 |
|
Title: Reliquary
ISBN: 1423356357
Author:
Douglas Preston
Lincoln Child
Publicate Date: 2008-04-11
Publish: 2008-04-11
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Audio CD
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $24.95
Amazon Merchant Price: $24.95
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Readable, But this is Probably the Weakest Pendergast Book
Recently, I read an interview with Douglas Preston where he commented that RELIQUARY was probably the least successful of the "Agent Pendergast" books that he co-writes with Lincoln Child. After reading this book, I'm inclined to agree with him.
RELIQUARY is the second Pendergast novel and a direct sequel to the first book RELIC. It pretty much re-introduces all the major characters of THE RELIC and many additional ones. And this is the major flaw with RELIQUARY: there are simply too many characters and plot threads in this book, which don't really tie together in a satisfaying manner.
There's also a "been there, done that" quality to RELIQUARY that makes it a rather tiresome read. Preston and Child reuse many of the plot devices from THE RELIC, and there is little in this novel that is particularly original or inspired.
And most importantly, Pendergast only plays a supporting role in RELIQUARY, and the novel suffers in every scene where he is absent. Characters like Margot, Smithback and D'Agosta are simply not interesting enough to carry scenes on their own, and all of the other supporting characters are either too bland or cartoonish. I think the smartest move that Preston and Child ever made was to elevate Pendergast as the central character in this series, starting with the next entry, CABINET OF THE CURIOUSITIES.
That being said, I didn't hate RELIQUARY. It's a decent adventure story, and there's no denying that Preston and Child are very intelligent writers. Still, this is far from their best effort, and I wouldn't recommend this to anybody as their first Pendergast book.
|
2: More of the same
Reliquary, the sequel to Relic, is basically the same story introduced in Relic. We have the monster in the sub level(s), we have the incompetent chief of police making poor decisions, we have the "fool proof plan" that doesn't work and we have the reporter being lead around by a powerful woman who coerces him to tell the story she wants to hear. I did find the parts about the sub levels of Manhattan interesting and I think the ending of Reliquary is better than that of Relic. The authors would have been better served if they made Relic and Reliquary one book. It seems like once they had a hit with Relic they decided to do Reliquary as an afterthought.
|
3: Doesn't quite hit the spot
While I really enjoyed RELIC, I didn't find myself feeling quite the same about Reliquary. I liked the way the book started out, I liked the premise of the book and thought it was interesting, and as always, I enjoyed Pendergast and D'Agosta. Unfortunately, I felt that there were way too many subplots. There were too many different people doing too many different things. It got distracting at times. If you liked Relic, you will probably like this book, but don't expect it to thrill you quite as much.
|
4: another great thriller
While I agree this book wasn't as good as Relic, it certainly was an admirable follow-up to it. Storylines left hanging in Relic were resolved albeit perhaps not in the most exciting of ways. What I read in this book enticed me to purchase The Mole People to find out more about the underground world brought out in the book.
|
5: Another Page Turner by Preston and Child
The authors have written another thriller. I had to read the next chapter but neglected my tasks to do so. The authors gave substantiating data on the underground of Manhattan. However the ending was not in the characters' former behavior. Although it was a true page turner it lacked a believable ending. This book was not as good as The Relic nor the Book of the Dead the I have read by the authors.
|
|
|
|
|
