Relic
by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of Relic.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
This book is not in any lists. Go add it to a list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1457)
Read in January, 2008
recommended to Merry by:
Bookloversgrouprecommends it for: Thriller Lovers
Number 4
Rating: B+
ISBN: 9780812543261
Summary from www.bn.com
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders. Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who - or what - is doing the kil...more
Rating: B+
ISBN: 9780812543261
Summary from www.bn.com
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders. Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who - or what - is doing the kil...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
01 Jan 08, early: There are, of course, major differences from the movie and some of them had become interchanged in my head. It is still much, much better than the movie. Amusingly, people don't usually interact with me when I read on the bus. (Notable exception was the WWII conspiracy theorist who went on and on over A Man Called Intrepid.) This book, however, inspired three people to talk to me on three different busses on one day: one who'd seen the movie and wanted to know more; one ...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in May, 2005
recommends it for:
those who don't mind a few too many details in an otherwise stellar novel
Relic was my first journey into the world that involves Special Agent Pendergast, and although he plays only a side-role in this novel, the novels that follow after, especially Still Life With Crows allow this amazing character to take a place center stage. And while Preston/Child's other characters are just as much fun, there is something all together wonderfully creepy and amazing about Pendergast, and he's the main reason why I continue to read these novels. The order they should be ...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
recommended to Nick by:
Sean Kreycikrecommends it for: fans of fun quick reads.
This was one of those books that was a fun quick read. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Just don't get hopes up for something that is far to "literary." That being said, I'm glad I pulled my head out of my own far to self important ass in order to read this mass maket fiction book. Because of it I was introduced to one of the most compeling characters I've read in a long time, Agent Pendergast. This character alone is worth the price of admission, and I'm intrested in reading mo...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
This intensely exciting thriller is the beginning of Preston’s and Child’s series featuring FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast, the tall, ghostly-pale Southern gentleman who is half MacGyver half Oxford professor. Pendergast is one of the best characters I’ve ever read, and certainly the best law enforcement character. And I certainly wasn’t disappointed in the other characters either, especially the sardonic New York cop, Vincent D’Agosta and the tenacious grad student, Margo Green, who jo...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
First book of the Pendergast series. A typical man-eater suspense thriller which happen in a big museum settings. We have FBI agent teaming up with a Lt. NYPD officer D'Agosta along with museum researcher Margo Green leading the search for the ultimate creature feeding on Fibers and human brains.
The day of a big exhibition launch - is where the action and suspense begins. There are segments where some characters are put in situation they need to fight for survivor and to find a way to destro...more
The day of a big exhibition launch - is where the action and suspense begins. There are segments where some characters are put in situation they need to fight for survivor and to find a way to destro...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
Woo! This book was awesome! It’s actually the first Pendergast book I’ve literally read (and not read as an audio book). To me, I could tell Preston and Child were still in the process of developing Pendy as a character, because his “voice” was not as smooth and refined as it is in later appearances. But, he was still Pendergast! It was nice to get a little bit of back story on him – his wife, not yet moved to NYC, etc.
I thought the ending was pretty good. I had an idea of what ...more
I thought the ending was pretty good. I had an idea of what ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Meh ... whoever
So I read "The Book of the Dead" -- the 7th book in this series -- first, and I found it gripping, terrifying, wonderful. So I immediately ordered Relic, the first book in the series, and I found myself just skimming it so I could finish it and move on with my life.
It's too difficult to jump from book seven to book one. In Relic, the characters aren't developed, and while the story is creative and unique, it's very similar to book 7, except book 7 is better. Relic just seemed like...more
It's too difficult to jump from book seven to book one. In Relic, the characters aren't developed, and while the story is creative and unique, it's very similar to book 7, except book 7 is better. Relic just seemed like...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
I'd seen this book compared to Jurassic Park in many places, and I think those comparisons are apt. That's not to say that Relic is a rip-off of Michael Crichton's book (far from it).
It's a fun, exciting, at times scary story that was - to steal a phrase from many a suspense novel blurb - unputdownable.
The action moves fast, the science in the book is pretty interesting and a cool twist at the end sets up the sequel, Reliquary, nicely.
While the four major protagonists are fairly wel...more
It's a fun, exciting, at times scary story that was - to steal a phrase from many a suspense novel blurb - unputdownable.
The action moves fast, the science in the book is pretty interesting and a cool twist at the end sets up the sequel, Reliquary, nicely.
While the four major protagonists are fairly wel...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
I actually started listening to this as an audio book, but it was going soooo slowly that it was really frustrating me. I wanted to give it a chance as it was highly recommended to me by a friend. Then I got my hands on the paperback and things went much quicker...but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. It just didn't grab me...OK story, OK characters...the blurb seemed to make Margo the main character but I felt she was very vanilla and not that exciting. In reading other reivews it a...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
The first book by the duo Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and it was a great start to their series of incredible books!
It itroduces you to Agent Pendergast who is a recurring figure through their works, and an incredible character. He's intelligent, quick-thinking, SOUTHERN with an accent, and has the oddest and most varied tastes!
The setting in a large natural history museum in New York is amazing. It is described wonderfully so you really can imagine the long hallways packed with ...more
It itroduces you to Agent Pendergast who is a recurring figure through their works, and an incredible character. He's intelligent, quick-thinking, SOUTHERN with an accent, and has the oddest and most varied tastes!
The setting in a large natural history museum in New York is amazing. It is described wonderfully so you really can imagine the long hallways packed with ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1998
The book is soooooooo much better than the movie. There are a lot of psychological twists and turns that just can't be accurately depicted in a film, no matter how well made. This is a prime example--the twists are fun, and you probably won't see them coming. The characters are really the best part, and setting this in a familiar museum to many people just makes it better. One warning: In every Preston/Child book, there's always a moment (or two...or more) when you really have to ignore the fa...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
If you saw the movie version of this, try to forget it. The book is a lot better, and (as many other review point out), it introduces one of the greater characters I've ever encountered: Aloysius Pendergast. Those who have read Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal will recognize a lot of traits shared between Lecter and Pendergast. In fact, Pendergast is a Hannibal Lecter that you can root for - he's got all of the good stuff (polite, cultured, super-intelligent, always calm under pressur...more
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
I saw the movie years ago, so I knew "the secret" of the Museum Beast, but I still think that this is a fantastic book.
A horrible monster is running wild in The Museum of Natural History and it's up to a weird FBI agent, a junior Curator(I think she's a junior Curator, she might be a full Curator but I forget. At any rate it Miss Green and she's awesome.) and a cop to find a way to stop it. Fun read. Psuedo Science at it's best. And it's said in such a way as to make a bit of sense, ...more
A horrible monster is running wild in The Museum of Natural History and it's up to a weird FBI agent, a junior Curator(I think she's a junior Curator, she might be a full Curator but I forget. At any rate it Miss Green and she's awesome.) and a cop to find a way to stop it. Fun read. Psuedo Science at it's best. And it's said in such a way as to make a bit of sense, ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
"Relic" is a solid techno-thriller that represents the best of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child at the top of their game. The museum setting is remarkably chilling during after-hours, where the majority of the book's action takes place, and the characters are both well-developed and enjoyable to root for (and it's nice seeing a Southerner portrayed as something other than a backwoods bumpkin for once).
Skip the movie, which had solid special effects but too many departures from the ...more
Skip the movie, which had solid special effects but too many departures from the ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1999
I first read this book in High School and later reread it in college. This is he first book by authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. A good page turner; Murder mystery/thriller, with some minor science fiction throw in. One of the things that these authors like to do is to take an event that at first appears supernatural and then try to explain it scientifically (although most of the time in borders more on science fiction). Its also the first introduction to some characters that will appea...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Surprisingly good...I thought this was an airport type book..you know...amusing enough for the moment and then you leave it somewhere and never think about it again.
It did really draw me in. I kept thinking that it would make a great suspenseful horror movie. It has all the elements...good characters, hateful antagonists and pretty Hollywood boys and girls playing smart historians and scientists and most importantly ancient curses and horrifying deaths.
What is up Hollywood? Here's your next...more
It did really draw me in. I kept thinking that it would make a great suspenseful horror movie. It has all the elements...good characters, hateful antagonists and pretty Hollywood boys and girls playing smart historians and scientists and most importantly ancient curses and horrifying deaths.
What is up Hollywood? Here's your next...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in August, 2006
I enjoyed Cabinet of Curiosities so much I decided to go back and read all of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's books featuring the charmingly weird Detective Pendergast. The very first one was Relic and I was not disappointed, although Pendergast was a secondary character in this one. Still, I found myself turning the pages and reluctant to put the book down until the end. What a twist--I was expecting some kind of weirdness with the killer character but certainly not what happened! A very ...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 2006
This book was a recommendation from a friend and horror afficianado. She said it was a smarter version of the Michael Crichton books where something in science goes really, really wrong. I think that description is really apt. This was a fun, slightly scary book set in the New York Museum of Natural History. Many of the characters are interesting and Pendergast is just wonderful. Just writing about this book I read years ago makes me want to go back and read some more by Preston and Child.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2000
recommended to Kitty by:
Laura Schaub
I read this years ago, while I was on a swimming training trip in Barbados. I remember that I absolutely couldn't put it down--I even almost missed a practice because I wanted to finish reading it. Keeps you on the edge of your seat, but delivers a great story, too. Highly recommended to sci-fi/adventure/history mystery lovers.
Also, I loved the book so much I watched the movie--the book is WAY better. The movie actually sort of ruined the thrill for me.
Also, I loved the book so much I watched the movie--the book is WAY better. The movie actually sort of ruined the thrill for me.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
