Reviews

The Mayan Prophecy by Alex Scarrow

janetsuzanne's review against another edition

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4.0

I absolutely love this sci-fi series. It's so clever and definitely not just a book for boys. I highly recommend reading The Time Riders series from start to finish because they are so brilliant. Unfortunately, I don't think I can say too much about them in case I give away the plot, so all the more reason for you to read them!

melbsreads's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm torn between "OMG THAT WAS AMAZING!!" and "WTF DID I JUST READ" on this one. It felt very different to every other book in the series so far, which is a good thing, and there were some seriously major developments here. I can't wait to get my hands on the final book in the series, but of course my library doesn't have it yet so I'll just sit here and glare at their website until they do.

ANYWAY.

Where most of the other books have essentially been a fully contained storyline with occasional threads that flow through into subsequent books, this one felt very much like the middle book of a trilogy. But in a good way. There was a lot of build up for the big finale, some fairly staggering events for certain characters (
SpoilerSAL BECOMES PART OF A GIANT SEEKER MONSTER?!?!?!?! WHAT THE EFF. Plus, Maddie and Adam finally get together and THEN HE DIES?!?!?!?! I can't even.
), and Bertie's character was brilliantly used. If you've read any of H.G. Wells' work, you can clearly see what Scarrow was doing here, and it's pretty phenomenal.

There are some very interesting theories flying around in this book about what the big end game is, and I'll be veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery interested to see how Scarrow ties everything up in The Infinity Cage. Especially after he basically gave us a cliffhanger ending for the first time in the series. That jerk...

booksonanisland's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 stars.

Absolutely brilliant!

It was great to see Adam back for a while. Billy and Bertie were great characters too.

I didn't see much point in the whole Maddy-and-Adam-kidnapped-by-bandits. Why was that there?

Sal! Seeing what happens to her in this book made me realize how much I love her as a character! Yes, she was self-centered but most girls are her age. She didn't deserve what she got.

Alex Scarrow also introduced a bunch of new theories of what on earth (geddit?) was going on. While very interesting, I didn't completely understand it. I was also confused at the underground column and what it was there for but that's probably answered in the last book which I'll have to wait until around June to get!

stephv07's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

stratisvougioukas's review against another edition

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5.0

Όπως όλα τα βιβλία της σειράς, εξαιρετικό ! Διαβάζεις και δεν μπορείς να σταματήσεις. Η διαφορά του έχει να κάνει με το γεγονός ότι πέρα από τη συγκεκριμένη περιπέτεια εξελίσσεται ουσιαστικά η ευρύτερη ιστορία. Χωρίς να αποκαλύπτει πολλά (μάλλον περισσότερες απορίες γεννά) δείχνει ένα "δρόμο" και υπόσχεται συγκλονιστικό φινάλε. Συνολικά η ιστορία των ηρώων είναι ΜΑΓΙΚΗ. ΘΑ μπορούσε να γίνει τηλεοπτική σειρά επιπέδου LOST.

emma_m's review against another edition

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3.0

The tension is rising as this series comes to an end. I am going to start the last one right away, however much of this novel felt like a filler and the mysteries in it didn't seem to be solved.

iraboklover's review against another edition

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5.0

Jauh lebih seru dari buku ke-7. Menurut saya sih, hahaha. Buku ke-8 ini, awalnya sedih, endingnya nyesak.

Jadi The Mayan Prophecy diawali dengan kisah Waldstein---yang---kalau saya boleh sotoy, inilah alasan kenapa Waldstein kepengin membuat mesin waktu.

Terus, yah, endingnya bikin nyesak. Benar-benar tidak menyangka kalau akhirnya harus seperti itu. *nangis*.

So, daripada jalan-jalan tidak jelas yang berujung bencana seperti yang terjadi di buku sebelumnya, tim kali ini memutuskan untuk melakukan sesuatu yang lebih berguna. Maddy dan Liam berencana untuk memecahkan misteri kenapa Waldstein menyuruh mereka menjaga alur waktu yang jelas-jelas berjalan menuju kehancuran dunia. Tapi, Sal tidak setuju. Sal yakin mereka harus tetap mempercayai Waldstein apapun alasannya.

Tapi pemimpin tim tetap Maddy, lagipula Sal kalah suara. Maka Maddy pun meminta Beck membuka partisi terkunci di otaknya yang kemungkinan berisi petunjuk, tapi sayangnya, Beck tidak bisa. Beck hanya bisa memberi clue samar yang menuntun Maddy untuk kembali meminta bantuan Adam. FYI, Adam ini pernah muncul di buku ke-3, The Doomsday Code. Dia memilik peran penting dalam pemecahan pesan berkode yang sekarang ada di kepala Becks.

Maddy meminta Adam untuk membawa mereka ke gua tempat dimana Adam menemukan simbol kuno yang membuatnya jadi bisa memecahkan pesan berkode itu. Perjalanan itu ternyata tidak mulus. Mereka harus pergi ke Nikaragua ditahun 1994 yang saat itu masih berstatus sebagai daerah konflik. Banyak tragedi yang terjadi sebelum mereka berhasil menemukan gua tersebut.

Namun, pencarian penuh usaha tersebut tidak sepenuhnya penuh derita, *apacoba*, mereka bukan hanya menemukan gua, tapi juga menemukan reruntuhan situs kuno. Sebagai bonus, mereka bahkan menemukan ruangan yang sepertinya tidak pantas berada di situs kuno tersebut.

Sayangnya, Maddy dan kawan-kawan benar-benar tidak tahu apa yang harus dilakukan. Mungkin hanya Sal, si pengenal pola yang bisa menebak-nebak bagaimana cara mengaktifkan apapun yang ada di dalam ruangan penuh simbol tersebut. Sayangnya, perhatian Sal sepertinya teralihkan oleh sesuatu yang lain.

Nah lo, apa yang harus mereka lakukan? Mereka tidak bisa seenaknya memakai teknik trial dan error karena ini bisa saja mempertaruhkan nyawa mereka sendiri dan juga nyawa orang banyak.

Haduh, membaca buku ini membuat saya gregetan sendiri. Arrrghhhh, kenapa kalian tidak begini saja? Atau kenapa kalian tidak begitu saya? Tuh kan jadinya seperti ini? dst...dst...dst. Tapi yah disitulah serunya, hahhah.

At last, menurut saya, di The Mayan Prophecy, ketegangan ala buku-buku pertama dari seri ini memang masih kurang terasa. Tapi ending nyesek-nya itu mendapat 5 dari 5 bintang dari saya. It was amazing.

marthaives's review against another edition

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5.0

Oh my god!!! That was... intense. WHERE IS THE NEXT BOOK??
So, so good!
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