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El testamento Maya (The Domain Trilogy #1)
by
Steve Alten
21 de diciembre 2012. El día en que termina el calendario maya.
A lo largo de los siglos, los científicos han creído que este dato era simplemente una curiosidad histórica. Después de muchos años de investigaciones, el conocido arqueólogo Julius Gabriel descubre la verdad acerca del calendario maya, una verdad tan antigua como poderosa que podría revelar el fatídico desti...more
A lo largo de los siglos, los científicos han creído que este dato era simplemente una curiosidad histórica. Después de muchos años de investigaciones, el conocido arqueólogo Julius Gabriel descubre la verdad acerca del calendario maya, una verdad tan antigua como poderosa que podría revelar el fatídico desti...more
Paperback, 300 pages
Published
February 9th 2010
by Random House Mondadori
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Is it possible to be too smart for a book? If so, that's what happened here. This book is about the end of the word (Mayan-Calendar-Doomsday-Style) so of course it is supposed to suspend reality, but I don't think they had to summarily dismiss common sense. I am just too hip on science to get behind a lot of stuff in this book, not to mention the sheer idiocy of the some of the situations. (Who knew it was safe/feasible for the president to fly from DC to the Yucatan over 1000 miles of open ocea...more
Michael Gabriel was raised by his archaeologist parents to believe that the Mayan Doomsday prophecy is true. After Julius Gabriel, Mick’s father, is discredited by an old enemy, and Mick beats the man severely after Julius dies, Mick spends the next 11 years in solitary confinement in a mental institution. It is nearing the Earth’s day of doom, December 21, 2012, when Dominique Vasquez, an intern, is added to his psychiatric team. Mick needs Dominique’s help, but first he has to convince her ...more
El primer tercio del libro me entretuvo, hasta que empezaron a salirse las cosas un poco de control y realidad. Los personajes poco a poco perdieron profundidad (la poca que tenían) y llegó un punto en el que simplemente quería acabarlo por el puro hecho de acabarlo.
Michael Gabriel has been incarcerated for 11 years in psychiatric facilities, but seems to have the key to saving the world from the predicted Mayan doomsday on Dec. 21, 2012.
I did enjoy the visualization of how this doomsday is to take place and the alien involvement 65 million years ago, to explain the iridium in the KT boundary. However, I do not enjoy Tom Clancy-like technical descriptions complete with acronyms and mostly skipped those parts. I also wonder where the funding fo...more
I did enjoy the visualization of how this doomsday is to take place and the alien involvement 65 million years ago, to explain the iridium in the KT boundary. However, I do not enjoy Tom Clancy-like technical descriptions complete with acronyms and mostly skipped those parts. I also wonder where the funding fo...more
Paperback/Sci-Fiction: I figured I'd better get this one off the shelf because 2012 is around the corner and this is a trilogy. I really loved Alten's shark books and this one was pretty good too.
Let's get the hard part over: There were some problems: 150 pages too long, slow beginning, undone loose ends. The biggest thing I did not like was the father's journal. Instead of a man, who has pretty much isolated for much of his life, seems to get saner as his journal goes on.
The good part...more
Let's get the hard part over: There were some problems: 150 pages too long, slow beginning, undone loose ends. The biggest thing I did not like was the father's journal. Instead of a man, who has pretty much isolated for much of his life, seems to get saner as his journal goes on.
The good part...more
This book shares some plot similarities with the new Indiana Jones movie, but it's maddening to get through. Dominique has been assigned to a mental patient named Nick, who believes that the Mayan calendar (which prophecies the end of the world on December 21, 2012) is based in fact and that extraterrestrials are coming to do battle on the Earth. The plot moves quickly but the characters are fairly wooden, especially Nick and Dominique. The book ends with a cliffhanger, which is continued in the...more
ancient Mayan myth predicts end of time - Dominique Vasquez, a psych grad, believes her patient Mick Gabriel when he speaks of this. Mick, the son of 2 famous archaeologists, has spent more than a decade in an asylum after attacking the present day Sec of State who was his dad’s best friend, mom’s ex fiancé and an archaeologist, too. Sr Gabriel believed beings from outer space came and built Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the desert glyphs of the Nazca desert, etc. and their origins would lead to the...more
An ancient prophecy. An evil older than mankind. It is the beginning of the end.
I was about three or four pages into The Mayan Prophecy by Steve Alten when I had a niggling suspicion that everything seemed awfully familiar. After bit of hunting around at the front of the book I discovered that the novel was originally published under the title Domain back in 2001. Though I had read it before, I decided to re-read and refresh my opinion of the novel.
The Mayan calendar runs out...more
I was about three or four pages into The Mayan Prophecy by Steve Alten when I had a niggling suspicion that everything seemed awfully familiar. After bit of hunting around at the front of the book I discovered that the novel was originally published under the title Domain back in 2001. Though I had read it before, I decided to re-read and refresh my opinion of the novel.
The Mayan calendar runs out...more
The last thing I usually pick up when reading for pleasure is sci-fi. I don't like spaceships. I don't like aliens or Star Trekky-like creatures. I don't like physical laws breaking in books (that goes for fantasy too). But somehow Domain, Steve Alten's sci-fi doomsday page-turner, kept me glued enough that I actually think I'm going to start giving sci-fi another chance. Maybe it was because it was part psychological thriller, part historical fiction, and all undeniably, relentessly plot-driven...more
El Testamento Maya By Steve Alten is about the Maya calendar and the Maya prophecy. In the Maya caledar it says that the world is going to end on december 21, 2012.
The most important characters of the book are Michel and Dominique. Michel was an archeologist, him and his father julius Gabriel a famous archeologist tried to discover the significant of the Maya prophecy. After his father presented their discovery to te scientist community, no one believe what they said and his father reput...more
The most important characters of the book are Michel and Dominique. Michel was an archeologist, him and his father julius Gabriel a famous archeologist tried to discover the significant of the Maya prophecy. After his father presented their discovery to te scientist community, no one believe what they said and his father reput...more
Uff, Profecias Mayas, Angkor Wat, Stonehegde sinceramente al leer la cubierta posterior parece que todo va bien y pinta para ser un libro muy interesante, al principio lo es, cuenta con muchos hechos historicos realmente sorprendentes, de pronto la historia se convierte en una novela de Dan Brown o Ken Follet mal escrita, realmente me resulto muy dificil continuar leyendo, logre terminarlo, sin embargo no supe si lei un libro de ciencia ficción, una novela, un libro historico o que lo unico que ...more
I enjoyed this book; an interesting adventure built up around the 2012 Mayan calendar, as well as the mysteries surrounding ancient structures (pyramids, stonehenge, etc.). Who built these, and why? The subject matter is an interest of mine, which made it easy for me to get into the story; I especially liked the "Journal of Julius Gabriel" excerpts. Towards the end it gets a bit trippy. The author could have toned down the bad language a bit; it got bothersome - seems the aliens are th...more
Mixing Mayan culture with doomsday predictions.
Only one man knows and he is locked up
how does he get out?
How does he save the world? why is december 21 2012 so important?
Mayan calendars and hidden spacecraft are everywhere
dark highways ... they were stretching the imagination and often hard to follow... still empathy for characters draws the reader on
what happens?
not a bad storyline... linking well known ancient sites around the world.... ...more
Only one man knows and he is locked up
how does he get out?
How does he save the world? why is december 21 2012 so important?
Mayan calendars and hidden spacecraft are everywhere
dark highways ... they were stretching the imagination and often hard to follow... still empathy for characters draws the reader on
what happens?
not a bad storyline... linking well known ancient sites around the world.... ...more
Entertaining speculative fiction focused on the Mayan calendar "doomsday prophecy" that has so many conspiracy theorists in a twist nowadays.
Alten's novel focuses on Michael Gabriel, the son of an archaeologist who discovers some information related to the Mayan calendar that no one else has found. When he begins sharing the information at a scholarly conference, his rival Pierre Borgia discredits him. At the time that the book takes place, Borgia is serving as secretary ...more
Alten's novel focuses on Michael Gabriel, the son of an archaeologist who discovers some information related to the Mayan calendar that no one else has found. When he begins sharing the information at a scholarly conference, his rival Pierre Borgia discredits him. At the time that the book takes place, Borgia is serving as secretary ...more
This title caught my eye at the library, and as expected, I've found another author to look for when I'm at an airport bookstore looking for something fun to read on the plane. A good yarn that kept me entertained; nice transition book before diving in to something more substantial. Now time to pick up something off my giant to-read pile.
Now I’m more convinced that on 2012, nothing’s gonna happen. I know that there were so many wise ancient cultures (Mayans, Egyptians, etc.), with myths and beliefs, like any other. Yes, they built amazing structures and everything, but they have nothing to do with our future. As for the book, at the beginning, it’s a little tedious, but then it captivated me and I really wanted to know what was gonna happen. Of course I wanted Mick to be with Dominique, but that would be so predictable. So it wa...more
LeRoy
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to LeRoy by:
No-one
Shelves:
sci-fi
Excellent book, Sci-fi, End of the world...
This was an excellent book about the Mayan prophecy that will end the world in 2012. One man surmounts all odds to stop a devastating force that will destroy all of earth. It is a book I could read again, and i would advise others to.
This was an excellent book about the Mayan prophecy that will end the world in 2012. One man surmounts all odds to stop a devastating force that will destroy all of earth. It is a book I could read again, and i would advise others to.
I read this book because I had no others to read... but I quickly got pulled in and could not put it down- for the first half. In the second half it got all Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull on me and I had a hard time swallowing the alien part. I will not be reading the sequel.
Steve Alten is a natural storyteller and a gebius at devising multiple climaxes in anovel. In this book, he puts his incredible talent on the mayan prophecy and the role of a slightly unbalanced archeologist ho has a role to play in the climactic date of 12-21-12. This is a soldi adventure thriller that is not to be missed.
Great read, but I couldn't find the other two books.
Domain is a Adventure/Mystery book about a man who has been labeled a psycho. After finding evidence to the exact date of the end of the world, he goes on a journey to find a way to stop it.
Domain is a Adventure/Mystery book about a man who has been labeled a psycho. After finding evidence to the exact date of the end of the world, he goes on a journey to find a way to stop it.
You had me until you got to the aliens... I generally find any story related to history, ancient prophecies, or other cultures fascinating and this story was no exception, until I got to the aliens. Ignoring them for a second, I absolutely enjoyed the love story between Mick and Dominique and by the end, the aliens weren't so bad either.
Another book from my Dad's stack. This is a super fast read. I was very entertained by the story, but it's certainly no great piece of literature. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy.
This story is a cross between the movie Independence Day, Contact, and the Abyss in the context of Mayan lore. It is an interesting and exciting read, packed with action from beginning to end. You definitely have to suspend disbelief to keep following this fictional story line, but some of the most far fetched parts were not invented by the author! As I was reading this book, I kept googling many of the things that were referenced, and they were true, or at least documented theories. Pretty mind...more
Not one of my favorite authors, but an ok read. The mystery in the plot line kept me going but I kept wishing the characters had been fleshed out a bit better.
I loved this book although it was a slow read! Alten has done a great deal of research, making it an awesome science fiction book - something I normally do not read.
Would say this was an awful book, but then again read it in two days. I guess it was at least entertaining. I hate the idea what this does to my hipster reputation. A book you rather hide behind the Da Vinci code, or was it the other way round.
Unreadable crap. Could only force myself through the first 1/4 of the book. To quote another reviewer "there should be a category on here for Yikes that was bad.."
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It was a good read, and very much realistic fiction with the presense of a much deeper secret behind all phenomenon on the planet.
I read this a few years ago and remembered it fondly enough to go back and look for it again. It didn't really stand up to a reread, unfortunately. For me, the best part is the question it raises: How on earth is it possible that thousands of years ago, without access to modern machinery, people built the pyramids at Giza, Chichen Itza, etc., not to mention Stonehenge - marvels that engineers today could not create? From there, though, Alten spirals off into a story involving a gullible forensic...more
Steve Alten again. Premise was so promising, execution truly awful. I've tried Steve Alten twice now. Won't be trying him again.
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Steve Alten (born August 21, 1959, Philadelphia) is an American science fiction author. He is best known for his Meg series, a set of novels around the fictitious survival of the Megalodon, a giant prehistoric shark. Alten holds a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University, a master's in sports medicine from the University of Delaware and a doctorate in sports administration from Temple ...more
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“For the record, I take no satisfaction in being right. For the record, I pray to God that I'm wrong.
I'm not wrong...”
—
4 people liked it
I'm not wrong...”
“None of us have any control over the deck or the hand we've been dealt. What we do have is total responibility as to how we play the hand.”
—
3 people liked it
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