Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun read!, May 13, 2000
This is what people might call "a light novel". It's not too deep, but it has a very engaging story. At times, I found I couldn't stop reading despite late hour and lack of sleep :) It has some interesting ideas, and it's written to the point with not too much long and boring background. As for the bad reviews it got? I can't argue with them, the book has its bad points (again - not too deep, very thin character development), but if you don't expect to read a masterpiece, and are just looking for a few hours of enjoyable reading, this book should be very satisfying!
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not great, not even good., January 15, 2001
Although I wouldn't have expressed it with the same degree of vehemence, many of the 1 and 2 star reviews already here do highlight the problems I have with this book. I am very surprised to see it rated so highly be so many. It does demonstrate some clever ideas and has a few compelling moments, but overall I was very disappointed. The writing doesn't come across well and the characters are not presented with any sort of depth or believability. It's a basic requirement of any good story that you find something in at least some of the characters that you can either identify with or want to know more about, and that's completely lacking here. The author also does a lot of things that are a slap in the face of willing suspension of disbelief (naming all the starships after porn actresses, for example). That sort of deliberate choice doesn't help you buy into the story.If you are curious about this book, find a copy from someone or stop by a bookstore and read the first 3 pages. They pretty much establish the quality of the writing and overall tone for the whole book. If you don't like that much of it, you probably won't like any of it.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Animal House Saves the Universe, March 1, 2001
In the Engines of Dawn by Paul Cook, frat boy-cum-physics-instructor Ben Bennett and his three drop-out buddies liberate humanity from the evil aliens slowly, methodically, sapping all humans of their intelligence and sex drive. I'd give the actual story concept at least 3 stars, but the execution is terrible. For some reason, Cook has to give every character a complete dossier after mentioning their name. For instance: Bob Jones, a large, muscular, redheaded man, turned on the lights. Childish sexual innuendo is all over the place, really distracting from the seriousness of the story. Don't get me wrong, this book can be entertaining, in that cheezy, late night B-movie kind of way, but if you want thought-provoking literature, don't waste any time with the Engines of Dawn.
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