Pandora's Curse

Rating:
Summary: Full of Holes
Review: Swiss cheese of a story with cliched characters and pitiful writing. Most stories get a little better as they go along, this one just got worse and worse. It was hard enough to accept the lead character Philip Mercer, geologist/ international superspy and all around hero. But the story and its characters were
full of convenient holes. With 400-plus pages you'd think the
author could have spackled some of them. If DuBrul is really among the best in adventure writers, I think I'll give up on the genre.

Rating:
Summary: Dirk Pitt, James Bond, and Indiana Jones rolled into one !!
Review: The newest installment in the adventures of Mercer-mining engineer with no equal- is a wild ride through the frozen tundra and the frigid waters around Greenland. From start to finish this book does not stop! It's like 472 pages on a careening roller coaster. If your an action addict this book is definitely for you. Mercer no sooner gets out of one deadly jam than finds himself thrust into another. I couldn't put this book down and I highly recommend it along with the rest of the Philip Mercer adventures by Jack Du Brul.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is a disappointing effort by a decent author with very good potential. He has proven himself a good hand at action right from the beginning with Vulcan's Forge, and after a misstep with Charon's Landing, turned in an impressive yarn called The Medusa Stone. There were a number of reasons this book was less than the author's potential would allow. First of all the basis of the story was weak. To start it off was the meeting of all the world religious organizations aboard a cruise ship so the Vatican could right wrongs committed by the church over the centuries. The element of the meteorite that still radiated deadly radioactivity was something I had seen before and handled better. The same with the secret society that was guarding a certain religious relic that was made of the meteorite. There are other books, and movies for that matter that employ the element of a secret society and do it much better. Also, the nazi element, and the nazi hunters were something that just didn't hold much interest. If I were to put in a nutshell my thoughts about this novel, it would be called a political correctness inspired kick, ironically helped along at the end by some clownlike religious stereotypes, employed as humor, which appeared to defeat the purpose of the PC based storyline. Of course there were a number of action scenes that were pure DuBrul and is what he does best. Ultimately that is what kept me reading. For die hard DuBrul fans who have read everything, even the very bad Charon's Landing, I would say you might enjoy it. But for somebody that has a wide range of interests and reads many things, this book will most likely remind you of something you have already read and liked better.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is a disappointing effort by a decent author with very good potential. He has proven himself a good hand at action right from the beginning with Vulcan's Forge, and after a misstep with Charon's Landing, turned in an impressive yarn called The Medusa Stone. There were a number of reasons this book was less than the author's potential would allow. First of all the basis of the story was weak. To start it off was the meeting of all the world religious organizations aboard a cruise ship so the Vatican could right wrongs committed by the church over the centuries. The element of the meteorite that still radiated deadly radioactivity was something I had seen before and handled better. The same with the secret society that was guarding a certain religious relic that was made of the meteorite. There are other books, and movies for that matter that employ the element of a secret society and do it much better. Also, the nazi element, and the nazi hunters were something that just didn't hold much interest. If I were to put in a nutshell my thoughts about this novel, it would be called a political correctness inspired kick, ironically helped along at the end by some clownlike religious stereotypes, employed as humor, which appeared to defeat the purpose of the PC based storyline. Of course there were a number of action scenes that were pure DuBrul and is what he does best. Ultimately that is what kept me reading. For die hard DuBrul fans who have read everything, even the very bad Charon's Landing, I would say you might enjoy it. But for somebody that has a wide range of interests and reads many things, this book will most likely remind you of something you have already read and liked better.

Rating:
Summary: A Worthwhile Read
Review: This is the first Jack Du Brul novel I have read and I found it to be very well put together and interesting. It contains a good mix of action with a decent dose of historical background tying it together well. The fact it is set in one of the most unhospitable places on earth, in Greenland adds to the suspense. Philip Mercer the main character of the novel is very likeable and a hero for the new millenium.