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Michael Marshall = The Best Thing Going in Current Thrillers
THE STRAW MEN plays out like a dream-team collaboration by Stephen King (who hailed the book a masterpiece), Dean Koontz, Thomas Harris, and Michael Slade. Deliriously paranoid, lightning paced, crammed with surprise and invention, action and terror, humor and heartbreak, this is the kind of book that lesser writers will envy and everyone else will just admire to no end...
Publié le Avril 20 2004 par Scott Bradley
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› Voir plus de commentaires 5 étoiles, 4 étoiles |
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OK, maybe 3 and a half stars
It was suspenseful enough to make me keep turning the pages. Not so bad a book however like many other reviewers were saying there were some things that weren't really explained. Maybe Marshall wanted to leave them up to the readers' imagination. For example, I am still curious on why Ward's Dad left him the note in a very hard-to-find spot ?...and...
Publié le Janv. 24 2006 par Just another reader
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› Voir plus de commentaires 3 étoiles, 2 étoiles, 1 étoiles |
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OK, maybe 3 and a half stars, Janv. 24 2006
It was suspenseful enough to make me keep turning the pages.
Not so bad a book however like many other reviewers were saying there were some things that weren't really explained. Maybe Marshall wanted to leave them up to the readers' imagination.
For example, I am still curious on why Ward's Dad left him the note in a very hard-to-find spot ?...and that the note really meant nothing after all..As a whole, the story is well-written. I wouldn't mind reading the sequel, The Upright Man.
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Decent from start to finish, Juil 17 2004
The book is a smooth read. Somewhat predictable but good character development and a ending that welcomes a sequel that has just been released. Defiantly a must have book for the beach or camping trip. I give it a 7.5 out of 10.
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Be prepared to feel cheated..., Mai 15 2004
At this point I don't think I need to go over what the book is about, the other reviews do that quite well. I am not the type of person who has to have all the loose ends tied up for me when I read a story or watch a film. I do not need everything neatly concluded and explained at the end. However, this book has some major issues with the believability of the circumstances that result in the twists and turns of the plot. It also has a problem with bringing the numerous story lines of the novel together. I don't mind a novel that leaves me with a little thinking to do, a need to perhaps go back over what has happened in the story to piece together some clues on my own. What I do mind, however, is an ending that is almost deliberately void of ANY conclusions regarding the mysteries that have kept me turning page after page. It is very easy to start a story, very easy to build suspense. It's not so easy, I guess, to end a story in a coherent and believable fashion. People want some reward for the suspense the author has easily created, not to be completely let down for their efforts----their efforts in following the story, keeping all the different plot twists and characters in mind, etc. I felt that the characters in this novel were not very well drawn. The main character, Ward Hopkins---not once could I even remotely picture him as a CIA agent, ex- or otherwise. The FBI agent, Nina---not one glimpse of who she was as a person ever came across, she seemed to be simply a mannequin used to fill the need for a certain type of character in the story. The characters of CIA agent Bobby, and detective Zandt, seemed more real. In one chapter, Ward goes to visit his childhood home, in which someone else is now living. It seems as though this would have something to do with the plot----it occurs smack in the middle of the heightened suspense of the novel. But nothing happens---Nothing. In the middle of the gun battles, the murder, the serial kidnappings, etc., the main character just pays a visit to the house. The lady of the house offers him coffee, he looks around at his old bedroom, and leaves. That's it. The reason stated for his visiting the house doesn't mesh with where the plot is going at that point in the novel. At some other place in the storyline, it may have fit. The main "bad guy" in the novel---who was he? I was never given a glimpse. Yes, he's identified with a name and his relationship to one of the other characters, but that's it. And the twists and turns that would have to occur for him to turn out to be who he is, and for him to even know about how he is related to one of the main characters, and for them to meet each other under the circumstances they meet under---it just strains the bonds of believability past the breaking point. Who the Straw Men are, and how they live and operate, can not be reconciled with the way in which Ward finds out about their building complex when he is at a local realtor's office. The other characters---Ward's parents and their friends---the motivation for their actions in this novel are the flimsiest I think I've ever encountered. The plot has more holes than a Swiss cheese, more loose ends than a tatty old afghan knitted a couple of decades ago and used as the family cat's favorite blanky.
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Michael Marshall = The Best Thing Going in Current Thrillers, Avril 20 2004
THE STRAW MEN plays out like a dream-team collaboration by Stephen King (who hailed the book a masterpiece), Dean Koontz, Thomas Harris, and Michael Slade. Deliriously paranoid, lightning paced, crammed with surprise and invention, action and terror, humor and heartbreak, this is the kind of book that lesser writers will envy and everyone else will just admire to no end. And the happiest part? The formidable Mr. Marshall is clearly here to stay, as evidenced by the recent release of a sequel to this book, entitled THE UPRIGHT MAN. Discover this guy as soon as you can - once everybody is reading him and hit movies are being made from these books, it's sure gonna be fun to be able to say "Oh, yeah, I've been reading him from the beginning!"
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New book out!- Sequel!, Mars 24 2004
I see there's a new paperback out, featuring Ward Hopkins, which I assume is a sequel. Due out 3/30/04. The Upright Man, Michael Marshall. I can't wait to get my hands on it!
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Will leave you pining for the sequel, Déc 17 2003
Excellent read. The Straw Men has it all. Intriguing main characters, compelling plot, and mind-blowing plot twists. I have no idea why others hated it. I guess there's no in-between. I would highly recommend The Straw Men. I cant wait for the follow up novel.
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James Patterson Plus, Déc 5 2003
Michael Marshall is the thinking man's James Patterson. It's a shame more people haven't heard of him or more importantly, his book, The Straw Men, which is really more like two books in one. This novel is a mystery and a thriller that is more complex and more satisfying than the typical novel of this type. Pick it up and you won't be able to put it down.
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WHY DID MICHAEL MARSHALL DO US THIS WAY?, Oct. 24 2003
Like many other readers I tried to believe that Stephen King Blurb about how scary as $%#% this book was. This was the absolute worst book that I have ever read! I will go on to say that this book got on my nerves. I got to page 221 and deceided that I would not take anymore of this and I just gave up! Please Mr Marshall "DON'T WRITE ANYMORE BOOKS LIKE THIS"
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Gripping and scary!, Oct. 2 2003
It's not often these days that a book can genuinely frighten a voracious and jaded reader like yours truly, but this book gave me the heebie-jeebies. There may not be anything revolutionary in the central conceits of this novel, but the execution is sterling. The characters feel real and the dialogue is never forced or trite. The real accomplishment however, is the mounting dread which builds regarding who and what "The Straw Men" really are or might be. There is a scene set in the house of the main protagonist's dead parents in which an old video tape is viewed and the internet history of a home computer is investigated with unsettling results. Nary a drop of blood is spilled nor a smidgen of gore spattered, but...Yikes!! A darn good read.
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When a book tries too hard..., Sep 11 2003
Michael Marshall used to publish great sci-fi novels under the name Michael Marshall Smith. But when his books didn't sell well in the States, he took his publisher's advice and reinvented himself by changing his name and by chosing to write fiction in a whole different genre. But as they say, some things are better left untouched. There is very little enjoyment to be found in this story that's just too complicated and too full of incompatible ideas for its own good.The novel follows two different stories. The first is of a man who's parents died in a car accident. A conspiracy is soon unveiled, one that puts doubt over their death and over the man's own past. Then, you have the sad, broody cop who's hunting a killer who also kidnapped the cop's daughter (how original!). Eventually, these two stories meet. But the reader is left in the dark for so too long that he soon loses interest. The connections between the two plots aren't strong enough to be believable. The moment the two stories meet, the book collapses, falling into a mess of subplot after subplot that never leads anywhere. The author just seems to be digging his own grave. And the fact that the author never really explains anything doesn't help matters. I hate a book where everything is given to you. The reader should be left to discover SOME things by himself. But not everything. Marshall is so vague when it comes to explaining the plot that the reader is left wondering if the author every really knew himself what was going on. The Straw Men is a mess of idea that never seem to mesh well with one another. And that's a shame, because Marshall can write very complicated and fully fleshed out stories. He can write great characters that are intriguing. But none of that is to be found in Straw Men. Maybe Michael Marshall should leave the Dean Koontz territory to Dean Koontz and stick with what he knows best: Sci-fi.
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Ce produit
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Straw Men par Michael Marshall (Paperback - Juil 30 2002)
CDN$ 10.99 CDN$ 9.89
En stock
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Accueil Amazon
