aylabell's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
chiara_stanic's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
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 against another edition
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.
ambermattens's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
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!