Mark Mann (1)

South America is a continent of contrasts, from the northern Caribbean shores, corrupt officials in all the countries, deep jungles, amazing histories from the Incas to the Aztecs and the modern horrors of drugs and guerrilla warfare.

Mark Mann with his girlfriend Melissa and another friend Mark decide to travel there to undertake the Gringo trail, a uniquely South American experience. There is a little tension as the friends Mark is really there for the drugs, and really is not interested in undertaking the trekking. At various points in the journey they split and go their own separate ways, meeting up again at other locations.

It is a funny mix of some travel writing with potted histories of the places that they are visiting, along with some fairly vivid descriptions of the soft and hard drugs that they took whilst on their trip. It did make for interesting reading though. Sadly though, this once in a lifetime trip was marred at the end.

Found the writing to be ok with good descriptions of the places visited, but 2.5 stars I think is fair.… (plus d'informations)

A really good book. I love the relationship between the brother and sister. I enjoyed the traveling through different realities and how the issue of global warming was addressed without being preachy. There were some solid ideas on that problem that could be implemented in our world not just in the pages of a book. Kudos on those ideas and for how the issue was woven into the story so easily. I really like the idea of alternate realities and how they differ from our own. It's an intriguing concept. Really solid read and wonderfully written.… (plus d'informations)

The idea behind travelling between parallel universes is not bad in this. It almost tries too hard to show moral and the effects of global warming for me, but it's a good engaging read, well developed characters. It could have been expanded even more with detail, but this may have caused the story to drag. I'm guessing there will be a sequel, there is certainly plenty of room for one, with the story itself also being complete. It's not too 'historical' and so makes an easy read and suitable for a range of ages.… (plus d'informations)