The exploration part did kindle my interest, if nothing else. ( )

I received this book from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review and as part of a blog tour. My thanks to iRead Book Tours for contacting me.



This has been a truly weird reading experience, because what started with certain premises transformed, around the midway point, into something else - into several somethings to be precise. But let's proceed with order.

Marine biologist Zachary Wallace, a man who had several brushes with death and as a consequence has developed a serious phobia about going underwater, is contacted for an expedition to Antarctica to explore the mysteries of lake Vostok, a huge body of water buried under polar ice, where the life forms that might still be dwelling there are the same of our prehistoric past. Wallace accepts despite his above-mentioned psychological problems and some serious misgivings about the effects of a prolonged absence on his already shaky marriage, and is soon plunged into an adventure that goes from the discovery of a few incredible scientific facts to the uncovering of multi-layered plots and conspiracies with world-wide scope.

As far as beginnings go, this one was promising enough, despite a few narrative "hiccups" due to the author's penchant for imparting a brusque stop to the story in order to provide in-depth details about a character or a situation: the most glaring example is the chapter-long synopsis of events contained in the previous book, The Loch, so that the reader is brought up to speed about Zach Wallace and everything that happened to him from childhood to present day. I found this narrative technique quite peculiar, to say the least, as was the choice of using a phonetical rendition of the Scottish brogue every time a Scottish national was on the scene. This particular quirk became a little annoying in the not-so-long run, but still I played along because the just-discovered mystery at the bottom of lake Vostok was too intriguing and I was eager to see where the story would lead me.

Once the action went underway (or rather under water…) I felt that my patience might have been rewarded, since the exploration of lake Vostok was carried out with a submersible probe whose launch also meant the launch of the promised story: indeed I was somewhat reminded of the Clive Cussler books I used to read and enjoy in the early '80s, but with a substantial difference. Cussler's hero, Dirk Pitt, was a square-jawed, larger than life, danger-defying character, wading into peril with almost supreme indifference, while Zach Wallace, with his issues and phobias, not to mention heavy family burdens, is a more relatable individual - flawed, human. His efforts in overcoming those flaws and the courage he's able to summon when faced with tremendous odds, make him an interesting protagonist and show him off well against the darkening background of the story as some elements come to the fore to show that there is more behind the scientific expedition he's been enlisted in. An expedition rife with secrets, double-dealings and mysteries within mysteries, including the presence of an artifact of unquestionable alien origin.

And here is where the narrative fabric began to unravel before my eyes, because a huge number of elements and sub-plots were introduced, with somewhat tenuous links between each other and the context of the story: conspiracy theories mixed with jumps in space-time; past and present alien visitations and wise aliens watching over wayward humanity; secret organizations and corrupt movers and shakers shaping politics and economy, with the required twisted military thrown into the mix; out of body experiences linking human and alien consciousness, telepathy and so on, including a peppering of extra-terrestrial mysticism - all of the above again related in long, often debilitating explanations about past events and their influence on the present. What had begun as an intriguing and sometimes humorous adventure had morphed into something I could not find a name for anymore.

I confess I wondered more than once where all this was headed to, what the author's intentions might be, and I despaired to be able to make head or tails of it, so I let myself flow with the current, but the damage had been done: the unwritten contract between writer and reader about suspension of disbelief had been breached beyond repair and I found myself falling prey to the strange dichotomy of following the events out of bewildered curiosity, but without the slightest interest for the story's outcome or the characters' fate. The last straw - mercifully placed toward the end of the book - was the "lucid dream" in which Wallace re-lives (at length and with abundance of detail, of course) the experiences of an alien scientist, involving slavery and exploitation of a people dreaming of a better land and of relocating there after a hazardous voyage, the metaphor complete with the mention of a succession of plagues hitting the place where they were being mistreated. If this sounds biblically familiar… yes, you can rest assured that no myth, no legend, no allegory or tired trope was left unturned for this book.

Not a book for me - not with the problems I listed, to which I must add an annoying portrayal of female characters that covered the whole spectrum from cliché (the proverbial nagging wife) to teenager-like wish-fulfillment (a human-looking beautiful alien, raised in a lab and trained in the arts of Kama Sutra? Seriously???).

Definitely not my kind of preferred reading material.



https://spaceandsorcery.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/vostok-steve-alten-blog-tour/
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From Amazon:

East Antarctica: The coldest, most desolate location on Earth. Two-and-a-half miles below the ice cap is Vostok, a six thousand square mile liquid lake, over a thousand feet deep, left untouched for more than 15 million years. Now, marine biologist Zachary Wallace and two other scientists aboard a submersible tethered to a laser will journey 13,000 feet beneath the ice into this unexplored realm to discover Mesozoic life forms long believed extinct – and an object of immense power responsible for the evolution of modern man.

My Thoughts:

This started out to be a 5 star read. I was excited to get into it since I loved The Loch which easily ranks among my all time favorite books and which this is a sequel to. This however went from excellent to barely tolerated very quickly. What was found in Lake Vostok, what they encounter...fast action, suspense...I couldn’t put it down. The time spent in Lake Vostok was by far the best part of the entire book. Unfortunately, after the suspense and action, I found myself lost. I had a really hard time with a lot of the technical language being used. A little would have been okay but on top of that it went off in a far fetched direction. I am not sure if I would categorize this as science based beliefs or spiritual based beliefs or both, but I felt that I had a good understanding of what was happening but was having a difficult time putting it into any kind of conceivable theory. All in all, if you can get passed the scientific terminology and the slowness of the beginning and about three quarters of the way through – it was a good read. 3 stars and I sure hope the third book that is currently planned is less of a disappointment. ( )

Vostok by Steve Alten is a recommended thriller that brings back The Loch's popular marine biologist Zachary Wallace. Times are tough for Zachary. After Nessie was found, there have been some economic trials and now his marriage is struggling. When Zachary is recruited to head down to Antarctica and explore Lake Vostok, which is located underneath miles of ice, he hesitates at first, but then agrees.

Predictably (and honestly, what we all wanted to read about), Zachary encounters some Miocene monsters in the deep as well as some monsters of the human variety. Then the novel takes an odd turn that I could go with, as long as there would be more creature action. Well, the creature action diminishes and the story becomes a sort of UFO encounter of the higher consciousness. Then the story morphs into a tirade against big oil set in Washington DC and conspiracy theories. Next it... Well, that will give you enough of an idea of the directions the plot takes.

Honestly, I was looking forward to the escapism of an action/adventure thriller. I thought that was what I was getting. Come on, look at the cover! At page 143 my eyes widened, I grinned, and said "Now that's what I'm talking about!" Then things changed, but I could go with the new twist. It is different, not what I was hoping for but, hey, I'm flexible. Then they changed again, and changed again, and.... Finally, the beginning of Vostok is noticeably better written than the last half of the book in my review edition. Now this could be changed in the final version, but it was glaring for me.

I loved The Loch and was anxious to read about Zachary's latest adventure. Vostok didn't quite live up to that promise. While it wasn't as preachy-bad as The Shell Game, it certainly wasn't as entertaining and wonderful as Alten's earlier works. For me, Vostok is a solid airplane book. It will keep you entertained. You'll likely want to keep reading to find out what happens next, but if you misplace it or switch to another eBook, you aren't going to miss it.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Rebel Press for review purposes. ( )

This book is actually a sequel to The Loch, which I've not yet read. I picked this up after reading a review that intrigued me. The book begins with a trip to Antarctica where a lake far below the ice surface is located. It struck me as a modern day "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and then strange things started to happen. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to keep reading but I did and I'm so glad. The book has many different themes - Creation, Alien Life, Time, and Energy, the latter being controlled by corrupt and powerful agencies. I can't explain without giving it all away but I really liked this book. It's fiction that leaves one thinking and there are so many things to think about. And I will pick up The Loch which I've heard good things about. I understand there's a 3rd book coming and I'm really looking forward to that one! ( )