Customer Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

After having read all the previous books in the IJ series, this one was a huge disappointment. Caidin's Indiana Jones is nothing like the Indy we all know and love from the movies and the book series. Furthermore, the author continually strays from the storyline established in the first several novels. One wonders if he even read all of them before attempting his story. He also seems more interested in developing a story about early 20th c. aviation and poorly-written spy capers than in writing about everybody's favorite archaeologist. I have read better fan-fic than this one.

... In short, this book was a huge dissapointment.

Martin Caidin has written much better elsewhere, and knows about aircraft, the subject which attracted me to this particular book in the Indiana Jones novelization series. Incidentally, there's no resemblance to real archaeologists here--even in their dreams--but, then, this time around Indy is not very central either.

I am disappointed of my expectation of a pleasant summer confection. The souless characters seem dropped in when convenient, rather than developed (maybe because this IS part of a series, but that leaves a newcomer in the lurch). Dialogue is stilted, even abusive, with numerous disconcerting gaps in conversational flow, and word choices off the mark, like "toothy(?) profanity" or "errant(sic) nonsense." The tone is flat, so you can't tell peoples' feelings unless the author spells it out. Atmosphere is lacking because scenes are skimpily described and undeveloped, passing too rapidly in favor of nastily expressed action, despite some intriguingly precocious technology. I felt mechanically manipulated, uninvolved in the characters or their artificial situations. This book feels like just some product cranked out; the editing is shoddy, lacking in respect for the reader's time. The Indy movies are soaring escapes; this is pedestrian.

I'd previously read one other Indiana Jones novel; 'Indiana Jones and The Unicorn's Legacy' which was an OK read if a little heavy on the archeology and light so on the adventure.
I'm a pretty firm believer that Indy belongs on a movie screen - he lives be means of a sublime combination of Harrison Ford's performance, Steven Speilberg's creative genius, John Williams' music and many other assorted factors that make his world and his adventures exciting and entertaining. I didn't really care for the "Young Indy chronicles" TV show. However, this genre interests me. I was a fan of the "Six Million Dollar Man" TV show - based on the novel "Cyborg" by the same author. So, it was with keen interest that I picked this book up. This preamble is to put my thoughts on this book in context.

On the plus side, the story opens well with some action, mystery and fantastic ideas, and there is an exciting climax. The secondary characters - many are introduced throughout - are interesting and suitably colorful. However, that's really all I can think to say in a positive vein. The Gale Parker character is under developed. Romance with Indy is alluded to and not fulfilled, it's mentioned that she is descended from a witch, but this doesn't go anywhere, she hunts with a crossbow but this is not really exploited either.
Generally there are none of the key ingredients for an Indiana Jones adventure. In fact this adventure should not even involve Indiana Jones. He is not a spy or crime-fighter. There is an idea related to an ancient metal cube that seems to be the impetus for having Indy involved, but this is weak and is revealed very early on as a mcguffin, dispelling any sense of wonder or any reason to involve an archeologist. What follows is a meandring and complicated tale, which rather than being a fun mystery or adventure is simply confusing. As a reader I felt in the dark, annoyingly so.
There is no real connection to the Indy world we know from the movies. For example, there's a major scene in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom' involving a Ford Trimotor and Indy's inability to fly it and the subsequent crash. A Ford Trimotor features prominently in this book, as does Indy's desire to learn to fly it. Despite all this no reference is made to tie the book to the movie. Adding insult to injury is the number of pages devoted to the Trimotor.. I feel like I could probably fly one myself having read this book.

I am an abid Indiana Jones Fan. I have read all 12 books in the series, and Martin Caidin has the worst 2 Indiana Jones books out there. I love the rest of them but Caidin should not have attempted these books. It has nothing to do with Indy's charachter whatsoever, and Martin just had to add his obsession of airplanes on every page of the book. Read all the Indy novel's but the two that Caidin wrote. He should have stuck to writing flight mauals, this was boring, two thumbs down. Caidin is most definatly not Indiana Jones worthy.

My biggest complaint on this book is how far it goes from other Indy stories. It doesn't seem right at all, and I believed that the author made Indy more of a side character, he consintrated on the others too much, and left indy to be a stubborn intolerant person, that wasn't fitting. I also think the action level of the Sky Pirates was low. too many conversations, not enough adventure. Another let down of this book is the absence of Marcus Brody.Overall, It's a pretty good book...not too much of an Indy book though.

I've read several of the Indiana Jones books and I find them excellent reads for adventure and action. Sky Pirates is no exception, but it falls short of most of the books (it fares head and shoulders above Interior World, however). I did like the idea of putting Indy in a team setting, and the pace of the book was very good. But the description on the back cover sounded like it described an entirely different book (none of the action took place in Tibet and there was no discussion of telekinetic power) and there were factual flaws (like Indy talking about Truth or Consequences New Mexico when at that time the name of the town was Radium Springs). The secret organization attempting to dominate the world is barely given a two-dimensional description and a high-level secret meeting in an American underground facility is improbable to say the least, given the context of the 1930s and international political turmoil. Where did all this speculation about ancient disks and ancient flyers come from? It certainly didn't go anywhere. And lastly, the climax leaves too many loose ends: only the secret weapon of the secret organiation is gone. What of the organization itself? Will the rest of the crew deal with them in a later episode? I don't want to make it sound like this is a bad book; really I'm just nit-picking. The author has captured the excitement and suspense of the other books and I am glad that I read it. I'm just disappointed that it wasn't a little better.

I just finished reading two hundred pages of people preparing to do things.

When those "things" happen, they don't happen to the characters. Instead, it's described to them in dry military reports from their colleagues, because the main characters weren't in the area yet.

If you want to read a book where more attention is given to an airplane than to Indiana Jones, and where the supporting characters could easily be replaced by cardboard boxes, you found it.

Not the worst book I've ever read, but close to it. Avoid at all costs.

"Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates" is borderline unreadeable. The characters are cardboard, the plot is cluttered, and there is no action to speak of in this book.

Martin Caidin does a very poor job of writing the character of Indy, as several others have pointed out. His dialogue is long and wordy and uncharateristic of him. He often comes off as being snobbish, a know-it-all, and without charm. The other characters are cliche. There are a couple of pilots, a British one and a Frenchman. They're interchangeable in their dialogue. There's Gale Parker, a witch or something who is with Indy in this book. She's not developed well at all. There are several other characters who come and go when it is convenient for the plot.

I can't express how long winded this book is. As many other reviewers have pointed out, it reads like an aviation manual at times. I understand that most of the story takes place in the air. But that is no reason to bore readers with the inner workings of the plane that Indy and his crew use. Pages and pages are taken up with how the plane works. There's also section where Indy explains in painful detail how to use the camera he's wearing around his neck on the book's cover. Boring!

The dialogue is also extremely stiff. Oftentimes, it's one debriefing after another. Characters explain the events to each other, most likely so the reader can try to keep up. They talk and talk and talk and yet it's unclear what is happening. There's also no action other than a lot of travel.

There is no archaeology in this book to speak of. What Indiana Jones is doing in this book, I have no idea. He somehow gets wrapped up in the government's efforts to stop the titular sky pirates. Indy's involvement somehow is related to fake artifacts that Indy helped create to...uh, well it has something to do with baiting the villains. It almost doesn't matter, as at times it feels like Gale Parker is the real main character. There's no insight into Indy in this book. He's just another person in this unreadable book. Only once does Indy use his trademark whip in combat and otherwise does not fight anyone. Another big error in Indy's characterization, as one reviewer pointed out, is his sudden love of flying. It's quite well known because of the plane sequence in Temple of Doom that Indy knows nothing of aviation. In the book, he doesn't know how to be a pilot but he babbles at length about the details of flying.

The plot is incomprehensible. It revolves around strange ships that begin attacking submarines and stealing cargo or something. I only skimmed the last few chapters. It made less and less sense as it went on. Caidin tosses one "twist" after another. It gets ridiculously daunting.

The last big gripe I have with the book is how it fits with the previous six titles. Rob MacGregor established a specific timeline with his six books. Where Sky Pirates fits is hard to tell. It's clear it comes after Seven Veils because it refers to Deirdre's death and yet when Jack Shannon appears in the book, it doesn't reflect Genesis Deluge at all. Also, Indy is still teaching in London. Why Caidin decided to wedge his book in between MacGregor's is baffling.

I was planning on reading all twelve of the Indy novels. I breezed through MacGregor's and then ran into this one. I do think I'll skip over Caidin's follow up, Indiana Jones and the White Witch, and go right to Max McCoy's first installment.

This book is NOT Indiana Jones.
I have had the whole collection of these Indiana Jones books since they came out in the 90's, but never got around to really reading most of them. Having grown up with this character I can honestly say that Martin Caidin's interpretation of him is by far the furthest thing from the hero we all know and love. The whole books seems like it was a story that was kicked around for a while and Indy was just put in it to sell the thing. It never goes anywhere. Most of the book is technical data on some airplane and told from the point of view of sub-characters - again making it feel like Indy was just stuck in there. Very little real action in the whole thing and you don't really get the plot until page 145! By then, you are hoping that all the wait has been worth it, but, alas, it never pays off in the end. The characters are flat even though the author spends way to much time describing them. I really tried to push my way through this one and that is why my title is "Ouch!"

Read MacGregor's and McCoy's books. They capture the Indiana Jones we all can remember. I can not stress enough about avoiding this book. It will tarnish the world of Jones for a long time.
Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone (Indiana Jones)
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi (Indiana Jones, No. 1)

This book is one of the worse Indiana Jones books ever!....Indy is not a G-man or the leader of some elite strike force...He is an adventurer who is in search of archeology. In general buy the other books and stay away from this one