Customer Reviews

The Portent

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This book should be a Science Fiction movie. Portent is so different from her Eden books, I was very surprised. It deals with nature and the price humans might have to pay for destroying it. Ms.Harris really makes you stop and think.

The three couples had moved to the remote community of Tomis to "get away from it all." They were the first to find out the terror that was in store for all humankind. At first they couldn't believe it. And then no one would listen. Who could believe in summer blizzards, children disappearing, men swallowed alive by the ground? Who could believe that the Earth itself was angry after centuries of pollution and waste? That a halocaust of horror was rising from the depths? That mother Nature was devouring her children and there was no place left to hide?

Alas, underneath the fine narrative and fleshed-out characterization lies a novel that isn't really horror. It is more in the league of the duo team Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child efforts. Indeed, what at first looks like a spooky tale à la THE RUINS ends up being nothing but a techno-thriller with many tiresome (in the long run) references regarding man and earth. Moreover, the novel would have definitely worked better had it been cut a hundred pages more or less. As is, the plot moves rather slowly despite its many attempts at shaking things up. In the end, what could have been a great read turns out to be less so, especially to those trying to read something scary. Maybe her next effort will do the trick, though, for she does impress with her writing skills.-----Martin Boucher