Customer Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils (A Bantam Falcon book)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I admit to being a huge fan of Indiana Jones. All of the films are favorites of mine, and the novelizations of the films are good as well. Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils is actually my first Indy book that was not specifically tied in with one of the movies. The tale takes place early in Indy's career and has him going to the Amazon region of South America in an effort to track down Percy Fawcett, the famous British explorer who disappeared searching for a legendary lost city in the Brazilian jungle. The search for Fawcett was what drew me to the book in the first place. I recently read David Grann's new book, The Lost City of Z. It covers Fawcett's explorations in South America and other places and was an extremely intriguing book.

Seven Veils is entertaining, mainly because it is Indiana Jones. The story is fairly far fetched, but Indy's adventures will keep your attention.

Though it's not a brilliant piece of literary prose, the Seven Veils is a fun read. Author Rob MacGregor has carefully included the important ingredients of Indydom. The book begins with the typical crisis involving booby-trapped entrances to lost grave sites. "Tikal, Guatemala-March 7, 1926. The torchlight flickered in the close quarters. The tunnel was tight, the air choked with dust and the dank smell of earth. After two days of slowing removing one stone after another....a hole the size of his arm now opened into a dark chamber inside the pyramid." See what I mean? You're hooked right away just like the movies.

MacGregor continues to combine the true mysteries of history with a liberal sprinkling of fantasy. There is a prologue containing an excerpt from the diary of real-life British explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett who disappeared searching for the legendary lost city of Z. His mystery forms the basis of the Seven Veils book and makes you want to read more about what could have happened to Fawcett in the Brazilian jungle. The fantasy part of the book is pretty fantastic. While searching for the colonel and the city of Z, Indy is captured by a mystical tribe who can control his mind. These blue-eyed tribesmen seem descended from the druids and live in a world where reality is blurred by dreams. Of course the exciting escape involves poisonous blow darts, jumping into river rapids, and cannibals.

It is not great literature - but it doesn't pretend to be so all is forgiven. I gave this as a gift to an adventurous son who travels to Tikal for research purposes and he will enjoy reading it on his next plane ride down.

In this adventure Indy is sent off to South America to find an English explorer who has vanished in the Amazon while searching for a lost tribe. He takes Deirdre along with him, marrying her on the way. Once in Rio they meet with local hostiles who hound them all the way into the jungle where things get murky and needlessly complicated with too many 'dreaming' twists as the lost tribe mess with Indy's mind.

Yawn! I understand that Rob MacGregor is writing to demand and deadlines here rather than from the heart, but come on! The only impressive thing about this book is MacGregor's research into Celtic tribes. Merlin from the previous book turns up again, would you believe. It's probably all nonsense (I ain't an archaeologist) but it interesting theory nonetheless and it ties in nicely with the previous book (Note: Read these order).

Hardcore Indy fans should check it out. Casual readers would be better off looking elsewhere for their fix of pulp.

. . . the plot about the dreaming city was just too weird and hard to work. There were some good parts, some of the exciting adventure you would expect to see in one of the novels (along with a good dash of romance as well) but for me the book just didn't work that well. Now, if Indy had been looking for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great ...

I read the book "The Lost City of Z" by David Grann. He has the advantage of Rob MacGregor of writing that book and being able to referencee "Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils' but he shouldn't have. Grann's account is based on reality and tale checking, MacGregor is a tale of Indiana Jones, not Percy Fawcett. I am a fan of Indiana Jones and "The Lost City of Z" was so fascinating I could hardly wait to get my copy. I have only seen two Indiana Jones films, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Temple of Doom" but they influence me as to how stories about him are to be seen. I read the books as though I were watching a movie, this gives me a frame of reference that is quite a departure from reality and stops me from criticizing events in the story that stretch or even go beyond my limits of credibility. Film normally takes about an hour and a half to cover days, weeks, even years so there is little time to build up character, to set up backgrounds,to explain actions, plot is the main event and action is important, not so much dialogue and monologue is almost non-existant.
Conseqently as I read "The Seven Veils" I followed the book with a mind's eyeview of the actions as a movie. Backstory in the book was a break, better than an ordinary movie, and description or explanation of actions helped to round out the action. Special effects took care of all paranormal events and magic was disregarded. The time was mid 1920's with Brazil highly undeveloped and mysterious. Fawcett was a famous explorer, noted for his expeditions into Brazil so his final expedition, the search for a lost city of rumoured ancient Western European founding attracted greeat attention and his failure to reappear led to many searches for him. Indiana Jones is roped into going on a search for him but he is waylaid several times before he even becomes fully invlolved. As he approaches the lost city his adversaries become bolder and finally interrupt him in person. Before this happens a man and woman from the lost city join them and promise to free Fawcett and bring him to Jones, Jones is not to see the city. Jones boss shows up, he is the one trying to keep Indiana from freeing Fawcett and bringing him back to civilization. The inhabitants of the lost city believe in freedom but hold Jones and his wife, Deirdre as captives, or prisoners, The city needs new blood, they are too interbred to reproduce strongly. Deirdre and Indy will serve as progenitors for five years before they are let go free. Fawcett is already serving as such. The characters Dr. Bernard hired to stop Indy show up at the pilot's ranch but are killed by pilot maneuvers as they all try to fly to the lost city. The group does not fly into the city, they stop outside it so the outsiders will not see the city. But misadventure strikes, a native tribe shows up and forces Jones and his wife to go to the lost city. Fawcett himself frees Indy and Deirdre. He becomes the pilot but the plane crashes and Jones is called back from the dead to continue his adventures. Now is time to move on to the next book in the series.

tags:Indiana jones, brazil, lost city, native tribes, percy fawcett

Start the book with a classic Indy beginning, move to the setup at the museum/college, then get underway. It starts promising, in which Brody is running an exhibit which promotes possible pre-Columbian travels to the Americas which influenced the native cultures. More than just vikings, but ptoltecs, chines, and even celtic druids. Indy is being sent to South America in search of lost explorer Percy Fawcett. Fawcett had been in Sout America looking for the Lost City of Z, a possible Celtic settled city from ages before Columbus' voyage.

Hmmm... Indy, lost city... look for an influencial explorer... legends of outside cultural influences... sound good, but that's about the end of it. Again we have to put up with Deidre, whom Indy marries on the boat trip. Then comes points that the city isn't necessarily lost but rather is 'veiled' from sight. So we got a civilization that can 'turn invisible'. I can even accept that with clever manipulation of camouflage but just mind wiping and disappearing is almost too much. The story had promise but the delivery lacked. Macgregor continues to forcefully tie one book into the other and it seems too forced. Delphi to Stonehenge to Celtic civilizations in the Amazon. Not a strong book and the dreaming/reality sequences were rather messy.

Was Indiana Jones ever married? This book will give you the answer to that question. The storyline to this book is a little far fetched. I enjoyed the continuing love story between Indy and the heroine introduced in last book (Deidre Campbell from Dance of the Giants) more than I did the actual story. Seven Veils didn't quite hold my attention like the first two books did, but it is fun reading and by no means is it a bad book.

The whole point of the book, searching for the lost city in South America, is definitely one worthy of Indiana Jones. However, the book just wasn't written with enough adventure to satisfy me. This is the ninth Indy book I've read, and I must say that I like the way MacGreggor Links Stonehenge, the Omphalos, And the lost city.

I understand that with any successful franchise, i.e. star wars, star trek, Indiana Jones, you will get 50+ books from a multitude of authors. Each one will bring their distinctive writing style, and ideas to the character, and try and produce a good book. Sometimes they are successful, and you can actually picture these characters in the story, based on their movies, and you will get a feeling like Indiana Jones actually had that adventure. When I read an Indiana Jones book, I want to picture the crack of the whip, the smart ass grin, and dangerous happenstances he always finds himself in. If you are a fan of the movies, these types of books are almost surely going to disappoint, but like a sucker, I read them anyway, because I enjoy the character, (movies), so much. This book did not stay true to the Indiana Jones character whatsoever, and should be avoided like a piece of bad fruit. I did think it was interesting though, that the picture of the author on the back cover looks like Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Maybe it is, in a sense, Belloq coming back to smear Indiana Jones in an awful book, that has our hero getting married, and following his wife around like a puppy. This is an imposter Indy, and in no way resembles the one we know and love. The author has our hero getting outsmarted, and outclassed at every turn. He is a bumbling archaeologist, who is love sick, and pathetic. We are also treated to some mumbo jumbo religion from nowhere Africa, which takes up way too many pages. I realize every one of the movies has a supernatural element to it, and that this is always intregal to the story, but the author of this book takes up like, 3/4 of the book with information on it, rituals in detail, and all kinds of goofy dreamlike trances, gods(lower case), and meditations...(sigh). Basically this book was a complete waste of time. I will keep reading, though, and hope to find the Indiana Jones I loved as a kid in one of these books.

Okay this book started well, Just one mythological thing(the city)he didn't take it too far(kept it in line with the temple of doom) AND THEN HE PUTS MERLIN IN THE BOOK! What was he thinking? Does he have to put a dead mythological guy in every book? Come on Rob, Merlin had NO PLACE in this book! It would have been one of your best! Too bad man, Too bad!