The world is in chaos from a two-day battery of explosions in many of its major cities.
A week after the explosions, journalist Adam Grey wakes ...
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reviews
Mar 15, 2010
Paul
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To begin with, I received this book as a contest prize from Goodreads First Reads. I had no idea what it was about, nor did I look it up anywhere. I didn’t even look for any reviews (which I normally do before I read a book).
With an explosive beginning, this book kept my attention to the end. At first, I thought it would be a book about the United States being attacked by Islamic terrorists (since that is what everyone has on their minds). However, my beliefs were dispelled a sho More...
With an explosive beginning, this book kept my attention to the end. At first, I thought it would be a book about the United States being attacked by Islamic terrorists (since that is what everyone has on their minds). However, my beliefs were dispelled a sho More...
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Dec 10, 2011
Casey
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The second chapter of West's novel opens with a quotation: "It requires a very unusual mind to undertake an analysis of the obvious." The unusual mind, here, is the author's; the analysis of the obvious is what he undertakes in his debut novel, with extraordinary results.
This quote strikes at the heart of the premise of First Cause. The premise is, in a sense, obvious. Life as we know it is coming to an end; an alien species appears hellbent on our destruction; and our fat More...
This quote strikes at the heart of the premise of First Cause. The premise is, in a sense, obvious. Life as we know it is coming to an end; an alien species appears hellbent on our destruction; and our fat More...
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Apr 17, 2011
Tony
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Paul West- First Cause (2009) 1.5 Stars
Explosions rock the globe in spring 2008. A week later threats are issued to governments around the world and they must prepare for what is to come.
The introduction to this book was really good, I was settling in for a good read, but sadly wound up disappointed. It switched from past to present and was kind of hard to follow at times. It also contained a lot of fluff/useless information that slowed things down. The plot was okay, bu More...
Explosions rock the globe in spring 2008. A week later threats are issued to governments around the world and they must prepare for what is to come.
The introduction to this book was really good, I was settling in for a good read, but sadly wound up disappointed. It switched from past to present and was kind of hard to follow at times. It also contained a lot of fluff/useless information that slowed things down. The plot was okay, bu More...
Mar 08, 2010
Nicole
rated it:
I really enjoyed reading First Cause for several reasons. First of all, I like the way that it was told in flash-back sequences in the beginning to keep it interesting but ends up in real time about half way through to keep it from getting too confusing. Also, it is a book that is fairly realistic and relate-able as far as happenings on Earth but the introduction of humans that have been removed from Earth and live with out many negatives of our society gives the story a nice twist and makes the
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Feb 12, 2010
Sheila
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I received a copy of this through Goodreads First Reads. And now after finishing it, my first thought is that the description of this book needs a serious update and editing. This book is not at all what I was expecting. Why was there no mention of the terranauts and the terrestials in the description? Or the "human" aliens? Or the Luceri from outer space, which is actually a dome on a moon of the planet Jupiter? Nothing in the description even hints at the major details of this story.
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Jan 24, 2012
Jason
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(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
It's extremely rare that I will bump up the score of a book here at CCLaP merely for its earnestness, the proverbial "A for effort" that I usually feel is just not deserved; but today is one of the few cases where I'm going to do exactly that, in that I found myself with a lot of resp More...
It's extremely rare that I will bump up the score of a book here at CCLaP merely for its earnestness, the proverbial "A for effort" that I usually feel is just not deserved; but today is one of the few cases where I'm going to do exactly that, in that I found myself with a lot of resp More...
Jul 19, 2010
Erin
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I received this book through Good Reads. After reading the back blurb, I was surprised by the actual plot of the book. It wasn't what I was expecting or what I'm used to reading.
It is well written however. The characters seemed well developed and the story flowed really well. I would definitely recommend it to someone I know enjoys this genre of books.
It is well written however. The characters seemed well developed and the story flowed really well. I would definitely recommend it to someone I know enjoys this genre of books.
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Jan 25, 2010
Dana
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Paul West is a brilliant and thoughtful writer and I enjoyed First Cause to the last page... still waiting for the sequel.
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Mar 13, 2010
Amy
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This is another book that I won on Goodreads. It was not what I was expecting from the title nor the description, yet and interesting read. It took a little bit to get into the story line and plot, yet was easy to pick up and keep reading. In some regards, it took a little too long to get into the action section of the story line, yet once there, the action did not build up as much as I would have liked. Would be intesting to see where the author takes a sequel.
Mar 09, 2011
Julie
rated it:
It took me a little while to get into 'First Cause', but once I did, the plot was okay, though slightly far-fetched. The book did provoke thinking about generalities of the human race, cause and effect and had well-rounded, interesting characters. The author, Paul West, managed to intertwine three different groups of people very well in order to tell his story. All in all an interesting read.
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