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Though Dr. Lee is obviously one of the foremost scientists in his field, he is not a thrilling writer. He spends too much time on background issues of the 5 cases profiled here, and not enough time on the actual forensic issues. Also, his writing can become tedious, especially when he takes out time to shower praise on those who helped him with his cases.
The coverage of the subjects is basic, and can be understood by anyone. And, despite the drawbacks, the book reads fairly quickly, especially if one is interested in this subject matter. Recommended for all those interested.
It would be a disservice to both Lee and his reader to share more than a few details in this review. "Each of the five cases presents the opportunity, through its respective facts, investigation, and legal resolution, to study particular aspects of forensic investigation and how the work fits in with the rest of the criminal justice system." What Lee accomplishes in this book is to help his reader to develop (or at least understand) some of the skills he (Lee) has used while accompanying him during the investigation of five different murders. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Evans' The Casebook of Forensic Science: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Cases; Criminal Investigation co-authored by Swanson, Chamelin, and Territo; and Punitive Damages co-authored by Sunstein, Hastie, Payne, and Schkade.
It is otherwise a versatile instrument for reference and revision
There is no access to the authors for feedback comments etc.
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The first half of the book is fairly interesting, showing how the beautiful, ambitious, unscrupulous newscaster Francesca Sabatini manipulates the decision-makers who are nominally in charge of the racially, religiously, and nationally diverse expedition. Squared off against her is the heroine, Nicole des Jardins, the French-African Life Sciences Officer, who has secrets of her own. Once underway, a deadly accident causes a shift in the expedition's power structure. Then, once the remaining crew is aboard the Rama spacecraft, Clarke and Lee's scientific skills come to the fore, describing the peculiar features of this enormous vessel, and the seemingly inexplicable activities of the creatures (?) found within.
The second half functions as a more straightforward space adventure story, featuring Nicole des Jardins' perils aboard the Rama. All the intrigue gets lost in the excitement of wondering how Nicole will escape her doom on Rama, and while the resolution may be satisfactory enough for some, perhaps, it does require a good stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately, this book's ultimate conclusion really cuts the entire first half adrift, and the whole is less than satisfying. Perhaps the next volume, The Gardens of Rama, will once again pick up the plot threads that are left dangling in Rama II. One can hope so, at least, and the three-star rating reflects that expectation to a considerable extent, because without any further resolution this book would be very weak indeed.
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The first few hundred pages are filled with more-or-less pointless character development, clearly written by Lee, that would be perfectly at home in a Harlequin romance novel. A few pages of sci-fi, clearly written by Clarke, are interspersed so that the reader may be reminded that they paid $6 for a Clarke novel and not $2 for a grocery store romance tome. To be fair, I will admit that the general character interaction and background does come into play later on. But it just drags on and on and is littered with unnecessary sex scenes. I fail to understand Lee's obsession with writing about sex in the middle of a science fiction novel. Once would be OK, but after about the 4th time I found myself dropping the book and thinking "again?!" In addition, Lee's obsession with race, with each character being introduced as being black, white, Arab, Mexican, etc. is very annoying. The way that the race is then portrayed in the most cliché way is increasingly so. Lee may be an able and accomplished scientist, but his writing does not belong on the same pages with that of Arthur C. Clarke.
For some reason, probably because I had paid 900 yen for the book, I decided to stick with it and see the story through to the end. Around page 250 (of 408 total) the book got interesting. From that point forward I found myself wanting to continue to see what would happen next. But 250 pages is a lot to plod through before hitting something worth reading. In the end, the book wasn't that bad. The story could have been rather good had Clarke gone at it alone and focused the book on the sci-fi. As is stands, the bulk of this novel has very little to do with! sci-fi. So all-in-all, Cradle disappoints. The back cover says basically that something terrifying lies at the bottom of the ocean and could mean the extinction of the human race. This whole concept lasts maybe a dozen or so pages at the end of the novel and is never terrifying. The "scary" part is introduced and resolved so quickly that there is hardly time to assimilate it. And as the final words were read, I found myself wondering if the duo had just grown tired of the story as it seemed to suddenly end with several issues unresolved.
The beginning vignette about the "zoo craft" was, IMHO, written moderately well, but as soon as Carol comes on the scene, it gets very, well, amatuerish. I even went back and reviewed the Rama books, thinking that maybe I had read them so long ago that maybe they [were bad] then, but no, alas, they were (mostly) well constructed plots, with characters with whom I could relate, and relatively few confusing sections. Rama (original) did seem quite different from the others, but that made sense, since Clarke did the original in 1979 (or so, I think), and Lee came on with Rama II.
The opening vignette in Cradle seemed as if it were written by a totally different author, then shipped across the sea to another author who finished the rest of the book.
Then, it dawned on me, Cradle was either a) Written by an amateur author (Gentry Lee), with very little involvement with Clarke, or b) written by an entirely different author than the Rama series, again with little Clarke influence.
The constant switching "mindpoints" (where in one paragraph you hear what Carol is thinking, then the very next sentence you hear what Nick is thinking) is a typical early "learning writer" syndrome. There is a lot of "telling" instead of "showing". The plot points are haphazardly structured throughout, with interesting tidbits thrown in here and there without an uberpurpose. I felt throughout the whole novel that it might not go anywhere, and sho-nuff, it really didn't.
In the Rama II and beyond series, these problems are significantly improved, and show levels of improvement over the evolution of the series. My hypothesis supported conclusion "A" above.
I thought it might just be me, and I was too critical (since I am learning about crafting novels and writing, and checking how well-written novels are crafted), so I looked on Amazon to see what others had said. A majority didn't rate this book well either, for reasons I primarily agree with.
I then looked at when the books came out, and realized that Cradle came out in 1989, Rama II in 1990, Garden in 1992, and Revealed in 1995.
So, my conclusion is that this is the work of an early, learning writer. I gave it a mercy 2 stars, not 1, because it is an early work, and (presumably) Lee has improved significantly, but I've certainly read better.
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When they say over 100 items (words, phrases, OR
sentences), they mean it. When you buy this book,
that is what you get. The translation for a few words,
a few phrases, and a few sentences. This book is not
worth three dollars. I regret buying this book.
My idea of a dictionary is a book with thousands
of words. The Oxford Starter Chinese Dictionary IS a
dictionary. It's an excellent dictionary for English
speakers to learn Chinese.
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There are sections in the book that go on for pages without even discussing John Lee or his music. If the author had stayed off his soapbox he could have covered the same material in 100 pages instead of the 480+ pages he required. All in all I found the book very boring and a chore to read. I was glad when it was over. I love John Lee but hated the book.