The title is interesting.... as if the paradise has gotten so mad at you that it wants to hit you with its hammer :))
This is my second Ken Follett book. Actually I was not in the least impressed by the first one I read ’The Third Twin’. Seemed too outlandish an idea to me. Crichton makes the whole sci-fi thing somehow convincible and possible whereas Follett makes it sound as if its not going to affect us. This book is better than the first, though not so completely convincing.
Well the hammer here is an earthquake. So the antagonists actually threaten everyone that they will cause one and the protagonist tries to save the earth or rather California. Beginning was good, no-nonsense and direct. In fact that had me hooked for a while, but later it was like a fizzed out coke.
Characters arent really great. In mid-way I think the author felt that the readers might sympathize with the cause of the villains, so he made the major ones psychopaths and control freaks. Kind of unconvincing. The heroines are always very sharp, intelligent, beautiful and strong and are the main driving characters of the story.
Some parts of the book are well written. Humor was weak but whatever was there was ok. I personally judge a book by its ability to make me feel something, humor, anger, sadness, lust, etc. This couldnt evoke revulsion. But you can read it when you have nothing else to do, basically workless as I was over the weekend.
I have another Ken Follett in line. Maybe this might change the opinion that I have about the author. Currently I wouldnt read him if I had any other interesting book in hand.