Decipher (Paperback)

~ (Author) "With reports surfacing of unusual activity in the region of Jung Chang, a Chinese Research Station based 130km west of Mount McKelvey in central Antarctica,..." (more)
Key Phrases: benben stone, sonic artifact, ice passage, Rola Corp, Bob Pearce, Richard Scott (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In British screenwriter Pavlou's adolescent first novel, it's March 2012 and huge storms are raging around the globe, sparked by giant sunspots. The villainous U.S. Rola Corporation, drilling for desperately needed oil off Antarctica, discovers strange crystalline artifacts covered with a precuneiform script, while radiation detected under the antarctic ice portends the awakening of powerful alien forces. An unconvincing gaggle of scientists discovers they have only one unholy Holy Week to ship a nuclear device to Antarctica and bomb the underwater threat to smithereens. Pavlou builds his unlikely crescendo of Bad Things from nearly every major folklore, myth and religion, dizzyingly cutting between eye-popping disasters and eye-glazing capsule summaries of linguistics, geology, chemistry, mathematics, numerology, cryptology, archeology, ESP and Edgar Cayce. Stripped down to comic book proportions for the big screen, with a deafening soundtrack and a teenage audience anesthetized to a vocabulary largely dominated by four-letter cliches, this often gruesome tale might make a middling SF adventure flick. The often ludicrous dialogue and the ham-fisted handling of human relations and motivations, however, make for an unfocused novel, one patched together like Frankenstein, with every stitching line, every unnatural feature, unblushingly exposed to the most casual glance.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

In a frozen wasteland near the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, a world-weary team of oil drillers jubilantly believes that it has located a major strike. Instead of black gold, however, the men discover a bizarre cluster of rocks with unnatural markings similar to ancient hieroglyphs. Shortly afterward, these enigmatic rocks begin to appear in seemingly unrelated sites across the globe, including the Amazon River and an underground chamber beneath the Sphinx. A crackerjack squad of the world's premier geocryptologists soon determines that the stones are actually composed of carbon 60, a superior energy source previously unknown to modern science. From this point, the plot machinations are revved into overdrive with all the subtlety of an avalanche. Solar flares, Atlantis, ancient Mayan prophecies, the Book of Revelations, and unexplained worldwide cataclysms are tossed into the mix, creating enough fringe ideas to make an Art Bell radio show listener drool. Ludicrous theories about the origins of carbon 60 are proposed, and the narrative is continually peppered with textbook passages that attempt to ground the science in reality. Pavlou does not exactly strike gold with this initial effort, but regardless of its faults, Decipher remains a semiprecious page-turner. For larger fiction collections.
Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312366965
• ISBN-13: 978-0312366964
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (113 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #520,076 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining read, March 30, 2005

By	C. Bierdrager - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Decipher (Hardcover)

Well-researched and chock full of interesting information - I really enjoyed this book. The characters were very real; Stel really did a good job, in my opinion, with the human element. It was thoroughly interesting and entertaining, my two primary criteria for fiction. Actually, I would give it a 4.5 (not 4).

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Over the top and I loved it!, April 8, 2005

By	R. Knowles (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Decipher (Mass Market Paperback)

Art Bell meets Indiana Jones = a blast. I think this is one of those books you'll either get it or you won't. Tons of science and mythology, Reilly action, Cussler adventure, all crammed into a Dan Brown puzzle plot.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Both brilliant and flawed, March 1, 2005

By	Mark Nicholls (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Decipher (Hardcover)

How can a book divide opinion so drastically? I guess the answer to that depends on what you are looking for. I've found myself agreeing with so many of positive and negative comments alike, and have found this novel almost impossible to rate.

There is no doubt that Stel Pavlou has created a fascinating and adventurous novel that straddles several genres - and yes, it really does seem like a big-screen blockbuster. Pavlou has a fine creative talent and the way he interweaves the many mythic tales into this rich tapestry is to be applauded.

Epic novels designed on this scale are supposed to climax with a resonating cruscendo, but I'm afraid 'Decipher' does the opposite. The creative set-up is first class and Pavlou's writing style is initially interesting and unique, but as the story unfolded, it became less credible and awe inspiring. The character development never rose above skin deep leaving me distinctly out-of-love with hero and villain alike, and the ending was way too generic for a novel of such lofty ambition.

What I loved in the first third of the novel - the plausibility of the technological, mythological and linguistic themes - eventually becomes more fantastic and improbable as the tale unwinds - which is a shame because Pavlou has clearly invested a vast amount of research in this book.

Perhaps more discriminating editing would have improved the overall feel; certainly a bigger emphasis on character development would have helped as would stricter adherence to scientific plausibility. I really felt as if many of these characters were there just to explain the science or language, and that reflected in the dialog. Too many characters sound like they were reciting from a physics textbook.

That said, 'Decipher' is still a rollicking good read and once started it was difficult to put down. Pavlou has an imagination to envy and this is a terrific debut novel and I look forward to the US release of his next novel, 'Gene'.