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Temple

Matthew Reilly

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Mar 09, 2013 Karen rated it liked it

William Race, a professor of linguisitics, is running late for his class. On his way, he's stopped by some military men who desperately need the help of someone fluent in ancient languages. Finally, the nerds win! Well, not quite. It turns out that even though William Race seems meek, bookish, and nerdy in all various definitions of the term, he's actually quite the quick-thinking, selflessly brave hero one tends to find in such novels.

And that's kind of where Matthew Reilly lost me. Don't get William Race, a professor of linguisitics, is running late for his class. On his way, he's stopped by some military men who desperately need the help of someone fluent in ancient languages. Finally, the nerds win! Well, not quite. It turns out that even though William Race seems meek, bookish, and nerdy in all various definitions of the term, he's actually quite the quick-thinking, selflessly brave hero one tends to find in such novels.

And that's kind of where Matthew Reilly lost me. Don't get me wrong -- this was thrilling. The first two hundred pages go by in a flash of excitement and surprises. But then it gets kind of old. There is a huge climactic sequence halfway through the book, which left me wondering what kind of trouble these characters could possibly get into next. Oh, there was plenty of trouble to be had. One more false climax and then the final climax, each more ridiculous and filled with bizarre deus ex machinas than the next. Now, to a certain extent, I understand that in order for books to qualify as thrillers, they should have a certain element of the unusual and improbable, or else it wouldn't be exciting. However, to say that this book jumped the shark would be an understatement.

Additionally, the author kept putting what he thought were the most thrilling parts of the book in italics and then following them with exclamation points. It was like he was saying, "oh look! This is exciting! See how there is punctuation telling you how to feel" Instead of getting the desired result, I would roll my eyes practically every time at the obnoxiousness of it all. Furthermore, there were entire sections I would skim lightly because the skirmishes between parties were heavily inlaid with names and specifications of military equipment. It was a litany of the mechanics and movements of weapons and vehicles that mean very little to me, either as a literary technique or a person. I don't care how the gun works, it's just important to me that he has one, though I appreciate the author's desire for authenticity.

The jewel in this story is the portion written and told by the Spanish monk about the idol and its dashing prince rescuer. If the whole book had been just about their adventure, I would have been very well pleased. As it is, the book only gets three stars from me because at times it was just too blatant and over-the-top. ...more

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