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Title: Sphinx
ISBN: 0451159497
Author:
Robin Cook
Publicate Date: 1983-01-01
Publish: 1983-01-01
List Price: $7.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.85
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $7.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Perhaps "Coma" was a fluke
Young Egyptologist, Erica Baron, inadvertently finds herself investigating the Egyptian antiquities black market and the curse of King Tutankhamen, when a trip to Egypt doesn't go quite the way she planned.
"Coma", the book that made Robin Cook famous, is one of the best thrillers that I have read in the last year or so. It is clever, exciting and well thought out. On the strength of this, I decided to try Cook's follow-up to "Coma", "Sphinx", one of the rare occasions in which Cook has moved away from the medical thriller genre. Big mistake. I can't comment on any of Cook's subsequent books, but based on "Sphinx", I am starting to think that perhaps "Coma" was a fluke. "Sphinx" is a slow-moving, utterly boring ordeal. I agree with other reviewers that Cook has done a lot of research in writing this novel, but that is one of the reasons why this novel is so boring. Rather than pack the novel with a series of exciting action scenes, Cook instead forces the reader to follow his protagonist on a tour of Egypt, showing off his knowledge at every stop. It is only in the final 20 or so pages that anything remotely interesting happens (most of the "exciting" events described on the back cover of the book happen in this final section), but by that time, all I really cared about was getting the book finished, so I could move on to something more enjoyable. Perhaps Cook's other books are better, but I'm not sure that I want to risk wasting my time and money on another book this boring in order to find out.
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2: A different kind of book by Robin Cook
Erica Baron, a young American Egyptologist, gets to see a centuries old statue in an antique store in Cairo. It depicts Pharaoh Seti I, the powerful successor of Tutankhamun. It contains a mysterious inscription, but before she has a chance to study it, the store owner gets murdered and the statue stolen.
With help of some local 'friends' Erica tries to find out where the statue went. She discovers the trace of a gang of ruthless black market traders.
At the same time she discovers a papyrus scroll with dangerous contents. If these contents were to be made public, the consequences would be disastrous...
By far not as medical as his usual works, but still as much as a page turner as always!
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3: sphinx
Got to 1 3rd of book in gaol 7 years ago but was released, just had to track it down so I could finish it.Well worth the read
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4: A bore
I've been a Robin Cook fan for years, but this is the first time I had to struggle to finish one of his books. The plot has something to do with the antiquities black market in Egypt, but for most of the novel we're given virtually no information and one constantly wonders why Cook's protagonist, Erica Baron, doesn't simply return home. The key to a good thriller is to parcel out a tasty but small spoonful of intriguing information in every chapter; Michael Crichton, Michael Palmer, and Dan Brown are masters of this technique. Cook, however, doesn't seem to want to tell us why these people are doing what they're doing. For two hundred pages Erica repeatedly leaves her hotel and wanders around some Egyptian ruins; then something bad happens (she's assaulted or someone nearby is killed) and she rushes back to her hotel. Then the next morning she starts the process over again. People are following her and sinister characters repeatedly discuss having her killed, but the reader isn't told why until the very end; by then your patience will be exhausted.
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5: Excellent book will keep you glued!!
This book is great!!
It's the first Robin Cook book I've ever read and since reading it, I've read just about all of them.
Excellent story that makes you want to see a movie based on it (I know they made one a while back but I've never found it).
One extremely minor complaint is related to the main character. She's drawn up with as a very intelligient person with a degree from an ivy league school but she makes some very dumb decisions... but I've noticed most of Robin's characters' do this. I'm guessing he does this based on human nature's 'heat of the moment' type bad decision making so I'm considering it not a factor to diminish the book's level of enjoyment.
If you're looking for excellent books, you can't go wrong with Robin Cook, I would rate all his books five stars for real without hesitation!!
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