Rating: 
Summary: "Dig" your way through the first 100 pages...
Review: and you'll find a pretty good read. Alright...it's not the most believable premise. (believeable, hell!; this ranks right up there with "there's no travelling in the NBA", the Alien Autopsy, and "I'll still respect you in the morning...") On the other hand, if you like over-the-top "Indiana Jones-type" adventure stories, then you'll find this book very entertaining.Character development is a little weak and in most cases, it's really hard to feel very close to "our heroes", but besides that and believability, those are the only major flaws in this book. I've got to admit that once I finally got into the story, this was a hard book to put down. I'm not big on giving too much of the plot line away in these reviews because I hate it when somebody does that. So, suffice it to say, Rollins does a nice job keeping two plots lines going and tying them together at the end of the book. There's a lot of action in the last 300 pages and it's easy to pick out the "bad" guys in this book - a group who's usually not thought of as being "bad" guys, I might add! (I'm sure this won't be on the Pope's reading list.) If you liked Rollins' first novel, "Subterranean", or if you enjoyed "Neanderthal" and the "Relic" books, you'll probably really enjoy "Excavation" as well. And, like a lot of novelists these days, the "door" is left open at the end of this book for a sequel. I smell "mini-series"!
Rating:
Summary: Excavation, An Excellent Summer Read
Review: I got hooked on Excavation when I was starving for more adventure reading from Lincoln Douglas & Preston Childs. I'd read everything by them. Then I found James Rollins and couldn't put the book down. So, okay, the premise was a bit hokey and I didn't exactly buy into the creatures in the land of the dead, but still I wanted to see what would happen. I thought this book was a great summer read, just right for those times when you really want to kick back and enjoy yourself. I do believe his other book Subterranean was better. I loved the twist of having marsupials dinos running around. I think James Rollins has a future and I look forward to reading more of his work.
Rating:
Summary: Good, not great after Amazonia
Review: I read Amazonia first and loved it. This novel was not as well-structured and compelling as Amazonia. Excavation was a really solid idea and exciting premise with the liquid gold idea, but it kind of flattened and got somewhat trite toward the end. I liked it very very much and will read more of Rollins' work definitely.
Rating:
Summary: Excavation, An Excellent Summer Read
Review: I got hooked on Excavation when I was starving for more adventure reading from Lincoln Douglas & Preston Childs. I'd read everything by them. Then I found James Rollins and couldn't put the book down. So, okay, the premise was a bit hokey and I didn't exactly buy into the creatures in the land of the dead, but still I wanted to see what would happen. I thought this book was a great summer read, just right for those times when you really want to kick back and enjoy yourself. I do believe his other book Subterranean was better. I loved the twist of having marsupials dinos running around. I think James Rollins has a future and I look forward to reading more of his work.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT ADVENTURE
Review: What a great book this was; too bad J.R. does not have the backing of the publisher to go hard cover on this story. Let me say, I was reluctant to buy this book at first. I read SUBTERRANEAN and I did not enjoy it at all. My review does state that on the amazon customer review section of this web site. But because there was a review by one of my favorite authors, Douglas Preston, on the cover, I decided to give Mr. Rollins another try. To my surprise this book was right on. The setting is in the South American Jungle fill with drama, suspense, and intrigue. The story unfolds about the Inca's life and treasures, which have been buried for untold centuries. College students take this ride in the unknown. There challgene will be whether they survive because as the story goes....THOSE WHO WOULD DISTURB THE CHOSEN MUST NOW FACE THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE: SURVIVAL. To find what happen you have to turn those pages until almost the very end. This is GREAT writing folks... a burn the midnight oil story. This second book from J.R. was good and not just good, but very good. I can't wait for his third book! Tripp
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The ending was extremely disappointing. If there had been a plausible scientific explanation at the end of the book, I would've given it 4 stars. But, in the last chapter, it seemed like Rollins was out of ideas and fell back on a lame, cop-out ending (it was all the aliens!!!). DUH? What the . . .? It made me SO mad that I had wasted all the time reading the book. I wish I could say it was worthwhile. I definitely do *not* recommend. There are far better adventures out there.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, Implausible and Redundant
Review: This book is not very good, even for a thriller. Rollins creates paper thin characters with stereotypical roles and blase, uber corny dialogue. It's hard to care for his characters, and Rollins's attempts to humanize them by explaining their pasts falls short. Instead of feeling sorry for them, we look on them as whiny and cowardly. Each character is a drone, a cardboard copy of the one dimensional action stars you expect to see in movies. In fact, the whole book is a vain attempt to be thrilling. It's pretty much everything you've ever seen in any action movie, only not as interesting. The plot is weak, unmemorable, and implausible, something about a mysterious Substance Z worshipped as an Incan God. (It was hard to sit through. I rushed through the last few chapters, wishing it would end, so forgive me for if I missed something). Rollins also uses the same expressions and terms over and over again. I soon grew tired of hearing each character "light a fire under" each of the others, as a way of saying "hurry up". I wonder why his editor let this boring, repetitious drivel continue.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put it Down!
Review: This was my first Rollins novel and I must say I will be looking for more! This book is similar in plot to a Matthew Riley book (of which I have read 3) but written in a much better style that made this book very hard to put down. The book starts with a Dominican priest being chased by very intent Incan warriors. It is very important for the priest to get to sacred Incan location before they catch him so he can do something before he dies. We then flash forward over 400 years to the mummified remains of the priest being discovered with a mysterious substance inside that melts at body temperature and cannot be frozen solid. A group of modern day Dominican priests are after the substance that they call Sangre del Diablo (blood of the devil). There is a great deal of suspense surrounding what happens with these priests and the scientists that were studying the substance. All the while in Peru a dig is going on in which a buried pyramid has a hidden burial chamber. The Americans at the dig get trapped in the chamber and try to find an alternate way out which leads to another "world" filled with all kinds of danger. I don't want to give anything away but at times, Rollins' descriptions of how the Americans deal with the dangers had my heart pumping fast and my skin crawling!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ!!
Review: I am a Douglas Preston - Lincoln Child fan that ran out of books to read. THEN I discovered James Rollins. If you like the scare you get from a good horror movie then this author is for you. Throw in a little romance, friendship, detrayal, greed (and all those other human emotions) and sit back and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Needs more excavation
Review: This is, in my opinion, a really poorly written book. Had read Subterranean and thought it was much better, although suffering from some of the same problems. The author uses all of the stereotypes you can imagine-blacks die, gays are weak, Texans are heroes, etc. The language sounds like a grade-B movie of 50 years ago. A 30 minute plane ride in the Andes is described as being a four hour flight. The best thing about the book is the plot, and it's pretty weak. Very little technical research done,if any, for this book. I won't buy this author again.
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