Riptide: Star Wars Legends

By Paul S. Kemp

Anyone can escape danger. No one can escape the truth.

When a ship full of Sith warriors arrived in Galactic Alliance space, the fight to destroy it accidentally uncovered a hidden menace: a long-hidden group of clones, secretly created as insidious weapons capable of wielding the Force and heedless of the differences between light side and dark side. Now the clones have escaped—and evidence suggests that they are flawed by genetic disease and violent madness.

Jedi Knight Jaden Korr pursues the clones, hoping to heal them but prepared to destroy them. What he doesn’t know is that Sith agents are hot on his heels, determined not only to recover the clones for their Master but to capture Jaden for their own dark-side purposes. In a life-or-death battle, Jaden will confront a shocking reality that will rock him to his core and bring him face-to-face with the question of what makes a man . . . and a Jedi.

Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9780345532817

Paul S. Kemp

Paul S. Kemp is a lawyer. That is bad. He is also the million-selling author of the Erevis Cale sword and sorcery series, and several Star Wars novels. That is good. Very good. He has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list three times (twice on the hardcover list, and once in the mass market list). It’s a little known fact that Paul has maimed eight men and three llamas using only an unsharpened pencil and a stick of Wrigley’s gun. Now you know too. He does not hum show tunes. Ever. Paul lives in Michigan with his wife and twin sons.

Reviews for Riptide

[ouroborosangel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book starts with the long history of a seemingly cursed pirate treasure buried on a small island off the coast of Maine, then moves to the 1970s where two small boys, whose father has inherited the island, go in search of adventure on the island. Problems ensue, and flash forward to today where a new team of treasure hunters with high-tech equipment sets out to solve the mystery of the cursed treasure. One of the boys from earlier in the book is now a Harvard educated doctor and has finally given his permission for the island to be excavated. Here the action really gets moving and you know you are reading another exciting Preston/Child book. Interesting and scary, a good romp!

[jothebookgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is strongly believed pirated buried a massive amount of treasure on Ragged Island, Maine. For hundreds of years treasure hunters have tried in vain to retrieve the fortune. The story starts with Malin and his older brother Johnny taking the family boat to this treacherous island. All the mining over the years has rendered the island dangerous with pits and abandoned rusting and leaking equipment. But for adventurous boys they see only excitement even though thus act is strictly forbidden! This trek does not turn out well and we skip forward 30 years. Malin is now a doctor as well as the owner of Ragged Island although he hasn't been back home sine he and his mother left not long after the incident. One day he is approached by a wealthy treasure seeker who has all the state of the art equipment needed to unearth 2 billion dollars worth of treasure. He has greedy sponsors as well as eager, intelligent and skilled workers. Money no object and he believes the treasure will be his, with plenty to go around in just 4 weeks. He convinces Malin to let him begin the dig taking on Malis as the company doctor. As bodies long ago are unearthed and workers become ill with rare and unrelated symptoms, the doctor unravels this mystery of the illnesses, with a shocking revelation.
This is a scientific thriller and is rather detailed. The explanations for the way the treasure was buried, the booby traps, the curse are satisfying to the reader as the mysteries begin to unfold.
This is not an easy read, but exciting and a definite thriller.

[grammarchick · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I love these authors but this book was just not as suspenseful and exciting as their others. I had expected something with more of a supernatural twist and this did not deliver. The characters weren't cheer-for-able and the science overload bored me.

[robert.louis.caldwel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story!!! I thought I had figured out the plot several times and was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong!

I listen to my books and this one kept me at my easel painting for many hours long after I should have stopped. Read by Scott Brick and always he did a great job with the different characters!

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When Hatch is a child, he and his brother head to an island owned by their father (though their father hates that island) to look for the treasure that is thought to be buried there. Over time, many people have gone to their deaths on that island, looking for that treasure. Unfortunately, Hatch's brother, Jimmy, also loses his life. When Hatch is grown up and the island now belongs to him, a businessman comes to him wanting to dig for that treasure. With some reservations, Hatch agrees... I listened to the audio, and had trouble focusing, at least for the first half of the book or so. It did get better later, and it was a good story. I'm thinking, though, that in the future, I might be better to read Preston/Child books rather than listen, as I think I had similar thoughts about another audio by the two of them.

[bxwretlind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good fun but a little slow in spots.

[picathartes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A treasure buried underground and underwater in an ingeniously designed engineering marvel that would have put the Great Pyramids to shame. All set on a mysterious and sinister island that has taken lives for 300 years; more recently 3 generations of a single family, the owners of the island. I am not alone in believing the island, or the treasure, or both are cursed. Death stalks the treasure hunters, it always has and it always will.This was a 2-1/2 star book from the very beginning because I thought it was quite silly and you could see where it was going and what was going to happen essentially from start to finish. The impossibly complex, booby-trapped treasure chamber makes zero sense on why it was built or how it was built... it’s the whole “riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” type thing. Ugh, spare me.All the characters are a stereotypers wet dream: the driven and haunted Dr. Hatch (owner of the island and presumably the treasure as well), the successful, upright and slightly mysterious MacArthuresque sea captain / expedition leader, the irascible and faithful pint-sized bulldog of a project manager, the beautiful and sophisticated French archeologist (née Siren), the machismo and fashionably correct Italian diver, the unhealthy and unclean, and socially inept computer programmer genius, the tweedy and proper English historian, the bearded and bear-like outdoorsy geologist, the quiet and severe engineer, the uptight and indignant minister full of fire and brimstone, and the entire zipped-up Maine locals and lobstermen who are suddenly the outsiders in their own town.I found most of the book nonsensical. Through arrogance and haste they endeavor to succeed. Through sheer bungling, ineptitude, and luck they will find this treasure and solve this centuries old mystery.If a movie were made of this novel, it would certainly be called “Raiders of the Lost Pirate Treasure” or “Raiders of the Lost Sword.” Someone might be able to come up with a better title, but it would definitely have to start with something original like “Raiders of the Lost (fill in the blank)”.I was obviously not enthralled by this book, but by the end I bumped it up to 3 stars. I was ultimately smitten by Isobel Bonterre the French archeologist, the only character I found even remotely likeable, but then again she is a Siren so it’s not like I had any choice in the matter. Also, there were two very good, unexpected plot points at the end that I could not have foreseen.

[the_hibernator · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Malin Hatch has avoided Ragged Island, Maine ever since he had witnessed a disaster there as a child. But when a treasure hunter finally convinces him that it's time to delve into the mysteries of the Ragged Island Treasure once again, he signs on as the team's physician. The team must wend their way through a booby-trapped tunnel to find the treasure. This book was a quick, light read without much substance. It's much like Douglas and Preston's other adventure novels (and rather like Michael Crichton)--a mixed team of scientists gathers for the "big find" and ends up with more than they bargained for. I felt that the characters made poor decisions throughout the book, but I guess gold has that effect on some people. If you like Preston&Child, you'll probably like this book.

[burnit99 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fast-paced thriller about a search for a massive pirate treasure (about $2 billion value) buried in a precarious rock formation on a small island off the coast of Maine known as the Water Pit. In addition to natural hazards, the Pit is fraught with deadly booby traps created by the Pit's brilliant architect. Dr. Malin Hatch is the last survivor of the family that owned the island; when he and his brother were boys 30 years ago, they attempted to enter the Water Pit, a tragic decision that took his brother's life. Now Malin has an opportunity to allow a legendary and well-funded treasure hunter to try to open the secrets of the Water Pit, and perhaps in the process bring closure to the death of his brother. An interesting tale, made more interesting at the Douglas Preston booksigning when he intimated that a coming Gideon Crew book would be a sequel of sorts to this 1998 thriller.

[vsandlian_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful adventure with an unexpected ending. Page turner.

[nogdog_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This would probably make a great movie, but as a novel I couldn't really buy into some of the characters, coincidences, etc.

[candlemark · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was pretty sure I had this book's number from about Page 18. Turns out, though, it threw me for a slight loop - I was right about what was going on, but wrong about the specific mechanism (although I did figure that out around page 250 or so...).Still, I didn't care. Preston/Child are at their best when they're creating a rip-roaring pseudoscientific adventure, and they definitely did that here. Their research was, as always, impeccable, but presented in an entertaining manner, and frankly, the book moves so fast that you really don't CARE how predictable it is.Besides, it had to do with the Water Pit (aka, the Oak Island Mystery Pit), which I'm fascinated by. Mysterious deaths and ailments, pirates, a mystical sword, and 19th century treasure hunting, plus modern treasure hunters and archaeologists? Count me in, man.

[emgbpratz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A favorite, I think this was my 3rd or 4th reading. A great pirate treasure hunt with lost of mysterious happening and plenty of thrills. For me a perfect beach/vacation read that keeps my entertained no matter how many times I read it!

[mantooth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun read with an interesting story. Although the ending is easy to see early in the book the little facts along the way keep the pages turning. The ending is a bit more satisfying that other books by these authors that start out quick and fizzle at the end.

[punxsygal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stand alone thriller about the ultimate treasure hunt. Approximately two billion dollars worth of pirate's booty waiting at the bottom of a deep pit on an island off the coast of main. Others have tried for it and died in the trying. But this is modern times, with high tech equipment....”

[ct4bergeron · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tide of obsession. 3000 year ago a pirate buried his bounty on a treacherous island off the coast of Maine. Now a High-Tech Treasure hunter is bringing his million dollars recovery team to ragged Island. Tide of Danger. They have the best hardware, the best divers, and the perfectly planned operation. There's only one problem: this island kills. Tide of Evil. First the computers fail. Then one man dies - and then another. Now the wind has begun to howl and mysteries of Ragged Island are cracking open. Inside a locky fortress of tunnel, traps an tides, a priceless treasure lies waiting... And so does an unimaginable evil... Riptide

[jontseng · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good old-fashioned treasure hunt. Alas they don't write them like this no more.

[beezle176 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

again a fantastic book from these two authours

[bcquinnsmom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dr. Malin Hatch is a medical researcher, MD from Harvard, yada yada yada. When he was a young boy, he and his brother took a trip to a piece of property belonging to his family off the Maine coast called Ragged Island. They were investigating the site of a pirate treasure burial...a spot called the water pit, where Old Ned Ockham buried a fortune in pirate loot. The treasure site had been worked at fastidiously over a hundred years, with each expedition ending in bankruptcy or death. When the boys go to investigate, they find an entrance into the tunnel but Hatch's brother doesn't make it out. He enters in the tunnel and the next thing Malin knows he is standing in his brother's blood, but there is no trace of his brother.Fast forward with Mal as an adult. A Captain Gerard Neidelman, treasure hunter with an organization called Thalassa, convinces Malin that he has the means to dig up the treasure on Ragged Island. After some thought, Malin decides he'll give Thalassa permission to dig there. What Malin really wants is to find the body of his brother. So the expedition commences, and Malin is signed on as the expedition doctor. Soon bad luck & tragedy begins to befall the mission.And I'll stop there. The story is very exciting, a definite page turner and a hell of a lot of fun. I recommend it for a solid day's reading when you want something fun yet suspenseful.