of those books you read with the adrenalin pumping the whole time.
Helpful Score: 2
Ken Follett gave Judy Maddox, FBI Agent, the best lines in this novel. Half Vietnamese, half Irish, only child of a cop father and dead mother, she is one tough woman. In her 30s, having dedicated her life to the FBI and putting bad guys behind bars, she suddenly finds her life a mess. Her boss took ill, and now her newly-assigned supervisor wants her fired and he is doing everything he can to make her look incompetent. He assigns her a crap job of checking into the terrorist group The Hammer Of Eden who are threatening to create earthquakes if nuclear plant building in CA is not halted.
Priest and Star have put nearly 3 decades into their valley, which is leased from the government. They founded, molded, and nursed this commune into a thriving community, without electricity, or running water, or paying taxes, or violence. Now, a damn is to be built one that will be used for power plants and will also flood their valley. A recent addition to their group, Melanie (mother of Dusty) is a seismologist. Together with Priest and Star, they hatch a plan to steal and use a seismic vibrator to set off earthquakes at locations of their choosing.
Not only did this book have a lot of action, there was also the romance side that was more witty than mushy (the way I like it). As expected with a Ken Follett book, the characters where mufti-dimensional. Priest was a joy to hate because I could understand where he was coming from without condoning his choices. Judy Maddox was awesome to watch walk into a room of men and take charge with hard work and logic. She also shoot with either hand, a skill I recommend gun-users obtaining.
Priest and Star have put nearly 3 decades into their valley, which is leased from the government. They founded, molded, and nursed this commune into a thriving community, without electricity, or running water, or paying taxes, or violence. Now, a damn is to be built one that will be used for power plants and will also flood their valley. A recent addition to their group, Melanie (mother of Dusty) is a seismologist. Together with Priest and Star, they hatch a plan to steal and use a seismic vibrator to set off earthquakes at locations of their choosing.
Not only did this book have a lot of action, there was also the romance side that was more witty than mushy (the way I like it). As expected with a Ken Follett book, the characters where mufti-dimensional. Priest was a joy to hate because I could understand where he was coming from without condoning his choices. Judy Maddox was awesome to watch walk into a room of men and take charge with hard work and logic. She also shoot with either hand, a skill I recommend gun-users obtaining.
Helpful Score: 2
The only thing I can say about this book is that it is a grab you by the seat of your pants and not let go untill the climax.
Rickley
Rickley
Helpful Score: 2
Ken Follett remains one of my favorite authors. In this story, the pace of the storyline and the care given to the development of the various characters is top notch. I thoroughly enjoyed this story; a real page-turner...
Helpful Score: 1
This was definitely a new direction for Ken Follett. He writes about the leader of a 25-year old commune at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. I'm more used to him writing international novels with some kind of political intrigue going on. But it seems that with some of his newer books he is branching out. I have read the first 2 books in his historical trilogy that begins with Pillars of the Earth, so it is evident that he can write and outstanding novel on subjects other than international spies and political intrigue. Communes are not interesting for me, but it was a good book. That's the only reason I didn't rate it higher. I'm just not interested in a commune leader as a base of a book. However, if you like Ken Follett, it is worth the read. I don't like to pass up any of his books because you never know what you may find in between the two covers!
