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Mar 29, 2011

Jeff rated it:

This one requires a bit of explaining on my part. Initially, I wanted to rate this as a 4/5 based on the human element; the characters seem somewhat flat, based on overused archetypes, BUT that being said, they are the ONLY downside to this book.

Otherwise it depicts the most imaginative and innovative tale of man bucking against the unrelenting tide of nature since Jurassic Park. I'm currently reading Pandemonium, Fragment's sequel, and the characters seem better this time (roug More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2010

tom rated it:

Where to begin. First of all, I'm so glad I got this for free. Second, I'm now wondering if the publisher waited for Michael Crichton to die before calling this Jurassic Park-like because that is just flat-out blasphemy. JP was a lightning-in-a-bottle masterpiece (you can tell because Crichton's attempt at recapturing that magic (The Lost World) failed miserably). This is anything but.....

Onto Fragment. Warren Fahy, you did research for this book. Good for you. Most authors do. There More...

6 comments like (13 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2010

Elise rated it:

A group of scientists from a reality TV show discover a remote island in the South Pacific. New species have evolved there that may as well be aliens. The inhabitants are very powerful and deadly, and the scientists have to decide what to do with their discovery of the island and the creatures.

This was a blast to read, based on real science not pseudo-science, so it makes the plot more plausible. It's a perfect entertaining summer read.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Clark rated it:

Fragment
Author: Warren Fahy
ISBN: 978-0-553-80753-0, Pages: 384, $25.00, Publication Date: 2009, Hardcover, Science Fiction, by: Delacorte Press, division of Random House, Inc.

Warren Fahy’s debut novel, “Fragment”, grasps your imagination from the start and then leads you into the expansive oceanography realm of the sea. Swept away by wave upon wave of adventure, the reader is confronted with gruesome creatures that have been left over from a pre-historic time. Hende More...

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Oct 06, 2011

Mark rated it:

For each genre type there are a handful of specimens that define it; Fragment is such a novel for the science thriller genre. The opening sequence plastered a grin on my face that took minutes to wear off. After that first reading session I knew I held a work of art.

Many times I would literally pause and reread Fahy's prose in awe, many times I'd verbalize "oh no!", and many times I would well up with complex emotions. Fahy also challenges the reader with different areas of knowledge, More...

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Jul 31, 2011

Christen rated it:

I really enjoyed the thought experiment about other ways life might have evolved on this planet. I would have given this 4 stars for that, except for about the last 20% of the book. At that point, rather than really deal with the ethical issues involved with what to do about a series of species that could wipe out the planet as we know it, the author decends into what seemed to be a facile plot twist (that I won't ruin while repeating it here) and the discovery of other species that do not app More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 27, 2011

Tarl rated it:

Thankfully I DIDN'T buy the hardcover...
Unimaginable and cookie cutter antagonists, enough science to choke the reader to death under pages of description, and an unimaginative ending couple to make this book the worst book I read in the last year. The premise is interesting, hell, it's unique, but half the book itself is scientific descriptions of the creatures on Hender's Island, and even at points where there is tense situations, the author spends a large amount of time explaining how t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2011

Katy rated it:

I am in awe over this book - this is one of the most imaginative books set in a theoretical real-world setting I have ever read. The ideas promoted are supported to a certain degree by facts - of course, I'm quite certain people will be nit-picking it to death, but if one suspends belief, as one should do when reading this type of novel, one can have a lot of fun with this story.

When a reality TV show called SeaLife! stumbles across a remote, unexplored island, it seems like reality More...

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Apr 13, 2011

Patrick rated it:

I thought that it would be yet another Jurassic Park clone (that's what it says on the cover), ie improbable situation, discovery, wonder, disaster and happy ending. What I found instead was a more plausible premise than recreation of dinosaurs. The premise here is a tiny island, well off the main shipping lines that has been isolated from the rest of the planet for millions of years giving evolution plenty of time to take a radically different path.

When the novel opens in 1791 a sh More...

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Feb 18, 2011

Ernie rated it:

I'm a Christian, a young-earth Creationist, and I despise "reality" t.v. I'm also a high school science teacher (Physics this year). So why did I give this book four stars?

I'm also a writer and sci-fi/fantasy nut. While Macroevolution has exactly zero data to support it (assertions, assumptions, and no sound premises based on an artificial taxonomy quickly destroyed by ligers, zedonks, wolphins, and other such species crosses), it makes for great science-fiction. For thos More...

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Feb 12, 2011

Angela rated it:

This science fiction thriller takes a page or two from Michael Crichton and asks the question: "What happens to the evolutionary path if a tiny island were isolated from all other land masses for the last 500 million years?" The answer is Warren Fahy's FRAGMENT.

In response to a distress beacon, a seafaring American reality TV show sets its sights on Henders Island, a tiny speck of land in the South Pacific a thousand miles away from anywhere. Upon arrival, the ship's crew and More...

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Nov 12, 2010

Becca rated it:

The only reason I finished this book at all was because I am a cheap person and, as such, I felt that not finishing it would be like throwing 8 one dollar bills in an ash tray and setting them ablaze.

Do you remember (or maybe you were) that kid in high school who felt like science papers were too dull and wanted to throw in random monsters/dinosaurs/zombies, etc to spice things up (or to annoy the teacher)? Yeah, that is what this book felt like to me. A science paper, well-researche More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2010

Matt rated it:

WELCOME TO MY FAMILY'S HELL!

The Author Warren Fahy is in league with the devil! And James Rollins is an A**hole! Mr. Rollins had a quote on the cover of the book that said, "Think Jurassic Park on steroids. This is one helluva ride!" All I could think was, "I like Dinosaurs on Steroids!" Not really. I liked the dinosaur thing so I started to read the book and once they got to Hender's island I descended into madness.
So, Warren Fahy is in lea More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 15, 2010

Ricky rated it:

Even in all it's technical-advanced approach to the discovery of new species, "Fragment" cannot seem to be anything more than "Jurrasic Park lite". The book mostly suffers with too much downtime between the carnage and the action. The beginning hardly grabbed my attention and the buildup to the island discovery was very boring. The character development was good for the most part, though I only found one character truly interesting and that was Zero, the 'go gettem' camera ma More...

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Jul 29, 2010

Michael rated it:

The "Trident" is a long range search vessel hired by the reality TV show, "Sealife."

A group of scientists land on Henders Island. They had been heading for Pitcairn Island but when they received a distress radio signal, they diverted to this remote island.

The scientists see this out of the way island as a chance to explore an area that has been isolated for hundreds of years. The are excited to see about the evolutionary process as they head toward the More...

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Jul 18, 2010

Mark rated it:

I picked this up at the airport, and that's exactly what it was--an airport book, the literary equivalent of a routine summer action movie. The comparisons to Jurassic Park are inevitable, but they bother me. I may be splitting hairs, but that story--both in film and on the page--was a fun ride with a dash (no more) of real biological science thrown in. Some great characters, a smart sense of humor, and plenty of fiction.

Fragment, on the other hand, had all of those ingredients but non More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 09, 2010

Kelly rated it:

According to the back of the book, this is a combination of The Ruins and Jurassic Park, and I can definitely see that. It's a lot heavier on science than The Ruins (and even Jurassic Park) but there's still plenty of action.

Henders Island is one of the last truly remote places on earth. Until recently, it was virtually inaccessible, so the animals that inhabited the island evolved totally differently than most animals. Pretty much everything on the island (not just the scary anim More...

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Jan 14, 2010

Alyce (At Home With Books) rated it:

Fragment is fast-paced, full of scientific detail and highly entertaining. If you like Michael Crichton books, then you will probably love Fragment.

Although more plot driven than character driven, there are some fun and interesting characters in this book. Nell is the underrated lady botanist (she reminded me a little bit of both Ellie from Jurassic Park and Jo from the movie Twister - which I just found out was also written in part by Michael Crichton). She's the one who first realize More...

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Jul 28, 2009

Pam added it

This is a fun romp of a book if you are looking for an effortless beach read. It's Crichton-esque (although the descriptive tech parts aren't quite as well done) and reminiscent of Jurassic Park cum Mysterious Island, in that there's an isolated island where vicious critters have taken a different evolutionary path.

Overall, the concept is clever and the critters, for which there are even drawings at the back of the book, are fascinating and described in a convincing fashion. The paci More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2009

Jen (RevJen) rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2009

Terry rated it:

With sagging ratings, the ocean exploration reality show SeaLife desperately needs a boost before the network cuts their one-year voyage short. What could be better than answering a distress call on a mysterious island? Surrounded by a 700 ft cliff wall, Henders Island is largely inaccessible and its distance from the shipping lanes means very few seafarers have even seen it. But when a live broadcast of the landing shows the cast of the SeaLife eaten alive by the island’s flora and fauna, th More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 22, 2009

Mike rated it:

Good news, everyone! The Frankenauthor Institute of Ludicrous Monstrosity's Shelley Agency for Legacy Extrapolation has managed to resurrect the frozen head of Michael Crichton. The Crichton head has been almost as fertile as when motile, and its first dictated "novel" has exploded onto the scene with a barking roar.

Remote island, check.

Beasties, check.

Intrepid hot iconoclastic scientists bound to make a hetero connection, natch.

Villain More...

13 comments like (20 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2009

Kelly rated it:

A long-range research ship called the Trident is filming a reality show called Sealife in the debut novel, Fragment by Warren Fahy. The show’s cast includes bright young scientists and is directed for a woman searching for the right drama to re-energize her career. The ship is drawn to a tiny island, Henders Island, so far from any human contact that it only appears in one small notation in a ships log from 1791. This island isn’t a mutant anomaly, or a lost world frozen in time, or a modern day More...

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Jun 14, 2009

Joel rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jun 14, 2009

Willa rated it:

A reality show is being filmed on a research ship. One of the participating scientists applied because the ship was going to sail close to an island that she had been interested in for her entire life, an island that had been cut off from all contact with civilization, or even with any other forms of life, for centuries. To her surprise, she was chosen. The show's producer, intent on increasing viewers and ratings, is constantly trying to get the scientists to have sex with each other, but mo More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 31, 2011

Meagan rated it:

This book? This was a fun book. It was chock-full of scientific discussion about evolution, environmentalism, biology, and ecosystems, but since I've always had a hidden core of inept science nerd, that's okay by me. What I didn't understand still sounded plausible, and appealed to the part of me that researched DNA sequencing in high school. I understood enough to get the point, though, and as a result believed in the characters more.

Speaking of characters: most of them are fodd More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Warren Fahy's Fragment manages a sort of epic awfulness, so bad that an entire jungle of howler monkeys would be needed to give voice to just how excrutiatingly shit it is. Originally released in hardcover with a jacket design that looked like something pulled off a made-for-Syfy original movie advert, it managed to pull me in with its sleek new paperback repackaging and a blurb from James Rollins (Shame on you, Jimmy! Shame!). Sadly, the interior didn't get a similar upgrade in style. The scie More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 19, 2010

Mandy rated it:

When I started Fragment I viewed it as a fairly obvious copy cat of Michael Crichton's masterpiece, Jurassic Park: Bk. 1. I don't feel that way anymore.
I've been stuck in a sort of genre vortex for about 2 years. 98% of the books I've read in that time have been Historical Fiction. While I love the genre, it was time for me to branch out again.
I'm doing that by easing into it with some light, fun books. Fragment was recommended as a Readers Choice on my local library website, so I d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2009

Jeff rated it:

This clever work has disguised itself as fiction, do not be fooled. While it has plenty of action and a number of tropes that hollywood might use for films, this is a science fiction book. It is a damn good science fiction book. I am absolutely certain that any reader could find something to object to here - but once things start happening (oh and it takes very little time) this story picks up and runs and you'll find yourselves along for the ride. Warren's first book is like chocolate- you More...

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Jul 06, 2009

Doug rated it:

When the cast of the reality TV show "SeaLife" hear an emergency beacon from a deserted island, they have no idea what awaits for them. Nell Duckworth, a botanist, leads the team ashore and the carnage that follows is nothing less than spectacular. Crazy round creatures called disk-ants lanch themeselves forward, while infant disk-ants leap from the bodies of the adults, covering and devouring their prey. Something called a Hender's rat is terribly quick with appendages like More...

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