Customer Reviews

The Aztec Heresy (Signet Novel)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The premise of this book is rather simple with the standard treasure hunt procedures; good guys, bad guys, some gray but questionable characters and a mysterious religious order all want a piece of adventure while some just want to make some money on it all running loose in the jungle at some point in the story line. When a sunken ship from four hundred years ago, rumored to have carried the location of secret Mayan treasure hidden by Hernan Cortez himself form the Spanish rulers is suddenly a hot commodity for treasure seekers, American Finn Ryan and Brit Billy Pilgrim, all hell breaks loose and people start dying as secrets come out.

Those who simply want to reveal a part of history to the world are being chased by men from Cuba, Mexico, America and even the Vatican finding that all the random activities are somehow connected and they all seem to lead to The City of Gold. It seems that the actions taken by our friends wake those sleeping in slumber over the vigil for such curious behavior. When submarines, lost nuclear bombs, power struggles and a large pharmaceutical company combines forces the only thing that ensures is an outbreak of madness that seem to trail Finn and Billy. They must first find the Codex with the map upon a wreckage of a mysterious ship rumored to have sunk near the Bahamas and then find the temple that houses gold objects found by Cortez.

A sweaty journey through a jungle, ravaged by ants and killer animals and the dives is what makes this book exciting. The story is also a semi espionage type of a thriller with more weaponry and submarine talk than I have ever experienced and while there are a lot of characters in it, only a few are memorable. I didn't enjoy the fact that they were introduced in a bit of a robotic manner, instead of knowing who they were first the reader got to hear their biography and then got to learn of their character later on.

The book, even though wasn't perfect, was entertaining and I read it in about two days because it was somehow strangely alluring and adventure stories are always fun. It wakes up the kid in us who always wanted to be an archaeologist and for those who are always behaving like adults there is plenty of action and dangerous activity. The story was looking very broad when a lot of characters and plots were starting to unfold and I was wondering how on Earth was the author going to tie it all up, in the end he did a pretty good job. I just wish this was more about the treasure itself and little less about crazy people with personal gains but overall a good story. This was more of a 3.5 star book but after finishing it I felt that I had a good time reading it so I give it 4 stars. I am looking forward to reading more of Finn and Billy's adventures as the author has all ready included them in his previous books. This is perfect for hot summer nights with a cool drink in hand and plenty of night to read into, enjoy.

- Kasia S.

This book sounded perfect for me! I love adventure books filled with history and science (Cussler, Rollins, Crichton) and I teach about Aztec and Maya history. Unfortunately, this book did not even approach my expectations. The author provided paragraphs and pages of description of location, people's backgrounds, appearances, etc. which did not have bearing on the plot, did not drive the story forward, and did not provide insights into motivations of characters. In addition, the many characters began to overlap in my mind and it was difficult to differentiate who was doing what. Sub-plots aboud but do little to create a cohesive story. The ending was a let-down and the "action" sequences were more description of events than guiding the reader "into" the story. I finished the book because I hate abandoning stories but by the final fourth of the book, I was skimming over narrative to find dialogue and action that had bearing on the plot. I was extremely disappointed.

I bought this novel thinking it sounded interesting. While the author has some talent, much of his writing comes across as immature, at times overblown (read the exhausting prologue) and at times simply undeveloped. SEMI-SPOILER FOLLOWS. Most disappointing is the final set-piece, in which the leads suddenly solve the mystery in a few pages of retrospective dialogue. A real waste of time for a book with such a cool title, and much potential!

Overall, I'd say "The Aztec Heresy" was a good read, especially if your just in search of pure fun and entertainment. I'll admit, the characters were shallow and, at times, cliche, especially the stereotypical language used by the British character Lord Billy Pilgrim. The story contained no overlying message or moral lesson, which was pretty much so a given just from looking at the cover. But the author didn't intend "The Aztec Heresy" to be the kind of book that would alter your outlook on life, he wanted to provide the reader with a source of entertainment and he does this well.

Regardless of the books size, the print is rather large and the story is much shorter than I expected it. It goes by much faster than you'd anticipate and, by the time you reach the middle-end of the book, your almost wondering when the story is going to kick it into high gear. The beginning was a bit slow but went by quickly. I won't go into depth and ruin it, but I believe that the ending compensated for the somewhat lacking beginning. In a way, it reminded me somewhat of an Indiana Jones film with the ancient treasures and good vs. evil scenario.

So, in closing, if your looking for a book that'll change you outlook on life and really make you think, than don't bother buying it. But if your the kind of person who liked the thriller/adventure genre and authors like Clive Cussler, James Rollins, and Matthew Reilly, than you'll probably enjoy the Aztec Heresy.

I think you will enjoy reading this book. If you have read his other novels, then you will enjoy the characters, whom I have become attached to. It will not take you long to read. The ending was somewhat anticlimactic for me. All of his novels would be better if he spent more time on character development. There is a bit of humor, which I enjoyed. Now that it is available in soft cover, I recommend you spend the money.

I am astounded to see three and four star reviews for this book.
This book is remarkably dull considering its multiple plot lines. I'm also amazed that it could take as long as a couple of days to read??? One evening is quite adequate to finish it.

This book incorporates Vatican "baddies", cliche psychotic Mexican drug cartel leaders, Cubans, submarines, treasure hunters-one of whom is an English Lord, giant multinational pharmaceutical corporations with a cliched harddriven father and weak, incompetent son.
Wait, I'm not done yet! Also, an independent intelligence information gatherer who sells to the highest bidder, an assassin, Mayan ruins, Hernan Cortez, the Inquisition, airplane crashes with lost nuclear bombs, mutant plants and insects.....I'm almost shocked that there aren't UFO's-oh, wait, that's not correct after all! Fiona mentions Erich von Daniken and explains that what he thought were drawings of aliens were actually drawings of Venus by the Mayans!

This story has so many disparate cliches in one book it's almost worth wondering if it was the result of a bet or dare to see how many elements could be stuffed into a single book. The real problem is not that there's so many elements-it's that they are not developed or matured at all. Really, there's barely a plot to connect them together.

The supposed protagonists are almost an afterthought and their characters are not fleshed out. Virtually no interaction between the characters at all. The woman, Fiona, seems to be an excuse to list trivial factoids, while the "Lord" is thinly drawn and mostly a stereotyped caricature. There was no attempt to draw a real relationship between these two-they are so impersonal it's actually quite unclear what their connection really is.

Like other reviewers have mentioned, when it gets to what should be the most suspenseful, tense moments of the book it's handled in a very desultory way, no suspense or excitement at all. At the end, it takes only about four pages to wrap up all these plotlines, and, again, done in an uninteresting way with little suspense. There's nothing to leave me interested in seeing what comes next for these two.

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh.

I didn't like this book. I don't know what the worst part about it was either. Was it the poorly punctuated tension-free narrative? Maybe. It could have been the sexless juvenile bantering between the two main characters. Or was it the stereotypical characterizations of the supporting cast. It could have been the Tom Clancy-like three page long description of a submarine in the midst of some of the action. It could have been the retreaded plot stolen from James Rollins or Preston/Child.

On the positive side the print was big so there weren't as many words to read per page. On the negative side, there were still too many pages to wade through.

Avoid this if you can.

The idea of this book is good - but it is written so, for want of a better way to put it ...oddly. About 3/4's of the book sets up for the action. The action is over and done in moments. The protagonists never seem to be in any real trouble. The issues are resolved quickly, with little discription. Just about the oddest action book I've ever read. Had great potential thematically that was not seen through.

Very disappointing.. The story line was very vague. Didn't ever really develop. I have read others by him and they were ok.

Thanks,

Simple plot, very poor character development. You will spend a lot of time asking yourself, "who is this guy?" Not worth the bother, try a different author.