This book is riveting. I was on the edge of my seat right through. Full of thrills and action as well as the inevitable love story, this topical novel is well worth reading.

As well as being a good read, this novel left me questioning what my views would be in this given situation. Is peace possible between peoples who have been at war for centuries? Can the gulf between two very different (yet strangely similar) religions ever be bridged? Is torture permissable when survival is at stake? Is suicide ok when the alternative is a long, slow, tortuous death? At what point does pacifism become cowardice? At what point does brutality become acceptable?

It was touch and go whether I'd release this one, but I decided to give someone else the pleasure I experienced while reading it. ( )

2488 By the Rivers of Babylon a novel by Nelson DeMille (read 26 Jan 1993) I had never heard of Nelson DeMille till this month. This is a 1978 book and I think one of DeMille's first. It tells of terrorists putting bombs on two Concordes manufactured in France and sold to Israel. It is all very gripping and fantastic--one Concorde is blown up and the other is hijacked and taken to Babylon where the varied passengers defend themselves. It is all so fantastic and weird, but it is intensely exciting too. [These words were written, of course, long before 9/11.] ( )

Feh. ( )