Rating: 
Summary: Nothing like the movie
Review: I actually read the book several months before I even knew there was going to be a movie coming out. The book is much more interesting and scarier than the movie. It's a page turner with lots of action and a creepy setting with a creature that is full of surprises even at the end. It is certainly a case of don't judge the book by the movie as there are major differences between the two. Including the location and the appearance of the creature, as well as different endings.
Rating:
Summary: Splatter Novel With Brains
Review: I was standing in store reading a movie magazine, studying a list of upcoming movies. The one that stood out was The Relic. It sounded, if it was done right, like a really fun film. I looked up. I was surprised. There, in front of me, was the novel that the movie was to be based on. PAusing only slightly to concider the coincidence, I took the book up to the counter and brought it. At home that night, I read the book, and was impressed. An A-grade splatter novel with brains. It had the thrills and setup of the best Midnight Monster Movies, the scientific musings of a Crichton novel, and the characters straight out of both. The story, if you must know, is about a mysterious monster that lives beneath the New York Museum and likes to eat brains. After it, a young graduate student, a quriky FBI agent and host other police and museum staff. And then there's that big public exhibition coming up... Fun, fast and intellegent, with several memorable characters and some interesting theories thrown in. And the greatest achievent? Reading a novel about a mutated brain-eating monster and being able to take it seriously. Well, seriously enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but not great
Review: The plot-line of this novel is interesting. Unfortunately, the writing style leaves something to be desired. With no character development to speak of, the reader starts to care more about the museam the story takes place in--desiring more descriptions of it--and not the characters themselves. As for the "big secret" of Mbwen, I personally had it figured out within the first couple of pages. On the whole, the book is worth reading once, but not more than that.
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Out of all the thrillers i've read, including some King and Crichton, Relic, without a doubt was the most terrifying. By terrifying I don't me that it was spooky. I mean that you feel like you are actually there, that your life is at stake. The fact that they based it quite accurately in the New York Museum of Natural History adds more to the feeling of reality. I looooove the fact that they provide so much archaeological and scientific background. Whether it is actually true or not, at least they did their homework to know what to say and how to say it. I have to disagree with EVERYTHING that scott truik said in his review. I saw the movie, it is horrible in comparison to the book . . .why did they feel it necessary to move the setting into the Chicago Field Museum? that really bugs me :^) Anyway . . .after i read this book i was looking over my shoulder for weeks. If you enjoy a good thriller, then you cannot deny reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER! DON'T LISTEN TO THE SCHMUCKS BELOW!
Review: This is not really a review, but rather a public comment to those two schmucks below me that said it wasn't a good book. THIS BOOK IS SO SCARY IT LEFT ME AFRAID OF THE DARK FOR A GOOD TWO YEARS POST READING! If you have a life, you will like it. If you don't, you are EXTREMELY STUPID, and need to get a life desperately.
Rating:
Summary: definetly worth the time
Review: Although this book may not be for everyone, it definetly is written far better than most thrillers that I've read. There is a subplot beyond just a scary "monster" and although it takes some time to get into and a few instances of over thinking a scene, it makes you feel like you are really there. The setting couldn't be any more perfect and it's very easy to imagine that you are trapped in the basement. I caught the hairs on my neck raising a few times. It's definetly a book that I will be rereading again in the near future, and is quite a bit better than its sequel. The movie did not come close to doing it justice...read it and decide for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: A waste. A kiddy book
Review: I agree with _Reviewer: scott struik from chicago_ It was just too STUPID
Rating:
Summary: ohmygod
Review: it is absolutely stunning that so many people rated this book so highly. the plot is paper thin, the characters underdeveloped (why couldn't the authors at least have given us more background/history), and the pacing... that's the biggest problem here. the story is so godawful boring that i found myself wishing the museum beast would put me out of MY misery. the last quarter of the book starts to become somewhat bearable, but once the characters travel down their 280th tunnel of the night, does one really care anymore? here's something to think about: the movie version - one of the most underrated horror films in recent memory - is superior to the novel in every single way.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling, exciting...you name it, they deliver.
Review: Douglas Preston and Lincon Child truly deliver a terrifying thriller here. This book has been quoted as "Jurassic Park came to New York City". While I love Crichton, I found this novel much scarier than either Jurassic Park or it's sequel. Definetly a classic, you'll find yourself shifting your body constantly to get comfortable and clenching your teeth as you read your way through this thriller. And compared to it's sequel "Reliquary"? I found it about equal, each book having it's own perks. Another book I would suggest if you liked these two, is the thriller "Hunter" by James Byron Huggins. The monster in Relic and in this novel are very comparable, only it takes place out in the wild and the novel centers more around a single main protagonist. All in all, it takes a monster similar to that of the Relic, and puts it's own very differant twist on it. Very exciting and scary!
Rating:
Summary: Gains Steam
Review: The Relic takes a little while to get going but the pace steadily increases, and unlike many similar novels, the wait is worth it! The setting for this hungry-monster-mayhem thriller is perhaps the best part. Set in the New York Museum of Natural History the book provides a behind the scenes tour of an old, complex, eerie building. After the description of the basement and sub-basement of the murkey museum, you get the sense that a creepy-critter really could go undetected in such a place!
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