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Summary: What a story!
Review: First off, Preston and Child are writing some of the most entertaining and intelligent action/adventure novels being published today. Unlike many of their contemporaries, they can also create believable and compelling female characters. One of the best is Dr. Nora Kelly, first introduced here. Imagine the exotic discoveries of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World and the archeological adventures of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones films. Throw in a fine measure of history, science and gritty realism and you have Thunderhead. This is what my grade school librarian was speaking of when she whispered reverently about curling up with a great novel and getting lost in another world, with great characters, for hours and hours... Of course, if you read one Preston/Child novel, you'll have to read them all. Enjoy!
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Summary: Lost City of Gold found
Review: Familiar Preston & Child heroine Nora Kelly is working as an untenured associate professor at the prestigious Sante Fe Archaeological Institute. While visiting her decaying childhood homestead Rancho de las Cabrillas, she discovers a recently delivered letter from her father Pat. Normally this wouldn't be cause for concern, however her father, also an archaeologist, disappeared sixteen years ago on a dig in the canyonlands of southern Utah. While at the ranch she was attacked by two mysterious masked creatures clad in wolf pelts but managed to escape.Kelly upon reading her fathers letter learns that he claimed to have found the lost Anasazi indian city of Quivira. Quivira was allegedly one of the seven cities of gold the Spanish conquistador Cortez was seeking in the American southwest. The letter also contained some cryptic directions to the site. Funded by Ernest Goddard, the director of the Sante Fe Institute, a handpicked team lead by Kelly is assembled to reconnoiter the legendary city. Among the team are Goddard's gorgeous and cunning daughter Sloane and the irrepressible journalist Bill Smithback. Undergoing tremendous physical hardships the team navigates its way through the tortuous route that leads to the site. Quivira proves to be beyond their wildest expectations, a veritable treasure trove of priceless artifacts. Further investigation reveals the city to be a center for witchcraft, evil sorcery and bad karma. A graveyard of bones brings up the possibility of cannibalism. Quivira proves to be a magnificent and priceless archaeologic find that harbors some deep, dark and terrifying secrets. This was not one of Preston & Child's best but in my mind they set a very high standard. The book was both enjoyable and informative but it saddens me to know that I now have read every book they've collaborted on.
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Summary: Disappointed by the science, but a undeniable page turner.
Review: This is the second book I read from Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. As usual, I was immediately drawn to the compelling story of a lost city, and read over 100 pages a day. The narrative is furious and fast and never led down. The characters are surprisingly likeable but predictable. I could guess what Sloane would turned out to be way before the end of the book. However, this is a minor complain in a book made for popcorn entertainment. The only thing I don't like about this book and The Ice Limit (also by Child/Preston) is that there are supernatural elements that are not explain, unlike the books of Michael Crichton. Overall, I felt anyone looking for a good read should pick up this book.
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Summary: Thunderhead - Preston/Child
Review: Preston and Child seem to write two types of stories - horror such as Relic or adventure/mystery such as Riptide. Thunderhead joins Riptide as a well-executed archeological adventure and thriller. As always, Preston and Child develop an almost irresistible mystery and compelling characters. The action is swift and relentless, the setting authentic and mysterious, and the background, as always with these guys, based in fact. Overall, Thunderhead provides an entertaining, quick read with an age-old mystery impossible to resist.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated as a "page-turner"
Review: This book didn't get good until the last 100 pages. It was so boring and oversimplified. The only interesting characters were "Skip", Nora's brother, and "Black" the midden-heap archeologist. The authors need to practice character development. The plot was more of a plod until they actually got to the city, then it picked up. But even at that the whole thing with Sloane went nowhere and was ended in an unsatisfying manner.
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Summary: Overlong but enjoyable
Review: My only real problem with this enjoyable tale of the quest for and discovery of a lost Anasazi city in Utah was its length weighing in ,as it does at well over 500 pages.Some judicious trimmimg , to say 450 pages tops,would have given it a greater pace and sense of momentum.Its a problem I am finding more and more common with contemporary thrillers and I would like to see authors embracing the "less is more "philosophy from time to time.
The main protagonist is a young associate professor of archaelogy at the Sante Fe Institute of Archaelogy,named Nora Kelly.She receives out of the blue a letter from her long dead father purporting to give the location of the lost city of Quivara,abandoned by the Anasazi centuries before.She is appointed director of an expedition funded by the Institute thriugh its charismatic head Goddard.All is not plain sailing however.Tensions break out between the members of the expedition which includes Goddards headstrong daughter Sloane,who feels oppressed by the weight of parental disapproval;a journalist Smithback (from earlier novels by the authors)
The site is a sinister place and the findings unearth evidence of human sacrifice ,cannibalism and the evil cult of the skinwalkers
Soon murder and death by carefully planted virus eat away at the fabric of the expedition and the novel builds to a lively climax involving an enormous storm and attacks on the surviving members of the expedition by skinwalkers
The storm device echoes Riptide and there is a sense of retreading old ground about the book
Even so it is enjoyable enough but a sense of lassitude enters into the mind of the reader as the book plods rather than moves freely toward sits climax.When this does arrive the writing and action move up a gear and the ending is satisfying.Characterization is functional and the writing plain but to the point.
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Summary: Are archaeologists really this dumb?
Review: I've seen too many PBS specials to fall for Gold fevered professional archaeologists -- supposedly the best in their fields. The plot is strait out of Scooby-Doo. Even though I read the whole thing and couldn't put it down -- of course I was stuck on a 14 hour flight to Tokyo -- I found the book completely dissatisfying.
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Summary: A very satisfying read
Review: Thunderhead is the story of a head-strong archeologist on a treacherous search for a fabled city of gold. Her progress is impeded by both her result-hungry team and a pair of antagonists who will stop at nothing to prevent their success. Thunderhead provides the reader with excellently developed characters, plenty of action, and the same entrancing writing the authors are known for. The characters are all unique and well-developed enough that Lincoln and Preston are able to effectively give them the real twists and turns that are so defining in humans. The events that guide the characters are unique and enthralling, and packed full of action to keep interest at a maximum. I gave Thunderhead a rating of four stars, but it really deserves closer to 4 1/2. After finishing the book, I can only think of two real complaints: 1) It seemed to fall a little too heavily into a stylistic groove paved out in their past works. Although I cannot complain about the addition of Bill Smithback into the text (a character borrowed from The Relic and Reliliqy), it seemed strange how he keeps getting into such amazingly similar sequences and made me wonder if he might possibly just have enough bad luck to be the cause of it all! It didn't make me loose appreciation for the book, (after all, the full path is one of the reasons their books are so great!) but while reading it, the similarity of their past works ebbed at the back of my mind. 2) The epilogue bothered me. I felt that the authors could have fit their amazing explanations in better by offering them in a different way. Instead, it came across as isolated from the hundreds of thoughtfully crafted pages before it and made me wish I had put it down 5-or-so pages early. It does, however sufficiently relate the answers to the biggest mysteries and keep the reader from finishing unsatisfied. Despite my small complaints, I found Thunderhead to be a strong book, well worth reading. It follows along with Lincoln and Preston's tradition of fantastic work wonderfully and once you start reading, you simply can't put it down (I finished my copy in less than two days!). I will definately be reading it again and highly recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: A Fast Archaeological Thriller Read !!
Review: A fun and fast read thriller about an archaeological expedition in the southwest. Having been in the area and visited some of the sites they talk about, it has a plausable feel to it; and the weather effects are not unlikely to happen in real life. While a fun read (thus the high marks); the story is a tad short and moves maybe too quickly. But I think you'll find it fun none-the-less. I would add it the "Summer Beach Read" pile.
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Summary: Anasazi and Aztecs and Zombies - Oh, My!
Review: Child and Preston have gotten better with each succeeding novel, and Thunderhead is one of their most recent. At their best, they read rather like adult versions of Jonny Quest: exotic locales, a fair share of mystery, a lot of adventure and intrigue, and just a soupcon of sci-fi or the supernatural. The authorial dynamic duo this time take on the mystery of the disappearance of the Anasazi, and the search for a lost city of gold. Their research is up to date, and their posed solution for the Anasazi's disappearance/demise is quite intriguing. Local color is excellent, and the action superior - Douglas Preston once personally retraced Coronado's journey on horseback, and he does a great job making the reader feel the reality of it. The characters in Thunderhead are what really make it work, though. Bill Smithback, from the Relic books, is much more fully realized here than in his previous appearances. Heroine Nora is as sympathetic as they come: a previous reviewer said Sarah Michelle Gellar would be ideal for the role; they could have gone further, and noticed that the girl who becomes Nora's nemesis could as easily be played by Eliza Dushku, since the dynamic between the two in Thunderhead is a great deal like that of the two antagonistic Slayers in Buffy. The villains of the piece are far from black-hearted ogres, shaded with a very believable moral ambiguity, which is one of the greatest strengths of the book. My only complaint about Thunderhead is that it had to end. I'm given to understand that Nora and Bill are slated to appear in an upcoming C&P book, and that's good, because they started to feel like old friends by the time I was finished riding this long, involving adventure trail with them.
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