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Jan 08, 2012

Colleen rated it:

In the cold light of day, I realize now that this book makes absolutely no sense. I was suspecting a bunch of random people as the Chief Villains, since there is obviously someone siccing the assassin on the heroes; however, I couldn't really figure out who, because I couldn't fathom why someone would be trying to stop the complete annihilation of Earth. I was not very surprised though when the reveal happened even though that too stretched my disbelief to the max.

Today, thinking ba More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 28, 2010

Nancy rated it:

I have bought and read every single book this author has published, and those that he wrote with Lincoln Child. I have to say that this one was not the best in the bunch ... I was so disappointed. I know, I know, I'm once again swimming against the tide of people who really loved this book, but, well, that's just how it is.

As the story begins, two things are going on. First, A young woman, Abbey Straw, is out with her friend watching the heavens at night and the sky lights up over M More...

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 04, 2010

Donna rated it:

An ex-CIA operative is sent to a mysterious mine, while a young woman hunts for a meteorite and a scientist is discouraged from following up on his murdered mentor's research. Their stories relate in a way that reveals an unprecedented threat to the earth. This is a fast, light read that should appeal to those who like thrillers with some science thrown in.

I really enjoyed the setting descriptions and Ford's investigation, but the characters were thin and some aspects of the pacing s More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

Hylary rated it:

Originally posted on my blog: http://libraryladyhylary.blogspot.com !

Ex-CIA agent Wyman Ford is asked by the government to undertake a mission to the jungles of Cambodia to discover the truth about a mine that seems to be producing radioactive gem stones. Twenty-year-old college dropout Abby Straw and her friend Jackie look for a mysterious meteorite that struck an island off the coast of their small hometown in Maine. Scientist Mark Corso receives a classified hard drive stolen fro More...

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Feb 24, 2011

Matt rated it:

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

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2011

Mal rated it:

Start out on the coast of Maine with a brilliant 20-year-old Princeton dropout and her less-brilliant friend puzzling over a meteor shower, cut to CalTech where office politics and other shenanigans are in full flower at the National Propulsion Facility, add one former CIA agent dispatched to the backwoods of Cambodia by the President's National Science Advisor, mix in a tweedy contract killer, and pretty soon you're caught up in a pulse-pounding tale that will drag you irresistibly toward an as More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2010

Chibineko rated it:

A word of warning to new readers- if you haven't read Douglas Preston's other books in the Wyman Ford series then you will be missing out on a little. `Impact' works well as a standalone, but to get the full story on Ford you'll have to read all of the books preceding this one. In fact, I recommend that you read the previous books first. This isn't a bad story, but it's not Preston's strongest work to date.

This book find Wyman Ford being called in to investigate radioactive gems that More...

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Jun 14, 2010

Elaine rated it:

This book was wonderful. It has a unique twist on the popular end of the world scenario.

The format reminded me of James Rollins books in that the story progressed from separate viewpoints. Each chapter takes place in different parts of the world with different characters. Eventually, it all comes together.

This is the first book I have read by Douglas Preston, but it definitely won't be the last. I love reading apocalyptic stories and Impactcertainly is that.

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 29, 2010

Kerry rated it:

When a friend offered to loan me this book, I had my doubts about taking it. Don’t get me wrong, I was an early fan of Preston’s works with Lincoln Child—Riptide and The Ice Limit being two of my favorites. I’ve been a lot more lukewarm with the duo’s works as separate authors, though. Preston’s last book, Blasphemy, I couldn’t finish. The Christian characters portrayed were so Hollywood stereotypical (meaning all were hypocrites, violent or ignorant) that I thought Preston had to be joking whe More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2010

Barbara rated it:

Douglas Preston is one of my favorite authors, but this is a lesser effort from him. He neatly juggles three storylines all involving a meteorite impact in Maine; in one of them, two women (Abbey Straw and her best friend Jackie) head to several small islands off the coast to try and find the meteorite to sell on eBay. In another storyline, his hero Wyman Ford (last seen in "Blasphemy") is sent to discover the source of radioactive gemstones and finds a mine in Cambodia run by the Khme More...

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Mar 11, 2010

Debbie rated it:

I rated this one as 3.5 stars.

I am in general a fan of the Preston/Lincoln books and was interested to see how this solo book would be. I loved the premise and the story itself was a fun read. Some parts were hard to believe like Abbey having attended just 1 or 2 years of college level astronomy classes and being able to do a lot of what she did. Still if you ignore those types of things and just go with the flow this makes an enjoyable read. Abbey is a mouthy young girl who whil More...

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Feb 10, 2010

T. rated it:

Impact follows a collection of different characters as their lives are irreparably changed by the impact of what appears to be a meteor/meteorite/metoriod??

I apologize for the spoilers throughout this review, however, this is the sort of book that you need to give everything away to explain just how poorly constructed the story is.

First of all the characters.

In part one of the story we have three protagonists: Abbey a young black woman just out of teen More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2010

Brooke rated it:

Coming off of Blasphemy, Preston's newest solo novel is a bit of a disappointment. It's the 3rd book featuring ex-CIA agent Wyman Ford (and the 4th in a series if you count the link between The Codex and Tyrannosaur Canyon), which suggests that there should be some continuity from book to book, right?

Well, Blasphemy ended with a startling bang, and I'd expect the next book in this series to mention it. But Preston didn't even give it a nod, which seemed like a wasted opportunity. Aft More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2010

Rhonda rated it:

first let me say that i love LOVE preston and his writing partner lincoln child. i have read everything both has written and wait with baited breath for each new novel. this one was just ok for me. i guess it was pretty good, but i felt it had a slow start. i did finally get into it and read it fast. i liked some of the action scenes, but i couldn't help but wonder how this 20 year old girl, who, while reportedly intelligent, knew so much about astronomy. ok - so she went to princeton- but didn' More...

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Jan 13, 2010

Mihir rated it:

Impact begins by exposing the reader to several different threads all of them seemingly different and unrelated to each other.

The first thread leads readers on to Mark Costco, a scientist working at the NPF. He receives a disc of data from his mentor. The information contained on the disc leads him to question his seniors and investigate the meaning of the data.

The second thread opens up in Maine and shows us a small fishing town wherein Abby Sinclair, a college dr More...

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Jan 17, 2011

Daniel rated it:

This was my first book by Douglas Preston. Fast paced with good writing, the book maintained my interest. I found it entertaining, but my ratings of various components of the story varied all over the map. I understand from other reviews that this is not Preston's best work. I plan to get one of his better books and read it.

I found this story to be an action story that happens to have a science fiction element. I rated the action high but the science fiction low. Overall, I rated th More...

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Mar 14, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

A college dropout watches a meteor streak across the Maine sky and wants to know where it hit. A young scientist goes through a hard drive stolen by his murdered mentor and finds anomalies in gamma ray data from the outer solar system. An ex-CIA operative-turned-monastery-guest-turned-independent-who-knows-what investigates the sudden appearance of radioactive gemstones called "honeys" in Cambodia.

This book reminded me of a train. It took a while to get going, ran well whe More...

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Mar 31, 2011

Denise rated it:

I like this novel because there is always something happening. I found myself constantly picking up my e-reader and getting lost in the novel without really realizing that this is what I was doing. I enjoy stories that are fast-paced and that keep me turning pages to figure out what's coming next.

However, I think the epilogue was a little too convenient--it tidied things up too readily, but perhaps the author chose to do this because he didn't intend to write a sequel to this story More...

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Jan 24, 2011

Earl rated it:

I knew going into "Impact" that this book was going to be a crapshoot. I have enjoyed almost everything that Douglas Preston as written with Lincoln Child, but only "Codex" has worked for me when he has written on his own. However, I once again took the plunge, buying this book before I was scheduled to sit around the courthouse, waiting to be called for jury duty. The book passed the time, but that was about all that I can say positive about it.

"Impact More...

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May 07, 2011

Geo rated it:

So, I need to preface this with a statement about why I read. Reading is like watching a movie. The intent, generally, is to escape. Find an alternate reality, preferably one that isn't too close to the current reality, to exist inside for a little while to distract from the reality I'm trying to escape. The net effect of that is that the principle criteria for determining whether a book is going to pass muster with me is whether or not it is able to keep me engaged, forget where I am and let th More...

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Jan 12, 2012

Tonya rated it:

So many have already written wonderful reviews expressing both the good and bad of this novel & with this in mind I will only say a few fleeting words.

It could have been better, it could have been worse, Wyman Ford as a character is not fleshed out in this one, he's really just a token so the book could be marketed as a 'Wyman Ford book' and that is OK. <spoiler>The Cambodia mine scenes were supposed to inflame my sense of humanity or something & they didn't.</spoiler> T More...

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Dec 26, 2011

Rusty rated it:

Impact is a thriller by Douglas Preston, whom I did not know before picking this up. I didn't really do any research, but I presume it's the same person of the Lee and Preston fame. Actually, that may have been on the book's back jacket.

At around 400 plus pages long, I felt like I was being tricked into thinking it was a longer novel than it really was. The text was huge on the page, and chapter stops were only separated by a page and a half. So I would end up reading a chapter every More...

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Mar 19, 2010

Jed rated it:

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

1 comment like

May 07, 2010

Patrick rated it:

There is a good story here. An idea unexplored by other disaster thrillers. Unfortunately the pseudo-science is lost in to many superfluous characters. They all meet towards the end of the novel and there’s some logic to it . . . but the bulk of the plot is mired in poorly written trumped up action sequences that make you want to skip a dozen pages at a time. I like this author. His non-fiction books are terrific (yes, he has written quite a few). His collaborative books are great. This could ha More...

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Jun 20, 2010

Joe rated it:

I guess reviews, by their very nature are spoiler laden ... so here goes.

I gave this a 4-star begrudgingly, as a fair amount of research had to have been done on gamma-ray science, and deep space phenomena. I really like the build up to the story and frankly hid the science of what hit the earth very well. I hadn't ever really read about this even as a possibility before (strange matter boring a hole through the earth.)

But while I liked the multiple plot threads going on, th More...

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Feb 12, 2010

Mitchel rated it:

I loved this one. Brilliant, exciting, surprising, funny, thrilling, scary, apocalyptic, and so much more. The simple story of 3 very random and different people from 3 very different places all being connected to a strange meteor that crashed into Earth.

Mainly told from the three character's perspectives, it starts out with Abbey: an African-American small town waitress that dropped out of Princeton because she focused too much on Astronomy and Physics classes and not on her intende More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2010

Mike rated it:

Douglas Preston's newest solo book featuring Wyman Ford, first introduced in Tyrannosaur Canyon. A meteor is the star of the show in this book. Overall, I liked this one better than Blasphemy. The book is divided into two parts. I liked Part II much more than Part I. The setup of the different characters took a little too long and some characters who were introduced seemed to serve no real purpose. Or the little point they are used to illustrate a trait in the main characters doesn't justify all More...

1 comment like

Nov 07, 2011

Tonia rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. I'm a big fan of Preston & Child collaborations, and usually when they write on their own, it just doesn't quite touch the caliber of their combined efforts. Okay, Impact isn't quite as good as a Preston & Child work, but it's still very good. I found it exciting and enthralling. If you're looking for a "guilty pleasure" read that's thrilling and touches on astronomy, you'll enjoy this one like I did.

What I particularly enjoyed about the early co More...

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May 06, 2011

Bradley rated it:

I enjoyed this book immensely. Although I've read the majority of DP's books, this was the first one I've read with the Wyman Ford character and I find him an endearing lead character. I now almost wish I'd taken an earlier reviewers advice to read the earlier stories with Ford, although I don't think that's required to enjoy this book...I just prefer to read 'series' in order.

I went into this book with low expectations based on the numberous reviews that others had given it where th More...

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Mar 08, 2011

Keith rated it:

Two very unlikely characters partner up after discovering that the impact from a dramatic meteor strike is much more than appears on the surface---an intended pun that requires reading the novel to appreciate---and become involved in a tale of espionage, murder and death-defying adventure. If you can buy the premise, which of course is totally plausible for any science fiction fan and accept the plot, which gets stretched a little thin a few times, then you’ll really enjoy this novel. It moves More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)