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Eroe777 OP t1_ix63ws7 wrote

Reply to comment by sam_narase in For the first time in a long time, I gave up on a book. by Eroe777

I am jumping around among several series, primarily sci-fi and fantasy. I have found Asimov to be a particular challenge to get through, mostly due to his style, but I’ve powered through them.

This series is techno-thriller/mystery in a contemporary setting. That authors’ style is very readable and the pacing is always spot on; one of my favorite things about their books was the unusual places the characters tended to end up- the basement of the Natural History Museum, Tierra del Fuego, the old subway tunnels beneath Central Park, a cave system in the middle of Kansas, the Donner Party campsite, the canyonlands of southern Egypt, etc. weird places that NOBODY sets the climax of a story.

But this time, Elon Musk Guy is out to prove the Roswell Incident really did happen, and the FBI is busy murdering its own agents to keep it under wraps. The book before this one, they used some quantum theory jiggery-pokery to explain how a creature from a parallel universe came to earth and started killing people by acting like a giant mosquito.

They’ve gone from straight mystery/thriller to plausible if unlikely scientific explanations for seemingly supernatural occurrences, to crafting mysteries and conspiracies around famous and semi-famous events like Roswell and ‘what ever happened to Geronimo’s rifle’, and a previously unknown Audubon folio. I quit.

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Pedantic_Girl t1_ix6k06l wrote

I have to admit that I am dying to know what the series/book is!

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Eroe777 OP t1_ix6ocvc wrote

The series doesn’t have an official title, it’s usually referred to by the main character’s name- Pendergast. The authors are Preston and Child. This particular book is in a separate series in the same ‘verse; the main characters are an archaeologist and a rookie FBI agent, both of whom were established in the main series.

If you like techno-thriller/mystery adventures, the books are very entertaining, especially early on. The writing is generally pretty engrossing, the pacing is brisk, and the primary protagonist, Pendergast, is a terrific enigma of a character. Over the course of a couple dozen novels you go from knowing virtually nothing about him to knowing quite a bit about him, but still feeling like you know almost nothing about him.

Despite my dissatisfaction with this book, I encourage anyone who is interested in the genre to give the series a try. Start with ‘Relic’ and ‘Reliquary’ and go from there.

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GraniteKiwi t1_ix6ohaa wrote

It's been awhile since I've read >!Preston & Child!< but if this plot isn't one of theirs I might actually die of shock. The early books are so much fun!

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