blysse's review against another edition
4.0
I was a little slow to get to this book since I had it on a pile of 'to read' books in anticipation of December 2012. But.... we are all still here so I finally got around to reading it.
I have a fascination with historical thrillers dealing with the more esoteric elements of human existence, so this was just up my street. Manda Scott has written a crisply-paced, well plotted book drawing on the Mayan 2012 prophecies and crystal skull legends. She throws in a bit of Nostradamus for good measure too!
This is definitely one of the better books in the genre. Highly recommended for historical mystery/conspiracy buffs.
I have a fascination with historical thrillers dealing with the more esoteric elements of human existence, so this was just up my street. Manda Scott has written a crisply-paced, well plotted book drawing on the Mayan 2012 prophecies and crystal skull legends. She throws in a bit of Nostradamus for good measure too!
This is definitely one of the better books in the genre. Highly recommended for historical mystery/conspiracy buffs.
lian_tanner's review against another edition
3.0
There's an intrinsic risk in writing a book which interweaves two different and separate story lines - it's almost inevitable that one will be more intriguing than the other, and that the reader will want to skip ahead to follow the more interesting one. This is what happened for me is 'The Crystal Skull'. For the first few chapters I liked the modern strand more - but I quickly became more interested in the historical strand, which was more convincing and the characters more sympathetic. I like Manda Scott's writing, but I enjoyed her early thrillers more than her later books. The present-day story line in this book didn't quite ring true, for some reason.
mostraum's review against another edition
4.0
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this book. I bought it on a whim after reading about it on a blog last spring, and it’s been sitting on my Kindle ever since. But, I finally got around to it.
The book is alternating between telling Cedric Owen's story from the 1500-hundreds and Stella Cody's story from 2007.
I like Cedric's story the best. The time flavor of the 1500's is great and I like that his journey takes him to such places as Paris, Spain and the Mayan regions of Latin-America. Cedric is a man who grows as he goes along, and his story last for several decades. De Aguilar, sea-captain, sword-fighter and Cedric's Spanish sidekick is my favorite character of them all. I would love to see him as a movie characters, I think he could rival Captain Jack Sparrow.
I'm less thrilled with the 2007 story. It runs along too fast and reminds me a bit of Dan Brown. (I'm one of the people who never liked "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons", I always felt that they were too rushed.) The way they're rushing through the events I never feel that I really get to know Stella, and even less her husband Kit. It also annoys me that her training as an astro-physicist never seems important in the story. I feel she would be stronger character if her education had a more important role. Still, it's by no means bad.
The two storys work well together and more and more information gets revealed at appropriate times. There are also a few villains, and the author keeps us nicely confused about friends and foes.
Actually I was really happy with this book for a long time. But then it all broke down in the last few pages. It felt even more rushed than the rest of the 2007 story, it was chaotic and too abrupt.It left me wanting something more, more of a closure I guess.
This is the second "The-world-will-end-on-December-21st-2012"-book I've read. I liked this one a lot better than the other one (21/12 by Dustin Thomason - review in Norwegian).
The book is alternating between telling Cedric Owen's story from the 1500-hundreds and Stella Cody's story from 2007.
I like Cedric's story the best. The time flavor of the 1500's is great and I like that his journey takes him to such places as Paris, Spain and the Mayan regions of Latin-America. Cedric is a man who grows as he goes along, and his story last for several decades. De Aguilar, sea-captain, sword-fighter and Cedric's Spanish sidekick is my favorite character of them all. I would love to see him as a movie characters, I think he could rival Captain Jack Sparrow.
I'm less thrilled with the 2007 story. It runs along too fast and reminds me a bit of Dan Brown. (I'm one of the people who never liked "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons", I always felt that they were too rushed.) The way they're rushing through the events I never feel that I really get to know Stella, and even less her husband Kit. It also annoys me that her training as an astro-physicist never seems important in the story. I feel she would be stronger character if her education had a more important role. Still, it's by no means bad.
The two storys work well together and more and more information gets revealed at appropriate times. There are also a few villains, and the author keeps us nicely confused about friends and foes.
Actually I was really happy with this book for a long time. But then it all broke down in the last few pages. It felt even more rushed than the rest of the 2007 story, it was chaotic and too abrupt.It left me wanting something more, more of a closure I guess.
This is the second "The-world-will-end-on-December-21st-2012"-book I've read. I liked this one a lot better than the other one (21/12 by Dustin Thomason - review in Norwegian).
shahrun's review
4.0
I did rather enjoy reading this. Especially as I've heard of the Mayan 2012 predictions and as we near that time it is most definatly on my mind. I wish there really are some Crystal Skulls that can sort us earthlings out, but I guess we'll have to do it ourselves. I did get quite excited that Bedes excisted and tried to look up the website. But I guess I really got sucked in!
fijumanka0311's review against another edition
3.0
Zapravo bi bile dovoljne 2 i pol zvjezdice. Početak obećavajući i ona priča u priči, što ja volim. E pa svidio mi se samo početak i jedna od priča, a ostalo za zaborav. Šteta, bilo je potencijala.
calypte's review against another edition
1.0
Not the worst book I've read by any stretch, but gets increasingly 'meh' as it goes on - just, too many better books to read.
If you don't have better reviews to read, too, mine's here on my blog.
If you don't have better reviews to read, too, mine's here on my blog.
katrinaburch's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book! There were several good things about it... Ms. Scott does her research in terms of many things and her writing style is really good and easy to follow, even switching between two different characters. Also Ms. Scott keeps the mystery going till the very end. However, there were several things that I didn't like. One, the ending. It felt really abrupt and I felt that Ms. Scott didn't really explain what happened with the skull. Or at the last line with Kit writes about Jess... who's Jess? Also, Ms. Scott's use of a myth that doesn't really have anything do with the Myan myth... So weaving two different myths to make one thing about the entire 2012 myth is kind of weird. Overall, I did like this book!
hayesstw's review against another edition
2.0
Perhaps this would have been more interesting if I had read it before 21 December 2012, when, according to the author and several other people, the world was supposed to end. It's set in two different periods, the 16th century and the 21st century. In the earlier period the possessor of a crystal skull hides it in a cave, and in the later one someone discovers it in the cave, and has the task of taking it to its proper place in preparation for 21 December 2012, when it will combine forces with 12 similar skulls in different parts of the world to create a magical dragon or worm, the Ouroboros, which will either save or destroy the world.
The theme of legendary artefacts playing a part in a current adventure is quite common, and this particular one, of the crystal skulls, also featured in one of the Indiana Jones films. The notion that crystal skulls were ancient Mayan artefacts has been refuted, but that should not get in the way of a good story. As a McGuffin a crystal skull is as good as any. but the problem with this book does not lie in the choice of McGuffin, but rather in the characters and plot.
The 21st-century characters are followed to the cave where the skull lies hidden by someone sinister whose who attacks them, but whose identity and motives are only revealed at the end. But the behaviour is unexplained and the motives ring hollow. Much is made of the injuries and medical treatment of the victims of the mysterious attacker, but the role of this villain seems to be tacked on as an afterthought. In an Indiana Jones-type scenario, there must be villains, so the villains pop up at intervals, but just when they have done their worst the scene jumps to the other century, and by the time one gets back to the aftermath of the attack, the details have been forgotten. What was it that happened that this character ended up in hospital? Oh, a fire? Or was it a fall in a cave?
The 16th-century characters are even more confusing. They fear being arrested and charged with "heresy", but just what that heresy might have been is not clear. They are given hospitality by a Jesuit missionary who is portrayed as both welcoming and a threat, and this ambiguity is never resolved. They are pursued by Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster, for clear reasons that are irrelevant to the plot, and the relevant reasons are unclear.
So one is left with the impression that the crystal skull is the protagonist, and the human characters are mere props. But at least that fits with the title of the book.
The theme of legendary artefacts playing a part in a current adventure is quite common, and this particular one, of the crystal skulls, also featured in one of the Indiana Jones films. The notion that crystal skulls were ancient Mayan artefacts has been refuted, but that should not get in the way of a good story. As a McGuffin a crystal skull is as good as any. but the problem with this book does not lie in the choice of McGuffin, but rather in the characters and plot.
The 21st-century characters are followed to the cave where the skull lies hidden by someone sinister whose who attacks them, but whose identity and motives are only revealed at the end. But the behaviour is unexplained and the motives ring hollow. Much is made of the injuries and medical treatment of the victims of the mysterious attacker, but the role of this villain seems to be tacked on as an afterthought. In an Indiana Jones-type scenario, there must be villains, so the villains pop up at intervals, but just when they have done their worst the scene jumps to the other century, and by the time one gets back to the aftermath of the attack, the details have been forgotten. What was it that happened that this character ended up in hospital? Oh, a fire? Or was it a fall in a cave?
The 16th-century characters are even more confusing. They fear being arrested and charged with "heresy", but just what that heresy might have been is not clear. They are given hospitality by a Jesuit missionary who is portrayed as both welcoming and a threat, and this ambiguity is never resolved. They are pursued by Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster, for clear reasons that are irrelevant to the plot, and the relevant reasons are unclear.
So one is left with the impression that the crystal skull is the protagonist, and the human characters are mere props. But at least that fits with the title of the book.
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