Customer Reviews

The Queen Jade: A Novel (Red Lion) (Spanish Edition)

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

 

 

I've loved adventure tales like Indiana Jones since I was a kid. But let's face it, when it comes to character development, most of them are a bit one dimensional (daVinci Code anyone?). The Queen Jade has all the elements of a great adventure tale - a disappearance in an exotic locale, a mysterious treasure, clues that must be unraveled, terror, jeopardy and a final surprise, but it's much more layered than that. Below the treasure hunt is another adventure that we all go through - unraveling the mysteries of our relationships with the people closest to us. The characters are sympathetic (you know who the good guys are) but they're also complex and flawed, which makes for interesting and believable interpersonal dynamics. The two adventure tales are woven together by Murray's rich, evocative prose. You'd swear you can see that sunset and smell the rich jungle earth. The best of genre fiction plays to the genre's conventions but at the same time transcends them. The Queen Jade is one of those books - a great yarn that leaves you with much to think about even after you've finished the book. I've heard that this is the first of a trilogy. Can't wait to read the next adventure.

This novel reads more like an outline with big holes in both the character development and the plot. Unlike the professional reviews, I didn't mind the excerpts that were the foundation of the historical quest - what bothered me were the characters themselves. I found their behavior to be at times bizarre and had a hard time liking any of them. The situations and the characters' reactions were far-fetched with no surrounding build-up of detail to back up the plot. I give this 2 stars for originality and 0 stars for detail and character development.

Good news for Yxta Maya Murray fans. The Queen Jade is every bit as good as her last book, The Conquest -- and that's saying something. Both books have exquisitely defined characters who display the complexity and unpredictability of real people. Both books transport you through time and place to intriguing worlds grounded in historical fact. Both books provide such rich, evocative descriptions of what the characters see, hear, feel, smell, and taste that you feel you are THERE yourself. Both books appeal to armchair travellers who love exotic locales.

How does The Queen Jade differ from The Conquest? In a few ways. The most obvious difference between the two books is pacing. The Conquest balanced action sequences with contemplative reflections more equally, but The Queen Jade is a heart-thumping, pulse-pounding adrenaline-rush of an adventure, punctuated by brief but searing moments of revelation. Reading The Conquest was the literary equivalent of sipping a delicious liqueur from an ornamental cordial glass in a European drawing room; the Queen Jade is like pounding shots of premium Tequilla with a best buddy in a tropical dive. Both are fun, but for different reasons. Also, both books revolve around an historical mystery, but the mystery in The Queen Jade may appeal more to readers who like codes and code-breaking. Another difference in The Queen Jade is more mythic imagery. The reader feels the pull of the emerald path and the arrow of birds that the adventurers follow deep into the jungle in the wake of the hurricane. My only disappointment with The Queen Jade was that it was over too soon! I look forward to following Lola on more adventures, and hope they will be forthcoming soon.

A final note for readers who like historically based books about codes and code breaking. I liked The Queen Jade much better than Gang of Four. Perhaps in part that's because I'd rather vicariously experience the exotic Guatemalan jungle, teaming with life and the Force of Nature, than the steaming, claustrophic bowels of an Ivy League college dormitory.

OK, i really wanted to like this. I realize its a spoof, a fantasy, an improbably adventure story. But it was just too improbable for me. It wasn't so much the concept I didn't like, but it was based on some assumptions that just rang wrong, and by 22 pages into it I was just annoyed.

Archeologists don't go hunting for rare valuable artifacts to bring home and put on display in museum display cases. They also don't set off on their own to "dig" for two weeks. Archeological digs take a long time, a lot of preparation, and in most cases involve garbage dumps, not treasures. Rare book sellers don't splay centuries-old manuscripts open on Xerox machine glass. The author's entire concept of archeology and anthropology is based on an outdated colonialist model that's patently offensive to modern thought about how we study ancient cultures. I can buy it with the Indiana Jones character because he's set in another era, but these characters resemble modern scholars as much Martians do.

Also, I found the author's point of view about Guatemala's politics strange, unrealistic, and troubling. The way she writes about the people of that country is very colonial and condescending. A couple of places she refers to people as "serfs" and "sherpas" - both demeaning and factually wrong.

The characters are peculiar and unsympathetic. Yolanda's a borderline sociopath. Some of the plot devices are ridiculous. We're supposed to believe that Eric and Lola find the key to the cipher by looking at the image of an artifact on a museum T-shirt - um, if such an artifact has become iconic of the museum, wouldn't it have been studied by hundred of thousands of scholars already? The solving of the cipher ends up being simple word games using an English translation - how hard is that?

Even trivial details are annoyingly wrong - couldn't the author have at least driven up the 405 to visit the UCLA campus? It's not "palmy". And why would a 33 year old woman in 1998 be driving a Ford Pinto?

Well, once you suspend disbelief, it's an OK read. If you imagine it takes place in a fantasy world.

The novel is entertaining, yet lacks depth. The character's actions were somewhat predictable.

The story builds up nicely, yet at the height of the story, the author scrambles quickly to get to the conclusion.

An entralling mystery that is fascinating to read but the part about Balaj K'waill seems a little unrealistic and is hard to believe. However Ms. Murray's vivid discriptions of the setting and the characters make you feel as though you were actually surrounded by emerald green bushes and the sweet tangy jungle fragrances. Also, Ms. Murray's ability to blend romance with mystery is superb!

All in all a great read!

This is a really interesting book, which centers around an ancient legend and a mystery. I found it absolutely fascinating, and I personally enjoyed the word puzzle and discussion of hieroglyphs. Jades and hieroglyphs are not topics we usually associate with Guatemala and ancient Central American cultures, so I think this adds to the book's appeal. It's a great adventure story, which also discusses academic research, puzzles, and translations.

I REALLY liked this book. If you've ever had to analyze a historical text, this book will resonate with you. It's a real page turner and gives some historical contexts to guatemala too. there are a few times when there are coincidences/improbabilities, but I was so wrapped up in the historical puzzle, they didn't matter to me. You should definitely read it if you've ever studied Latin American history.

Lola likes her quiet life as owner of a bookstore. But when her adventuresome archeologist mother disappears in the jungle during a hurricane, Lola is quick to pack up and fly to Guatemala. She enlists Erik, one of her mother's rival colleagues, to help track down clues to her mother's quarry, the Queen Jade. If they can find the mythical artifact, maybe they will find her mother.

Upon arrival, the group grows with the addition of a reluctant guide, Yolanda, who is bitterly resentful of her broken friendship with Lola. Lola's father, who has a dread phobia of the jungle since being trapped in quicksand, decides that love is stronger than fear and joins the search as well. To decode their path, they struggle with historical accounts of past searches and puzzling Mayan pictographs. Will they solve the mystery and avoid the dangers of the jungle?

Murray definitely makes the jungle feel real and immediate; you can almost feel the sweat dripping and see the vibrant colors. Her characters are sympathetic and complex, and she balances the plot between action, scholarship, and relationships. My only complaints are that the romance feels a bit unreal at first, and her complex web of inter-relations too closely resembles a soap opera at times. In spite of that, The Queen Jade is compelling and I think Murray's pacing and plot twists were excellent.

I bought this book at a doller store and wasn't expecting much because of that. But it looked interesting. I was definatly surprised and intruiged. Ended up reading it in one night. Well written, interesting with an intense thrill of discovery! This book made me want to visit these ancient places. I had to settle for buying a wealth of histories on the ancient Maya to settle the curiousity this novel unearthed! I defintaly recommend this book to all!