If you are a fan of the fantasy magazine, Heavy Metal, you have probably seen excerpts of Little Ego, a Freudian play on Little Nemo. Of course, instead of a little boy having adventures in dreamland, we meet Ego, a beautiful young woman who has her own erotic adventures before waking every morning in her own bed.

This graphic novel is definitely just for adults, but it is beautifully drawn and thoroughly enjoyable; I highly recommend it.

- Jane

I am a learning disabled adult and Mr. Reese's book gave me the inperation to do things that I thought I would never do. I am half his age and I thought I couldn't do what I dreamed of doing until I read the book.

I happened to like the Prometheus Deception, and therefore, fully expected to like this book too. Like the Prometheus Deception, you'll find action, suspense, and diabolical characters. However, unlike the Prometheus Deception, this book just didn't add up. It's more like a movie that you go to see that has so much action going on that you don't realize that there really is no compelling story until the end.

The plot was a familiar one and decent, but the events that took place -- at times, seemed a little far-fetched. There wasn't a lot of character development, but what was done was sufficient. However, the inclusion of characters from the earlier book seemed to be just to show continuity -- which isn't a bad thing, but it didn't seem necessary since there was no in-depth interaction among them. Despite its "faults", the book is entertaining enough to pass the time with and it is a decent read. And, there were some pretty good suspenseful scenes in the book that kept me on pins and needles.

If you read the book and don't expect the caliber of story you typically get from a Ludlum book, you'll be okay.

I have been a Ludlum fan for many years and have read all of his novels. I have enjoyed many of them so much that after a few years I pick them back up and reread them to get a dose of his suspense filled writing that keep me up turning pages far into the night.
However I was disappointed with Hades One and this book, his last effort I believe before his death, was equally disappointing.
His descriptions of scenes are not up to his earlier standard, his character development is shallow and he telegraphs his villians, unlike earlier works and comes up with completely impossible situations. The suspense he used to create in his books is missing. I used to stay up late reading his page turner suspense filled books, now I just couldn't wait until I was finished, hoping it would get better.
Unfortunately we have lost a great writer, but this book is not anywhere near the caliber of The Holcort Covenant, The Bourne Identity or any of his earlier works.

"The Cassandra Compact" is a very exciting and entertaining read. The plot sometimes stretches the bounds of credibility a bit much, but that is to be expected in an action-thriller like this. There are also times when Dr. Jon Smith (the protagonist) borders on becoming a superhero rather than a true character, but he is generally very likeable, if never quite realistic.

In the past I have read some of Philip Shelby's work and thought that he showed promise. I have been impressed by his skills as a wordsmith, but found his story ideas to be somewhat lacking. Combining his writing talents here with the imagination of Robert Ludlum, however, has produced a blockbuster of a novel. This is not great literature by any means, but it is an engrossing story that will definitely keep you turning the pages.

With his death earlier this year, Robert Ludlum left a huge void in the international suspense/thriller genre. Thankfully, we do have writers like Philip Shelby and Gayle Lynds who are eager to take up his mantle. If "The Cassandra Compact" never rises to the level of the best of Ludlum's work -- and it doesn't -- reading it is still a very pleasing way to pass some time.

--David Montgomery, Mystery Ink