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Impact
(Wyman Ford #3)
by
Wyman Ford is tapped for a secret expedition to Cambodia... to locate the source of strangely beautiful gemstones that do not appear to be of this world.
A brilliant meteor lights up the Maine coast... and two young women borrow a boat and set out for a distant island to find the impact crater.
A scientist at the National Propulsion Facility discovers an inexplicable source
...moreGet A Copy
Hardcover, 364 pages
Published
January 5th 2010
by Forge Books
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Start your review of Impact (Wyman Ford #3)

Score! !
Two young women witness a brilliant meteor that lights up the sky and then falls to earth just off the Maine coast………….
Be warned, for such a small book, this one hosts a big, big story, so you best tinkle, if need be, gather your tea and biscuits, get comfy, strap in. You’re going to be here a while.
This is my first Douglas Preston novel and I gotta tell you, he picked me up and threw me head first into the thick of this story and then, quite simply, pumped up the volume.
A fast paced, ...more
Two young women witness a brilliant meteor that lights up the sky and then falls to earth just off the Maine coast………….
Be warned, for such a small book, this one hosts a big, big story, so you best tinkle, if need be, gather your tea and biscuits, get comfy, strap in. You’re going to be here a while.
This is my first Douglas Preston novel and I gotta tell you, he picked me up and threw me head first into the thick of this story and then, quite simply, pumped up the volume.
A fast paced, ...more

I love reading the books Preston & Child write together. But, I also enjoy checking out their solo work. Impact is Preston's third entry in the Wyman Ford series. Maybe not loving it as much as the Pendergast series, but still very good.
If you are looking for Indiana Jones type action combined with conspiracy theory and speculative science fiction, then Impact will be right up your alley. It is a wild mashup of all these genres, but works out quite well in the end.
The book starts out with three ...more
If you are looking for Indiana Jones type action combined with conspiracy theory and speculative science fiction, then Impact will be right up your alley. It is a wild mashup of all these genres, but works out quite well in the end.
The book starts out with three ...more

I appreciate the efforts that Douglas Preston put in this book. I know it is hard to write. With the many books already in the market and the new books coming out every month, is there anything else that has not be been written about? I know that the plot’s limit can be as wide as the scope of the imagination of the writer, but there should still be, some sense in the story. Do you agree? Otherwise, if we patronize those books with outlandish, silly and impossible to happen plots those writers w
...more

Impact is a genius book with countless storylines all existing at the same time. However, there is a common theme; that something not from this world has struck the planet. Wyman, a man who travels to Cambodia to locate and study jewels that are "otherwordly" soon realizes something is clearly different about these jewels. At the same time this is happening, a young woman named Abbey searches for a meteorite near her town in Maine. These two events/storylines and the mysterious murder of a Mars
...more

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 back further o ...more
Today, thinking back further o ...more

I have read six Douglas Preston novels before and they never fail to entertain. Impact is an adventure that makes you think and succeeds at captivating the imagination of the reader. Abbey and Wyman Ford are the heroes of the tale with each playing their unique roles & using both a physical and intellectual prowess. Ford journeys to Cambodia to investigate a downed meteoroid that places a friend and himself in real danger, while Abbey stays closer to home pursued by a meth-induced treasure hunte
...more

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 when
...more

DNF at pg 132........ run of the mill thriller with cardboard characters. Not for me at all is this, gave it a go in the hope that summit unusual would leap out...... not happening..

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 teenagedom, who smokes weed, makes smart-ass j ...more

Jan 02, 2011
Mal Warwick
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mysteries-thrillers
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

This book caught me from the 1st few pages and held my interest throughout as few others have. This is the best Preston book so far and the comparisons to Michael Crichton though lofty are vell deserved. The characters come alive and are believable. The story carefully crafted and very clever. Kudos to Mr. Preston. Reading this was a joy. I had trouble putting it down and many household duties were put on hold. Finding the next read that measures up won't be easy.
...more

A fast-paced action-adventure novel. It's not high Literature, but it's tons of fun to read if you're in the mood for an exciting, quick read. I will be reading more by this author, because I really like his style.
...more

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. After all, what ...more
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. After all, what ...more

Preston is often compared to Michael Crichton and there is indeed a strong resemblance, but Impact does not strike me as a Crichton novel. It has all the elements but it is missing something.
First of all, much of the novel is unnecessary. Preston's attempt to achieve a dense plot made it feel like I was just wading through muck to get to the end. Preston adds complications just so they can be overcome, like cheap speed bump plotting devices designed to add tension but little else. Randall Worth ...more
First of all, much of the novel is unnecessary. Preston's attempt to achieve a dense plot made it feel like I was just wading through muck to get to the end. Preston adds complications just so they can be overcome, like cheap speed bump plotting devices designed to add tension but little else. Randall Worth ...more

wtf?
almost expected tsoukalos and his crazy do to show up for the punchline
p292: bracing himself, his legs apart and the glock desert eagle in both hands, he aimed at abbey's head and squeezed the trigger.
you're kidding, right?
after outfitting axlp a custom les baer, this one's outright glaring;
thinking of siccing imi on you
p356: the winds howled, lightning flashed, and the thunder mingled with the crashing of surf on the shore to create an continuous roar of sound. ...more
almost expected tsoukalos and his crazy do to show up for the punchline
p292: bracing himself, his legs apart and the glock desert eagle in both hands, he aimed at abbey's head and squeezed the trigger.
you're kidding, right?
after outfitting axlp a custom les baer, this one's outright glaring;
thinking of siccing imi on you
p356: the winds howled, lightning flashed, and the thunder mingled with the crashing of surf on the shore to create an continuous roar of sound. ...more

ET ... call home??
Wyman Ford, a former CIA agent turned freelance investigator, first introduced to Preston's fans in TYRANNOSAUR CANYON and BLASPHEMY, returns to complete a solo undercover mission to locate a secret Cambodian mine hidden deep in the north Vietnamese jungles. The mine is turning out some very unusual gemstones that happen to be highly radioactive. But, as you might expect with any thriller penned by the likes of Douglas Preston, nothing is quite as straightforward as it seems at ...more
Wyman Ford, a former CIA agent turned freelance investigator, first introduced to Preston's fans in TYRANNOSAUR CANYON and BLASPHEMY, returns to complete a solo undercover mission to locate a secret Cambodian mine hidden deep in the north Vietnamese jungles. The mine is turning out some very unusual gemstones that happen to be highly radioactive. But, as you might expect with any thriller penned by the likes of Douglas Preston, nothing is quite as straightforward as it seems at ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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It's Douglas Preston time again. Preston's oeuvre is mystery thrillers involving the unusual, the odd and the curious. In this spirit, Impact (2010)—the third in the Wyman Ford series—involves a meteor, NASA, some hot and radioactive stones, geopolitical intrigue, and lobster fishing in Maine.
The Beginning
Impact opens with Abbey Straw, a most unusual young woman living with her lobsterman father on one on Maine's many remote islands near Penobscot Bay. Abbey is different because she's very brig ...more
The Beginning
Impact opens with Abbey Straw, a most unusual young woman living with her lobsterman father on one on Maine's many remote islands near Penobscot Bay. Abbey is different because she's very brig ...more

This book is a wild ride in more ways than one. It started out that I only liked about 1/3 of the first 150 pages because I hated most of the characters. One star. But then the story was finally set up and got going and after the next hundred pages, I couldn't put it down. Could have been four stars except there was too much improbability in the ending. Not the science fiction part, I can set aside disbelief for that, but the characters. It's an exciting and fun read if you can get past the prel
...more

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 intended med-school ...more
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 intended med-school ...more

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 have been s ...more
This book find Wyman Ford being called in to investigate radioactive gems that have been s ...more

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" starts out with three different plot t ...more
"Impact" starts out with three different plot t ...more

Another Douglas Preston book I thoroughly enjoyed. I read this during the warm-during-the-day, bitterly-cold-at-night days we experience on Cape Cod in October. (No, my little house isn't heated!) So anyhow, on my sunny porch, in my fav. old lady rocker, I read this book with an utter and absolute silence all around me...
It's a story of incredible things happening, with equally incredible repercussions. Wyman Ford, the MC, is asked to discover the location of a mine in Cambodia which is producin ...more
It's a story of incredible things happening, with equally incredible repercussions. Wyman Ford, the MC, is asked to discover the location of a mine in Cambodia which is producin ...more

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

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 collaborative works wa ...more
What I particularly enjoyed about the early collaborative works wa ...more

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 a
...more

Si Fi thriller that held my attention despite occasional moments when my suspended disbelief crashed. Begins with a meteorite smashing into an island off the Maine coast, some very suspicious Mars exploration, and the destruction of a number of fishing boats by a young amateur female astronomer. From there, the Universe is the limit.

This book had a lot of suspense and excitement up to the end. I enjoyed it and look forward to more in the Wyman Ford series. I won't waste time reviewing the book, as there are many reviews that are better than I would write - I'm a much better reader than writer.
...more
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Douglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two fr
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