Killing Time

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Awful
Review: I enjoyed The Alienist and Carr's derivative follow-up The Angel of Darkness. However, Killing Time is a slog. A ludicrous plot, stilted prose and "deep" ideas about propaganda and culture that are laughably naive. Disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Why Caleb Why!!
Review: Looking back on how happy I was to see this book sitting quietly on the shelf in Borders it's funny to think of how much I disliked it. I agree with all the other negative feedback that has been left regarding this book. Anyone who hasn't read Carr's work should read The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness and pretend like this book was written by an author who deserves to be known for writting trash....like Dean Koontz.

Rating:
Summary: Great ideas, bad execution
Review: The earlier works of caleb carr enthralled me with their incredible sense of atmosphere. Which is exactly what Killing Time is missing, as well as a cast of characters that are likable or at least intresting. The book contains a great forecast of the future including a group of techno-terrorists that use their genius to do elaborate hoaxes including releasing a "fifth gospel" that ilegitimatizes Christianity and burying human bones in South Africa and making everyone believe they are 5 million years old (this is sci-fi), throwing away the threory of evolution. The book also predicts an American invasion of Afganistan, civil war in Malaysia and Kashmir being a nuclear wasteland due to the war between India and Pakistan (the book was written in 1999). The concept of the book is that the Internet has become so available to everyone that people are saturated with info and will believe anything they see. I'm giving away all this because the book story-wise, is terrible. It's like Carr tried to fit a realistic concept and put it in a pulp and cheesy package. Even pulp and cheese can do better than this though. The only reason this gets more than one star is for the set up. Besides that, avoid this stuff and immerse yourself in his brilliant thrillers, The Alienist and Angel of Darkness. His non-fic book on terrorism is also beautifully done. Please dont waste your money on this book.