
DAVID K. (
kodfish) wrote on 7/21/2009...
Have read most of Preston and Child's books. Like their style, but thought this was
a little off from their best works. Just finished STILL LIFE WITH CROWS and enjoyed
it far better. Still would recommend if you are a fan.

(
torch) wrote on 10/27/2008...
This book was a good read. It kept me guessing the entire book right up to the end.
Preston & Child make an awesome team.
I've loved all of the earlier Pendergast novels and eagerly awaited this one. The story line was weak and Pendergast was not a strong character in the story. While all of the books involved the supernatural,this story was weak and a bit ridiculous. I finished it just because I didn't want to leave it unfinished. The ending leaves an opening to continue the story but I'm not sure I will be bothered. A sad last novel to an otherwise enthralling series.

Sal C. (
soquiet) wrote on 3/2/2008...
In the exciting eighth supernatural thriller from bestsellers Preston and Child (after 2006's The Book of the Dead), FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast and his ward, Constance Greene, seek peace of mind at a remote Tibetan monastery, only to fall into yet another perilous, potentially earthshaking assignment. The monastery's abbot asks them to recover a stolen relic, the cryptic Agozyen, which could, in the wrong hands, wipe out humanity. The pair follow the trail to a luxury cruise ship, where a series of brutal murders suggests the relic's evil spirit might already have been invoked. Fans of earlier books focused on a thinly disguised American Museum of Natural History may find less at stake among the new cast of secondary characters, but the fate of Constance, who claims to have aborted the child of Pendergast's villainous younger brother, remains a potent subplot. While not as frightening as others in the series, this entry still shows why the authors stand head and shoulders above their rivals in this subgenre.
FBI Special Agent Pendergast is taking a break from work to take Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed.They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen.As a favor, Pendergast agrees to track and recover the relic.A twisting trail of bloodshed leads Pendergast and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Britannia, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner---and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror.
This one was just as good as all the others, but it WAS slightly different....for one, we find that Pendergast has a weakness. In all the other books, he seemed to be made of teflon. But in WOD, we find that his defenses can be breached (but no worries). Another difference is that the bogeyman in this book doesn't have a natural explanation. In Relic, the "monster" turned out to have a scientific explanation. Perhaps not completely likely (I'm no scientist), but there was a natural reason for its existence. But in WOD, the monster seemed to me to have supernatural origins.
Whatever the case may be, I wasn't disappointed in this book, and I'm looking forward to whatever may come next!

Bowden P. (
Trey) - Jackson, MS wrote on 10/22/2007...
Well, I was right - 21st century pulp. Aloysius Pendergast is back in fine form - a cross between a fine southern gentleman, one of the Holmes brothers and Doc Savage. Also known as "That albino sonofabitch." The plot revolves around a mysterious artifact stolen from a secretive Tibetan monastary that ends up on a super passenger liner Brittania making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. We wind up with a cast of characters and suspects and things rapidly going from tense to really bad.
All, in all, not too bad. Especially for a dollar at the local friends of the library book sale.