Customer Reviews

Riddle of the Sands

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When you open Geoffrey Knight's The Riddle of the Sands, prepare yourself, because you are about to be taken on a nonstop, no-holds-barred adventure that will keep you balanced on the very edge of your seat. This is the second installation of Mr. Knight's Fathom's Five series, picking up where his novel The Cross of Sins left off. The Riddle of the Sands might be considered to be a stand-alone story, but readers not wishing to find themselves a little confused (albeit still entertained) will definitely want to read The Cross of Sins first, because the first novel introduces the main characters and provides important back-story.

This novel is just plain fun. Along with gorgeous men and lightening-paced action, The Riddle of the Sands has an irresistible thread of humor that runs throughout it. Whether we're witnessing a Texas cowboy having a face-off with an irascible camel, our heroes stripping down to the buff to blend in with a museum display, or young Will Hunter goggling at the size of the sexual appendages on dozens of fertility gods, we are almost guaranteed a smile.

Don't expect much time to stop and catch your breath as you read this story. The action is constant, taking the reader from the tundra of Siberia to the Brazilian jungle to the deserts of Egypt, from a bathhouse in Cairo to the streets of Paris and Warsaw. Our heroes face madmen, crocodiles, booby-trapped rooms, and even a ticked-off housekeeper. They are in constant danger, and they tend extricate themselves from one situation only to land face-first into a mess of even greater magnitude.

If I were to extract a theme from The Riddle of the Sounds to go along with the fun, I would say that it is one of father/son relationships. Not only does this tell the story of the character Jake and his young friend Sam, whose relationship resembles one of parent and child, it focuses on the youngest member of Fathom's team, Will, and his tempestuous relationship with the father who disapproves of and denigrates him and dips briefly into the character Luca's search for the father who abandoned him as an infant. In addition, the central riddle revolves around Imhotep of ancient Egypt and a son who does not appear in any history books.

This story has a cinematic larger-than-life feel to it. As I read The Riddle of the Sands, I felt almost as if I were in a movie theatre, popcorn in hand, watching open-mouthed as The Mummy meets Indiana Jones and the heroes face constant danger. The plot follows several different paths as the members of the team split apart and then reunite over the course of the story, and while this has the potential to be confusing, Mr. Knight keeps it all very well organized and tightly choreographed.

Similar to the previous novel, The Riddle of the Sands ends with a number of cliff-hangers that will make readers clamor for more. Next in this series is The Curse of the Dragon. If this novel runs true to form - and I have no reason to believe that it won't - then we are guaranteed a well-told tale filled with action, adventure, humor, and just a touch of romance. Oh, and lots of naked muscular chests.

Really, REALLY bad. All the 5-star reviews must be coming from the author's friends, or people who are very easy to please, because this is HARDLY a 5-star book. As erotica, it fails -- there are only two mediocre sex scenes (three really, but two of them happen simultaneously), with no erotic tension or build-up, so they're not all that hot, and they're all in the first half of the book. The rest of the time, the characters are constantly taking their shirts off to reveal their rippled abs or wide shoulders, and that's about as hot as it gets... which on the printed page, is not very compelling. Sadly, the cover art is the most erotic thing about it. As romance, it fails even harder -- the author seems to be attempting to build romantic tension between two of the characters, but that ends up going absolutely nowhere. As an adventure story, it's downright awful -- cliched, corny, cartoonish, derivative and basically just super lame, but WITHOUT any camp or humor to redeem it. Looking for compelling characters? There are none -- they are all two-dimensional (at best), and their motives for doing what they do are unclear, especially the villains. In short, it's like a bad Saturday morning cartoon that takes itself way too seriously. I have to assume this is a sequel to something else, because it totally fails to explain who the characters are or how they know each other -- it assumes the reader already knows, which is just bad storytelling.

Bottom line: if you want a compelling gay erotic/romantic read, or else a good adventure tale, or good storytelling, or well-drawn characters, or even something with just an ounce of intelligence or wit, this has none of those things.

This is a great adventure...fast paced, erotic, exciting. It has a bevy of hot bods and bouts of hot sex. Unfortunately, it also has predictable and repetitious plot lines, twists and situations. If anyone's naked expect a fight and a flight sans clothes. Gets annoying after a time or two.

Riddle of the Sands opens with a bang and doesn't stop, not even on the last page.

My first clue that this was going to be even more exciting than The Cross of Sins, something I thought was impossible, was when the walls of Laptev prison in Siberia where Professor Fantom and Shane were visiting, literally blew out by a bomb. Their escape from Siberia is the stuff of movies as they battle ice, treacherous weather conditions and a deranged killer. The adventure continues without stopping for anyone to draw a breath, as the 5 protagonists race to find an antidote for a slow acting rare poison, the Deldah-sha orchid, that is killing Sam, Jake's unofficial ward.

This story is exceedingly complex with more action than any reader could expect, starting with 2 kidnappings, and the guys must race against time to find the key to the Lost Pyramid of Imhotep which disappeared thousands of years ago, and unlock the riddle, before Sam succumbs to the poison that's gradually taking over his body.

The trek takes our heroes from Berlin to Paris, to New York, to London, San Diego, Brazil, Cairo, the Amazon and countries in between. But for me the most thrilling part of the book was in the Nile Valley, Egypt. This was such an exciting sequence that I won't even attempt to describe the danger and the impossible escapes that happened in the nick of time. I'll just say that Will should have been dead. No human being can survive the punishment he endured.

If you think the book is all adventure, racing from one country to another, you could not be more wrong. The sex is so hot it could peel human skin. You definitely won't be disappointed since there is sex and lots of it in the book.

I didn't think that Geoffrey Knight would be able to increase the heat level in Riddle of the Sands from book 1, The Cross of Sins but he proved me wrong - from the action/adventure sequences that are indescribable, to the wonderful characterizations and the sex. Riddle of the Sands is for the true adventure lover. This is not a book for sissies because the action sequences are so intense I felt as if my heart was pumping on adrenaline alone. This story takes off right after The Cross of Sins ends and it's not a standalone book. You must read the first book to get a sense of the characters because the strength of the series is definitely the characters. All of the bells and whistles, wonderful though they are, pale when pitted against the 5 men who are the stars of the books.

This story sizzles with fun, sex and adventure. I could not put it down - it was like a drug. The characters sparkled, the prose and dialogue were outstanding and Riddle is better than The Cross of Sins which I didn't think could be topped! If you're looking for a series that will entertain you, grab you by the throat, make your heart go into overdrive, and give you 5 of the hottest men, gay or otherwise, who are so sexy and who put out at every opportunity, then run don't walk to your nearest book store or online bookseller to buy a copy of Riddle of the Sands.

Wow!! This is very similar to the Indiana Jones movies...only with a gay twist.
Adventure and drama...villians here and there...suspense and some erotica thrown in here and there...but don't expect a lot of erotica because it's not there.
If you liked the Indiana Jones movies...then you'll enjoy this book...if you didn't and are looking for a book of erotica...pass this one over.

Partway through the book I found myself not caring very much about the riddle of the sands. Complicated plot, confusing characters, and poorly written. More science fiction than adventure. Carniverous plants that can swallow an entire human? A pyramid able to move by either weight of water or of sand? The technology seems improbable for the people of ancient Egypt or even for us today. The action may be fast paced but it is endless and meaningless and boring. And neither erotic nor much of an adventure.

As soon as I got this book in my hot sweaty hands I started reading and was sucked in immediately. I read the entire novel in one sitting, I could NOT put it down! The Riddle of the Sands is packed with adventure, fun and sizzling men you'll dream about every night! I really loved the first book in this series, The Cross of Sins, and I was curious to see if the author could deliver something as good as the first, but he put my curiosity to rest with every page. This book isn't as good as the first--it's BETTER IN EVERY WAY! By the end of this book not only did I feel like I knew the characters better, I felt like they were my friends and lovers. On top of that, the adventure was non-stop, the puzzles in the temples and pyramids were clever and very cool, and through it all the author still manages to get a laugh in every now and then and bring out some humorous moments. And then there's the sex--steamy, sizzling, sweaty! Don't miss this series, I think it's the gay man's Harry Potter (but for adult audiences!)

I don't think there's something quite like this in m/m books. This series is so full of action, it makes your head spin. The writing might seem clipped sometimes, but it's the way of the author to render what's happening as if it were on the silver screen. It's really like watching a movie and everything is amplified and a little bit over the top. There's never a dull moment and it's enjoyable and exciting.

The five main characters are sexy, smart, sensitive. And hot. There wasn't enough Luca for my tastes, but the youngest of them, Will, had the juiciest part of the story in every sense, even if the angst was about Jake and his friend Sam. I am glad the author is exploring the feelings and weaknesses of the characters, their insecurities. Each book centers on an adventure, but the thread that links the series is never really resolved, like for example Luca's search for his father, Jake's relationship with the problematic Sam and Will's restlessness. The book opens with a scene that involves a character that doesn't appear again in the story, so I think he'll made a re-appearance later in the series. Jake is the one who will probably have the center stage in the next book, so I'm feeling Eden and Shane are being neglected a little bit.

I am very fond of Egypt, so this story was really my cup of tea - or better coffee, since I'm not very fond of tea - and I loved it. I'm looking forward to the next book The Curse of the Dragon God: A Gay Adventure, since the last paragraph of this one left me pretty unsettled.

I TOTALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK. IT WAS GREAT FUN FOLLOWING THE ADVENTURES OF THOSE HOT SEXY YOUNG GAY STUDS. THE SEX SCENES MADE ME HARD THE ENTIRE TIME. LIKE BACK COVER STATED, IT IS LIKE A HOT GAY INDIANA JONES. TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT FOR FAST FUN READ

This was a no brainer entertaining story. I liked it because it was a fast paced page turner. If the 2 or was it 3 sex scenes had been eliminated this book could have been for midschool youths. Still it was a fun read. I wasn't too keen on the relationship (though it is really never explained exactly what sort of relationship it is) between Jake and Sam, as it seems like maybe it might have been a daddy/boy street hussler relationship, but this is so very minor part of the story. I like being entertained and that the book did for me, it was a fast fun read.