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a_writer_guy's review against another edition
3.0
This one has followed the same pattern as the others in the series in that very little happens in regards to the actual main story. Just a bunch of little things and then the main focus of the story gets wrapped up in a couple of chapters at the end. Entertaining to a degree, but a little slow and tedious.
topdragon's review against another edition
3.0
I've been reading some heavier fiction lately so wanted to take a break and go a little lighter. These Indiana Jones prequel novels are just the ticket. They take place before the movies and after the 'Young Indiana Jones' TV series. Indy is a young new professor at Oxford but, of course those scenes don't last too long as he off to another round of over-the-top adventure.
This time Indy goes in search of a missing British explorer who has supposedly discovered some amazing lost city in the Brazilian jungle. The action is mostly non-stop, especially after Indy gets to Rio, definitely following the old adage, "just when it can't get any worse...it gets worse."
While I generally enjoy these stories, this one went a little too far into the mystical realms with lots of hard-to-follow dream sequences when Indy and his comrades didn't really know what was real and what was a dream. Consequently I didn't either and just got confused.
I own the whole set of these novels and will definitely keep reading them from time to time. I am an Indiana Jones super-fan so you couldn't get me to not read them anyway. I do recommend they be read in order though; even though each adventure stands alone, they do take place in a chronological order.
This time Indy goes in search of a missing British explorer who has supposedly discovered some amazing lost city in the Brazilian jungle. The action is mostly non-stop, especially after Indy gets to Rio, definitely following the old adage, "just when it can't get any worse...it gets worse."
While I generally enjoy these stories, this one went a little too far into the mystical realms with lots of hard-to-follow dream sequences when Indy and his comrades didn't really know what was real and what was a dream. Consequently I didn't either and just got confused.
I own the whole set of these novels and will definitely keep reading them from time to time. I am an Indiana Jones super-fan so you couldn't get me to not read them anyway. I do recommend they be read in order though; even though each adventure stands alone, they do take place in a chronological order.
topdragon's review against another edition
3.0
In this sixth Indiana Jones prequel series novel, Indy travels to Easter Island with Marcus Brody where a mystery connects the whispering moai statues there to the eerie ghost ship of Chiloé Island. This leads Indy to a secret interior world, rumored for centuries in the concept of a hollow Earth and leads to just the sort of adventure one would want from an Indiana Jones novel. In the previous novel, Unicorn horn, Indy had accidentally caused an imbalance between the two worlds when he disposed of a dangerous relic.
While this series continues for another seven books, this is the last one to be authored by Rob MacGregor. I am a long time Indy fan and quite liked the first several books that MacGregor wrote for this series. I enjoyed how he developed the younger Henry Jones, Jr. character, a new professor in London, and how he embarked on several adventures that tied together in a continuing series. I especially liked how the adventures, even though slightly over-the-top, were rooted in historical places or events. But the last couple of novels have been less about interaction with the real world and more about fantastical events and this one continues that trend.
This particular novel is a direct sequel to the preceding volume, [b:Indiana Jones and the Unicorn's Legacy|429151|Indiana Jones and the Unicorn's Legacy (Indiana Jones Prequels #5)|Rob MacGregor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320411731s/429151.jpg|418139] with several of those events very important to this one as well. The story here seemed convoluted, with several confusing dream sequences where neither Indy nor the reader can tell what is real and what isn’t. Fantasy elements abound, like dragons, giants, and a disjointed timeline (meaning time passes differently in the interior world than in the exterior one). How much of what Indy experiences is real and how much can be explained away based on hallucinations he was experiencing? I like a good fantasy story as much as the next guy but I prefer Indy’s adventures to be more historically based than fantasy based.
I will be interested to see how the next author to tackle this series, [a:Martin Caidin|99333|Martin Caidin|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1326385701p2/99333.jpg], approaches it.
While this series continues for another seven books, this is the last one to be authored by Rob MacGregor. I am a long time Indy fan and quite liked the first several books that MacGregor wrote for this series. I enjoyed how he developed the younger Henry Jones, Jr. character, a new professor in London, and how he embarked on several adventures that tied together in a continuing series. I especially liked how the adventures, even though slightly over-the-top, were rooted in historical places or events. But the last couple of novels have been less about interaction with the real world and more about fantastical events and this one continues that trend.
This particular novel is a direct sequel to the preceding volume, [b:Indiana Jones and the Unicorn's Legacy|429151|Indiana Jones and the Unicorn's Legacy (Indiana Jones Prequels #5)|Rob MacGregor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320411731s/429151.jpg|418139] with several of those events very important to this one as well. The story here seemed convoluted, with several confusing dream sequences where neither Indy nor the reader can tell what is real and what isn’t. Fantasy elements abound, like dragons, giants, and a disjointed timeline (meaning time passes differently in the interior world than in the exterior one). How much of what Indy experiences is real and how much can be explained away based on hallucinations he was experiencing? I like a good fantasy story as much as the next guy but I prefer Indy’s adventures to be more historically based than fantasy based.
I will be interested to see how the next author to tackle this series, [a:Martin Caidin|99333|Martin Caidin|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1326385701p2/99333.jpg], approaches it.
caylabcba's review against another edition
3.0
I did enjoy the book a bit. There were some parts that were slow. The one thing I had a big issue with was the ending. The ending was anticlimactic. There was this huge build up for the ending and I was all for it and then just…it felt like it ended too abruptly. I closed the book and was like “uhhh what?”
timgonsalves's review
2.5
Can't blame McGregor after writing six books within the span of two years, but here finds him giving his weakest effort, a story that starts strong (pirates on a ghost ship! hollow earth!) but quickly stalls out with repetitive passages that rely on tropes we've seen enough from the writer at this point (dreams that are actually real, wandering aimlessly through caves and mountains, etc).
How Indy is it...
6/10 - It's definitely a globe-trotting adventure (doubly so), but there's so many mystical and supernatural elements that by the end we've fully entered the world of outright fantasy.
How Indy is it...
6/10 - It's definitely a globe-trotting adventure (doubly so), but there's so many mystical and supernatural elements that by the end we've fully entered the world of outright fantasy.
scostner's review
2.0
A friend introduced me to this series when I lived in Fayetteville, NC. The local Walden Books ahd a section they called "Men's Adventure" books and these were shelved there. I enjoyed the seris up until this one, then sort of lost interest because the story just did not captivate me at all.
verkisto's review against another edition
3.0
This book is probably more like 2.5 stars, but I rounded up because it wasn't terrible; it just ended suddenly, and left too many plot points unresolved.
Like the first book in the series, the bulk of the story was fun and full of adventure, but the ending was disappointing. MacGregor is still building off of the earlier books in the series as he goes, which is interesting, but it's not like there's an overarching story here that he's telling; he's just using details from previous books to help with the plots of the later books.
(Which, now that I think about it, is a little like cheating, especially here, where it acts a bit like a deus ex machina.)
One thing I've enjoyed about these books, though, is how MacGregor uses real places, real mythology, real history, and real culture when he writes these stories. I've been fact-checking some of the things he's used in building his plots, and they all check out. The author bio in the back of the book mentions that he's well-traveled, and I like that he's using some of that in his stories.
Like the first book in the series, the bulk of the story was fun and full of adventure, but the ending was disappointing. MacGregor is still building off of the earlier books in the series as he goes, which is interesting, but it's not like there's an overarching story here that he's telling; he's just using details from previous books to help with the plots of the later books.
(Which, now that I think about it, is a little like cheating, especially here, where it acts a bit like a deus ex machina.)
One thing I've enjoyed about these books, though, is how MacGregor uses real places, real mythology, real history, and real culture when he writes these stories. I've been fact-checking some of the things he's used in building his plots, and they all check out. The author bio in the back of the book mentions that he's well-traveled, and I like that he's using some of that in his stories.
verkisto's review
2.0
Man. This book is all over the place. It's not hard to follow, narratively, but it's hard to follow in the whole "How does this make any sense?" kind of thing. All of the Indiana Jones movies have a supernatural angle to them, but this one takes it to a new level, and the explanation at the end is ... well, it's weak sauce.
To his credit, MacGregor kinda-sorta ties in the previous five books to make them one larger story, but only in the simplest terms. It's not like we have puzzle pieces that all fit together at the end of the story; instead, we see that there was a significance to all the other locations in the previous books that are important to this story. It's not ground-breaking, and it doesn't suggest that this was MacGregor's plan from the start (it feels like anything could have been retconned to fit that part of the story), but it's something.
This was MacGregor's last book in this series. I'm interested in seeing what another author can do with this license.
To his credit, MacGregor kinda-sorta ties in the previous five books to make them one larger story, but only in the simplest terms. It's not like we have puzzle pieces that all fit together at the end of the story; instead, we see that there was a significance to all the other locations in the previous books that are important to this story. It's not ground-breaking, and it doesn't suggest that this was MacGregor's plan from the start (it feels like anything could have been retconned to fit that part of the story), but it's something.
This was MacGregor's last book in this series. I'm interested in seeing what another author can do with this license.
birdmanseven's review
2.0
Not a fan. Indy felt more like a passenger in this low stakes adventure.
I dig a little deeper in this episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-195-nebula-award-and-batmans-80th
I dig a little deeper in this episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-195-nebula-award-and-batmans-80th
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