Customer Reviews

Descent from Xanadu

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Judd Crane is the world's richest man. He's got everything money can buy so he only has one dream left to achieve: immortality. He employs a Yugoslavian doctor to help him. That's the main plot of "Descent from Xanadu", and it's not enough to fill a 400 page novel. Hence, most of the novel consists of various subplots, none of which are the least interesting. It's endless descriptions of plane flights and business meetings, and of course, sex. All of the sex scenes are very short, but always very imaginative ("Her buttocks began to roll in orgiastic frenzy. "Master! Master!" she screamed. "Make me a baby! Please, make me a baby!").

I really don't mind trash, but it has to be entertaining. "Descent from Xanadu" is just boring. It has no redeeming values at all and isn't likely to appeal to anyone, not even fans of trashy books.

From a great writer this book is a dampsquib. He has lost direction midway trying desperately to package in a lot of disperate subjects. Judd is a flat character who is running after a fantastic idea of living for ever. His search opens up all funny situations like Ex communist bloc plots and some Oriental mysticism mixed in. The result is a incongruous mixture which leaves a poor after-taste.

Its the suckiest book I have ever read and I truly regret reading it. I read it a couple of years ago but whenever I think about it, I get a bad feeling. I guess Harold Robbins does have a way making people remember his work ;)

Harold Robbins has a following of readers because he has his own style. This is one of his many works. This book is his most powerful novel, richly errotic, unfailingly exciting, with a theme that goes to the center of everybody's deepest desires and fantasies. It confirms Harold Robbins reputation as America's Master Storyteller.

The plot of this book is as follows: About one man's obsessive quest for immortality is Judd Crane - a man of unimaginable wealth, determined to overcome death, whatever the cost... Crane had everything he could want. Power, money, women. From his luxuriously appointed 747 he controls governments, industries, a vast web of business interests - there is nothing he cannot buy - perhaps even eternal life itself.

I'm almost finished reading this book, and i've had kind of a hard time keeping things from becoming confusing. It jumps from business meeting to business meeting, and the characters are not very interesting. Things don't flow smoothly and it is not one of those books that you just don't want to put down. If not for curiosity about how it ends, I wouldn't even finish it, as I feel like it's hard to keep pushing to the end, enduring the middle parts of it to get to the ending.

I'm sorry to see the few stars for this book , i read the dutch translation and don't know if it's different but i think it's a good book. I don't read much , but this was a book i wanted to read. If you ask me , give it the 4 stars , if you don't , read the book.

Let's be completely fair about this. The first and last paragraphs in the book are as well crafted as anything this writer has ever done. I congratulate him for them.

Unfortunately the 309 pages poured in between (hardcover edition) bespoke more the juvenile fantasies of Mr Robbins' possibly "chemically enhanced" lifestyle than of any kind of cogent narrative. Puerile sexual encounters more suitable for a school-boy's wet dreams and pathetic attempts at drama interspersed with one dimentional characters make this trivial book worthy of zero stars, except Amazon doed not allow for that.

A narrative, like a movie, should encourage us to suspend our disbelief and become engaged in the lives and trials of the characters. This contains enough detritus to ensure that our disbelief comes nowhere close to suspension!

From a great writer this book is a dampsquib. He has lost direction midway trying desperately to package in a lot of disperate subjects. Judd is a flat character who is running after a fantastic idea of living for ever. His search opens up all funny situations like Ex communist bloc plots and some Oriental mysticism mixed in. The result is a incongruous mixture which leaves a poor after-taste.