Customer Reviews

The Lucifer Gospel

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

If you're a Dan Brown fan and are looking for more revelations, mysteries and puzzles, be warned that this isn't the book for you. Sure, the cover says "The Lucifer Gospel" and the blurb says "an earthshaking truth", but in fact this is more an Indiana Jones-type archaeological adventure with the requisite bad guys, secret passages and creepy crawlies, except that some of them are underwater.

The star, Finn Ryan, is female (which is great) with a multi-purpose macho sidekick to do the rough stuff, but she quickly proves that she's not going to hide in his shadow at crunch time. Starting with an archaeological expedition in the Sahara, Finn and Virgil (the macho sidekick) find a lot more than they originally bargained for, and when they uncover an ancient medallion with an inscription about a secret gospel, their adventure takes them across continents to an under-whelming finale.

Author Paul Christopher won't win any kudos from the tourism boards of Egypt and the Bahamas, and although this is a fast paced action/adventure, if you're buying this based on the blurbs, you'll find it a devilish deception.

Rated: 3.5 stars


Amanda Richards, August 29, 2006

I picked up this novel in the Orlando Airport and had managed to finish 1/3 of it by the time my plane touched down in Albany. Mr. Christopher is very adept at setting up scenes and moving the action along at a breakneck pace. The weakness of this novel is Mr. Christopher's inability to flesh out his characters and plot which would have turned this novel into a first rate Preston/Child thriller rather than a sketchy travelogue.

Not to say that "The Lucifer Gospel" isn't entertaining. The novel is a fast read with locales stretching from Egypt to the deserts of Libya, Italy, France, the Bahamas and Illinois (how does Illinois fit in with those exotic locations? You'll find out!) Finn Ryan is hired onto an archeological expedition in Libya led by the enigmatic and mysterious Mr. Adamson, the grandson of an infamous evangelist who just happens to be a little bit crazy. She meets photographer Virgil Hilts who also happens to be working on the dig and together they endure numerous Indiana Jones style troubles pertaining to the discovery of a long lost gospel carried by a Roman soldier named Lucifer Africanus (Anyone thinking that the Lucifer in the novel was THE Lucifer will be sorely disappointed)that will reveal stunning revelations that will rock the world... The plot has been repeated many times the past five years but those who like this sort of book will still be intrigued even though the last third of the book is a tremendous let down.

Like "The Da Vinci Code", Mr. Christopher's novel is a nice bit of reading for a summer day, not to be taken too seriously as it is not deep or well written enough to merit serious consideration.

I was so disappointed in this book. Story lines were left unfinished and explanations were lacking. The female main character, Finn, was supposed to be brilliant but there were times she seemed completely clueless and actually dumb. This author is a Dan Brown wannabe without success. The characters were not particularly likable or unlikable. Certain references using teenage lingo are unnecessary, for example, what is a "wifebeater" as a piece of men's clothing. To me, a wifebeater is an abusive man who should be in jail. SInce I don't know what a 'wifebeater" is in men's clothing, I guess I'm just too old for this book. In addition, the two main characters, finn and Hilts, spend the majority of the book just running from various pursuers and little time was spent developing what the Lucifer Gospel really was. Don't buy this book - borrow it.

I cannot believe I wasted my time reading this!! Completely ridiculous plot: Jesus Christ was a regular man and after the hoax of the resurrection he ran off to the United States and lived out his life. What?!? The United States??? Completely stupid and utterly a waste of time! I recommend James Rollins if you want to have a good read!

I think Mr. Christopher forgot to write the end of the book. So these two characters travel around the world for the illusive Lucifer Gospel, a mysterious keeper of the Lucifer Gospel and yet nothing is revealed about it's contents? I thought it was going to be some world shattering revelation within the context of the book.
The whole novel was pretty pointless if you ask me. I don't think I'll be buying any of his other books.

At this point, the joke is on me. I read AZTEC HERESY and found it dreadful, but decided to read this one (by the same author) anyway. It is only marginally better. The first half is actually riveting and well-constructed, with all the trappings of a Preston/Child novel. However, the second half has all the thrill of an aborted sneeze, and the climax brings nothing new to the smorgasbord of Dan-Brown-esque resolutions. Though the characters find out what the LUCIFER GOSPEL actually says, the author apparently feels the reader doesn't care and therefore keeps their contents a secret. This is a huge letdown, and you get the sense the author is chuckling at his typewriter ("Hey, I got myself out of that one! And pretty cleverly, too!") How this author's books keep getting published surprises me, but I guess the fact that I bought two of them on the basis of the back-cover blurbs and read them all the way through partly explains his success.

Don't waste your money on this book - the ending is totally missing, I even thought that it would continue to another book. Waste of time.

The author goes to painstaking lengths to describe trivial details and goes on excessive tangents. The plot is downright boring. Since I cant get the hours back from my life, I can only hope that I can spare at least one person from wasting their time on this literary garbage.

Started off ok but you are never given any information at the end. You never find out what's in the Lucifer Gospel. Kept hoping for a great ending but the author forget to put one in. Don't waste your time or money.

This so-called book is a complete waste of time - the plot is shallow, characters improbable, events unbelievably stupid, language crabbed... I have no idea how it is possible something as bad as this book can ever be printed and sold! The writer can't build a story at all - it is another brainless epigone of Dan Brown and his editor probably can't read - because if he can I absolutely don't understand how he could let something like this to go to print. Save your brain, save the trees - don't buy this, don't borrow this from the library, steer clear from it (unless you want to suffer or you want somebody else to suffer - in that case it's THE ideal gift!).