Whiteout: Melt

Book Description

The sequel to the original groundbreaking series, Whiteout: Melt reteams author Greg Rucka (Batman: No Man's Land, the Atticus Kodiak novels) and illustrator Steve Lieber (Grendel Tales) for another adventure with U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko on the deadly ice of Antarctica. Winner of a 1999 Eisner Award, Whiteout: Melt is a must-have for the bookshelves of fans of crime fiction and intense graphic storytelling.

Customer Reviews:

Good -- But Not Quite as Great as the 1st.......2002-04-02

The sequel to Whiteout finds US Deputy Marshal Carrie Stetko on vacation in New Zealand, but still stuck in professional exile in McMurdo Station in the South Pole. When a Russian base blows up suspiciously, her bosses promise to bring her back to civilization if she'll cut her vacation short to go poke around the debris. Although Article I of the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any military use of the continent, the Russians are suspected of using their base as a weapons cache and her bosses want her to see if she can find anything out. While the first volume was a suspenseful procedural, this is a more standard thriller with higher stakes. Soon, Stetko finds herself pursing a team of elite Spetznaz troops gone mercenary who are fleeing across the ice with stolen nukes. Upping the cliché factor, Stetko teams up with a Russian GRU agent to track the rogue Spetznaz and recover the nukes.The art is quite good, and the story is pretty absorbing and filled with tidbits about the South Pole, but isn't quite at the level of the original Whiteout.

Great follow-up to the original.......2000-10-19

Whiteout: Melt exceeded my expectations for a "sequel". It's a great story about Carrie; an U.S. Marshall assigned to the coldest territory on Earth. While it is a cold and gritty spy/crime story, there's actually a little romance for our female Marshall. Greg Rucka (Keeper, Finder, Batman: No Man's Land) again does not fail to turn up the heat in this mesmerizing tale of cloak-and-dagger against a tundra backdrop. Steve Lieber's black-and-white art accentuates the hard-boiled mood and sense of cold in this espionage thriller. Highly recommended for anybody who likes great crime fiction or action/adventure.

Average customer rating:

Shame on Mr. Follett
Exciting Reading
Great Christmas reading!
Avoid Like the Plague
A fine but not great book

Whiteout
Ken Follett
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Dangerous Fortune
Night Over Water
Code to Zero
A Place Called Freedom
Paper Money

ASIN: 0451215710

Book Description

As a Christmas Eve blizzard whips out of the north, several people converge on a remote family house. As the storm worsens, the emotional sparks-jealousies, distrust, sexual attraction, rivalries-crackle, desperate secrets are revealed, hidden traitors and unexpected heroes emerge.

Customer Reviews:

Shame on Mr. Follett.......2007-09-09

This is the first time I've been tempted to write a review past just thinking about it. But I felt I had to warn readers about this poor excuse for a book.
Mr. Follett was obviously under some kind of deadline, or short of cash, to put out this totally lame effort. I had saved it for a fun, fast read after slogging through some Henry James this summer, and was totally disappointed in both the writing and the plot. I can't believe it was actually written by the same author as Eye of the Needle!

Exciting Reading.......2007-07-11

It has been a while since I have read a book that I absolutely could not put down. I am a long time fan of Follett and he did not let us down this time. Although it is far-fetched to believe someone would carry a deadly virus in a briefcase or a pocket, the tension and action are there.

Great Christmas reading!.......2007-02-05

I love to read a "Christmas mystery" in December. I'd just about run out of new ones when I stumbled on this. Loved it- truly suspenseful, very atmospheric with a blizzard in Scotland. It's not great literature, we know that, but it's really a great read if you want a non-stop thriller and love that Decembery snowy kind of book.

Avoid Like the Plague.......2007-01-11

The first two-thirds are efficient and fast-paced. But the last 130 pages... unbelievable, and unbelievably tedious.

Without compuction, four criminals steal a virus that will kill millions. They decide to do so despite a sudden increase in lab security, and despite knowing that their escape will be complicated by a blizzard. They can't bring themselves to shoot guards who learn their names, plans, and descriptions. They take a family hostage and give them more than enough information to ensure failure, capture, and conviction.

Thank goodness the police are stupider than humanly possible.

Follett goes to preposterous lengths to avoid shooting anybody. His villains threaten and brandish guns on every page - and then they punch and kick their victims. Over and over and over again. A hundred pages from the end, I found myself thinking, 'No criminal would ever act like that.' But they do, endlessly.

By the time Whiteout is over, I regretted the complete waste of my time. Be warned.

A fine but not great book.......2007-01-07

I like very much Ken Follet. I have read "The Pllars of the Earth" and "The third Twin" and I had a great time reading both.

This book is fine, because Ken it's a great BestSeller writer, but it lacks something. I don't know what, but I think the story is simple, and in a lot of moments very predictable.

On the other hand there are several secuences in which you can't leave reading the book because they are thrilling.

Ken has better books

Average customer rating:

CIA is more fascist that you may think
an important book
Just Say No (to the CIA)
Itýs the Liberal Media, Stupid!
Wake up and smell the open border!

Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press
Alexander Cockburn , and Jeffrey St. Clair
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America, Updated edition
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb
Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina
The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro

ASIN: 1859842585

Amazon.com

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair take the revelations of the links between the Central Intelligence Agency, the Nicaraguan Contras, and the Los Angeles crack market that journalist Gary Webb exposed in 1996--revelations that are the basis of Webb's book Dark Alliance--and use them as a springboard for a tale of the U.S. government's involvement with the illegal drug trade that extends much further back than Webb's tale.

The specific revelations are not, perhaps, entirely new; many know, for example, that even before there was a CIA, the WWII-era Office of Strategic Services enlisted the aid of gangster "Lucky" Luciano in arranging support among the Sicilian Mafia for the American invasion of Italy, or that the CIA was actively involved in the Southeast Asian opium trade during the Vietnam War. But Cockburn and St. Clair persuasively argue that the traditional explanation for such events--"rogue elements"--is deliberately misleading, and that the mainstream "liberal" press plays an active role in this obfuscation (noting, for example, that Webb's three biggest attackers were the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post). By providing an overarching narrative rather than treating these incidents as isolated, the authors present a damning indictment of the CIA--but one that fully admits that the agency was not acting on its own, but was merely fulfilling the mandates of the American government. --Ron Hogan

Book Description

A shocking expose of the CIA's role as drug baron. On March 18, 1998, the CIA's Inspector General, Fred Hitz, told astounded US Reps that the CIA had maintained relationships with companies and individuals that the Agency knew to be involved in the drug business. More shocking was the revelation that the CIA had received from Reagan's Justice Department clearance not to report any knowledge it might have of drug-dealing by CIA assets. Many years' worth of CIA denials, much of it under oath to Congress, were sunk. Hitz's admissions made fools of some of the most prominent names in US journalism and vindicated others that had been ruined. Particularly resonant was the case of the San Jose Mercury News, which published a sensational series on CIA involvement in the smuggling of cocaine into black urban neighborhoods, and then under pressure conspired in the destruction of its own reporter, Gary Webb. In Whiteout, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair finally put the whole story together, from the earliest days, when the CIA's institutional ancestors cut a deal with America's premier gangster and drug trafficker, Lucky Luciano. This is a thrilling history that stretches from Sicily in 1944 to the killing fields of Laos and Vietnam, to CIA safe houses in Greenwich Village and San Francisco where CIA men watched Agency-paid prostitutes feed LSD to unsuspecting clients. We meet Oliver North, as he plotted with Manuel Noriega and Central American gangsters. We travel to little-known airports in Costa Rica and Arkansas. We hear from drug pilots and accountants from the Cali Cartel. We learn of DEA agents whose careers were ruined because they tried to tell the truth. Cockburn and St. Clair show how the CIA's complicity with drug-dealing criminal gangs was part and parcel of its attacks on labor organizers, whether on the docks of New York, Marseilles, or Shanghai. They trace how the Cold War and counter-insurgency led to an alliance between the Agency and the vilest of war criminals like Klaus Barbie, or fanatic opium traders like the mujahedin in Afghanistan. Cockburn and St. Clair horrifyingly affirm charges of outraged black communities that the CIA had undertaken enduring programs of experiments on minorities. They show that the CIA imported Nazi scientists straight from their labs at Dachau and Buchenwald and set to work, developing chemical and biological agents, tested on blacks, some of them in mental hospitals. Cockburn and St. Clair dissect the shameful way American journalists have not only turned a blind eye to the Agency's misdeeds, but also helped plunge the knife into those who tried to tell the truth. Fact-packed and fast-paced, Whiteout is a richly detailed excavation of the CIA's dirtiest secrets. For anyone who wants to know the real truth about the Agency, this is the book to start with.

Customer Reviews:

CIA is more fascist that you may think.......2007-05-23

Having read a lot of books about terrorism, govt corruption, etc, I have to say this is an amazing book that stands out because it is so well researched and compelling.

The CIA worked with Nazis after WWII and helped smuggle them out of Europe (where they were being searched for by Israel) to South America

the CIA gave LSD to random US citizens (and children too).

the CIA overlooked cocaine shipments into Los Angeles by persons with ties to the contras, the US backed-terrorist force implicated in the Iran-Contra Scandal

Amazing stuff like that is contained within--this book will keep you on your toes, and is documented enough so that you wont feel like a conspiracy theorist when simply telling your friends the plot of the current book you are reading.

an important book.......2004-05-04

a concise, dense, distilled synthesis representing the cumulative result of almost sixty years of investigation and research. an important book to be sure, yet the narrative suffers somewhat due to the ambitious all-encompassing scope of the material.

Just Say No (to the CIA).......2004-04-26

This book is a summary of horrific CIA shenanigans which can be of interest to government watchdogs and ethics buffs. In particular, Cockburn and St. Clair attempt to sum up the story of the CIA's long-term involvement in the drug trade, often in direct opposition to the efforts of the DEA or rhetoric from two-faced politicians. This is all extremely hard to dismiss, given the enormous volume of evidence presented here and elsewhere. The problem with this book is that it's just an extensive list with almost no analysis whatsoever, and mostly rehashes work that has been done by stronger investigative journalists. Among many examples, Chapter 1 is based almost entirely on "Dark Alliance" by Gary Webb; and Chapter 8 is very heavily indebted to "Acid Dreams" by Martin Lee and Bruce Schlain.

This type of summarization shows all the weaknesses of conspiracy theories, complete with inflammatory language and far-reaching accusations. Though the authors try very hard not to give this impression, they assume that by piling on huge amounts of specific events and examples that are correlated (but not necessarily causal in the supposed direction), they are proving the existence of a large conspiracy by the CIA, or at least a higher plan. Meanwhile, one-third of the book's supposed goal of implicating the press in unethical CIA behavior is almost totally missing, except for occasional potshots at particular sympathetic journalists. There is no systemic evidence given of media complicity even though, once again, convincing evidence of this can be found elsewhere.

In the end, after piling on huge mountains of evidence about CIA drug running around the world and throughout history, again summarized from other sources, Cockburn and St. Clair completely forget to delve into the obvious conclusion promised by their summarization. That would be how the CIA, under the guise of protecting American security, is actually in the business of ideology, installing conservative-friendly dictators in weak nations and financing those regimes in any way possible, including getting involved in the drug trade. This has caused all kinds of serious ethical lapses, cover-ups, government lies and misinformation, and suffering for millions of Americans. After reading this book, you'll wish that the authors had reached that obvious conclusion. [~doomsdayer520~]

Itýs the Liberal Media, Stupid!.......2004-03-23

First published in 1998, "Whiteout" is a meticulously documented account of the CIA's decades long role as an international drug peddler and of the surprising support it received in this capacity from America's purportedly liberal press. Authors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair provide a detailed history of the CIA's drug business and its alliance with organized crime around the globe beginning with its precursor organizations in World War II (Naval Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Services) through the mid nineties.

While the authors span the CIA's fifty-year history of assassination, gruesome torture, and collaboration with evil figures such as drug lords and Nazi war criminals, the principle villain in this book is actually the American liberal press and not the agency itself. To be sure the agency has done some horrific things, but to anyone who has read their history, little of this is new or surprising and believers in "realpolitik" may even find them justifiable according to America's national interest. The latter point is often shallow and difficult to hold up under scrutiny but probably not worth examining here. Perhaps the only readers who'll find this book's portrayal of the CIA offensive are those whose view of the agency has been formed by James Bond movies and popular television shows such as "JAG", "Alias", and "The Agency". Sorry to burst your bubble folks, but don't worry, the tooth fairy isn't real either.

The centerpiece of whiteout is veteran San Jose journalist, Gary Webb who in 1996 broke the story that:

"For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the US Central Intelligence Agency."

Webb had stumbled on this story almost accidentally, but could verify it with irrefutable evidence including the sworn grand jury testimony of one of the drug dealers who was also on the DEA payroll, as well as DEA and FBI documentation. One of the most damning aspects of Webb's story was not so much that the CIA subverted congress by funding a secret war that the legislature had refused to, but that it knowingly-and with great indifference-launched a drug epidemic that ravaged America's inner cities with addiction, violence, and murder.

Despite such hard evidence, which the San Jose Mercury News made available on its Web site, Webb and his paper were hounded mercilessly by liberal publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. At first Webb's editor supported and encouraged him, but soon he caved in to the mounting pressure from these other publications and subsequently retracted the story. After bravely enduring an unprecedented attack on his work and professional qualifications, and after finally losing the support of his own paper, Web subsequently resigned and went on to publish his findings in book form.

Why, one might ask, would the liberal press go after one of its own instead of picking up the story and perhaps supplementing it with additional research? Cockburn and St. Clair argue that for a variety of reasons the liberal press-its reputation aside-is and always has been extraordinarily cooperative with the CIA. Several senior editors at the Washington Post, for example, make no secret of the fact that for years they have acted as agency "assets" and continue to collaborate with it to this day. Add to this the attitude of individuals such as the Washington Post's Katherine Graham who believe that most Americans are infants whose perceptions need to be managed by self appointed media parents such as herself. (Graham once stated: "We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know, and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.")

Whether it collaborates directly with the government or simply takes it upon itself to manage our perceptions on its own, the press hardly serves a democratic or informative purpose in matters such as its treatment of Webb's story. And when you factor in the press's complacency regarding the three most important stories of the past few years (The attacks of September 11th, the colonization of Iraq, and the wave of corporate crimes) it becomes evident that the press is a prime contributor to the "dirty" and "dangerous" aspects of the world we live in.

Wake up and smell the open border!.......2003-09-01

I have been on the front lines of the so called Drug War for many years. I know first hand that this terrific book clearly illustrates the fact that our Nation's borders are wide open to the tons of illegal narcotics that come into our country every day. The war on Drugs is all but lost, and our borders are an open invitation to any Terrorist that wants to use them. This is also graphically explained in another book entitled: "U.S. Customs, Badge of Dishonor." I highly suggest that our friends and relatives read these books, before it's too late.

Average customer rating:

An efficient-but-rewarding thriller with a healthy respect for its characters
Almost as good as Q&C
Great Character, Story & Setting
Great cop story!
A truly amazing read. Great for non-comic readers as well!

Whiteout
Greg Rucka , Steve Lieber , and Jamie S. Rich
Manufacturer: Oni Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Whiteout: Melt
Queen & Country, Vol. 1: Operation Broken Ground
Queen & Country, Vol. 2: Operation Morningstar
Queen & Country, Vol. 3: Operation Crystal Ball
Queen & Country, Vol. 7: Operation Saddlebag

ASIN: 0966712714

Book Description

You can't get any further down than the bottom of the world - Antarctica. Cold, desolate, nothing but ice and snow for miles and miles. Carrie Stetko is a U.S. Marshal, and she's made The Ice her home. In its vastness, she has found a place where she can forget her troubled past and feel at peace... Until someone commits a murder in her jurisdiction and that peace is shattered. The murderer is one of five men scattered across the continent, and he has more reason to hide than just the slaying. Several ice samples were taken from the area around the body, and the depth of the drilling signifies something particular was removed. Enter Lily Sharpe, who wants to know what was so important another man's life had to be taken for it. But are either of the women prepared for the secrets and betrayals at the core of the situation?

Customer Reviews:

An efficient-but-rewarding thriller with a healthy respect for its characters.......2005-11-22

Originally published as a four-issue, self-contained miniseries, WHITEOUT's modest length belies the depth of its characterisation. Greg Rucka excels here at building up fully fleshed individuals within those time constraints afforded to him, through snippets of dialogue, the way they go about their jobs, and their brief moments of interaction with one another. He is of course aided significantly by Steve Lieber's minimal, naturalistic pencilling.

US Marshall Carrie Stetko's cynical, no-nonsense investigation of a murder near an Antarctic ice station gives the reader an immediate sense of her personality, a foundation upon which new complexities are quickly but effectively constructed, through her mannerisms and her differing attitudes towards the base physician, her commanding officer, and a British government agent. Stetko becomes a real person, and her vulnerability as such the basis for some solid tension throughout the book.

Lieber's sparse, traditional black-and-white artwork transmits a powerful sense of the isolation associated with living on the Ice, which is further aided by the establishment of a cold distance between Stetko and the majority of the station's inhabitants by Rucka. The two work wonderfully together to create a taut and satisfying thriller, reconciling a twisting plot with strong character-driven elements.

Almost as good as Q&C.......2005-05-02

It will be, of course, hard for Rucka to top the characters and excitement he puts forth in Queen and Country, but Whiteout is an excellent shot at doing so. The blurbs and other reviews all give the basic plot without revealing the gist of the story so I'll skip that and say the art is tight, well done and gives one a hint (as only possible) to what it may be like at the bottom of the world in the coldest on the planet. While the art seems as if drawn with a scrim over it perhaps the stylistic device is meant to approximate the light in Antartica. It may also be meant to save the reader from some of the murderous gore in the book. As for Rucka's writing, it is nearly perfect (And has anyone noticed that Rucka is extremely sympathetic to female characters?). I say nearly perfect because one of the characters reveals (is shown) his true nature too early after the first body is found. The character's action would never have been revealed in a cinematic expression. It may also be too obvious that this character is somehow involved in the larger plot; he is a bit stereotypical in my estimation, but not so much that I didn't read this book very quickly. I recommend this as an intro to Rucka's writing and look forward to Whiteout: Melt.

Great Character, Story & Setting.......2002-04-02

This cinematic graphic novel rises above the herd with its excellent characterization, gritty crime plot, and the fascinating setting of research bases on the South Pole. The central character is US Deputy Marshal Carrie Stetko, who has been exiled to McMurdo Station after having killed a prisoner in her custody. As a rare year-round woman resident of the pole, Stetko has to be tough as nails to fend off the advances of the rough men. When a body is found, and five other men are missing, she is called upon to investigate. The investigation takes plenty of twists and turns, with plenty of action and suspense. Stetko emerges as a character you want to meet again (fortunately she does, in Whiteout: Melt), and the artwork transports you to a unique setting that oozes with danger.

Great cop story!.......2000-06-02

I walked by this graphic novel many times at my local comic book store and grew ever more curious about it each time. It wasn't until I read Rucka's fantastic "No Man's Land" novelization, however, that I finally decided to buy "Whiteout." Well, all I can say is that I'm glad I did. "Whiteout" is a gritty, hardnosed, suspenseful cop story with true to life artwork (so much so, in fact, that I actually felt cold looking at some of the stark, icy drawings filling the pages). Rucka and Lieber are wonderful talents, without a doubt. I'd love to see their female Marshal teamed up in a crossover story with the Tommy Lee Jones Marshal from the Fugitive someday. "Whiteout" is highly recommended!

A truly amazing read. Great for non-comic readers as well!.......1999-09-26

I was floored by just how good this was. great characters, great story, wonderful art. I read it in one sitting. What works about this book where so many comics and graphic novels fail (and why non-comic people don't always gravitate towards this medium) is characters. The author fleshes out some real-life folk in an unusual setting, and the illustrator carries it through. Once again, a great read and I highly reccomend it.

Average customer rating:

There's something to it, but not his best
Mediocre
WHAT A WAY TO SPEND CHRISTMAS

Whiteout
Ken Follett
Manufacturer: Penguin Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Formats | Books

Unabridged | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Formats | Books

Mystery & Thrillers | Books on CD | Formats | Books

General | Books on CD | Formats | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Are You Afraid of the Dark? CD: A Novel (Sheldon, Sidney)
No Place Like Home : A Novel
Double Play
Double Homicide: Boston / Sante Fe (2 in 1)
Robert Ludlum's The Lazarus Vendetta - A Covert-one Novel

ASIN: 0143057081
Release Date: 2004-11-18

Customer Reviews:

There's something to it, but not his best.......2007-05-29

This book has a typical Ken Follett structure: suspense, interesting plot idea, and drama. But this time, the excitement was not warranted. For starters, the entire plot is in or around one house so the author has to try harder to pull it off; unfortunately, Follett does not. "Whiteout" reads like a rushed book, in the style of i-had-to-do-it-fast-because-my-publisher-wanted-something-out-by-the-deadline. In sum, do not read this book if you never read Follett before. Start out with either "Pillars" or "Eye of the Needle" and then move to this one if you are compelled. Hopefully the upcoming Pillars sequel "World Without End" will be Follett at his best.

Mediocre.......2005-11-10

This is my second review. I guess perhaps my first one was not acceptable to Amazon. I can't remember the total text of my initial comments so I will have to paraphrase. Overall the book is badly in need of an edit. Far too verbose and filled with irrelevant and bland digressions. Main character Toni Gallo, totally unbeleivable. She is supposed to be an ex-cop and head of security, yet she voices her inner thoughts with the naivity of a teenage schoolgirl. Josephine Bailey's reading? Insipid, monotonous. Totally unconvincing in all the roles she is called upon to play. I remember Ken Follett as being far better than this.

WHAT A WAY TO SPEND CHRISTMAS.......2004-12-07

Follett followers and new listeners will quickly find themselves absorbed in the best-selling author's latest scenario. This time it's all about bio-terrorism, and compellingly read by London born Josephine Bailey. She knows how to hold listeners, sustaining their tension and popping surprises as we find ourselves shivering at the prospect of what Follett has cooked up this time.

An ex policewoman, Toni Gallo is now head of security at a pharmaceutical firm, Oxenford Medical. As the Christmas holiday approaches a cannister holding a lethal virus has gone astray.

Characters in this evil vs. good battle all converge upon the Oxenford family home in Scotland. Once there, they're kept captive by a blinding winter storm. Toni has eyes for her boss, Stanley Oxenford. But, she'd be better off to keep her attention fixed on his son, Kit, a gambling ne'er do-well who plots to steal from his dad's lab to pay off debts.

There's the usual coterie of newsmen tracing what they think is a hot story, and other Oxenford family members trying to satisfy their egos and urges plus assorted thieves. What a way to spend Christmas!

- Gail Cooke

Average customer rating:

A human-centered take on virtual reality

Whiteout
Sage Walker
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0312863020

Customer Reviews:

A human-centered take on virtual reality.......1999-07-05

In contrast to much of the VR genre, Sage Walker's novel focuses on characters, setting, and plot, and does so exceedingly well! I've been to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and ridden the zodiacs described here. Ms. Walker's novel is so close to the reality that it gave me flashbacks. Her vision of a future in which technology serves her characters--instead of the reverse, set against the future of Antarctic politics, is mesmerizing. This is top-notch Science Fiction.

Average customer rating:

An engaging and awesome read
Fascinating Memoir of a Socially Stratified Colorado Town
Another brillian work by the talented Connover.
Atypical and disappointing
An ethnography of "paradise"

Whiteout: Lost in Aspen
Ted Conover
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Rolling Nowhere
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens
Holding the Key
The Littlest Cowboy's Christmas (With Music CD)

ASIN: 067974178X
Release Date: 2001-09-11

Book Description

Irreverent, poignant, and revealing, this meditation on the sweet temptation of wealth and the vainglorious quest for paradise as they exist in Aspen, Colorado, features a "cast of characters (that) includes such barn-size satirical targets as exclusive health clubs, over-the-hill drug dealers and movie stars and rock stars of wattages bright and dim" (The New Republic).

Customer Reviews:

An engaging and awesome read.......2007-06-11

Ted Conover is one of my favorite authors. I enjoy his ability for immersing himself into whatever subject he is writing and yet managing to maintain a certain impartiality in his observations. Whiteout is no exception to this trend. In it he captures an image of the soul of this very stratified city. He presents the experiences of people from various of it's walks of life and how they interact. What emerges is a work that not only analyzes life in Aspen, but also gives the reader an opportunity for self-examination of his own life and circumstances.

Fascinating Memoir of a Socially Stratified Colorado Town.......2005-06-13

Conover is expert at gate-crashing and we are so lucky that he's a great writer, too. Here, he's written about his stint as a cab driver in Aspen, but the engrossing part is his own ability to crash celebrity-only functions.

It's an interesting study in the interaction of haves and have-nots, for the rich and pampered of this famed snow town NEED the hardworking waiters and drivers and maids and ski instructors and yet are often bizarrely detached from the realities of working a steady job. Conover finds ways of crossing into the world of the haves, without ever forgetting who he is.

Conover doesn't show real envy for the rich and famous, but he enjoyed their parties. He's a downhill skiier and cyclist, so he certainly enjoyed the outdoorsy life there and treats a venture into a star studded party as just another nature hike worth detailing. Conover shows a kind of pity, in fact, in a brilliant little section about hanging out in a bar booth with Mick Fleetwood and friends.

Who you'll meet in the vignettes and tales of Conover's observations of Aspen life: the plethora of fine-looking young ladies, the unreal mansions with their no-holds-barred parties, the spoiled nouveau riche corporate wives, movie stars and rock stars, the crotchety old guard of the small town, drunks and granola eaters, skiers and commuters from the working class lowland.

It's not a gossip-fest, nor is it a boring social critique. But it's a real slice of life. And you get a little local history and politics, too. It's a fine book for anyone who is fascinated by how the other half lives.

The author's own mobility, personable nature, and mutability are his true assets. He seemed to walk away from Aspen satisfied and with a desire to explore other realms. Which he does, again and again, in his brilliant books.

Good gift for a ski bum, for a social climber, for anyone who admires the art of schmoozing and faking it. Could be a bit too depressing for someone who lost in an attempt to get rich and join the upper crust.

Another brillian work by the talented Connover........2003-02-02

Once again, Ted Connover came through with a completely unique glimpse of a society few people are able to witness. With an amazing gift for immersing himself in different cultures, Ted provides a glimpse into the mostly ultra-rich lifestyle of the Aspenites. I found this novel to be thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking.

Atypical and disappointing.......2001-10-17

Ted Conover has a distinctive modus operandus. He writes ethnographic studies of disadvantaged people by becoming part of the population as much as possible. He began, as a college student, becoming a hobo and riding the rails, as documented in "Rolling Nowhere". In his brilliant "Coyotes", he's amazingly successful at integrating himself into the illegal alien population, crossing secretly into the USA several times with Mexican migrant laborers. Most readers will know him from his recent "Newjack", where he becomes a prison guard and Sing-Sing to comment on the lives of guards and inmates.

"Whiteout" is the odd man out in Conover's oeuvre. We're on familiar territory initially - Conover is a cab driver in Aspen, spying on the lives of tourists while living the life of a working stiff. But he never fully commits, living with a wealthy friend in a palatial mansion, and later house-sitting for another millionaire. Later, he becomes a reporter for the local paper, and most of the book reads like extended versions of the newspaper stories he had opportunity to cover. We get a number of interesting pictures of life in Apsen, from ski bums to society madams, to an odd interlude in northern Florida with a former drug runner who _used_ to be based out of Aspen.

Perhaps the shotgun approach is meant to mirror the diversity and complexity of the interaction of social classes in Aspen. Or perhaps Conover saw an opportunity to turn a year off in Apsen into a book with a major publisher. Either way, the reader is left wishing that Conover would pick someone - anyone - to identify with, profile and feature. Instead, we get a mishmash that could only be appealing to readers interested in Apsen or the celebrities who live there. Skip this one and pick up any of his other books instead.

An ethnography of "paradise".......2001-10-02

Ted Conover, who's known for his looks at the grittier side of life, tried something different in this book: a look at privilege and pleasure as they are enshrined in Aspen, CO. I think that writing about the rich is probably harder than it sounds--for one thing, the average reader doesn't have a lot of sympathy, and for another, most social analysis is directed at the less fortunate. But Conover looks, mostly seriously, at a place that is fairly silly, and the result is Insight of a very high grade.

The focus goes both tight and wide, the observations are sharp but not dismissive; we find ourselves in the company of starlets and busboys alike, and presented with quite a few moral dilemmas (is it RIGHT to live this way? how come everybody in the real world looks less attractive after Aspen?). Conover's candor alone makes Whiteout worth the price of admission. If your soul is lingering in Sing Sing after reading Newjack, this Rocky Mountain sojourn could be just the thing you need ...

Judge Dredd 8 Whiteout (Judge Dredd)
Average customer rating:

DREDD FACES THE COVERT OPS UNIT

Judge Dredd 8 Whiteout (Judge Dredd)
James Swallow
Manufacturer: Black Flame
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
High Tech | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Psykogeddon (Judge Dredd)

Judge Dredd #7: Swine Fever

Judge Dredd #5: Kingdom of the Blind

Strontium Dog 5: A Fistful of Strontium (Strontium Dog)

Judge Dredd #3: Black Atlantic

ASIN: 1844162192

Customer Reviews:

DREDD FACES THE COVERT OPS UNIT.......2005-11-18

Twice a year here in the Detroit area there is a huge comicbook/sci-fi show that is a three day event with dealers from all over the country. I've been attending for many years and at the recent show in main I was absolutely ecstatic when I saw a dealer with an entire box full of old Judge Dredd and other Fleetway comics that he was selling for .25 cents each...25 cents!!! He was only too pleased to take the $20 bucks I offered him for the full box. I was only too pleased to get some 200 comics for such a paltry sum. In the mid-80's and into the 90's Dredd was one of my favorite characters and I regretfully have not kept up with him in recent years.

I was thus very excited to see that Games Workshop's Black Library has been producing Dredd's adventures in novel format for some time. Whiteout is the first book I've read in the series and I will definitely be back for more. Author James Swallow has written a couple of books in the Dredd series as well as other books in the GW family such as Warhamer and Rogue Trooper. The book begins with a shadowy group of scientists and presumably a military commander testing out a deadly new weapon on some mutant gang members. The stealthy weapon performs flawlessly and yet too well with dire consequences.

Fast forward a bit to Mega City 1 where Judge Dredd and several other Judges are in the midst of shaking down the residents of a seedy building to send a message to the local perps. A napalm explosion by some would-be terrorists goes off killing them, and providing the distraction that small-time crook Wes Smyth needs to escape the building and the Judges notice. He doesn't get far as the strong arms for a local crime boss catch up with Wes demanding the money he still owes and delivering a brutal warning to come up with the money in 24 hours.

Later Dredd and several other judges have come under attack by a group of wreckers, highway bandits who literally set the road on fire. Wes finds himself again caught in the middle of this mess as his own vehicle is destroyed sending him out on foot to scavenge when he comes upon a tipped transport van. In it's cargo hold a single item that Wes quickly procures, recognizing something valuable when he sees it. The van proves a mystery to Dredd. There are no records of the license and registration, and the serial number has been removed on every part on the truck, right down to the light bulbs on the headlights. The truck is removed to headquarters where Tek-Judge Tyler orders it to be disassembled, but when Dredd comes to check on the truck, Tyler finds the droid disassembled it and had it destroyed. But who have the order for the van's destruction? Furthermore, why is a Judge Vedder, a member of the shadowy COE the Covert Operations Establishment, skulking about near Dredd's evidence and what was she doing at the sight of the wrecker attack? Wes has now found something that is sure to turn his life around while Dredd must not only find out what was in the van, but also contend with this covert ops unit who is determined to keep him out of it, even if it means killing the legendary law officer.

Swallow maintained all of the thrill-ride action and violence that fans of Dredd have come to love with also showing Dredd's detective side as he works with Judge Tyler who is kind of a high-tech CSI type Judge. Swallow is faithful to the long-time character while giving us a plot that shows Dredd having to rely on his intelligence and instincts as much as his guns and fists. Highly recommended.

Review By Tim Janson

Reader's Digest Select Editions (The Summer I Dared, Whiteout, A Redbird Christmas, Skeleton Man, Volume 2, 2005)

Average customer rating:

Reader's Digest Select Editions (The Summer I Dared, Whiteout, A Redbird Christmas, Skeleton Man, Volume 2, 2005)

Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

Readers Digest Select Editions (Volume 5, 2005) (Heartbreak Hotel, The Closers, The Ladies of Garrison Gardens, Julie & Romeo Get Lucky, Volume 5)
Reader's Digest Select Editions Volume 272 (2004)
Select Editions; the Hard Way, Where Mercy Flows, Two Little Girls in Blue, Rosie (Reader's Digest Select Editions, (5)287)

ASIN: B000AQDL1O

Whiteout!: A Book About Blizzards (Amazing Science)

Average customer rating:

Whiteout!: A Book About Blizzards (Amazing Science)
Rick Thomas
Manufacturer: Picture Window Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Rivers | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Weather | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Rumble, Boom!: A Book About Thunderstorms (Amazing Science)

ASIN: 1404809252

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books