Customer Reviews

Kronos

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have two problems with this book, and even suprising to myself, the whole god thing isn't one of them. That was fine to me, no my problem first was Kronos itself. I bought this book and wanted a monster, something that was sinking boats, eating people, destroying coastal towns, and generally causing chaos in the seas. I wanted the Leviathon, instead I got a 150 foot dolphin that chased herring, and nothing else. When I purchase a book with a giant sea monster on the cover, I want a sea monster with bite, and more than one kill under its belt. No all it does is eat fish. The main character, he kils a lot of people, most barehanded actually, but if I wanted a spy story I would have bought one, no I wanted a sea mosnter, disappointing.

Second is the uh, love story, which is not unique to Mr. Robinson. I've read a lot of these giant monster books and they all seem to suffer from the same poorly writen, poorly executed, uncomfortable, and just down right un-plausable romances. I'm sick of reading about people's ex-wives, girl friends, long lost loves, whatever in a book about a giant killer thing. It adds nothing to the story and doesn't make the characters human, it makes them characters in soap operas, and once again if I wanted a soap opera I would watch it, I wanted a monster. If your looking for a giant killer monster that causes some serious damage I have to say look somewhere else, I'm not joking all Kronos does is chase Herring.

Not a monster story, and totally unbelievable. Very little suspense and the story is very predictable. I wanted terror, and I got a retelling of "Jonah and the Whale". Also the depictions of character emotions are forced, and full of clichés. Not for sea monster enthusiasts, not for thriller enthusiasts, and not for book enthusiast either.

Jeremy Robinson delivers again! Kronos is another positively addictive page-turner. Atticus young is a former Navy SEAL trying to come to grips with the death of his wive and increasing disconnect from his teenage daughter, Giona. On a scuba diving trip, Giona is swallowed by a massive, unknown beast of the sea. The only thing keeping Atticus alive is his desire to hunt the creature that took his daughter. Into his life walks Trevor Manfred, a ruthless multi-millionaire who wants the beast as a hunting trophy.

The story moves forward at Robinson's typical fast pace. Manfred is a shady character, and there are tensions between Atticus and one of Manfred's primary henchmen. The tension is ratcheted up when Atticus's former military colleague Andrea, now an officer in the Coast Guard, enters the picture. The blend of action and mystery never relents. The publisher should put a warning label on the cove: Do not open this book unless you have time to read the entire thing. A few scenes feel either a bit forced or contrived, such as an early scene in which Atticus roughs up some street toughs who mess with his his daughter, but does it in such a way that the reader is apparently supposed to conclude that he is a tough guy, but not a "bad" guy, though he could be if he wanted to. Atticus's conversation with his mother after Giona's loss is a bit cliche, as is much of the Manfred story line. The plot is engaging enough that it more than outweighs these areas of relative weakness.

In many ways, this book is reminiscent of the early works of James Rollins, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and Steve Alten. There is a satisfying mix of mystery, monsters, and action. Action-Adventure fans who have not yet discovered Robinson would do well to make this their first exposure to one of the most talented writers in the genre. Buy your copy of Kronos today!

my first book by jeremy robinson. i will admit i bought this book thinking it was going to be another prehistoric sea monster thriller like was done by steve alten. but it kept me hooked, even though the monster was only present in half the book. the rest of the story was laid out real well. lot of action keeps the book moving along between monster encounters.
like i said this book kept me glued to every page. read it by all means. dubbs up for jeremy robinson on a fine book. i may go out and find some more books by mr. robinson and see if he can keep my interest with them as he did with kronos.

So, A special forces dad try's to reconnect with his daughter and she is swallowed by a giant sea monster. A rich play boy looking for adventure recruits the Dad and offers him the best in "killer toys" to play with. Seeking revenge,the dad get's on the sci-fi boot and gives chase.
If you have not read a J.R. Book, this is the place to start. (If you have, Why Haven't You Read This YET!?) This is my favorite of his. Like most of his books, this is fast moving with lots of weapons being used by heavily trained people. He doesn't have the "team" feel here. It's every man for himself. This makes it even more cool because you never know who's going to suddenly look out for #1 and turn everything around. There is also a lot of playing with the Mythology of the story. (Dan Brown take note... this is the way to do it.) You will find your self saying "that is so cool, why didn't I see that coming" and "I had never though of that" a lot.
The other thing you need to know is that this book contains a confrontation between a Hawaiian shirt loving thug and the protagonist that can be described as nothing less that the single greatest example of Bad-Ass-ery (yes, that's a word now) I have ever scene.
You know what. I'm rambling... stop reading this and just read his book. It's so worth it.

Reviews for "Kronos" seem radically divided for some readers. There are questions about the use of God and a biblical parallel to the novel that unfortunately obscure the fact that it is just a fast-paced fun "monster" story. Of course, by definition of a horror or monster story, the reader is asked to suspend his/her sense of disbelief, so why not suspend it a bit more to encompass the author's intention to use a biblical creature to explain his sea serpent, Kronos? It is a lot more fun to read if the reader takes a light hearted approach and lets the story carry his/her interest.

Atticus Young, an ex-Navy Seal and current oceanographer, is dealing with the loss of his beloved wife and the growing chasm between he and his daughter, Giona. Preparing to move to a new home, Atticus takes his daughter on one last ocean dive in the Gulf of Maine so they can once again swim with the whales. Horribly, Atticus helplessly watches a giant sea monster swallow Giona whole when they get separated underwater. His grief and sense of loss drive him to focus on but one thing--revenge against the monster. Even reconnecting with a childhood love, Andrea Vincent, now a Coast Guard officer, can not dissuade his resolute mission.

Enter Trevor Manfred, a ruthless and conscienceless billionaire, who offers all the modern day killing technology of his giant yacht to Atticus for the rights to the monster's corpse after it is killed. Trevor is a monster in his own right, willing to say or promise anything that furthers his own sick desires, but possessed with the ability to cover his true nature to the prying eyes of outsiders. A wild chase ensues until Atticus closes in on the monster and makes a stunning discovery that will forever alter his plans and his life. Suddenly the evilness of some humans seem more despicable than the nature of sea predators. Atticus relies on his Seal training and teams with Andrea and a quirky "priest" to try and derail the megalomanical plans of Manfred and his criminal crewmen.

As I said, the book flows comfortably, is fast-paced, and filled with action. Although Atticus and Andrea are reasonably fleshed out characters, the rest of the players seem to have been drawn from a central casting pool. There are also some bothersome editing problems including typos and awkward splitting of words at the end of some sentences...but they never rose to the level of making this reader set the book aside. This certainly would be an entertaining beach read...although you may decide not to enter the water.

For creature feature fiction, this book has a bit more plot than most, but the author's repeated attempts to infuse faith into the story come off as ham-fisted and forced. When the book compares Kronos to the story of Jonah and the fish, it nearly loses all credibility and it didn't have much of that to begin with. For an ex-Navy SEAL, Atticus, the hero, is often caught off-guard when the fight begins. There's the villain of the story, an eccentric billionaire named Trevor, and his henchmen; a love interest in the form of bland USCG officer Andrea; and, of course, a giant marine reptile nicknamed Kronos.

It's not the best book I've ever read, nor is it the worst. But when your book and its bad editing (Atticus' novel is written "Ocean's in Peril" at one point--the misplaced apostrophe should have been caught by a good editor) nearly makes Steve Alten's "Meg" look like Melville's "Moby Dick" by comparison, then maybe a few revisions are in order.

Wow, I'm not even halfway through this novel and I can't believe how crappily edited it is. The author doesn't know the difference between your and you're, apparently (or just doesn't believe in spellcheck, I guess). Also it's exceedingly badly researched; fitting a nuclear device 'capable of destroying an aircraft carrier' into a minisub big enough for two people is bunk. The !!OMG SOCIETY IS BAD!! crap is tiresome as well. "Hey honey, I know you just nearly got gang raped and all, but let's go SNORKELING!!"...yeah, okay. The encounter with the creature at the start of the novel is about the only bit of clever writing I've found so far. This'd be a no-stars review if Amazon allowed it.

Others have said it, I'll reiterate. Don't be fooled by the cover. This isn't a book about a bad-a@# giant sea predator.

It's a heavy-handed, completely implausible, biblical tale with some decent action sequences.

It moved along quickly enough to finish it (thus 2 stars), but I would NEVER pick it up again.

I must admit, I have a bias towards creature novels--as long as they're good anyway--and I am here to tell you that Kronos is better than good. While all the literary award-givers will pass by Jeremy (along with most other notable fun authors such as Matthew Reilly & Steve Alten) let's hope that the general public will lap up this latest action-drenched nail-biter and help propel it to the national best-seller status it truly deserves.

With Kronos we see the evolution of Jeremy Robinson as an author, and you can see his talent growing with each new release...and thankfully, his talent is growing by leaps & bounds, and all in the positive sense. Kronos is a big adventure tale which grabs you very quickly and refuses to let go--which is increasingly difficult to pull off the more children you have (I have a LOT). For years, my yardstick for judging whether or not a book is really good is simple: If it's the last thing on my mind when I go to sleep and the first thing I think of after I wake up. I am happy to say Kronos succeeds on both accounts.

The suffering that Atticus Young goes through is heart-wrenching to say the least...and the action sequences are honestly first-rate. Kudos to Jeremy for keeping my interest level on HIGH for over a week now as I furiously read on and on 'til the last page. Oh, and the surprise Twist?? Either the reviewer who *claimed* the book was predictable is psychic, good at guessing or outright lying, because I honestly don't see HOW they saw this particular twist coming. Don't know what it is yet? GET THE BOOK! While I agree that finding out a little more about the possible origins of the creature would have been cool--the lack thereof in NO WAY harmed the thrill-factor the novel provided me.

Once again, I submit that Mr. Robinson continues to hone and perfect the craft of writing, as is plainly obvious by how much better he has become with each subsequent release. I can hardly wait for 'Pulse' to hit the shelves!

For fans of the MEG series by Steve Alten (also awesome, btw), pick up Kronos and prepared for a few hours of pure escapist entertainment...oh, and a quick caution: reading the book near water is NOT recommended...at least not without a life preserver and nothing less than a very large caliber weapon handy--you know, just in case.