Customer Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book makes Martin Caidin's Indiana Jones novels feel like masterpieces. Indiana seems a secondary character in his own book. There was nothing even remotely characteristic about him. Steve Perry writes Indiana Jones as cautious and scared. The action was missing. There are so many characters coming and going that I couldn't keep track of who was who. I was EXTREMELY frustrated reading this book. I couldn't allow any of my friends and family to share in the heartache of this book so it's been thrown away. I would have given it a zero if I could.

The easiest way to determine if this is a book you might be interested in reading is to ask yourself this:

Did you enjoy Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

Are you interested in reading this because it's Indiana Jones, or are you simply looking for an adventure story?

Indiana Jones. Zombis. Sounds great, right? Sadly, no.

I will be straightforward with my biases. As far as the films go, I despised Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Not only was the story profoundly unsatisfying, it focused far too much on peripheral Indy characters (I'm guessing if Indiana Jones had his own version of Entourage, it would look like KotCS).

That said, this book is an inferior story to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I certainly mean no disrespect to the author, Steve Perry, and I admit I have never read his other work, but as an Indiana Jones novel, this fails on multiple accounts.

1. You could easily substitute some other name for Indiana Jones (and a few cliched references to adventures past), and you wouldn't notice the difference.

2. While it might make a decent, general adventure story, it doesn't follow the tried and true formula for a good Indiana Jones story - the initial adventure the viewer/reader sees the tail end of which is not or little related to the rest of the story, the reveal of the MacGuffin, the globe-trotting to exotic locations and piecing of clues, the unusual and intense action scenes, and the big finale. Similar to KotCS (and also largely Temple of Doom), this breaks from the Indy Formula and focuses on simply one linear story in one locale. The sense of adventure definitely hurts as a result.

3. There is far too much focus on the villains and peripheral characters. Every two to three pages followed the same pattern of: Indy & Mac, the German team, the Japanese team, the Haitian bokor (wizard/priest). The constant break in narrative was quickly tiresome. While we gained unique insight into the villains, their thoughts, and even felt sympathy for them (like learning Yamada's family lived in Nagasaki, which we all know had the bomb dropped on it shortly after the events of this book), an Indiana Jones novel is not the place for such lofty aspirations in exposition. It works far better to follow Indy through the adventure, learning the twists and turns as he does.

4. This is an annoying Indiana Jones. Whereas KotCS made him more professorial (i.e. annoying) in explaining things at awkward moments, this book takes it to new heights. And it was particularly grating to keep reading Indy think about how he'll have to get his fedora fixed. We all know that the chances his hat survived all these adventures in one piece is ridiculous, but do we really need the mechanics of how he has a hat guy and how much it costs him? The nonchalant, cool Indy of Raiders and Last Crusade is conspicuously absent.

5. This is probably more a criticism of Lucas, but the Mac character found here and in KotCS is a flimsy, one-dimensional character.

So, while Steve Perry clearly has a decent understanding of Haitian pagan religious practices and Japanese culture (and actually you learn a few interesting tidbits as a result), it just doesn't work for a novel like this.

This book should be a very quick and entertaining read. Instead, I found myself laboring to finish it. Not once, did the Raiders March ever pop into my head. If you want that kind of experience, you would be better off reading the earlier Rob MacGregor books or Max McCoy.

Two and a half stars. I have to agree with some of the other reviewers here. I also have read the Indiana Jones novels by Rob Macgregor and the ones by Max McCoy (skipping the two by Martin Caidin). Those books were really very good. I loved those books. I had hoped that with a big named author like Steve Perry writing, that "Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead" would be another great Indy tale in the long line of tales out there. It's passable, but not all together that "Indiana Jones-ish" if you take my meaning. I mean, if the main character wasn't called Indy, it would be just another adventure yarn. There is some atmosphere here and there, and a few somewhat decent moments if your a fan of Indy and just want to see him get wrapped up in something. But honestly, a lot of the writing here just seems like filler. Don't get me wrong. Its well written and all, but the adventure itself is slow going. This is not a fun, adventurous crazy train ride of a story. Its a trek with a lot of information, and a lot of concentration on other characters aside from Indy himself. When Indy does come into play, there is simply not a whole lot of Indy's famous character here, just bits and pieces. I think I see what Steve Perry was going for in the book, a dark trek on an miserable island in the rainy jungle with Zombies, etc. I see the potential. But on paper, it came out only sort of so so.

I hope Steve Perry will try again, or someone else will.

Having been a fan of the Indy novels and Steve Perry I expected this book to be amazing- and it was. For all the wrong reasons.

The story is the main problem. There ain't much of it, and what there is moves in predictable patterns. Indy and Mac walk in the jungle. The Japanese walk through teh jungle following them. The German's walk through the jungle following them (or was it the other way around... ?). A Haitian voodoo man follows all of them astrally. The McGuffin is lame and is easily found once all the walking is done. Then the bad voodoo guy kills almost everybody. Something happens and Indy is triumphant... I guess.

When Indy tells Sallah, "I don't know. I'm making this up as I go," it's a great and funny line. Indy may have been making it up, but Lawrence Kasdan wasn't. It was an intricately plotted story. I got the feeling that Steve Perry was making it up as he went along, throwing in some interesting facts about archaeology to give it verisimilitude, then throwing in needless crap about Indy's hat to make it boring.

This is the seventeenth Indiana Jones novel I've read (James Luceno's Young Indy novel included) and it's probably the biggest disappointment. It won't stop me from reading Steve Perry, or future Indy novels, but I never will get that time back that it took reading it, so...

I give it three stars because it's Indy. Otherwise it's two stars at best. Let's hope they do more books, and let's hope the author has a story to tell. And let's hope it's nothing lame, like zombis.

I was thrilled to see a new Indy novel after all these years and even more excited that it was being handled by a fairly "big-name" author. Unfortunately, while the story wasn't bad per se, it didn't really succeed as an Indiana Jones adventure. There were times when the book's pacing was too slow and things seemed almost pedestrian (even with Zombies and Nazis running around!). There was no real sense of danger or excitement -- it was like we were being told about things that were exciting, but without the excitement being displayed in the prose itself. It was fun seeing Indy during WW II and there were one or two moments where I could see where the author was trying to go... but overall it fell flat. Go and read the Indy books by Rob McGregor. You won't be disappointed there.

I got a few chapters into this book and had to move on. there was too much time spent setting up situations and characters and getting places and...well, I just expect an Indiana Jones adventure to move along at a better clip.

New Indiana Jones Novel, Wicked! Well that's what I thought when I bought this novel. Rightfully so too! I have all the other novels that chronicle Dr. Jones Exploits up until 1934 when the film series starts. Chronologically Temple of Doom predates Raiders by a year.
When Kingdom of the Crystal Skull starts its 1957 and we learn that prior to the opening of that story Jones was a member of the US military, a member of the OSS. This prompted fans to wonder what kind of adventures jones had between 1939 and 1957.
So here we are with "Army of the Dead" in which Jones and his buddy Mac travel to Haiti to retrieve fabled occult relic the black pearl.
As far as Indiana Jones Adventures go this is kind of dull. For nearly three quarters of this book its Jones and company walking through the jungle with minimal dialogue. The Author Perry spends more time describing the three parties following jones waiting to take the artifact from Jones, and thanks to Perry I know have extranious details on Japanese brush painting technics, bushido training stances and samaurai stoicism.....kind of pointless for a character that is ultimately doomed.
The information on Voodoo and zombi types was pertainent to the story and the bad guy was pretty slick. However too much attention was pulled away from Jones, I feel. Also, what made some of Jones other adventures so damn cool was that he went from one peril to another and the got worse as he went along. Besides the scant zombis that he faces the only Peril that Jones faces are harsh terrain and weather conditions, including torrential down pours, typhoons, hurricanes and one big ass tornado!
There is a bit of Romantic interest in the character Marie, an attractive haitian woman who guides Jones through Haiti on his way to the island of the dead.
If you've read the other Jones novels this ones ends in similar fashion where Jones overcomes incredible odds and turns the tables on the bad guy and gets his artifact. A little disbelief is needed for this story with the zombis and other voodoo magic involved and described.
Props to Perry being on target with the technical specs on all machinery described from handguns, engine types and aircraft model numbers.
Even though this Jones adventure wasn't as action packed as others its a good starting point in chronicling Jones exploits while serving his country.....looking forward to more Novels
Bottom Line.....not bad. More action please.

This review will make sense in it's entirety (I hope), so hang in there.

Like many of you, grew up with Indiana Jones. Totally dig his adventures and I'm willing to forgive a misstep or two.

This entire series provides some of the most uneven writing I have ever experienced. I found the MacGregor books in the series to be a total one-note version of Indy. Indy becomes aware of artifact, dismisses reputed mystical aspects of said artifact. Indy meets girl, Indy can't stand girl, girl somehow linked to artifact. He reluctantly falls in love in with girl, girl reciprocates, loses girl, fight bad guys , recovers artifact and girl. Still is convinced the artifact isn't mystical but admits SOMETHING happened.

This formula is actually not too terrible, the author of the next few books, Max McCoy uses essentially the same one but allows Indy his charm and his smirk but every now and then lets him fail a little , usually due to his pride. Occasionally, for a moment, you wonder how the heck he is going to get out of whatever the current dilemma is.

Enter Steve Perry. Story starts with some promise and as several others have pointed out - dude, Indy and Zombies , it has to be pretty good, right?
Nope, pretty much same formula with perhaps 10% more charm than McGregor and about 90% less than McCoy. Lemme sum it up- Indy wanders around island with the churlish jerk from Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. Wants artifact, meets girl, blah , blah. There's some voodoo, Nazis and Japanese soldiers. It does have the advantage of three antagonists, which at least mixes it up a bit. All's well that ends well, the end.

If you really like Indiana Jones, have an afternoon to kill and otherwise would have been watching bad TV programs, yeah, go for it. If you want a decent Indy story, pick up the series from Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone and continue as follows:
Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs
Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth
Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx

Indiana Jones and zombies; what a combination! That's what I thought, but it is not really exciting in Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead by Steve Perry. Indiana Jones is off to Haiti to search for the Heart of Darkness (a black pearl with special powers). But he isn't the only one - so are the Germans and the Japanese! With all this happening there should be a lot of excitement and action. There are some moments that make this book enjoyable, but Indian Jones is better on screen then on paper.

In this novel Indiana Jones and Mac seek a cursed pearl in Haiti during WWII, dealing with both the Japanese and Germans, who are also after the pearl. It's a good story and a real page-turner, certainly in the same league as some of the other Indiana Jones novels which came out in the 1990s. There were some quirky things with the attempts at German, but you can't have everything.