Raptor [Import] [Hardcover]

Gary Jennings (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Frederick Muller Ltd
• ISBN-10: 0091739047
• ISBN-13: 978-0091739041
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)

More About the Author

GARY JENNINGS was known for the rigorous and intensive research behind his novels, which often included hazardous travels--exploring every corner of Mexico for his Aztec novels, retracing the numerous wanderings of Marco Polo for The Journeyer, joining nine different circuses for Spangle, and roaming the Balkans to do Raptor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy it for what it is, April 7, 2000

By 

"judithb" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raptor (Mass Market Paperback)

I must just add my words of praise to all those before for this absorbing, entertaining and often confronting book. My friend Sue had long raved about Gary Jennings' writing, but I never indulged until she insisted I read her copy of Raptor (five years later, I realise I haven't returned it!).

Thorn is an unusual protagonist, and whether you love or hate him/her, one you will not forget in a hurry. Sometimes (and this is what lost one star) I would find myself thinking "Oh yeah? As if!" when Thorn got out of yet another scrap by demonstrating yet another skill. Like so many main characters in novels of this type, Thorn is just a little bit too amazing to be be entirely credible, and I found myself wondering how Theodoric, an actual historical character, possibly managed to rise to his greatness if Thorn was only a figment of Jennings' imagination!

However, once you take the leap of faith to accept that besides having ambiguous gender characteristics (although I always saw Thorn as essentially male) and considered an incredibly handsome man and an exceptionally beautiful woman, Thorn also had been endowed with superhuman strength and endurance, a strategic brain to rival any chess master, treachery, deviousness and guile second to none, survival skills and instincts of a bushman, and loyalty only to himself and Theodoric, you find yourself accepting the story for what it is, a competently written, entertaining, absorbing work of fiction, that brought with it some awareness of the past.

Like other reviewers, I was keen to find out more about Theodoric, and was interested in how Jennings showed Vandals have been vilified down through the ages.

The wonderful thing about good writers is that they can effortlessly and completely transport you so far in time and space, that returning to reality seems to be the really big leap. I was there, seeing, smelling, tasting everything. If you enjoy page-turning journeys into the distant past, off the top of my head I can recommend Noah Gordon's 'The Physician', Wilbur Smith's 'River God', Stephen Lawhead's 'Byzantium', and Judith Tarr's 'Pillar of Fire'. Of course, they all contain the occasional historical inaccuracies and super-talented progagonists endemic in this genre, but when you're still reading at 3am, who cares?

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best read in a long time. Great characterization., January 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Raptor (Mass Market Paperback)

If you're amazed by what we as a people are learning, you'll be more amazed by how much we've forgotten. Set in the fifth century, Thorn, the hermaphroditic protagonist, travels from what is now France, across Europe, down to Constantinople and beyond. What his travels reveal about his (our) history, religion, sexual mores, life, death and everything in between is staggering. So is the amount of research Mr. Jennings must have done for this book. Coming in at just under 1000 pages, it's a story you don't want to end yet you can't wait to find out how it ends. If you're at all interested in ancient cultures or even the roots of the English language, you'll have a field day with this book. Read it, love it, be amazed by it

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book, July 6, 2003

By 

J. J Spencer (tyler, tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Raptor (Mass Market Paperback)

Jennings is always graphic in his writings. This book is no exception. If you are squeamish, you should pass this one. Still, he is a skillful writer and seems to do his research. Well worth the read.