Link

Rating:
Summary: Crichton meets Indiana Jones and Mulder.
Review: I absolutely loved this novel. Link is fast paced, action packed and filled to the brim with interesting bits of history. Who knew that learning about ancient civilizations could be so much fun.

While digging deep in the desert Samantha uncovers something incredible. Something that could rock the way we view humanity's origins. With the help of her colleague Ricardo she brings her old flame, Jack back to help with the dig. The situation becomes heated when Jack and Samantha's current flame, Dorn go head to head.

The dig leads them to the jungles of South America and to another ancient relic that might uncover something so fantastic and devastating that the world may never be the same.

Link is simply an excuse to let your imagination run wild. Walt Becker also based his plot on many tales of old, research and respected figures findings in the world of astronomy, archaeology, math and history. Link is eye and mind opening for those who are willing to look beyond it's premise as a thriller and see it for the amazing amount of research involved in the writing of it.

This book is a good read for those who enjoy thrillers, archaeology and ancient civilizations, outer space, Indiana Jones or the X-Files. Link kept me on the edge of my seat and I could not put it down. I can't wait to read more of Becker's work.

Rating:
Summary: Good story. Bad science
Review: I enjoyed the story, but the author's insistence on pushing a Creationist agenda greatly detracted from it.

The main character is supposedly questioning established scientific theories, yet he not only misrepresents them, he shows a complete lack of understanding.

Bad physics. Misrepresents abiogenesis. Misrepresents evolution. Shows a complete lack of understanding of the Big Bang theory. Shows a complete lack of understanding of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

For an ignorant Fundie, this would be a great book. For everyone else, if you can stomach the pseudo-science, the story's not too bad.

Rating:
Summary: A Thumbs Up for Link
Review: If a great book contains heart-beating action, violence, love, interesting characters and a bit of the unknown then "Link" by Walt Becker is a great book. Link is one of the best books I have read in awhile. This book makes you start thinking and the action never stops. There are several climaxes that lead up to a final climax and the end only leaves you wanting to read it over again.

The whole point of this book is to answer the question: where did we come from if there has been no clear evolutionary link between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens? This is a question that the author Walt Becker seems to have been asking for awhile. But he has come up with a theory that we, modern humans, come from extraterrestrials as well as Homo erectus. Although this theory may seem far-fetched he weaves it into a story with facts from existing old documents and myths that by the end you are sure that it is true.

The main characters he weaves this theory into is Samantha Colby who is a paleoanthropologist- the study of and search for the keys to human history. And Jack Austin who was Samantha's ex-boyfriend/fiancé who has out of the world theories that had caused him to fall towards the bottom of the scientific food chain. But Jack's theory about "the source" of where modern humans came from are soon going to come true when Samantha finds a fossilized skeleton of something she had never seen before- an extraterrestrial and a mysterious isosceles triangular object that has Egyptian like hieroglyphs all over it.

This object is made entirely of an element not found on Earth and on the bottom within the triangle is made of 100% beryllium, which is found in the African country of Mali where they are. This object sends them on a wild chase to the ancient ruins of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia South America where they find the truth, action, violence and love. They find the truth through finding a compound in the ground made by the aliens. In this compound they found incredible technology that could change the world as we see it now, mummified aliens and the answers to long unanswered questions such as how prehistoric people were able to build the great pyramids of Egypt out of stones that weigh several tons. Even with the technology we have today we can't move them in one piece. This story's ending leaves you satisfied but wanting more.

This is the only book that Walt Becker has written and I very much hope that he write more books. This book is unlike the rest of those books who are about scientists because the scientists in Link actually believe that there is a God. And by going over the book again I found a quote that is in the very beginning but you won't get how it relates to the book until the end:

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-

and also afterward-

when the sons of God went to the daughters of men

and had children by them.

They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

-Genesis 6:4

I would highly recommend this book to anyone but especially to those who are sci-fi lovers and the ones who like to think of the origins of humans in a new way.