Customer Reviews

The Last Gospel

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

 

 

I recently read The Last Gospel and am stunned to now come here and read all of the dreadful reviews.

As a commuter, I get to read in two 30 minute train journey each day. The Last Gospel has been my companion for the last month or so on these train journey. Every day I was excited to get on the crammed train and open the book again. I sat at work during the day contemplating stealing a few more pages time.

Now perhaps I am just not the right kind of reader, maybe I don't try to pick out faults enough. Maybe I just don't know how to critique a book. But the only thing that I noticed about the narrative style was that no-one ever asked anything, all question were narrated like "Is this a bad book?" Costas Said. I found that a little odd, but I am not an English major, so what would I know.

I didn't find any of the characters lacking development or unbelievable. Lucky yes, but unbelievable, no. I did wonder if I was at a disadvantage though, since the characters seem to have been carried from the previous two novels, which I have not read, so I may have missed some good background information.

As a whole though, I love this book. It made the last book I finished (The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman) look slow and poorly written by comparison. It also held my interest in a more compelling way than did The Da Vinci Code. It may not have been quite as fast-paced, but I feel the historical segments really held everything together. Who cares if it is speculative... at least someone has enough creativity to string together ideas like this. It would be fascinating if one day some discoveries along these lines could be made at Herculaneum or elsewhere.

I have already bought both of the earlier works of Gibbins and intend to read them as soon as possible.

This is the British version of the book published in the US under the name The Lost Tomb.

Gibbins presents his material in an awesome fashion, on the mark and well researched. For those interested in the "lost libraries" of time this is a MUST READ !

If this was a course book for Ancient History 101, it would still be tough to read. A bit of plot forced in from time to time doesn't save it. I have no reason to doubt that the author is good at his first chosen profession, archeology. Unfortunately the book is laden with interminable lectures of parts of ancient history delivered in such a pedantic style that one starts skipping over all of them. From reading other reviews on Amazon of his other books, sounds like this isn't an exception. So read those other reviews before even considering spending your money.

Also curious that this is only available as an import. My copy was rented from a used book exchange so it only cost me $3 to read it. Still not worth it.

This guy seems to know about archeology and some of his info related to underwater archeology was informative. Otherwise, what a waste of time to read such a clunky writing style. He doesn't trust the reader to have the sense to follow a story but continues his effort to bring the reader along by poor choice of dialogue to " make sure we get it." A little narrative would work 100% better. Otherwise, the "coincidences" the character encounters to tie the story together are so terribly implausable, it was hard to even continue reading. Then in the end, there are so many loose ends, I felt like the idiot for wasting my time. The one positive is I should continue my writing career since obviously it is possible for anyone to get published if you happen to get lucky one time.

(Published in the United States as "The Lost Tomb")

I picked this book up in the UK after browsing a bookstore there, so I would have something to read at the airport and on the plane ride back to the States. I was looking forward to it, a cross between Indiana Jones and Dan Brown it said on the back, and I thought, 'How can you go wrong?' I was sorely disappointed. It is the worst book I have EVER read. And that's saying something, because I've read a lot of books. I couldn't even finish it and the only reason why I got 80% through the book is because my nine hour flight to the States didn't have On-Demand entertainment and I didn't want to watch The Pink Panther II.

The plot is thinner than the gruel given to poor Oliver Twist. I think the author has never heard of the Suspension of Disbelief. You know, that we suspend our disbelief, if you provide us with a riveting and well-told story. Well, there is no story here, it's more of a lesson in archaeology as told by the driest professor your mind can conjure up. He acts like his readers are idiots. Hello?! Most people who read a book within this sort of topic usually have a cursory knowledge of history. I don't need a review of it all and certainly not in the bland way that the author has presented it. Indeed if it weren't for all the exposition of historical facts, there'd be very little left.

There are pages and pages of historical exposition by the main character to his friend who is supposed to have a college education, something that I think the author assumes his readers don't have. And the expositions are not even incorporated into the story, what little story there is, that is. The main character just talks, as if he's in front of a classroom.

When they are not giving the reader a lecture about the history of this or that, they're doing very absurd and implausible things, and as mentioned above, there is no suspension of disbelief, so the absurd stands out like a sore thumb. They find "the greatest find of the century" multiple times, all in the course of a few days, and it seems with little effort put forth on the part of the protagonists. It's more like an archaeologist's wet dream than anything else. Indeed, it seems to me that the author has simply compiled all the artifacts/tombs he wishes he would find (with ease I might add) and put them on paper and sent it off to a publisher, with no attention to the fact that he was supposed to be writing a novel.

There is no character development, as in none. The characters are all flat, one dimensional, with very little emotion. They do not grow through the story, and it seems that the only reason they're in the story is because they want to give you a lecture. There is also a severe lack of detail, both to the characters and their environments.

David Gibbins, Dan Brown you most certainly are not. Dan Brown's books are a million times better written than this one, if that gives you any idea about how dreadful it is. It was a waste of £7. On the bright side, if a book this bad can get published, then I should have no problem finding someone to publish the book I'm writing.