Natural Selection

Nailbiter

This was an extremely entertaining book, a real nailbiter. The writing was not Chaucer but I don't read these sorts of books for great writing, I read them to be entertained and this book did that in spades. The concept of a dangerous winged species that lives in the depths of the ocean and is forced into the air for food is outstanding and the author did an amazing job making it seem absolutely real and plausible. Natural terrified me in a way that even Jurassic Park did not; it just felt so real. Freedman won't win any sentence structure awards and his editors should be shot but this was a phenomenally entertaining read. Will make an amazing movie too.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Awesome book!!!!! COMBINES THE BEST OF JAWS AND JURASSIC PARK!!!

Cool idea. A new species has been lurking in the oceans deepest depths since pangea. It has adapted into a vicious predator, that is responsible for the extiction of many shark species. A virus caused it to move towards the surface, and now it terrorizing the upper ocean. Its adapting fast and learning many new ways to hunt will anything survive this predator? A group of marine biologists are tracking a new species its so far seems to he very strange and elusive, but what they dont know is they could be just putting them on a death wish. TRY PUT THIS AWESOME BOOK!!!

Sea-Creatures

This book was excellent! Strange creature resembling manta rays are spotted in the Pacific ocean near the California coast where many seagulls, dolphins, and sharks have been disappearing.

A team of scientists and biologists track it's migration north. They think it may be an evolutionary new species, predatory, deadly, rising from the ocean's depths, but why? What is causing it? Could it be a virus, nature's way of solving the world's over-population problem?

I really liked this thrilling first novel by Dave Freedman. It was fantastic! I couldn't put it down and I look forward to another!

Good first effort

The subject and the story held my interest, but it was fairly easy to tell that Freedman has never written a story before. As the Washington Post reviewer indicates, the story jumps far too often from one point of view to another, and his sentence structure is atrocious.

Still, the story is a nail-biter in spite of these flaws and one hopes that his next book (if there is one) will show an improvement.

Not bad

This book was ok. It's about the evolution of a new species that leaves the sea and takes to the land to find prey. The scientists that are tracking them soon find out how dangerous this new species is... I recommend this if you are looking for an easy beach read.

JUST FANTASTIC ....

WOW, did this thing move FAST, one of the quickest reads I've ever had. Every single chapter I just wanted to find out what happens next. It's all about the modern day evolution of a new species of flying predator -- how cool is that? The execution was fantastic, too. Great science, tremendous action, fascinating but still entertaining explanations of evolution, and, best of all, a horrifyingly realistic new species evolving right here on earth. This book's gonna make an UNBELIEVABLE movie, mark my words.

wow, great book...

GREAT, just the idea of the story line keeps you wanted to read, the whole story wanting to know what happens next.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

great debut novel for dave freedman

first off i live in san diego so this was even more suspesnful his research was tremendous and actually even though it is fiction all of it seems logical that maybe there is a species we have not seen thats down so far in the dephts of the ocean that evolved that needs to feed.it's up there with jaws,jurassic park,congo. great thriller i would've never read the novel from a debut author but i read the first chapter at barnes and nobel and was hooked to see wear he can take it to definaetly an author to look out for.

A reviewer

The premise is nothing new. The plot is nothing new. The book is way too wordy, and the writing subpar. Worse though is that the author should blame the editors for their terrible job. If I read the phrase 'sun dappled' one more time I thought that I would scream!

Fast, fun and refreshing ...

This book was a pure joy, very fun to read, impossible to put down. I didn't love the prologue, found it extraneous, but it was only two pages so who cares. The characters weren't fantastic either but for the genre they're strong, definable yet real archetypes that are imminently relatable. The science, the pace and the action are what set this book apart. A whole lotta fun. Freedman is an author to watch. I'd put his first effort right up there with another author who writes fantastic, fast-moving plots where characters aren't great yet good enough: Dan Brown.

An airborne JAWS

A fast paced, hard to put down thriller with a premise that will make any reader wish to, if not already, live in the midwest, far from any coastline. Follows the line of thinking from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, ' Nature will find a way'. A good first novel from a new author to follow.

GREAT FUN!

i really enjoyed this. the read was fast and furious and totally made me forget about life for a while. highly recommended.

How did this 'writer' get published?

Is'nt the idea of a thriller novel to get the reader hooked right from the start? This piece of crap is so badly written I did'nt get past a few chapters!

Maybe next time

Interesting plot, horrible writing. Potential is there, so still have hope for future novels.

Very, very hard to put down

I'm a librarian and Booklist recently named Natural Selection one of the best debut novels of 2006. I hadn't heard of it previously so I gave it a try. In a word, Wow. Natural Selection is extremely exciting, truly very hard to put down, one of those books that keeps you up very late at night. You just don't want to stop reading it. Even on school nights. Fun, exciting, very well researched, outstanding plot, a shocking finale - this book has it all. The movie could be absolutely astonishing. Dave Freedman is an author to watch.

Must Read

Plain and simple great read. Perfect vacation book, but bring other books because you will be done in a day. Could not put it down it was an excellent mix of science and thriller.

VASTLY ENTERTAINING!

Boy, was this a fun read!! It's all about the evolution of a flying predator, not 100 million years ago, but TODAY. I can't believe I didn't hear about this book earlier it's one of those I'd think everybody would be talking about. A friend gave it to me before our winter vaca I read it cover to cover in two days. Tremendous action scenes, fun, believable characters (not Tolstoy but great for the genre), really interesting science, and just scary as hell. And the pages JUST FLY. I'm telling you, read this one. The movie will be amazing!

A whole lotta research, a whole lotta fun

What makes this brilliant book special is how successfully it blends science with entertainment. I'm tempted to say I've never seen it done so well before. Well, maybe ONCE before ----- Natural Selection's subject matter is entirely different, but this new author indeed reminds me of another author with a history of mixing research and entertainment flawlessly: none other than Dan Brown. Dave Freedman's bio says he holds a BS from Princeton and a master's from Harvard. That education shines brilliantly through this first novel. Word of mouth travels fast. I heard from not one but TWO different people at work that this book was a fantastic, 'speed of light' read. I am a very picky reader myself but the enthusiasm was palpable and the subject matter - the evolution of a new predator, on earth, here and now - sounded fascinating. I decided to give it a try. I read Natural Selection in ONE SITTING. I am not exaggerating. I couldn't put this book down even bathroom and food breaks, I did reluctantly. I finished at 4am last night. Every step of the way you want to know: what's going to happen next. I've never read any book this fast in my life, even those by Mr. Brown. The characters here were good enough not fantastic, but strong for the genre, especially Monique and Darryl I could have used a little more depth to the men they were a little 1-d. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed the female characters they were written in big, broad strokes, no innermost soul stuff, but I liked them, found them relatable. But the action and the science are why you read a book like this. Regarding the latter, readers should indeed have their internet search engines ready. I did some sleuthing when I was finished and discovered large amounts of background research were accurate, which, to be candid, shocked me! - this is fiction after all! But that's what made this book so surprisingly believable. Weren't large portions of Jules Verne's 'fiction' later proven to be fact?? One word of advice: to all the curious Googlers, I'd suggest this: play with the search engines AFTER you've read the book. Otherwise you'll stay up even later than I did. FIVE STARS.

Good premise but fell flat

I, too, am wondering if I read the same book as the other reviewers. I originally picked the book up because it sounded like a fun summer read along the lines of Jurassic Park, and the premise was fascinating... I'm a sucker for anything to do with what may be lurking in the depths of the oceans. The book started off well, but as it progressed I found myself getting more and more frustrated. For an obviously well-educated author, I found the writing sloppy and awkward. The characters, while likable enough, were far too one dimensional, which made the love story feel forced and awkward. The dialogue was stilted and unrealistic and even the action scenes - which, frankly, would be the primary reason for reading this book - began to get sillier as the story progressed. On the bright side, the description of the creatures' appearance and behaviour was quite fasinating and the author obviously did his research. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save the book for me and I was in a rush to finish it, all the while thinking it's only a matter of time before this is made into a bad cable TV flick. I really hoped to like this much more than I did.

A VERY FUN WAY TO SPEND A WEEKEND!

I should preface this by saying that books like this are not normally my cup of tea. But a friend who is generally 'particular' about the books she reads loved this so I decided to give it a try ... I could not put this book down. I read it in three sittings and every time I had to get up I did so reluctantly. To my delight (and I must admit, my amazement) I found this novel very intellectually stimulating. It just reminded me of how little I really know about nature and it got me thinking about what other species are out there that we know nothing of: whether in the sea, the rain forests, the deserts ... The author digs deep into complicated subjects I admittedly know nothing about yet he makes them readable and great fun: all about viruses, how they originate and spread, details of how a brain works, the difference between lungs and gills, what deep sea vents are, fascinating details about northern california's redwood trees and what 'prescribed fires' are. Yet what's amazing is that the author does this very economically and without slowing down the plot for even a second. The pages absolutely fly!! Truly very difficult to put down!! What a page turner! One caveat. I generally enjoy more character driven novels than this to be candid, the characters here were not fantastic and lacked real depth that said, for a thriller they were much better than normal, far superior to the stick figures of the Da Vinci Code for example. But this was still an enthralling, engrossing book! For reasons I don't normally state, I found it accessible, educational, and completely addictive!! So far, our 14 year old feels the same way normally he's a video game addict but is already 100-odd pages in!! Dig in! This one is a ton of fun!!