Thunderhead by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Thunderhead
Book Review: 3.5 stars--A decent horror-thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
Nora Kelly receives a letter from her father who has been dead for 16 years. In it, he claims to have found an ancient lost city of the Anasazi indians. The same night she finds the letter she is attacked by men dressed in wolfskins called skinwalkers. With the backing of the university she works for, Nora heads an archaeological expedition to follow her father's directions and find the lost city of Quivira. She has to deal with a myriad of problems, between the clashing personalities of her group of scientists and the obstacles nature puts in her way at finding the ruins.
Once they find the city and begin exploring, a member of the group dies of a mysterious illness, some of their horses are slaughtered ritualistically and the skinwalkers Nora thought she had escaped
re-appear.
Thunderhead is an entertaining read, if not altogether original. The pace is brisk and a few twists you won't see coming. There are others you will anticipate, the ending is a let-down and the characters aren't especially deep. I would hope real archaeologists don't act this way, because this group aren't very professional. This is a decent horror-thriller.
Book Review: 4 1/2 stars
Summary: 4 Stars
After I read Relic and Reliquary I decided to try Thunderhead. I found it to be as enjoyable as Relic and Reliquary. Nora Kelly received a letter written by her father sixteen years ago, but freshly mailed. In it he speaks of Quivira an Anasazi city that is supposedly filled with gold. He also mentions he is dying of a disease, and this disease will become a crucial part of the plot later on. Nora decides to set up an expedition with the head of her museum, Dr. Goddard. The team members are: Peter Holroyd, Sloane Goddard, Roscoe Swire, Aaron Black, Enrique Aragon, Bonarotti, Bill Smithback (the reporter in the Museum Beast novels) and, of course, Nora herself. So they set off, and eventually reach this city. Then horrible things happen (spoiler) This novel was strongly reminsicent of Relic, but the violence, while graphic, wasn't as bad as in Relic. Characters chane abruptly and horribly at the end. Overall Thunderhead was an excellent book.
Book Review: A Bonfire of a read
Summary: 5 Stars
When Nora Kelly, assistant professor at the prestigious Santa Fe Archaeological Institute, receives a call from her former neighbor, reporting dim lights and large animals skulking around Rancho de las Cabrillas, Nora's old family ranch, she drives down to investigate. Her flashlight reveals chaos. The place is a mess. It's almost like someone searched it... Nora hears a noise downstairs. Thinking it's feral dogs, she stomps down the stairs, only to be attacked by two man-like creatures dressed in animal skins and smelling of flowers.
"Where is it," one rasps. "The letter, or we'll rip your head off."
It's only the blast of the neighbor's shotgun that saves Nora, and a very short time later, fleeing the creatures again, she stumbles on a letter beside the row of abandoned mailboxes out near the highway. It's from her dead father, written sixteen years ago, and in it he claims to have discovered an ancient Anasazi road that leads to the lost Aztec city of Quivira, Coronado's fabled city of gold. Could this be what the jaguar men were looking for?
Greatly excited, Nora petitions the institute for an expedition, only to be sharply rebuked and reminded that she's far behind in her work. If she hopes to be granted tenure, she has six months of hard desk work ahead of her. Detail work. The kind she hates.
Nora tells her brother Dave about the letter. He suggests an old prof, who now supervises the operation a JPL radar that can see through thirty feet of sand. Turned away by the prof, Nora tries an end run, allying with a fellow underling, assistant professor Peter Holroyd, who collects deadly plants and dreams of voyages of discovery. Attracted to Nora, shy and bumbling, Holroyd is convinced. All he has to do is re-task the system and collect some extra data. In return, Nora promises him a place in the expedition.
The radar scan is made, but they find no traces of an ancient road - that is, until Nora mentions that when the Anasazi closed their roads, they placed layers of brush on them and burnt it, creating a layer of carbon. A quick adjustment is all it takes. The new screen scans into place, and there it is, the road to Quivara.
Nora tells no one, until the next day she's summoned to the office of Institute president Ernest Goddard, where surprisingly he greets her very cordially. He induces her to reveal the discovery of the road, and before the visit ends she's been granted the backing of the Institute and a team of expert, even famous, archaeologists to work with her.
And so begins a harrowing and dangerous journey through some of the most difficult terrain in the world. Floods, storms, reptiles, and the sheer scale of the search make a fantastic setting for a blood-stirring adventure underscored by internecine conflict and team members too full of themselves and too eager for personal glory. Does the city exist? What lays in wait for the adventurers? Who are the wolf-men and why are they so viscious? The pace is never allowed to sag. Thunderhead reads like a burning house, and if the final scenes, which are of necessity concoctions, aren't quite as believeable as the rest, it's no biggie cause the scope of this story is off the chart. Great stuff.
Art Tirrell is the author of The Secret Ever Keeps
"...simply put, the best underwater scenes I've ever read." Meg Westley
Book Review: A DRAMATIC TREK IN THE FAR SOUTHWEST
Summary: 5 Stars
Timing could not be better given the current attention being paid to THE LOST CITY OF Z and the mystery of Colonel Fawcett (not Brad Pitt). This is a thrill a minute adventure into the Four Corners in search of the mythical city of Quivera. I would applaud the authors not only for plot development but for that of the central characters as well. Having read all of the Tony Hillerman novels I would argue the presentation herein of the tales of the "skinwalkers" is a chilling as anything the late Hillerman wrote. Most impressive is the list of sources consulted by the authors in preparation for this fantastic book. In terms of visual images no one has done better.Book Review: A Fast Archaeological Thriller Read !!
Summary: 4 Stars
A fun and fast read thriller about an archaeological expedition in the southwest. Having been in the area and visited some of the sites they talk about, it has a plausable feel to it; and the weather effects are not unlikely to happen in real life. While a fun read (thus the high marks); the story is a tad short and moves maybe too quickly. But I think you'll find it fun none-the-less. I would add it the "Summer Beach Read" pile.