Customer Reviews

The Artifact

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I listened to the unabridged audio edition of the Artifact and was pleasantly surprised. It was a gripping tense thriller, packed with action and suspense and quite a few endearing characters. Frankly, I hope Mr. Astre chooses to write another. In particular I liked the characters of Mikey, Donny, and the Janitor.

The story? It's about an ancient alien Artifact unearthed by the Israeli's and studied in an American lab. At first the artifact seems benign but soon the sinister truth becomes evident... Can a handicapped child and his uncle save the day or will earth be destroyed by a new alien menace?

Astre's writing is quite smooth. His characters are well-written and sympathetic. My only peeve with this book was the multiple POV switch. I found it a little herky jerky to stitch between so many characters especially at the beginning. And when each chapter introduces another character (usually someone who will die), I found it a bit disconcerting. I prefer novels where there is a single set of characters and the POV switches are kept to a minimum.

This was a fun quick read and reminds me a bit of Crichton's work. I can easily see a film being made out of this. Recommend fo sci-fi fans.

Great premise, very badly executed. It was so predictable: the "hero" is a 12-year-old kid in a wheel chair; his best buddy is the heart-of-gold black guy who can't get a break in this racist world; the "other" hero is a woman with the power of love. The baddies are all white government-type guys. Oh, and of course the supernatural baddie... who can remotely cause a CD drive to smoke. Right. Jeesh.

Very disappointing book. It is not really science fiction. In my opinion, science fiction requires a believable explanation. It this case, it was more like fantasy.

I also did not like the writing. The author describes everything in over the top terms. Everything is bigger and more amazing then anything in the history of the world, according to the author.