Friday, December 23, 2011

Book Review: Ark by Charles McCarry

About the book:

Earth’s wealthiest man attempts to save humanity from an impending apocalypse

The planet’s first and only trillionaire, Henry Peel, did not make his fortune by being a fool. A gifted inventor and scientist, he possesses an imagination on the scale of history’s greatest thinkers, and he has turned it to the problem of Earth’s core. Two decades ago, scientists learned that the core spins faster than the rest of the planet, storing up a cache of energy that, if released, could cause an earthquake that would obliterate human life. To begin mankind anew, Henry Peel is going to lead us to the stars.
 
He gathers the world’s leading physicists and engineers and asks them to design a spaceship large enough to safeguard a sample of humanity and durable enough to survive a thousand-year voyage. Money is no object, but time is short. The apocalypse is on its way.

My Review:

This is the first book by Charles McCarry that I have read but I wasn't disappointed. It cleverly mixes fiction and science fact to deliver an intriguing tale that kept me turn the electronic pages of my kindle into the night. Told in the first person, or rather observed by the narrator the story takes the reader around the world and presents and develops characters that make the book very real and give a tremendous amount of depth.

The book was a little slow to begin with, but quickly picked up and the detail of the tale was great. It was this attention to detail, and the combinations of genres that worked well, it's never quite clear where fact and fiction blend together to create something quite different.

I was reminded of the late Michael Crichton at his best, reading this novel, and Charles McCarry can weave a tale in the same way that Crichton could, keeping the reader guessing what's going to happen next but making the outcome believable.

A strong and intriguing read, recommended. 

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars.

Posted via email from Tontowilliams's Electronic Scrapbook

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