I like this game. I've played it for a little while now, and it is challenging. The idea of a modern day Indiana Jones comes most to mind while playing it. But that is a game, and not a book.

We look at the written word different then we look at video games. And just as when we walk out of a movie based on a book, we do a comparison of the two properties, we must do the same with the book and the game. The book is based on the game franchise, not a particular game as yet.

That is probably one of the failures. The copy I reviewed is also a pre publication copy, and there were too many typos showing either Del Rey has let go too many copy editors, it hasn't had a final edit, or Chris Golden writes to fast to edit his work. Not sure which, but it does detract from the work.

The story itself has some good points, but craft wise, it fails. First as a mystery, we have a dead body, and instead of really wanting to find out more about this body, which is recovered in gruesomeness. We want to find the mysterious title of the book, the 4th Labyrinth which we hope will tie up the loose end of who murdered that body.

The protagonists includes the friend of the deceased as well as the daughter. No matter how important the find will be, murderers, justice would seem to be more important to those involved. The author does not really give us enough development to get away from that.

Further, as Nate and Sully in the video banter to pass the time in the video, and as they are not three dimensional characters in that game, the author carries that banter past an extreme in the book. Nate is never serious, except one or two times in his own thoughts. Otherwise it is all banter, banter, banter. Might as well watch some South Park reruns instead of read this book. If you do not catch the byplay, because you do not live in the author's generation, then you are not going to enjoy this book. It certainly looses rating points because the characters don't know how to speak as Human's do.

We then get to the great part of the game, and what the book lacks. The quest. There is a quest in the book, but it is very linear without trips down the wrong path and clues that we can see that lead us as readers towards the right path. The characters solve this with their help from the deceased, the funky researcher who works for the bad guy, the professor the hero pulls out of his cell phone as needed.

But where the game excels and where Indiana Jones established how this should work, and the B&W serials of the thirties and forties, is that all these great finds are protected by puzzles. It is what we as gamers have to do to unlock the next part of the story. Somehow the puzzles are not challenging and that Nathan figures them out easily, make it seem like anyone with him could do so.

No challenge. That is the underlying way the entire story carries out. No Challenge. And so it is just average. That and the detracting banter make this a once only and only for those who are really fans. For those who want more depth in their reading, this won't have it."l