Customer Reviews

The 4400: The Vesuvius Prophecy

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The plot, as suggested by the book title, is about a volcano (although not the one in Italy); About the looming chaos and mayhem that Maia sees (in a precognition) as she sets foot on Mt. Rainier - Seattle's very own "Vesuvius" - while on a school day trip. The plot focuses mainly on Tom and Diana and their [work] trying to piece together and make sense of Maias precognition. Desperately needing to find a way to alter the ominous future predicted by a kid who's never wrong. Finding a solution to the problem turns out to be a challenge, as there are characters with interests of their own...

Charachter-wise there are a number of exciting new 4400 acquaintances, some of which possess more or less incredible superhuman powers. Of course, there are many familiar faces - Shawn and Isabell being one of the more prominent. We get to spend time with the characters and their feelings/thoughts on each other, the future, lost time and what their fates may be. Are they a blessing or a curse?

The writing is pretty straight forward and descriptive (which sometimes spawn pretty long sentences) but nonetheless easily read. I picked up some new words along the way though. The (new) characters are carefully introduced/described and their history evolves in a pleasant matter as you make your way through the book. You're not told too much or too little. Established characters (like Tom, Diana, Marco, Nina, Richard, Shawn, Isabell, etc) are nicely summarized when introduced to the reader.

The book has a good composure to it, you don't get too mixed up in past, present and future. The storytelling is chronological and both pleasant/exciting. The pacing is good. No dull bits. As a viewer of the TV-series I kept reading the dialogue "out loud" (as Tom, Diana, etc) in my head. There aren't much dialogue, but the one that's in the book make sense; as in "that sure sounds like something XXX would say".

If this book would be transformed into the TV-version, it would probably end up as a douple episode (giving us viewers the ever annoying "to be continued..." at the end of pt.1).

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and if I hadn't been on a trip with my girlfriend (to visit friends who were getting wed) I would probably have finished it a lot quicker than I did.

I want more, like a subscription or something.

Even though this was written in 2008, it seems to take place perhaps in Season 4 or so of The 4400 television series. It's basically a very formulaic episode in which Maia has a vision of her mom on the top of an erupting Mt. Rainier. It's well-written, but the story itself is only of mediocre interest. I did, however, enjoy revisiting places in Seattle that I've been to like Pike Place Market and the Science Fiction Museum. It's nice to read a book every now and then where you know the faces and voices of the characters and have actually visited the setting.

since the series has now ended, I'm hoping there will be more novels about the series like this one. This was an enjoyable read, if you're a fan of the series, you should enjoy this.

The story seems to take place between seasons 3 & 4 of the series, as the author makes statements, references, that are meant to review past events that took place in seasons 1 & 2 and assumes the reader already knows about this.

I see amazon now has book # 2 available: "Wet Work".