Temple

Rating:
Summary: New kid on the arsenal block
Review: Two stars are deserved for dwelling in old Inca lore, when the "gold-eaters" conquered the empire, but in the midst of all the modern super action, I got bored. I asked myself: "How old is this author?" Born in 1974, he is now 30, presenting an infantile style and plot: characters have no depth, are not convincing, females are stick figures, Nazis are the villains ad nauseam (every 6 year old knows that...), unbelievable amounts of bullets flare out of rectangular muzzles, ripping everything to shreds including this story, and if you are into details of weaponry, maybe you will enjoy this arsenal. And if you are into astronomy you might understand what the Incan god- statue was made of to be of such lure to modern world destroyers. After 295 pages - far from the end at page 523 - , I lost interest. But then I am female and not into high tech weapons with which to kill mindlessly. In my opinion, this story lacks in-depth development and is caput long before it has a chance to reach a conclusion. Gerborg

Rating:
Summary: Completely unbelievable and yet thrillingly entertaining!
Review: William Race is a professor at NYU that gets drawn into a high stakes game that turns deadly for many of the players. Competing groups, some military, enter into the Amazon Rainforest and battle nature, natives, and even each other on a quest to recover an ancient idol that is thought to have otherworldly properties that could be used to create an extremely powerful nuclear weapon.

This novel is extremely fast-paced and a real page turner, but the exploits of the main character are completely unbelievable. If you can suspend reality and just settle back for an entertaining read, then you will absolutely get lost in this book.

My only real complaint is that this author, as demonstrated by his other works as well, completely over uses italics in an effort to place emphasis on words. It actually gets distracting. As for plot, in all of his books the main character always rescues himself with a grappling hook of all things. It seems trivial, but these two items are oddly annoying. Overall, however, this book is a ton of fun! When's the movie?