David Meyer (9)

The premise of this adventure novel is interesting enough, which is why I bought it. It concerns itself with an expedition to locate and dig up the legendary (and probably mythical) lost library of the Maya.

The execution, though, is lacking. Perhaps the author is inexperienced, or he just doesn't have it. The characters are very stereotypical, including the main hero, who is an action movie badass of a modern type - that is, with feelings and empathy.

The writing style is also very direct, but in a bad way. You would think that an adventure concerned with Mayan mythology would be permeated by a sense of mystery, but no. In fact, in the middle some of it is quite boring, as the story is focused on various unsuccessful attempts to gain entry to the hidden pyramid. Fortunately, the author gets out of it before the end and the last quarter of the book is more interesting.

I think the problem, as with so many American authors, is that they're not trying to write a novel - they're trying to write a script for Hollywood. In the US, an author is not considered to have made it until their book gets picked up by the movie industry, or at least adopted for television. This is why you have totally unnecessary explosions, helicopter chases and sex scenes without any meaning in every other chapter.

So in short, idea is interesting, the author shows an adequate knowledge of the Mayan civilization, the book has its moments, but overall it reads like an average to bad action movie script.… (more)