Most helpful customer reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
enjoyable explanations, but, May 5 2003
somehow i was very much reminded of stephen king when reading maxim. however: M is not so inventive or great at descriptions, BUT: Maxim has a great sense of keeping to the relevant, and a great wy with explanations. have you ever wondered why the hero ignore something you wouldn't have, or does not choose option B? Maxim tells you why. he is truly great at not leaving loose ends like that. here, everything is considered. the story is about a station where some force is brooding, trying to escape. one man turns out to be able to see the dead, and a medium that deals with them knows his help is needed. violence occur connected to the station. and there are some details about the dead i won't give away. this was interesting, and i loved the explanations, and the fact that most things turned out to be relevant. not much of the irrelevant nonsens, like a romance having nothing to do with the story, etc. but all in all, this was not great. the story is actually pretty mediocre, developed in a mediocre way. M is not great at descriptions. somehow, i was not completely satisfied.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Halloran sees dead people...., May 17 2002
written long before The Sixth Sense, Maxim's novel takes us into the world of the paranormal; in his plot, dead people are still visible to the living world, at least to those who have the sensory perception to see them. These spirits cry for release from being caught between two worlds as a result of an electric train accident....three of them have happened in different parts of the world.Maxim's hero, Peter Halloran is just an ordinary man, living in Riverside, CT (Fairfield?), lamenting the status of a marriage gone loveless. On the day of the train disaster, he is late and misses the train, narrowly escaping death. Later, he becomes aware that he can see the dead commuters, trapped in the spirit world, and giving off a kinetic energy that is trapping and destroying the townspeople. At first he disbelieves his powers; then he gets drawn into the larger world of psychic phenomena, and the attempt to "help the victims over" when he meets Jennifer Wilde, a famous psychic. The character of Jennifer is perhaps the best drawn element of the novel. She travels with a strange entourage: her assistant, Alex, who supplies the killing force when victims of the energy field begin to commit criminal acts, Mordicai Bloomer, another psychic nursing an unrequited love for Jennifer, and Lictor, her contact IN the spirit world. In a tense and scary drama, Maxim weaves these characters in and out of trouble while they try to resolve the dilemma of the station and save those who are trapped. There are some horrible secondary characters, such as Peter's wife, Barbara,but, all in all, Maxim tells a satisfying tale. It was my first Maxim novel, and I'm encouraged to read the Bannerman books, based on how much I enjoyed this story.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous read in classic Maxim style!, May 4 2002
This book, as most Maxim works do, starts ordinarily enough. Pete Halloran is an ordinary guy who undergoes an extraordinary accident in a train station. The resulting trauma leaves the ability to see AND communicate with dead people!! From there this book goes on to stand everything us mere mortals have, heretofore, ascribed to the question of life after death on it's head. This book challenges the reader to expand their thinking. It has smooth, flowing prose. It has a pace that will be familiar to veteran Maxim readers. It is, quite simply put, a terrific book and I would strongly recommend it.
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