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59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Suspense, yes; but also new heights of implausibility, December 8, 2008
I love a good thriller, and there just aren't enough of them around. So I was thrilled to discover Steve Berry's early novels. I enjoyed the first one or two of his Cotton Malone books as well. But as he has moved from one book to the next, the body count seems to rise, the characterizations have become more stilted, the action choppier, and the plots have tumbled into territory that become laugh-out-loud implausible. (Sure, Berry provides detailed author's notes showing exactly how he develops his plots, and the historical clues that he relies on, but the real test isn't whether he can make a case for it in the author's note, but whether it feels 'natural' to someone reading.)
I would probably have given this book a 3.5 star rating if the system allowed it. But the core plot device -- the quest in Antarctica for a mysterious superior civilization that preceeded the Mayans, the ancient Egyptians, et. al., that had a connection with Charlemagne, and that evil forces (in the person of a manipulative U.S. Admiral, Langord Ramsey) want to keep secret for their own reasons -- is just too strained for four stars.
Nor is the writing good enough to carry the book over the four-star rating threshold. It's choppy, a la James Patterson, with 94 chapters in only 500 pages, a lot of one-sentence paragraphs, and 8-word long sentences. The perspective keeps jumping back and forth between antiquarian book dealer Cotton Malone and his former intelligence boss, Stephanie Nelle. Each time a gun fires in one location, the action immediately jumps back to the other protagonist. These are all tools that all suspense writers employ, but again, they work best when the reader doesn't realize that they are being used at all. The only times where the reader can really settle into the action are those during which Berry's protagonists settle down to some serious exposition. "Early Sumerian texts... talk repeatedly of tall, god-like people who lived among them," says one professor (the target of an assassin hired by the evil admiral).
Sometimes, less is more in a good thriller. Cramming Charlemagne, the Nazis, a vanished experimental submarine, a quest for a mysterious lost civilization, a competition between two twin sisters for the truth behind their father's death (he and hero Cotton Malone's father died in the same submarine accident) and the homicidal admiral in a single book left me limp with exhaustion. I was so distracted that I kept having to page back to remind myself of some fact or plot twist. I even lost track of the body count (which is pretty substantial.)
Berry, early in his writing, focused on more plausible but still exotic quests: for the Amber Room, for the great library of Alexandria, the secrets of the Templars. In his last outing, the quest was for a magical spring that could cure HIV/AIDs, and the evil character was a female dictator of a central Asian nation. Don't ask me to swallow too many implausible plot/character twists in a single book...
All this said... I have still given the book three stars because Berry has a knack for what makes a good thriller. When Malone finally heads off to Antarctica, you can't close the book up. You want to know how all the pieces link together. And it's a good enough yarn to keep you occupied on a long plane ride, or when there's nothing you want to watch on television. So it fills a certain niche -- the kind of book you can pick up, read and then forget about. But only a Steve Berry devotee should be ready to pay the full cover price.
A final note about the final pages (I don't view it as a spoiler because it has nothing to do with the main plot); to my mind, it's kind of tacky to start the next book (which will probably not come out for another year) in the closing pages of the current one by having your hero creep out, Beretta in hand, to investigate a possible intruder. Since when did the TV cliffhanger phenomenon show up in books??
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
wait...wait...darn, December 29, 2008
Steve Berry has the formula for interesting books.
1- His main character, Cotton Malone, is complex and interesting with the plausible background of having once worked for the government but has decided to retire to the life of a bookseller in Europe (good so far);
2- Malone has as a reoccurring circle of friends who seem to have endless connections and unimaginable wealth, all of which he seems to have access to at his beck and call (well, it is fiction);
3- Berry's books are historically-based and often revealing, giving credence to his stories and making the storyline more interesting (it's amazing what you can discover from his books);
4- He makes his stories even more interesting by situating them in fascinating, actual surroundings with great detail and explanation (at least most of the time);
So what the problem?
Although I look forward to reading each of his books based upon the features above, I know I'm going to be disappointed at the end. Berry seems to take one step too many. His leaps from the realm of possibility into the circle of absurdity...not much, but just enough to deflate me.
His character, his supporting cast, his locations, even the situations and premises are all outstanding, but he takes a well-created human character with human skills and human frailties and moves the plot into
abnormal, absurd situations. I, for one, would be far more interested in having Mather seek a long-lost copy of Shakespeare's plays (a plausable notion) rather than a long-lost civilization (okay, if we must).
Steve Berry's books are always fun, enjoyable reads, if for nothing more than the interesting, historical facts that surrounds the situation. But the final chapters are flawed. Are the endings satisfactory? Well, kinda. They would be far more interesting to me if they were far less grand.
The shelves are full of wonderful, interesting characters... Cotton Malone is certainly one. For my sake, I would like Berry to keep him human, and away from far-reaching premises.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great novel even if you haven't read others in the series!, December 10, 2008
This was my first novel by Steve Berry, and I was impressed with it as a stand-alone book. There were occasional references to events and characters of the past, but only when it was relevant to the story. You do not need to read the previous books in the series to follow what's going on, though I'm sure they would give you extra insight into some of the characters.
The story itself was excellent. I love history and historical fiction, and all of the "history" that is unearthed by the characters was plausible. The action and dialogue were well written and paced... something I was not expecting after having read Dan Brown and (mistakenly) presuming that this novel would also require some serious eye-rolling. I connected with most of the characters, and spent most of the time wondering who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.
Not only was I very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing in this book, but it was also quite an action-packed page turner. I had a hard time putting it down! I am, however, knocking off a star for some slight character incongruities I noticed. So it's not a perfect literary masterpiece, but it is far and above the typical "historical thriller" genre and a very fun read.
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