Primitive

The picture of the book cover on Amazon has a quote from Dale Dauten of King Features: "Dan Brown meets Al Gore. You can't stop reading."

I beg to differ, Mr. Dauten - unless what you meant was that the author has joined Dan Brown's poor writing skills (but not his ability to tell an interesting story) with Al Gore's worst pedantry. I found it all too easy to stop reading Primitive.

The characters were neither compelling nor believable, the plot was contrived and the cliched writing was distractingly bad. I can't even dismiss this book as a lightweight thriller because it is not the least bit thrilling, thanks in large part to the author's heavy-handed environmental "message."

I tried this book as a free Kindle download and wanted to like it because it was free. I can't recommend it for free, and certainly don't recommend that you pay for it.

I, too, was glad to have not paid for this book. This was a merely an advertisement for environmentalists. If I want someone to preach to me, I'll head to church.

I won't say it was poorly written. But it was very very message driven instead of thriller. The part in the tunnel proved the author CAN write. Just too many booring eco lectures to be enjoyable.

I took advantage of the $0. cost on Kindle for this book, and I am glad. I will buy more of Nykanen's work. His website says this is one of his "little" novels, published by an alternative publisher, utilizing more of his core beliefs than his other novels. He's a good writer and deserves the awards he's gotten. I like a book that keeps me reading, and is smart about what attracts casual readers who have to read dense stuff for work and want a fast and engaging turnaround for recreational reading. My eyes won't read much of best-sellerdom, as I'm kind of a reading snob--. But I liked this book, especially the descriptions of the north, the snow, the road, the land. It's got dark tunnels, abandoned gold mines, poison, and violent bounty hunters, crazy former military creepy guys with a lot of unauthorized power, a lot of military and FBI bashing and a cop killer hauling porno, along with underground reefer smuggling reggae singers with long blond dreadlocks, casual and instant sex, smoky bars, animal rights crazies, handicapped marathon racers, a heroine raped by a police officer who turns into a sulky, resentful brat carrying a loaded weapon, truck stops, underground rivers, caves, cougars, hot water pools on icy rivers, skates, skis, sweet little innocent smart children, a rebel scientist who used to be a model, a real, older model who's kidnapped, the plot starter. It's got a lot of palatable preaching about global warming, media savviness about how issues get talked about--should I go on? I downloaded it Sunday, finished it Monday--a good, fun read while I'm waiting for the 3rd Steig Larsson novel about "The Girl Who--," and while I'm trying to find Avatar in 3-D at my local cineplex (Alice in Wonderland has usurped the 3-D screens). I feel like I'm rereading William Ayers' account of his underground life--but with a lot more imagination permitted--because, after all, this bears no resemblance to persons living or dead.

This is a below average thriller with predictable plot and predictable characters used to push a political agenda (in this case global warming). Don't bother to read it unless you want to hear more about a purportedly novel way of publicizing the global warming agenda to the world's population.