I like Martin Caidin's aviation books, but he's not much of a fiction writer. I purchased "Three Corners to Nowhere" about two years ago, but despite several attempts I have never been able to finish it; it just doesn't hold my interest.

The protagonist is a super sleuth who implausibly holds many qualifications (expert pilot, insurance adjuster, accountant, engineer, lawyer, martial arts guru) who speaks several languages and carries a pocket pistol with a muzzle velocity of 5,000 feet per second or something equally crazy; his main interests are wisecracking and chasing women.

The plot develops slowly and the book doesn't really go anywhere. Martin, stick to what you do best!

I have been a Caidin for several years and have bought his novels. I found Three Corners to be a great adventure story. Martin Caidin has always brought life to his storys. The plot for THREE CORNERS deals with a missing aircraft. The area where the aircraft disapeared was in the Bermuda Triangle. The search is on for the aircraft, among the passengers is a very important sciencist, and the insurance company stands to lose 62 million dollars and Dale Fenton is on the case, among the plot twists is the reappearance of the lost jet. One thing that I liked was the crossover of Dr.Rudy Wells from Caidin's novel CYBORG. I highly recommend this novel for anyone who wants high flying adventure, and who loves a good mystery.

After Finding a copy of this book at a bargain book store, I realized that Mr. Caidin was trying to make a point that some things we call Supernatural are only natural subjects if viewed from different points of "view" and looked at commonly, as if what we view as supernatural has happened everyday. Sometimes he makes his point in prescribing supernatural happenings as being normal,but disappointingly,He misses the mark most of the time. It seems as if he read another book on supernatural happenings and he was trying to convince somebody (himself?)that these are normal happenings of nature. As much as we would like to believe that, This book will only convince someone that already agrees that the supernatural is really a natural occurrance we may have overlooked (like Myself).

I really love Indy. Have the movies, the soundtracks, the books, the comics, the pc games... man, I'm crazy about this archeologist.

But, where is Indy in this Martin Caidin's novel? I wonder if he ever saw the films! His Indy looks more like James Bond or McGyver.

I know that new stories with Indy need knew enemies, new scenarios and knew plots... but, for God's sake, respect the character! You cam't just create an empty character and call him Indiana Jones!!!

But the truth is... true Indy you can only find in the 3 movies.

After having read all the previous books in the IJ series, this one was a huge disappointment. Caidin's Indiana Jones is nothing like the Indy we all know and love from the movies and the book series. Furthermore, the author continually strays from the storyline established in the first several novels. One wonders if he even read all of them before attempting his story. He also seems more interested in developing a story about early 20th c. aviation and poorly-written spy capers than in writing about everybody's favorite archaeologist. I have read better fan-fic than this one.

... In short, this book was a huge dissapointment.

This book had great chracters for example: Tarkiz Belem- Indy's bodyguard, William Cromwell- pilot and ace war hero, Rene Foulis- another ace fighter in world war I, and Gale Parker- Indy's friend. This book was extrodanerily smart and action packed! The only complaint was that Indy just isn't Indy in this book. But I give it a 5!

The techno-thriller takes a turn into the depths of the ocean in Aquarius Mission. This novel combines elements of the "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" TV series, and the Atlantis myth.

If you enjoy submarine or sea stories, then try this book. If you have read another techno-thriller about the ocean, like Clive Cussler's books, then you might read this book after you have finished all of his novels.

This was a pretty good book, except the ending leaves you hanging. It is almost like there should be a sequel to this book, but I have not been able to find one.

Killer Station is one of the worst science fiction books ever written. I picked this up, in spite of the extravagant title, because of the credentials of Martin Caidin. He's claims to be a scientific consultant to NASA, so I expected an interested, but clearly plausible story. What I got was a story where the science was so bad I wanted to scream. Bad guys have caused a space station to deorbit on a perfect course for a major city. Now, anyone who has followed the decay of satellites or MIR knows you just can't target the landing point that well. Nobody thinks to just push the darn thing until the last minute, when it would be far less effective. And, worst of all, when the station deorbited, the empty shuttle fuel tanks in the same orbit FOLLOWED IT! Yes, when Mr. Caidin needed them for people to escape into, they were right there next to the station, but for some reason were not going to burn up in the atmosphere.

This book is an insult to anyone who likes hard science fiction and should be avoided at all cost.

Like other Martin Caidin books, the setting is based on solid, well researched data. The story line is about a space station dealing with solar activity and sabotage. The setting is quite realistic, although references to the USSR are dated.The scientific speculation is quite plausible. The plot moves fairly quickly. I have read this book a few times and enjoyed it.

This is probably one of the most abysmally bad science fiction books I've ever read in my life.

I can't figure out if Caidin was trying to be nostalgic and write in a 1930's pulp-fiction style, or if he thought he was trying to update '30's style writing to the present day, but in either case, the book is an astonishing failure, like trying to build a nuclear reactor out of styrofoam, wood chips and Elmer's glue.

The book is quite frankly racist, to begin with. It's embarrassingly racist. No racial stereotype is left unmolested. You would think that someone at the publishing house would have spotted this gigantic faux pas, but apparently they were blithely blind to it. Secondly, the author is frighteningly enamoured of technology in general, and rhapsodizes for literally paragraph upon paragraph about things like polished mirrors, laser beams, and obscure parts and pieces of World War II aircraft. His techno-fetishism finally becomes hilarious. "Oh look, a bolt! Wonder how many pages he could write about it?"

Third, the plot is a huge mess with no point. Fourth, the characters have about as much depth as your average business card. Fifth, the book is sexist as well as racist.

But let me be positive. What good things can I find to say about this book?

Well, it's easy to read, except for the parts where Caidin starts going on and on about technical details of Messerschmitt ME 109 aircraft. And, um...it's funny, although inadvertently so. And the hardback copy I found, had a copy of Phil Nowlan's original 1933 "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" novelette bound in the back.

The sad thing was that Nowlan's novelette, which was originally offered as a prize for mailing in your cereal boxtops, was far more interesting at 31 pages than Caidin's entire novel. And since Nowlan's "Buck Rogers" is being sold here at Amazon without the dead weight of Caidin's book attached to it, you now have no reason to buy Martin Caidin's "Buck Rogers: A Life In The Future."

Thank whatever gods you believe in that this enormous mess of a book is out of print. And if you see it in a used book sale at a library, like I did, LEAVE IT THERE! I wish I had...

I am not sure of the caliber of Mr. Caidin's (the author) other works, but this one was a definite let down. He has taken one of the best loved space opera sagas and turned it into hectically paced, disjointed work with carbon copy characters and a theme that degrades all the principles that Buck Rogers stands for.

The story is based on the classic 1930s Space Opera about a man from the 20th century who pulls a Rip Van Winkle and winds up in the 25th century in the midst of a war between the East and the West. Mr. Caidin tries to put an updated spin on the story by creating a fantastic autobiographical representation of himself as the hero Anthony "Buck" Rogers. Buck exists as the epitome of all pilots, with training in every aircraft and a history with both the military and a civilian pilot. He is a veteran flyer working as an airline pilot who moonlights as an air show performer. He gets injured in 1996 and to save his life, scientists put him into stasis for 400 years. ..Unfortunately Buck seems to have as yet unseen abilities added to his resume as the book progresses but in such a way as to make them seem as afterthoughts. I have seen "made for TV" movie scripts that have more well defined plot and characters.

I am not being overly critical either. The book is a collection of disjointed scenes, with poorly devised transitions and weak, trite dialog. The pace of the "action" is so thinly described that it is not believable or even understood how the hero Buck, goes from a relative stranger in America of the 25th century, to a Brigadier in the military in a matter of months. The author "forgets" about character development as he proceeds through the novel and leaves many of the primary characters sitting at the roadside with little discussion as the book leaps and skips forward. Even more unbelievable is that Mr. Caidin has the motivations of the nations of Earth in the 25th century revolve around activities that took place in the 20th century and earlier. He includes no social development for the past 400 years from the time that Buck was born and lived to the time when he joins the remains of the American state in the 25th century. The appearance of alien life influencing earth is more believable than the actions of the countries involved in this future space war.

It would be acceptable if the book had a "campy" nostalgic feeling like the Dick Tracey or the Rocketeer movies. Unfortunately it tries to take its self too seriously and it comes off very heavy with a depressing message of hate and distrust.

The "Social Racism" wound into the plot about distrust of foreign powers based on activities from centuries ago make the book a target for ridicule and unless it is a vehicle for the authors plot development, .... It is this kind or continuation of hate that causes children today to be brought up to think of Blacks, Asians or even Women as second class citizens, or the Jews or Moslems as being universally evil.

The author details how the Chinese and Mongols returned to their Horde roots and conquered the world in the beginning of the 21st century and that the US and its allies have been fighting them ever since. It likens the modern Asian races as a bunch of saber rattling warlords that are less than a stones throw away from their horse riding ancestors.

Caidin labels the Japanese as a sneaky race that is willing to do anything to become a dominant force on Earth is underscored in the closing chapter of the book when Buck rationalizes his distrust of a Japanese ally by bringing up the Pearl Harbor attack as an example of the deviousness of the Japanese, 400 years after the event!! I would be like the English labeling the United States as terrorists because of the Boston Tea Party.

All in all, I think that Mr. Caidin took a good foundation and a creatively original plot and ruined it by his mishandled treatment of the material and his desire to make a racism fueled society of tomorrow. He had the chance to make a wonderful story and he failed at his attempt. I would not recommend this book to anyone with out the caveat that is might have been an exceptional book with a bit more effort.

When I first saw the title of this book, I thought 'No way! Someone has tried to recapture the Buck Roger's space opera epic.' then I saw the author and took interest. Mr. Caidin has done a great job at updating this tale. Agreed, it is not a major work in terms of the brilliant work he's done in the past, but it is still a wonderful read. If you are a techie that enjoys a formula space opera, then this is a good, and fun read. Nicely done.

I just finished reading High Crystal this morning. It's the first time I have read it in about 20 years or more and to be honest it was a little disappointing.

By the time you finish the book, you think that it has been edited down from a larger story, there are too many questions left to answer. Who is Odd Fossengan? What did he know? Who was he working for? Who killed Major Ryland? What did they learn from the pyramid? The list of questions goes on!

Some of these questions are even asked in the book, but they are never answered, leaving the reader to wonder why they were even asked.

All in all, the book appears to be an unfinished work, rushed out for publication and could even have been an episode in the 6 million dollar man series.

So I would reccommend Cyborg but neither Operation Nuke or High Crystal.

A prison transport star ship is commandeered by a group of intergalactic prisoners who pilot it to present day Earth and land in a maximum security prison, which itself has been subverted and is being run by the inmates. While there was a great deal of action and graphic description, I found the entire story to be an entirely implausible extended adolescent fantasy and produced feelings of derision, contempt, and disgust for the story. The two main characters were quite transparant and easily recognized as imaginary personas for the author. I did not enjoy the story at all, I deeply regret purchasing the paperback, and I have not been tempted to read another work of science fiction by this author. I am certain his historical works are much better and hope to read them someday, but no more of his science fiction.