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Riptide  By  cover art

Riptide

By: Douglas Preston,Lincoln Child
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's summary

A centuries-old, cursed pirate's treasure, valued at over $2 billion, lies deep within the treacherous waters off the coast of Maine. Men who have attempted to unearth the fortune have suffered gruesome deaths. Will a high-tech expedition meet the same fate?

©1999 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (P)2010 Hachette

Critic reviews

"Yo ho ho? get ready for a ripping good yarn.... This nonstop action adventure has all the elements of a perfect summertime thriller - pirate treasure of unimaginable worth, 300-year-old cryptograms written in invisible ink, a legendary curse, and a driven captain who will stop at nothing to reach his goal. The red-hot authors of Reliquary score another big winner." ( Library Journal)

What listeners say about Riptide

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,704
  • 4 Stars
    1,153
  • 3 Stars
    479
  • 2 Stars
    125
  • 1 Stars
    53
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    1,581
  • 4 Stars
    719
  • 3 Stars
    266
  • 2 Stars
    56
  • 1 Stars
    40
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,411
  • 4 Stars
    796
  • 3 Stars
    331
  • 2 Stars
    84
  • 1 Stars
    36

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

very cinematic. high tech meets pirate treasure.

This novel is centered around a real mystery in Nova Scotia called the Money Pit. The authors have done a great job fictionalizing this real phenom and asking what if some zillionaire with all the most high tech toys and dream-team crew attacked the problem. And then, what might the most awesome truth underneath the treasure actually be, in the most cinematic of circumstances. Well played, I say. My only complaint is that the inevitable "turning evil" of certain people is a touch too predictable, sudden, and extreme. But the thought they have put into the above issues is thrilling in its thoroughness and sophistication. Nice job.

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36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

another awesome preston/child book!

i always love the preston/child books- esp. the pendergast ones. and even though this is not an agent pendergast novel i enjoyed it immensely. worth the money ;)

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

NARRATOR- SCOTT BRICK- BRINGS THE BOOK DOWN

This book had the potential to be such a great listen- but the narration of Scott Brick has once again ruined a book for me. It is hard to understand why Audible can't seem to get someone else to read these wonderful books- there are so many great choices out there. I read complaint after complaint about Mr. Brick's "singsong" voice or tedious, whiny, boring readings- It is just a shame Audible doesn't address this somehow. I guess the only option for the members is to avoid any books he narrates. The story was really good, and I would have given it a 4 or 5 rating if it had a narrator who made it enjoyable to listen to. I would recommend actually READING this one.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Too long; too predictable; mismatched narrator.

This was my first book by Preston & Child. The story was interesting and the main characters well developed. On the other hand, it dragged at times with too many irrelevant asides. The length could have been cut by about 25% with a corresponding increase in tension and excitement. The outcome was foreseeable even if the details were not. I am not a doctor, but even I came to anticipate the true cause of the anomalies and illnesses long before Hatch.

Scott Brick is a good narrator, a clear speaker, and I have listened to him read other books. However, his talents are apparently not well-suited to this style of novel. Some things are done quite well, such as emulating a French accent. However, in emotional situations, his voice became softer and artificially higher, and nearly every sentence ended with a falloff in amplitude. It was more irritating than effective. I found myself rewinding and turning up the volume temporarily.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Ripping Yarns

Simply put, this is a classic Preston/Child/Brick story, with many twists and decent character development. The action scenes drag abit, but the story is full of enough historical information and plot development to keep fans of this genre fully satisfied. I recommend this!

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Tragedy

There are several twists and turns in the science involved in this book, which I can not discuss or it will ruin the book for you. The odd science is the main reason I like to read P&C. The odd science in Relic, Mount Dragon and Ice Limit lead me to buy several P&C novels when they went on sale last year. What is cool about most of these books is that these weird science anomalies are usually based on some small fact or myth.

With this book and a couple of others though I have been distracted by the poor characters and plots that surround the science. Most characters are cliche and plots predictable. In this book the main character is a tragic figure. Bad things happen to this guy and people around him die. This leads him to be a really true Sad Sack. In this story his high school sweetheart marries another man who quote "Has never laughed". The sorry thing is I know women like this, who are attracted to sad characters and then later wonder why their lives are so sad.

P&C string you along, by giving you a mystery you want to see solved, but you have to suffer through all this other sad crap they throw in and (sorry P&C fans) truly bad writing. Why two science guys think they can write romance is beyond me. If they would stick to science they could write some truly great books. At least in this book, unlike "Still Life With Crows" they got the small town right, except the church. They treated the small town a little better in this book, I guess since it is on the East Coast and not in Fly Over Country.

Part of the book reminded me of Gold Rush on Discovery Channel. Just as soon as you think you are getting somewhere something breaks or goes wrong. It amazed me how often the characters would celebrate, just to have something go wrong. Every time they celebrated I would mentally cringe, knowing that something tragic was about to happen.

Scott Brick whose narrating style fits P&C books, held back a little on his usual dramatics, making the book a little easier to listen to .

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Wrong Narrator

Maybe I'll find this more exicting, but half way through I have to say this is the wrong narrator for this....His voice is so sing songy that it almost lulls me to sleep at times...And you don't want that when pushing 40 tons of tractor and trailer down the road....The story is fine but the reader is too damn soothing

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Harrowing!

Preston and Child always write gripping stories. Sometimes they leave me feeling exhausted, because they create such anxiety for the protagonists. "Riptide" tells the story of a mysterious (presumably mythical) island off the coast of Maine, where a cursed pirate treasure lies buried. Anyone who tries to unearth the treasure suffers grievous harm, if not death. In "Riptide," yet another group of treasure-hunters attempt to thwart the curse -- with the usual devastating results -- only this time our protagonist finally discovers the true nature of the curse. "Riptide" has plenty of Preston-&-Child's signature claustrophobic underground dark horrors -- sometimes almost frightening me TOO much -- but always keeping me listening. The narrator, Scott Brick, loses this audiobook one star in my rating. He has good acting chops, but an unfortunate, irritating voice. I'm getting to where I want to avoid any audiobooks that he reads, because his voice bothers me so much. Unfortunately, the audiobook publishers use him a lot, so I would have to miss many good books if I did that. I recommend "Riptide," except for the reader.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

I listened to over 200 Scott Brick narrations,..

...but this is only the 2nd time I have rated his narration at less than 5 stars. In both cases he was simply wrong for the subject matter. Novels written by Preston and Child are in my opinion usually consistently over rated. I read or listen to them only when there nothing better available. Riptide is a good enough novel which is typical of these authors. This book is about using new technology to find cursed pirate treasure. The Preston and Child Pendergast series (this book is not in the series) is better than most of their work.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Please Read!!!

I have listened to almost 200 audio books over the years, and I must say this is one of the best yet. Great story and great narration. Well worth burning a credit on this book.

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8 people found this helpful