Customer Reviews

The Lost Tomb

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

 

 

Actually, a terrific concept for a thriller. To follow the written word of Jesus through two thousand years is no small feat. Neither is keeping a reader's interest through some of the wordiest dialog in recent memory.

"Dialog" is perhaps too strong a word. "Lecture" comes to mind as the protagonist Jack Howard constantly needs to teach his companion Costas about this or that historical event, item or myth. For an MIT educated sidekick, Costas makes Gabby Hayes look like Stephen Hawking. Nonetheless, Jack's multi-page ramblings are an interesting take on a period of time that is endlessly fascinating.

Mr. Gibbins' editor needs to seriously lighten his or her workload and take the time to actually read the manuscript before publication. In most 500 page novels you'll see the word "murmur" once or twice if at all. David Gibbins slathers it on at the rate of nearly once a page and in the most inappropriate spots. It is not a term that should be overused in a thriller. Indiana Jones probably never murmured anything in his life.

But lacking Eco's finesse.

If a book is advertised as a "cross Indiana Jones with Dan Brown," you have a different set of expectations. This book dissapoints.

The prologue is great and full of promise. Than, as also the other reviewer pointed out, there was an overload of information.Which slowed the pace, and I have to admit even when the author described the excitement of discovery of the ship of St. Paul, I didn't share his excitement. Lots and lots of info,and don't get me wrong: I love thrillers with good information, well researched, and the author has fine credentials. But there is too much detail, which slows down the pace.

Here the action was not gripping, as it drowned in dialogue between the characters, who actually should know most of the info in the first place as they belong to the world of academia. (Maybe Costas would be excused, he has other area of expertise). So, one star down, as for me the action started to really take off around the page 200, and started to be really good around the page 300.

The mistakes in the foreign language were charming, like for example confusion of gender,or "liederhosen" ("song pants" in German).etc. And was a pleasure to see the author using Latin so much, Latin gave the book more sense of authenticity. The author also touches on the scholary controversy relating to the island which was in Greek manuscript written as Melite, the tradition says it was Malta. (However, there was another Melite, close to today's Dubrovnik, the author doesn't mention this part of controversy among scholars). Also he describers the Gospels as altered as much as it would happen with oral traditions.I think it is Dan Brownian moment, which I don't like. Yes, some manuscripts of Antiquity were mistranslated, miscopied, things were added "at a whim," but the gospel is unique in this regard. Actually later version and earliest version of the manuscripts are amazingly similar,not much mistranslations or mistakes.This is what is unique about the New Testament manuscripts.Why I write this? Some things need to be taken " with a grain of salt" as the author writes. I am surprised a scholar wouldn't know this. I am taking this info with grain of salt. But never mind.

There is also murderous Catholic church, Vatican. (Yawn, this again?).Naples is described as if this were a nest of crooks, mafia, and in general a purgatory on earth. And things are easy to predict.One star less.

The character of Costa, a MIT educated engineer is thin, he seems to not know too much and Jack, the main hero, Jack, needs to explain things to him, history, etc. Costas is here in order to give the main hero an opportunity to give lectures. Even though I got used to the constant lectures in this book, after some time, the characters didn't grip my sympathy so much. One star is gone.

Than Mr. Gibbins has so much knowledge, it doesn't even compare to Dan Brown. One star given.Both authors make Catholic church a murderous organization, hell on Earth, mafia-like. Luckily, the church is not even in part as murderous as both authors describe it. And I am glad, because if the church would have murderous monks and priests, I can imagine both authors would get both of their eyes black.(Sorry for being flippant, couldn't help myself).


Getty Villa fans: don't get excited like me when I started to read they are approaching this wonderful place. Not much describing, and from the description I think the author wasn't there, or visited this place such long time ago, that he doesn't remember it well.Never mind, but my initial rush of adrenaline when I read the words "Getty Villa" was gone in seconds.

I will read more of the author's books, I think he has very interesting ideas, a lot of knowledge. This is exciting.I think I probably could enjoy this book more, if I were not introduced to this book by the two sentences posted on the cover, comparing the author to Dan Brown and Indiana Jones.

Well, I have to start with commending the author on all of the great historical facts. I know that they sometimes became almost a diversion from the plot - but I was able to put the plot on hold to enjoy the great tidbits of history and architecture.

That being said, I have to agree with other reviewers that mentioned the lack of adventure and slow pace. The plot really lent itself to great suspense and adventure but the novel itself never really made it there. I know someone else already mentioned that the Catholic Church as horrid, murderous keeper of secrets is becoming kind of a yawn - but I'm game if the plot is interesting and paced well. I'll admit that the plot was somewhat interesting but it was paced so slow that it was hard to stay interested for long stretches. All in all I would say it was just OK. It's obvious that the author is very knowledgable and does great research. Hopefully, any further novels will improve the pace and action that this one lacked. Also, his editor really needs to put in some extra time on his next novel. There really were some pretty glaring editorial mistakes that just made it hard to enjoy the book as a whole (see below).

**SOMEWHAT OF A SPOILER**
When I reached the end of the book and read the flashback to the meeting between Claudius and Jesus I was really put-off. At the beginning of the book Pliny the Elder and Claudius are discussing the manuscript and it is simply stated that the text is written in Aramaic and written by one who is not used to writing often. It is heavily implied that Jesus actually wrote the manuscript. At the end when the meeting is finally revealed - the manuscript is written in Greek and Claudius wrote it. It really annoyed me that an error regarding the main part part of the plot (an actual Gospel written by Jesus) was not caught by either the author or the editor.

This book is published also as "The last gospel" and no warning. I bought both and I am a very unhappy customer because this is not the first time the same book is published under different names.

I love historical fiction but this book got way out of control very early. It started with a search of a sunken ship believed to be of St. Paul. Then they happen to fall upon another artifact, then another finding, then another... it just didn't seem believeable after they found stuff no one else ever stumbled upon.. really.. .totally unrealistic...I just couldn't get into the book after the 3rd stumbling upon something as old as Jesue....
Totally lost interest. Sorry...love the concept but didn't make me happy...

This must be the worst book I've read in a long time. I enjoy adventure novels such as those from James Rollins or Steve Berry and was excited about the storyline as described on the back cover, but found it nearly impossible to actually read the book. I did finish it but wish I hadn't spent the time. Rather than action, puzzle solving, or character development (as I'd expect from this kind of novel) I found most of the book consisted of pseudo-history lectures being given to the more ignorant characters in the book. Avoid.

This book started out as a promising read, with many historical facts presented in an enjoyable manner. The plot seemed to be unfolding in a timely way when, poof! Suddenly, the book becomes laden with extraneous information that doesn't serve to further the plot. The result, for me at least, was frustration and boredom. Three times, I tried to get past the chapter where Jack goes to California but couldn't. The excitement was lost for me and I passed the unfinished book onto my daughter. Same thing for her...she lost the desire to read it half way through.

NB This book is also published under the name "The Last Gospel" (UK).

Wow! What a long read! What a lot of details! What a lot of university-challenge lecture-like material delivered under nail-biting circumstances!

Except of course that the circumstances are never really nail-biting - "good" wins through in the end, however many thousands of odds are stacked up against our hero and his helpers. Except, also, that despite being really annoying at times, with too many "Roger thats" and "she said quietlys" as well as being linguistically wrong in the Latin***, it's hard to stop reading because the subject matter is so compelling.

In one glorious romp we have Sicily, Herculaneum, Naples, Rome, London, Southern California, Jerusalem... and three different time lines... the erudition is certainly there and enough imagination to make up for the annoyingly shallow characters and lack of real drama.

I especially enjoyed reading the part in AD23 Galilee where I thought a particularly difficult subject was handled very sensitively....

Read it and see. Not great lit - but a great read!

*** I managed to solve one thing that had been bothering me a lot concerning the Latin after I wrote my original review ; the Boat Inscription, transcribed in two different places as DOMINE IUMIUS, really turns out to be DOMINE IVIMUS.... and to mean, not 'Lord, we shall go' but, of course, "Lord, we went". Pity.....

I fully agree with Robert Weisz. It is not right to publish the same book under different titles without some kind of warning. I also am a very unhappy customer.




The Last Gospel

The Lost Tomb

David Gibbins does a great job at taking historical facts and ideas and twisting them into a historical fiction that could almost be real. This book definately takes ideas from history and makes them into a plausable story. Although his books are not the most action oriented, they contain a great deal of history for those of you who love it. Just make sure you read the Authors notes at the end of the book, for those of you who don't know alot about history, to make sure you know what was true and what was fiction in his books!