Primitive

I found 'Primitive' to be troubling on a number of levels; primarily in the portrayal of nearly every single male character as a predator. We have almost every stripe of evil shown in the book: the rapist, the sadist, and the negligent father (this one even 'allows' a friend of his to take his young daughter away for a week so he can use and abuse her). Authority figures fare even worse. Watch out women, every cop wants to ogle you or falsely accuse you. The military is treated even more shabbily. The only even remotely 'nice' males are members of ALF (Animal Liberation Front) which has operated for years as a terrorist organization. While I found the story interesting enough to read the entire novel, the preachiness of the agendas presented along with the constant portrayals of the two main female characters as having been haplessly victimized was both jarring and annoying. Had I not picked the kindle version up for free, I would certainly have returned it long ago. There were some intriguing ideas presented, and I do think that author has at least an IDEA of what makes a good thriller, but this one seems to have fallen far short of the mark he was aiming for.

I don't usually bother reviewing a book unless it's really great...or really terrible. This book is definitely one of the latter. Now, before someone accuses me of being some right-wing "denialist" when it comes to climate change, let me say that I'm neither. In fact, I'm a scientist who believes very firmly in some of the very dire predictions being made by the scientific establishment with regards to our impact on our environment. However, books such as "Primitive" only hurt the cause. What started off as a mildly entertaining read with an interesting opening hook--super model kidnapped by environmental terrorists--quickly devolved into an amazingly unbelievable pile of US-hating, eco-terrorist garbage. My only consolation is that I downloaded the Kindle version during a free trial... and not a single tree was killed (or a dollar wasted) for me to read this trash. For one thing, the idea that the *CIA* would have possession of some "top secret" environmental bombshell paper is absurd. The CIA is not in the business of doing scientific research, nor would they have the means to provide either the necessary data for such work or the ability to keep the results "top secret". And no halfway reputable scientist would be silent if they did discover such dire results as are mentioned in this novel. Science is collaborative in nature. Any planetary changes on the scale envisioned by this ridiculous plot would have been percolating in the peer-reviewed scientific journals for months, if not years...not squirreled away in a top secret CIA paper...unless, of course, the entire scientific community is in on the conspiracy. Second, the author's portrayal of all military and federal personnel in this book borders on the absurd--jack-booted, one-sided villains that could only be written by someone who has had no exposure to any of the men and women who do those jobs every day. Oh, and by the way, "CENTCOM"--short for Central Command refers to a geographical combatant command in the Middle East; it has nothing to do with events taking placing within North America...not counting that whole "posse comitatus act" that severely restricts the use of the US military on US soil. Even in the event that the military was called in to conduct an operation in Canada, NORTHCOM (or Northern Command) would take the lead. Plus, any such operation that might conceivably be undertaken would be so heavily constrained by Rules of Engagement and civilian governmental oversight that the final "showdown" in the book would never have happened. Don't waste your time on this book.

And so what if there was an obvious message - what's wrong with that? I thought it was a pretty good message although a little exaggerated. It made me think about my values a little more.

I couldn't finish this book. I read 28% of it, all the while thinking its going to get better. Then I thought, wait a minute, I have some awesome books on my Kindle why am I reading this when I am struggling to enjoy it and feeling preached at by a liberal, anthing goes, save the planet liberal all the while. I got it as a free download and still won't read it. Don't pay for it, its a waste of money.

This is a marginal action adventure story that preaches "global warming", oh excuse me the data doesn't support that any more so "global climate change", opps wait, that did not do well with the focus groups so how about "climate chaos", yea that'll do it. If your a global warming person this story will probably appeal to you, it's just slighly more subtle than a Michael Moore film. If you're not you might be bored with predictable story line and characters that aren't developed to the point where you care what happens to them. It seems to be written with a female POV, which is fine since the primary characters are female. Most of the male characters are villans, cads, or idiots. Maybe you can tell I'm not a big "climate chaos" person but I hung in there and read to the end hoping to be suprised only to find that the entire story ended as if the laptop battery was going dead. Multiple loose ends were systematically and mechanically tied up in an epilog. Well, at least we saved some paper.... Guess getting my $9.99 back is out of the question now?

Free books for my new Kindle! Wow. But after a while I realized that the characters that had promise fizzled. The plot was not strong enough either or believable. The ending seemed as if the author didn't know where to go next, and I felt that the writer was didactic in pushing his own political agenda. All in all, disappointing and not at all worth my time in reading it.

Plot/Storyline: 3 Stars This portion of my review may be somewhat colored by the fact that I felt somewhat misled by the book description. The book description, to me, implied that this was a "thriller." However, that is certainly not the case. Yes, a woman is kidnapped. However, the only danger she really faces is one of the kidnappers being a little frisky, which was understandably frightening, but the others put a stop to it, so it wasn't a big deal. Every other danger was really caused by herself in her attempts to escape; these attempts were understandable, but it still did not really lend a `thriller' aspect to the novel. I found the entire premise of the plot to be somewhat unbelievable. The reasons behind the kidnapping were odd and unrealistic, even silly in some aspects. The daughter's actions were even worse. Beginning with her coincidental roommates and ending with her seeming willingness to become a hostage, too, her entire trip was a farce. However, I must add that the `bounty hunter' following her was intriguing and a great addition to the story. He would have been even better had he been just a bounty hunter, though. The authors seemed to be trying to make some sort of statement. If so, it fell on deaf ears here. While I agree with a minor portion of the causes embraced in this novel, using extremists to bring a point home left me cold. The book was also too much anti-government and law enforcement with no redeeming characters in those fields for my comfort. The ending, while cheesy and saccharine, was still satisfying. It even had a little more realism than I expected from reading the rest of the novel. Character Development: 2 1/2 Stars The main character, Sonya Adams, was just not very believable. Her actions and reactions seemed out of place quite often. Her character did not have nearly enough depth to draw out empathy. Sonya's daughter, Darcy, was only marginally better developed. Mostly, she just came across as a brat who didn't get enough discipline as a child, at least until the reasons behind her behavior were revealed. Even then, the way she chooses to reveal her secrets just did not fit the character. The kidnappers were interchangable, faceless, flat people. Writing Style: 4 1/4 Stars The writing style was the saving grace of the novel and what kept me reading. It had a very nice flow, with solid descriptions. While there were a few areas that should have been clipped for faster movement, it was overall a good style for the tale. The dialogue was pretty good, but nothing memorable.

The author writes well enough. Characters, however, are simply line-drawings and the entire premise of the book is, frankly, not credible. One can expect bad science in a novel, but...actually nothing here comes even close to believable. A huge, civilization-ending catastrophe is at hand and the little featured group wants the government and those terrible people from "big oil" to do something about it. Unfortunately, if the situation were as described in the book, there would be absolutely nothing that anybody--government, industry, "big oil"--could do about it. And, yes, this wonderful little "primitive" society, living far from civilization, manages to have enough technology to send internet podcasts all over the world. Could they even have any kind of internet connection where they are? Very doubtful.

I couldn't even finish this book. The editorial review described this political and philosophical hodge podge as a real story of the here and now. It is certainly a prime example of the gullibility of about half of the American public to fall for about any hoax that comes their way. Science? No! Examples...Fact: The ocean is capable of absorbing most of the methane gas released even in shallow water as it is broken down by microbial action and only about 1% escapes into the atmosphere. Fact: Polar ice caps grow and shrink all the time due to circumstances of various climactic periods numbering in the thousands of years as well as with the seasons. Anarctic sea ice is significantly greater in 2010 than in 1980. Anthropogenic global warming is a politically and econimically driven concept advanced by those who will gain enormous power and wealth if the hoax can be continued! The hubris of mankind is truly astounding. Worst of all, in the rantings of the authors, is the portrayal of our military...our beautifull young men & women... who protect our freedoms as well as the ability of the authors to present such trash as pieces of the truth.

Where do I begin? First of all, I was headed on vacation a while back and I downloaded a bunch of free books for the Kindle. When I read the summary, I must have browsed it too quickly, because I didn't realize that this was enviro-propaganda woven around a novel. If you are a believer in man-made global warming and think that the human species is killing the earth, this book is for you. This book is a global warming believers wet dream. The hero of the book is dreadlock sporting, tattoo covered former model turned environmental terrorist. Wow, this book is out there. All of the stereotypes are there: the FBI and Military are savage killers, eco-terrorists are really peaceful people and kill only for the noblest intentions. This book is just filled with lunacy. One example is the author's depiction of mountain lions. If you were to believe the author, mountain lions wait outside people's homes until the person comes outside in order to attack them. I'm surely not going to go back to the book to count, but I think that there were at least 3 different mountain lion attacks over the course of the book. I've lived in the northwest for years and have camped in mountain lion country. I've never seen one. People that I know that have lived here their whole lives have never seen one. The author is living in some sort of alternate reality. I'm assuming that the author / publisher gave away the download free to get people to write reviews. I'm just doing this review to bring his average down slightly.horr