Customer Reviews

The Lost Temple

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

 

 

Tom Harper has written some really amazing and fascinating adventures, in the "historical fiction" genre. Starting with his great series with Demetrious Askiates in Byzantium during the first crusades, Tom Harper continues his writing, with a story taking place shortly after WWII.

The Lost Temple opens up on the invasion of Greece by the Nazi's in the beginning of WWII. We are introduced into our cunning main character, Grant. As a disgraced ex-special solider, he eventually turned to gun running for the Jews before there was a state of Israel. He had been giving a mysterious tablet, with a language not yet deciphered, and dating back to over 3000yrs ago. Uncoded, this language, Linear B (a real language which was deciphered in the 1950's), would be a map leading to not only the worlds most historical and mythical treasure, but something that could change the future for all human kind.

Grant finds himself in the company of a British "spook," an Oxford professor, a CIA man who only goes by the name of "Jackson," and a former lover and patriot of Greece, Marina. Hot on their trails are the Russians, former Nazi's, and a wild adventure leading them across the middle east, and all around the Mediterean Sea and the Black Sea.

Now, before saying, "Yeah, i've heard this one before," I don't think comparing this book to the "Da Vinci Code," is the best comparison. It is closer tied to the Indiana Jones series. Tom Harper's writing is very sharp, and you can tell he took great pains to do the immense amount of research for this novel. Not at one point did I ever feel that I was reading a text book, the history flowed naturally from the characters, and seemed real.

You might as well call his a 1940's historical action novel, because that is exactly what it is. Through the almost non-stop action, we learn about what our hero's and "gods" were, or could've been like, all while on the race to find our most precious treasure, of a man that will forever live on in name, no matter how long.

Readers who enjoy history, historical fiction, puzzles and adventure are sure to Enjoy Tom Harpers, "The Lost Temple!"

Now I'm not one to quit a book in the middle of reading it, but if I were, I would have quit this one. There are some glaring omissions firstly. The blurbs on the front and back covers make numerous references to certain things - on the front "...the world's deadliest treasure," "Fans of thrillers with an Indiana Jones angle...", and the back "The secrets of the distant past may hold the key to the newest threats of the modern world..." (I guess the operative word there is MAY) and actually the summary on the back references "a dangerous prophecy...drawing near."

I'm a pretty generous and forgiving reader, HOWEVER, this book suffers from an extremely weak plot and wooden characters. The main character, Sam Grant, has very little depth to him and is quite shallow, as are the rest of the group who the author assembled for no good reason. There's Jackson the American who is there simply to curse and be stereotypically "American," (thank you British author), there's the obvious love interest Marina, Reed - the only character who actually causes the plot to advance, Muir, another angry cursing type, British this time.

I felt like I did after watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, in a sense, "ehhhhh."

There is no mention of any prophecy in the book, not really as interesting or exciting as an Indiana Jones entry (SPOILER - I'm really disappointed in the treasure that they are after, I mean, REALLY? It's kind of stupid and has no real impact on the world - as the blurbs would lead you to believe. In sum, the object of their quest is just plain silly and stupid, however I compliment the author on his research.)

I've no idea why the author did this, and maybe only I care, but for a book that sticks closely to Grant's perspective, the illogical switching about 2/3 into the book makes no sense. Why after 250 pages did he feel like the random Russian soldier gets to be the focal point? Or why after following Grant's perspective nearly the entire time do we jarringly switch to Marina? It just doesn't make sense. Also on an editorial note, there were instances in the middle of a large conversation where the author doesn't clearly state who is speaking - now maybe this is just my gripe, but I actually found myself on more than a few occassions not really certain who was speaking. When everyone in the group is talking, and there is a clear indication of a new person saying something, but no indication of who it was, not even by inference on the reader's part, that's just annoying.

So in sum, I would probably not recommend this book, given the number of really good adventure novels out there. I had hopes for The Lost Temple...but it isn't compelling in any way. I honestly just don't care if they find the Temple or not, or the silly and stupid treasure for which they are nonsensically seeking. Again, great research and I did like that this was about Greek history...but come on wasn't there anything more interesting for the group to go after?

Did there really need to be a semi-graphic sex scene 2/3 through? Really?

I had a lot of those moments while reading this book, where I just sat back and thought, "Mr. Harper, really? Was that totally necessary? (or) Couldn't you think of something more interesting???"

Unless you REALLY have no options, and I doubt that possibility, I would stay away from this book...it just isn't interesting at all.

Find the treasure or not, I'm not really compelled to care...and that is the death of any adventure novel.

This is an amazing book, well written . My only critisism is that I couldn't put it down. I am relly looking forward to reading more of his books.

The book is messy compound of Indiana Jones and Ocean's Eleven. The only positives are interesting plot and good author's narrative skills.

Great read. I couldn't put it down. The pace is fast similar to a good Indiana Jones novel but the historical elements move it more towards a Da Vinci style book.

This book took a bit for me to get into, but once the people actually started on their quest it took off. I enjoyed reading about the places that the team visited, especially how they figured out where those places would be based off of different "stories" told in antiquity. Though I do think that the end would never have happened with a modern archeologist, it fit who the characters were, and rang true to the story that Harper had created.

It started out well and I enjoyed the historical references, but it was a little too predictable. Also it seemed like it was written in 1950 not 2009. The female lead was always impeccably dressed no matter where they were and often in a dress. And there was no sexual or romantic storyline, no attraction. I found it a little lame.

Too slow and too much infomation filling too many pages. Action is too contrived and rather silly. Lacluster Indian Jones rip off.