The Medici Dagger

Rating:
Summary: He Ain't Dan Brown!
Review: After reading the back of this book, it appealed to me because it uses a Dan Brown-like storyline. The search for an ancient relic that has implications in the world today. The book was a predicatable and shallow novel that I had to make myself finish. The plot centers around a Hollywood stuntman whose parents were killed in a fire 25 years previous. He has spent his life avoiding close relationships and dreaming of his parents. When he is contacted by one of his Father's former associates, he is treated to a deathbed confession that his parents were murdered and introduced to the Medici Dagger, a dagger created by Davinci, then subsequently hidden due to the implication of it getting into the wrong person's hands.
Intrigued by the dagger search and driven by the thoughts of exacting revenge on his parent's killer, Reb, our protagonist, goes on a search for both. What follows is character predictability and tedious plot lines.

Rating:
Summary: Fair to Middling
Review: Here is a book that was clearly written with the express purpose of creating a story for the big screen. With its simplified characters and speedy progression, the novel is little more than an action film fleshed out in paper and ink. There are movie-esque chase scenes, Hollywood-styled implausibities, and even a hero who works in the film industry. The reader practically "watches" the story unfold before his or her unbelieving eyes. Without a doubt, the author and the publisher are hoping to sell the manuscript to a studio. In his acknowledgements West even writes that Tom Cruise makes the perfect Reb, who just happens to be the novel's protagonist.

Even with all of that I really can't see a studio pouring its precious resources into a story as mediocre as this one. Oh sure, the plotline sounds promising but don't get your hopes up. There is hardly any da Vinci here at all, and the author doesn't even bother with the intracies of knife-welding in Renaissance Italy. Suffice it to say that he gives us just enough history to whet our appetites and then he ruins it all with chase scene after chase scene. Furthermore, there are all these plot twists that don't really stand up to scrutiny and are just downright goofy.

On the other hand, you won't waste a great deal of time in the reading. The book is mercifully short, and the writing is well-paced and easy to digest. It makes for a good read, but not a great one. Perfect for a cross-country plane flight, a sleepless night, or a quiet day at work.

Rating:
Summary: Oh my God - it's soooo bad!
Review: I bought this book with high hopes, believing it to be another Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" or John Case's "The Genesis Code" after reading the reviews. Not so.

Rather than spending twenty minutes writing a long review I will just state a few of the book's huge problems. The writing (especially the dialog) is so terrible it is laughable. Examples include:

The author spends an entire paragraph describing the contents - "A bunch of socks and Jockey underwear," etc. that he packs into his suitcase.

He spends another entire paragraph on buying cashews at the airport and how he chewed them into paste until his jaw hurt.

HUGE plot holes. Someone leaves $2,000,000 dollars on his front doorstep in a leather satchel and our hero does not even question this. Must be an everyday occurence.

Writing in first person, the hero has many wonderfully descriptive internal thoughts such as:
"On the flight home, I studied the page, thoughts tearing at me like a thousand vultures."

I could go on and on but I will resist. I am amazed that this book ever got published. If hokey dialog, 7th grade writing, and a second-rate plot line is what you crave, then by all means buy this book. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Rating:
Summary: Just a story
Review: I can't tell you that this is a bad book, I can't tell you that is a waist of time, but also I can't tell you that this is an excellent read, the book will keep you reading but not thrilling you, the problem is when Reb said that he knew the answer of The Circles of Truth because Da Vinci told him how to solve the puzzle, since there, and that the last one hundred pages are just to waist paper you will only read the rest of it to finish the book, if you have an other book read it instead of this one.


Rating:
Summary: Unbearably bad writing!
Review: I read voraciously and was anxious to read "The Medici Dagger". I picked up a copy on sale and began to read. Almost from page one I was struck by the stilted, laughable prose. The story and dialogue are painful and unreadable. Do yourself a favor and pass this one by!!!

Rating:
Summary: Unbearably bad writing!
Review: I read voraciously and was anxious to read "The Medici Dagger". I picked up a copy on sale and began to read. Almost from page one I was struck by the stilted, laughable prose. The story and dialogue are painful and unreadable. Do yourself a favor and pass this one by!!!

Rating:
Summary: Nothing like The Da Vinci Code
Review: The book promises much but delivers too little. To read this after reading the Da Vinci Code was a big let down.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely horrible
Review: This is just a laughably horrible novel. I should have been forewarned by the lack of blurbs on the cover. It's cliche-ridden with only a clumsy parody of an emotional subtext and no character development. I imagine the only reason it made it to publication is the Da Vinci hype.

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating
Review: This would be a good tale if the author could try to avoid bad poetics. "...I hung up, gently this time, totally intoxicated with emotion, but thirsting for more, dying to drink from her well forever, to gulp quenching heartfuls of her." I read that and was seized with an urge to gulp quenching mouthfuls of alcohol, but I decided to finish the book anyway. I had invested enough time in it already. I probably missed some of the story line as I tried to skim over similar cloying sentiments, however, if I were the author next time I wouldn't try to create a romance-action novel hybrid. It's just not a good combo.

Rating:
Summary: not great, but...
Review: Yes, as has been noted, this book has its problems. But it's quick to read and somewhat entertaining. Something light and undemanding to read at the beach or on the train. And it's been remaindered. I've read worse.