A gripping adventure story and a delightful read, particularly for amateur treasure hunters.
In Neissa’s (Dictatorship, 2008, etc.) novel, a researcher makes a startling discovery that leads him on an exciting South American treasure hunt.
In 1533, Inca emperor Atahualpa is being held hostage by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, and he spends most of one night writing a message for his field commander, Ruminahui. In it, he instructs him to hide the empire’s gold, which is currently being transported through the desert on 11,000 llamas and mules. Soon after, the Incan treasure seemingly vanishes. In the present day, American professor Grant Cole is doing some research in Spain’s archives in Seville when he stumbles upon a letter that could help uncover the gold’s whereabouts. But as he leaves the archives, he’s stabbed by a mysterious stranger, and he later travels to London to recover. A run-in with people posing as FBI agents in Heathrow Airport makes him flee for his life, which leads to a chance meeting with the actress Halston von Thiakopolous. She decides to accompany Cole on his treasure hunt; she also wants to assist Cardinal Merloni of the Vatican in finding the Incan treasure before it falls into the wrong hands. Pretty soon, there’s a race between the corrupt Cardinal Rafael Espinoza, a criminal known as Moncada, the CIA, and a mysterious injured man named Lucas San Lorenzo to find the gold in Ecuador. Neissa makes sure that tensions run high throughout this page-turning novel; for example, he sets the climax in the darkness of a cavern that’s not only inside an active volcano, but also full of poisonous gas. That said, with so many important institutions and their envoys after the treasure, it can be difficult for readers to keep them all straight. However, the author’s doctorate in Hispanic studies adds credibility to the story; for example, at one point, there’s a list of books related to the Incas and their conquests that includes real-life texts, and Cole’s skills at translating 16th-century Spanish and Quechuan, showcased in the narrative, makes him indispensable in the search for the gold.
A gripping adventure story and a delightful read, particularly for amateur treasure hunters.Pub Date: July 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-985787-27-8
Page Count: 248
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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