Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Kuznewski keeps his style - a fast running and entertaining thriller with shallow language & many stereotypes, 10 Sep 2008
I picked this book up by change as I like this genre of thrillers. And it follows the expected pattern: a religious secret, short chapters, different guys following the same story from different angels. As usual it is based on the feeling that religious groups are not honest and that believes are based on lies. The threat however merge very late in the book - more than half way through. And for a very long time one has not a clue why one is following these various lines.
However there are some changes to the "usual story": first it is not - again - another secret of the Catholic Church which is covered up. Here it is about the Islam. And a large part is therefore not set in Rome or the Vatican but in Mecca. Similarity is that the question is asked how the believe system came about (why is what in the Koran?). But one can feel that the author is not too familiar with Islam and explains a lot about the religion, a bit like a little schoolboy showing off what he has just learned. But this is actually not too bad as most in the West are indeed not familiar with the tradition of Islam. I suppose that is why the religious dimension is less evident here. It is never said with one word that the discovery might rock the Islam as in the usual story.
So the core is rather Islamic terrorism and the conflict West against Islam, hate, revenge and the various interests in keeping the conflict burning. Here I am afraid the picture is rather black and white.
Having said this the book is written with a great flow and indeed makes a gripping yarn, easy to read and not at all boring. The style is however very flat and the personalities are not very rounded. Compared to book 1 tehy have not at all develpped. They are and remain stereotypes. It is a bit like a film script and one can see the space for the commercial breaks. In his first book Kuznewski asked the question: Why did Americans have to make a joke out of everything? - yes, why indeed and why Kuznewski too. The book is plastered with this kind of lines. This gives the whole book a very, very shallow touch and puts in terms of language on the level on 3rd rate detective stories. Maybe I am just to European for it.
All in all, it is a book which clearly entertains the reader, it is fast running thriller, but in terms of language and style and personality rather shallow. Ideal for a long distance flight or train rides as one will not be bored while reading it.
|
|
|
12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, not good either., 24 Oct 2007
I picked this book up at a rail station, then when I checked the author's last book and saw all the one and two-star reviews, I groaned, thinking, 'Here we go, I'm in for a rough ride.' I even checked the same book on Amazon US to see if it was one of those US-UK divide things: No, one of the main literary reviews described it as a 'sophomoric Dan Brown effort'. And that just about sums this one up as I got into it. To be fair it's not that bad to deserve one or two stars (so either he's upped his game since last time, or those were a bit unfair). By the same token it's far short of the four and five star ratings too, so those seem equally suspect. Maybe this author is like Marmite?? For my money some of the scenes weren't that badly written and the basic premise wasn't bad. But far too many scenes headed nowhere and seemed just to be padding to draw the story out. And others, well, this is where I think he really messes up: they come across as childish (or sophomiric, if you will), particularly where he attempts humour. Far too many lame puns and jokes that just don't work and come across as frat humour gone wrong. To do this successfully you've got to be a wily old fox like Harlan Coben. This author isn't - far from it. I was tempted to give this just two stars because of that factor, but gave the benefit of three because of the basic premise and some of the half-well written scenes.
|
|
|
27 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Author Writes with a Passion, 7 Oct 2007
Chris Kuzneski attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he played football, wrote for three newspapers, and passed most of his classes. He earned a master's degree in teaching, then taught English for five years before pursuing a career in writing. This is his third novel.
The author's previous book The Sign of the Cross got mixed reviews on Amazon and to a degree I can understand why. There is a lot of "Da Vinci clones" about at the present time and they are never likely to become classics but as entertaining reading they are OK. It did after all become a best seller, so lots of people did enjoy it.
How are the efforts of an ambitious young female archaeologist on a dig under one of the most holy cities of the world and the murder of an elite special services officer more than half a world away, linked together. That is the basic plot of this highly readable book, one that I really enjoyed very much.
It is a race against time to solve the mystery from the few clues that remain. If a solution cannot be found the whole of the world's civilization could burn in the fires of hell and damnation. The author writes with passion and forcefulness and the book is much better than your run of the mill adventure story. As I wrote earlier, although this is not my favourite type of book, I did enjoy it very much.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Chris Kuzneski
by Chris Kuzneski
by Will Adams
by Chris Kuzneski
by Scott Mariani
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home