Solar Eclipse

Rating:
Summary: Solar Burnout
Review: Having been a long-standing fan of John Farris, I looked forward to this novel of "suspense." Farris has certainly served up some tasty novels including "Dragonfly," "Soon She Will Be Gone," and "Sacrifice." "Solar Eclipse" falls way short of those books. The plot is so contrived that any of its intricacies and complexities are lost in slow moving scenes and unbelievable characters. Farris has his typical gore, murders, double crosses, and chase scenes. What is missing, though, is any characterization. Full of stereotypes, and he loses it big time with the characters of Rosalind and Sarah. Such wicked ladies, and yet, he tries to make us like them in spite of their wickedness. The novel starts off great, and has some riveting suspense in what happens to Shay Waco and her daughter Pepper. Once they find the murdered families, though, it's downhill. Typical drug pushers; typical crooked federal agents; and a typically disgusting brother for the sheriff. Even the character of Vida, Sheriff Bonner's adopted son, is wasted. His relationship with Rosalind is pure hokum and a mere plot contrivance. I hope Farris gets back on track after this disappointment. He can certainly do better!

Michael Butts

Rating:
Summary: Gruntings from the Farris cave and tales of Marlboro country
Review: Having heard many good things about John Farris, I picked up Solar Eclipse from the local library. I was greatly disappointed. Friends of mine praised Farris for the intricacies and cleverness of his plots. As a thriller/mystery, I found the plot of this book highly generic, formulaic and conventional. There were no surprises here to any fan of B movies (or B novels). Worse, I found his characterizations of women and men (and what passes for intimacy between them) to be slightly to the right of Neanderthal man's perspective.

Farris has been compared to Stephen King. Well, to my mind, he lacks King's grace with language and he certainly lacks King's mordant and insightful take on American popular culture and the darkness that lurks beneath the seemingly ordinary and innocent.

Rating:
Summary: wow what a story
Review: I personally like john farris,s work always did. I read his other works he is very diverse.I loved the characters in this book.They were vicious and unique.This is basically a story about the discovery of a murdered family in a small town in Utah.The family is discovered by spirited stuntwoman Shay Waco, who is visiting her father after many years.She meets sheriff Toby Bonner and he falls in love with her.however,the murder is just part of the plot.Alot of surveillance equipment was found in the murder victims home. the reader later finds out that the victims were in a witness protection program.in exchange for protection, the victims had to spy on their neighbors.prior to their murder the victims find out that neighbor wolfgang gehrig is in cahoots with a doomsday religious cult and the famed aum shirinkyo.This religious cult wants to blow up the mormon temple and create a new zion.they are trying to develope a particular bomb that has no sound.this particular cult is also beig being investigated by crooked fbi agent Dale stearman. that is the basic plot of the story but there are a lot of other things. This story is so complexely plotted I had to re-read it and I am thinking of re-reading it again.I especially liked the two evil daughters of the founder of the doomsday cult, Rosaland and Sarah.Even though they are eviland underhanded Farris manages to reveal a softer side to them. I won,t reveal any more but this book was fabulous. I would recommend this to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: First of Mr. Farris' works I've read, very enjoyable
Review: I'm sure glad I picked this up on a travel day, which was extended by 4 hours due to weather conditions. Very engrossing, not always satisfying, some of the characters a little too one-dimensional, but overall a good read.

Maybe I haven't read enough Stephen King (ok, only Christine), but I just don't get the comparisons between the authors.

This one moves pretty fast, and does make you work to keep up.

Rating:
Summary: First of Mr. Farris' works I've read, very enjoyable
Review: I'm sure glad I picked this up on a travel day, which was extended by 4 hours due to weather conditions. Very engrossing, not always satisfying, some of the characters a little too one-dimensional, but overall a good read.

Maybe I haven't read enough Stephen King (ok, only Christine), but I just don't get the comparisons between the authors.

This one moves pretty fast, and does make you work to keep up.

Rating:
Summary: Hey, its my dad!
Review: IF you enjoy Stephen King< You WILL ENJOY my Fathers works. A little slow to get started, however, if you enjoy psychological thirllers, then you will enjoy my fathers works. (They do require you to think.! Signed< your son< Jefff

Rating:
Summary: Stephen King can't touch John Farris
Review: Stephen King lost me with Desperation. John Farris has yet to disappoint me, and I don't think he ever will!

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT FEMALE HEROINE!
Review: This is one of Farris's best books ever. Shay Waco as the stunt woman sidekick/love interest to Bonner was ingenious and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her "superwoman" exploits. I hope we get to see her in future novels!