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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
There are better reads, August 10, 2003
This review is from: Time Stand Still: A Darren Camponi Novel (Paperback)
I purchased this book as a recommendation after reading two Dan Brown books (Angles and DaVinchi) and hoped I found another fun read with time travel sprinkled in. Not... I found I had to read 50% of the pages before time travel was mentioned and then another 25% back in time, when the main premise and mystery only got tied up in the two page Epiloge. My recomendation is move on by.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Welcome Work of Fiction, February 14, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Time Stand Still: A Darren Camponi Novel (Paperback)
I've read plenty of books over the years. Most are entertaining, some thought-provoking, and, others, phenomenal. Time Stand Still is such a novel, mainly because of the way it weaves several different elements into the mystery novel. One dimensional this book is not! Think of your past, the days you've lost, the ones you can never have again. Time Stand Still tells the story of what could happen if you could get some of those days back. What would you do? Who would you see? The main character, Darren Camponi, gets a chance to relive his past after being hired to find someone he went to high school with. That someone is working on a time travel machine, and things end up that Darren volunteers to test it. He's sent back in time, a time he thinks is safe. What he doesn't remember is that the time he's gone back to is just days before his grandmother's suspicious death. Now, Darren is caught between the past and the present, and his future is looking pretty grim. This story weaves in some philosophical points of view, some sci-fi elements, and all the trappings you expect from a mystery. I found myself racing toward the end, only to be upset because the book ended. The plot's tight and the characters are fantastic. For those of you smart enough to pick this one up, I noticed that the author is continuning the story online at his web site, johnmisak.net. It seems there is another book in the works, and he is posting the story between the two. So far, it's pretty good. If you like to read, you'll love this book, period.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why Isn't This a Bestseller?, August 9, 2002
This review is from: Time Stand Still: A Darren Camponi Novel (Paperback)
Over the 320 pages of Time Stand Still, this author kept me in a constant state of wonderment. At every turn, there was something new, something puzzling, and something exciting. This is true mystery fiction, updated for the 21st century. If you like your mysteries thrilling yet realistic, this is the one for you. What amazed me most was the perfect design of the plot. It moved when it needed to move, and slowed down when the characters needed to show themselves. The balance of characterization and plot is spot on. I felt I got to know the characters, understand their motivations, and sympathize with them when I needed to. I found out about John Misak's first book through a web site message board, and thought it was excellent. With Time Stand Still, Misak shows that he can take a genre and mold it to his desires. He is in full control from beginning to end. And the ending, well, that was just plain amazing. If you like mysteries, or, if you like authors like Lawrence Block, Clive Cussler, or Nelson DeMille, do yourself a favor and give John Misak a try. I rarely read new authors, but this one has certainly paid off for me. Now, why is this book not a bestseller? I predict it will be soon.
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