Customer Reviews

The Tiger Warrior (Jack Howard)

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

 

 

David Gibbins' novel, The Tiger Warrior, reveals the author is an intelligent, educated and worldly man. The novel brims with historical and archaeological facts and theories spanning in time and place from the birth of the unified Chinese empire in 221 BCE to Caesarean Rome to British colonial rule on the Indian subcontinent to present day Afghanistan. Most of these facts and hypotheses are intriguing, and all are patently the result of Gibbins' commendably deep research, study and thought.

Unfortunately, none of the above renders Gibbins a master of character, dialogue, or narrative pacing in the art of storytelling. With rare exceptions, his characters are uniformly dull. These characters do not converse with each other so much as they lecture at one another. They often speak for hundreds of words at a time in single stultifying paragraphs that frequently fill more than an entire page before being subjected to an equally bloviated and professorial response. Real people do not talk this way, and wading through lecture after lecture churned out by one flat character after another makes for tedious reading and slows the story to a crawl.

Had Gibbins paid as much attention to character and dialogue as he did to his excellent research, this book would be enjoyable, rather than merely informative. He did not, and accordingly the novel reads far more like a textbook than a good story told well.

As someone who loves adventure novels, the premise of this book sounded great. However, I ended up having to force myself to finish it. The book is slow-moving, boring and extremely "wordy." The author went overboard on the amount of lecturing the characters do, it quickly got unbearable and I ended up just skipping over pages without reading them. The characters are one-dimensional and I didn't care about any of them. This is the 2nd book by this author that I've read; the 1st one I stopped reading about 1/2 way through because it was the same; too much lecturing and little action. Learned my lesson now and won't be purchasing any books by this author in the future.

I was horrified as I read the other reviews of The Tiger Warrior. I strongly disagree! This was one of the best books I've read in years. Instead of being all mindless, unbelievable action/adventure, this book was educational. I loved the historical context and the connections to other times and other places. I was so inspired I did the web thing, printing a map of Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, India, etc., to better follow the path of the story. I learned so much that my #1 travel destination is now Issyk Kul in Kyrgystan, a lake on the Silk Road that figures prominently in this book!

The characters are not particularly deep, which leaves more time to savor the context, which is rich with archaeological intrigue and historical truths and possibilities. I did not know about the lost Roman Legion, nor did I know that the Romans made it all the way to the east side of India. The parts of the book dealing with Afghanistan and, especially because of the current US involvement there, show the futility of fighting the Afghan tribes.

The action scenes in the book are believable, unlike most action/adventure novels that I read. Jack Howard is no Dirk Pitt, thank god!

David Gibbons has tremendous, inspiring credentials to write this kind of novel, being a PhD archaeologist, from Cambridge, no less. His speciality is sunken cities. Using some characters based on his own incredible family just adds more awe. If you are looking for an exciting, interesting, educational read, one that will remain with you long after you're done, this is the one I'd recommend. If you're just looking for lazy, mindless action, give it a skip. I've read everything David Gibbons has written and now must face a long time yearning for his next one, The Mask of Troy, which won't be out until 2010.

I really, really wanted to give this book at least three stars, but after spending the last two hours forcing myself to finish it, I just could not do it. When Mr. Gibbins is writing the scenes that make his books action/adventure novels, he is very entertaining....but, unfortunately, those scenes are few and far between. As with his last book, this one read more like a history lesson than something you would read for entertainment. I made the decision after his last book not to read anything else by him, but changed my mind after reading what this book was about. I had read alot of negative reviews of his previous book that were based on my same opinion, that he spends too much time talking history and not enough time with the action sequences that readers of this genre expect. I was hoping that he would also have read the reviews and concentrated more of the actual action taking place with the characters in this new novel. Unfortunately that was not the case. I find his characters likeable and their relationships to be believable as well. I just get tired of page after page after page about the history of each period he is writing about. I really hate the fact that I may not buy anymore of his books, like I said his action scenes are really good, he just needs to spend more time on them. This book was so full of history that I spent as much time on the internet trying to understand what he was talking about as I did in the actual reading of the book. I spent good money on the book so wanted to at least understand what I was reading about.....which really does not say alot about how well he was explaining the history to begin with. I am actually sitting here feeling bad about writing this review, but with the economy the way it is I hate to see someone else spend money on this book expecting to get a James Rollins or Matthew Reilly adventure. That said I do have to disagree with the review that said this author in any way compares with those authors. He would if he spent his time on the actual adventure the way they do, but sadly he does not.

Some time ago I wrote a negative review of one of his books. Saying it reads like a very boring history course book. Well I got this one at a used book exchange and the further I got the more those ugly memories stirred. So looked up the old review and wasn't surprised to see it's the same author. So there are way better adventure books and way better history books and this, no need to waste your time or money on this or any other book by this author. They're really terrible. I note this book was published in 2009 and can't believe his publisher is still committed to him.

I eagerly awaited this book, having read the first three. If you like facts to go along with your fiction, if you like the idea that the great majority of what you read is true, and really being tested as to "is this fact or fiction" than this book is for you. Gibbins goes to great lengths both in the story and in the afterward to give you as much fact and background as possible, so much so you can truly believe the fictional threads that tie the story together could be true. I love to read, and these books can really stimulate your mind while being the escape people look for. Have already recommended this to my friends.

Having read numerous novels of this type, I was disappointed to find the author would rather spend page after page giving detailed historical context, rather than involving the lead characters in actual confrontation. In numerous exchanges, three or four central figures lecture each other on details that most of them already knew.....apparently in an effort to educate the reader. Of the overall content of the book, roughly forty percent is historical date, thirty percent is recounting the experience of the protagenist's great, great grandfather, with the balance dealing with current action.

Overall...........too much effort to read with too little payoff.

I bought this book having forgotten that Gibbons wrote Atlantis, a book I could not finish. I bought this book in a hurry at the Airport based on it's interesting premise. He does not deliver. Gibbons is a strange duck. He is articulate and can write a good sentence. But he populates his books with great heaving sections, page after page of talking heads discussing ad infinitum minute, unimportant details just as he did in Atlantis.

It appears that his is so ego wrapped up in unimportant facts he dug up during his research, that he can't get back to the story. He just goes on and on with details about stuff that doesn't really relate to the story. Meanwhile there is so little action that you want to scream.

There are so many unpublished really good writers out there, how in hell does this guy get sold in airports when they can't even get published??? I will never buy another Gibbons book it's money down the toilet.

This book has lots of history and lots of information. The book seems to be a showcase of the author's knowledge of archeology and historical information. That is one of the complaints I have about this book. It's overly wordy, drowning in historical information and attempts, but fails to combine history from too many cultures to make an interesting plot. Character development is virtually non-existent. I still have no idea who the characters are. I have no idea where they get the money from to travel the world on whims of fantasy. The storyline consists mainly of the characters making assumptions and suppositions about what might have happened in the past and then hopping helicopters or boats to travel the world in search of facts and artifacts to prove their suppositions. There were the odd times where the story was very interesting, which is why I gave it three stars. However, it was well over 100 pages before the book went from suppositions to action. And then the ending was lackluster, leaving the reader to wonder what really transpired. The book left me, despite it's length, thinking it was the middle chapter in a long series of tales. I do think this writer is perfectly capable of writing an excellent book, but he needs to concentrate more on telling a story rather than presenting historical information.

I bought this in an airport in Thailand to kill time. I was a captive audience looking to wile away some time waiting for a delayed flight...circumstances under which I can find watching paint dry a suitable diversion. Not so with this book. If you're looking for a version of Brad Meltzer or James Rollins or Preston Child, please look elsewhere.

So much potential but executes like a lesson plan. If you're an archaeology or anthropology buff, you'll no doubt find this an acceptable way to whittle away a few hours, but if you're expecting the propulsion of plot, any semblance of action, then you're going to be sorely disappointed.

Really do not recommend...read a scholarly text instead.

(by the way, still not as horrific as anything raymond khoury has written--still want my money back for having read that dreck.)