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26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent fiction based upon historical people, February 19, 2005
If enough people knew about this book to put it on the best seller list, I have no doubt it would become the phenomenon that is The DeVinci Code. That's how good this book is.
The book is built upon that much debunked but won't die theory that one or more of the Romanov children escaped the basement in Ekateranberg where the rest of the Imperial family was murdered. Because the escape of at least one child, Anastasia, is a well known urban myth, the plot will feel familiar to those who don't know a whole lot about the former Imperial rulers of Russia.
The plot is plausable once you get over the fact that the entire urban myth about any Romanov's surviving the murder scene is laughable and has no basis in reality. But getting over that isn't hard if all you want is a good read. It is, after all, a fiction book.
The chase and escape scenes are at least as well done and believable as those in The DeVinci Code with the exception of one towards the end of the book. But because it is fiction, I'm inclined to give the author a pass on that scene.
The premise of a Russian return to tsarism in the book, while far fetched, isn't out of the relm of eventual possibility as Russians search to rid themselves of the mafia style oligarchs that have hijacked their attempts at dimocracy and find a style of government that actually can deliver on its promises.
The author has also provided an extremely well designed premise for how Anastasia and Alexi could have survived the murder of their family and stayed in hiding throughout Lenin and Stalin's regimes. He builds well upon the Russian hiding of so much in their archives and Stalin's well known paranoia. If anyone would have gone to great lengths to cover an escape up had he known about it, it would be Stalin.
I also give the author credit for not claiming, unlike another well known author, save for some quotations from Rasputin and character sketches of some of the dead Romanovs and other people that appear in the book, that ANY of this fiction is real.
If you're looking for a good read based upon real historical people, this book is it.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pure escapist thriller only - don't look too deep!, May 15, 2005
Communism has fallen and the Russian people, not convinced of the value of a western style democracy, have decided to return to the monarchy. A specially appointed commission is about to annoint a new Tsar, the most logical alternatives being the living relatives of the Romanov family executed by revolutionaries in 1917. The Russian Mafia and wealthy American business elements, including Taylor Hayes, senior partner of a major US law firm, are not about to let go of the reins of power in Russia and lose the position and wealth they've amassed. They'll do whatever is necessary to ensure that their puppet, Stefan Baklanov, is the candidate chosen by the commission to accede to the throne and have asked Miles Lord, an associate in Hayes' firm, to investigate Imperial Russian and early Communist historical records to ensure that Baklanov's claim is the best it can possibly be. When Miles' archival search begins to uncover evidence that might jeopardize the Mafia's plans for the outcome of the commission election, the proverbial thriller messy stuff hits the fan. Of course, the chase is on to eliminate Lord and make sure the evidence is destroyed!
At one point during his seach, Miles Lord was deep in thought in the stacks of a Russian archive library, examining some recently de-classified top secret papers. When he was interrupted by Semyon Pashenko, professor of history at Moscow University, he commented " ... I was back in 1916 for an instant. Reading this stuff is like time travel." How appropriate for Berry to put such a statement into the mouth of his hero. I completely agree - that's exactly what reading a historical thriller should be! The transition from meticulously researched background to speculation, then into fiction and full throttle thriller and back again should be completely seamless and effortless. From this viewpoint, The Romanov Prophecy succeeds reasonably well.
But, insofar as the modern thriller part of the novel is concern, Berry's efforts are pretty weak fare. The love interest, Akilina Petrovna, a circus gymnast Lord meets during a train sequence in one of the overly frequent chase scenes, is cute, cuddly and warm. But, what the heck, she's mandatory! Who would expect a novel like this to be without some version of a femme? Orleg and Droopy, the Russian Mafia thugs are perhaps intended to be comic in some fashion - who can forget Mr Wint and Mr Kidd from 007's "Diamonds are Forever" - but their hapless efforts to chase down Lord only get them recognition as "Dumb and Dumber". Character development in general is one-dimensional. In particular, Berry makes no attempt at all to explain why Lord and Petrovna were destined to fulfill the roles of the Raven and the Eagle in a multi-national achievement of a 100 year old prophesy babbled by Rasputin just before he died. We are left to merely wonder what happened to the Russian members of the power cartel after Thorn's ascension to the throne and Baklanov's failure in the commission's vote!
Don't go into this one with high expectations! If you're looking for a pure escapist thriller, you won't be disappointed - the scenes with the gorillas and the Russian borzoi hounds are pure Hollywood gone right over the top. Forget trying to find anything deeper - it just isn't there! Sit back, read, enjoy and have fun - don't think too hard about it.
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52 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cross between John Grisham and Dan Brown (DaVinci Code), August 2, 2005
I had such high hopes for The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry. Most people know the tragic fate of the last tsar and his family, and rumors have swirled for almost a century about possible survivors. When the remains were exhumed in 1991 and the skeletons of two of the royal children were missing, it just added fuel to the fire. Berry took the known facts, and added lots of fantasy to embellish this tale. But somewhere along the line, he dropped the ball.
The Romanov Prophecy opens in modern day Russia. The Russian people are tired of the lawlessness and economic uncertainty that have plagued their country since the fall of communism, and have decided to restore the monarchy. A 17 member independent Tsarist Commission has been appointed to find the "true" tsar. There are nine or ten Romanov claimants that need to be investigated. Stefan Baklanov seems to be the frontrunner, and his claim is bolstered by a secret group consisting of government officials, the military, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Mafia and a group of American businessmen with companies in Russia. Their goal is to bribe the members of the Tsarist Commission to make sure Stefan assumes the crown, and then control the new tsar like a puppet. The American's are financing this plot through an American law firm, Pridgen and Woodworth.
The main character, Miles Lord, is an African American lawyer from South Carolina who speaks fluent Russian. An employee of Pridgen and Woodworth, his job is to sift through Russian archives to find anything that might affect Baklanov's claim to the throne. After weeks of research, Lord finds documents (one from Lenin) that allude to the fact that several of Tsar Nicholas II's children survived the massacre in Yekaterinburg. But this new evidence now proves dangerous to Lord, and those representing Baklanov now want Lord killed. Lord gains the assistance of a beautiful acrobat in the Russian Circus, and together, they try to flee those trying to kill him. He is assisted by a secret organization, and must find clues and solve puzzles to discover the true secret of the Romanov's fate. Of course, he also must travel extensively at breakneck speed. In this sense, The Romanov Prophecy reads like John Grisham meets Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code).
While I enjoy historical fiction and I am not opposed to a little fantasy, The Romanov Prophecy is just too unbelievable. The fact that the Russian's would restore the monarchy is perhaps the biggest stretch of all. Also, do we really think that so many Russian factions (mafia, church, military, etc.) would all agree on anything? Or that two Russian mafia goons and a corrupt policeman could travel the world chasing Lord, without any problems with passports and visas? Or that the FBI and American police would be so easily fooled by the Russians without double checking? Or that the KGB has informants in US banks where they monitor bank accounts and safety deposit boxes that might still contain tsarist gold? Also, Lord is supposed to be a brilliant lawyer, but he's totally clueless in figuring out who is betraying him (it takes more than a house to fall on Lord).
So while I enjoyed The Romanov Prophecy and was anxious to see how it played out, I just think it had the potential to be so much more. Still, I gave it three stars as it combines two of my favorites-Romanov history in a mystery setting.
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