I wanted to read some escapist fiction and for this reason I chose this book – a sci-fi thriller.

The book starts with a pair of divers finding an interesting object off the coast of a Hawaiian island. This is followed by the mysterious death of a teenager in the US. From the very beginning the author has tried to create tension and excitement.

Then we meet Katherine Sundquist, an anthropologist who receives a “too good to be true” offer from her old flame in Hawaii. He has discovered a strange skeleton there and wants her help. Katherine takes her teenage asthmatic son, Michael, along with her. As per the good old formula – whenever there is a very good offer there has to be danger and deception!!!

I liked the way the author has created the character of Michael – he is the most fleshed out character in the novel. His fears, his aspirations, and his courage – all these would enable you to relate or at least sympathize with him. Michael would make friends there – for the first time he was accepted as a member of a “gang” of friends – but, a small seemingly harmless prank would unleash a spate of murders and kidnappings.

The author has included the usual ingredients one would expect to find in a thriller – corporate conspiracy, human greed, boyhood friendships, smart ass boy living in a dysfunctional family, rekindling of old romance, misunderstandings and what not.

The science fiction angle in the story had the potential to be great but I felt that it was not developed much. The author lost out on a good opportunity.

The end was also too convenient for my liking. The villains were shown to be a bit too incompetent.

Overall, it is an average thriller. I was expecting it to be much better but the author could not deliver. I am giving it a rating of 2.5 which I am rounding off to 3.

Young adult. Reasonable suspenseful. Fairly light reading...nothing too scary or gory.

SPOILER ALERT
Was nice to have the separate story lines (i.e. astrologer and archeologist) come together.

Although we could predict from the beginning that the mother would end up with the man there was really very little lead up to the proposal...so it felt like it was just a poorly added storyline.

REALLY BIG SPOILER
I didn't like at all that the problem fixes itself. Not the best writing to just have the problem go away on its own after a few weeks.

Typical John Saul fare :) An easy, nostalgic read; a little dated. The normal mix of horror with a little thriller mixed in to add some interest. Mad scientists, Hawaii, and early environmental concern - how could it go wrong?

A Really Good Read

I've read quite a few John Saul books and enjoyed them all. The Presence is no exception. It's imaginative, yet believable. It keeps your attention makes you want to get back to it. I would recommend to all.

I have been reading this author since I was 12 years old, it started with The God Project and I read everything he wrote until around 1989. At that point I moved on to Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, and Stephen King. About five years ago I read The Manhattan Hunt Club, it was so different from anything he had written before, I read that book in 2 days. After that I avoided him again since anything else he had written would pale in comparison. I am glad I waited.
The story was about Catherine and her son Michael temporarily living in Hawaii while she works on a job site. She in investigating bones found on the property of the island's wealthiest man. Michael befriends some boys on his first day of school. One by one they start to die.
The book was suspenseful, and the experiments that were being done on the kids was scary, but there was nothing that really stood out to me to separate this from other thrillers.

Anthropologist Katharine Sundquist gets a job offer to study unusual skeletal remains that were unearthed on Maui. Katharine’s sixteen-year-old son, Michael, who has asthma, is being bullied in school so she decides that now might be a good time to leave New York and head for Hawaii. Unfortunately, Hawaii may not be the paradise they were hoping for when strange, unexplained things begin happening.

I enjoyed this book so much. I was so into it and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. The story had a really interesting cast of characters from the people Katharine worked with to the boys that Michael befriended on Maui. The Hawaiian setting was fantastic with wonderful descriptions. So atmospheric with the volcanoes, the lava flowing, the malevolent feel in the air. I enjoyed the scuba dives; the place where Katharine was working. Such a thoroughly entertaining read.

This one was a little more what if and not a horror story. It was enjoyable and I would recommend it. Just don't expect the normal supernatural, hurt children , John Saul horror story.

This guy's style is only a little bit more advanced than a fear street book! Im gonna read all this guy's books.

This is the second book I have read by this author, and both books had the same problem. The author seems to have no trouble coming up with very good storylines, where he struggles is in the execution of the story. Far too much of this book was boring.
There will not be a 3rd book read by this author.

Good story.

This was an enjoyable story but since it was written in the late 1990s it comes across as a bit dated in regard to the technology available to the characters in the book. Other than that, and if you ignore the lack of real science that would make the events in the book more believable, this was well worth the time it took to read.

I am always a fan of a good John Saul book, because he really nails the creepy factor. He also has an understanding that, often, the scariest things in life are humans and the things we are capable of doing when driven by greed or pride.

I love John Saul but simply couldn't finish this one.