Review forthcoming.

I have enjoyed Manda Scott's books in the past and her writing is very good. She has a good way of building suspense and her settings are described very well. However, the love story was quite unbelievable. Yes, this is a science-fiction fantasy, so you can't take it too seriously, but the interaction between characters was sometimes stilted. A quick read with no baggage. ( )

personally enjoyed The Crystal Skull. I found it page turning, easy flowing, easy to go back and forth in time, intriguing, descriptive of places and vivid descriptions of the characters. (These are notes I wrote as I read this book.)
I have a degree in Anthropology, have studied and taught about the modern Maya at the Science Museum of Minnesota. I have visited the sites in Mexico and Central America. I have been to Stonehenge and Avebury in England. I read about the Crystal Skull years ago and after seeing it on the History channel, I got interested again.
Anyone interested in the Maya might want to read the book "Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan" by American John Lloyd Stephens and British Frederick Catherwood who did the illustrations for the books. I used this book when I was teaching.
I look forward to reading other books by Manda Scott. ( )

2012 So the Mayans believed is when the end of the 5th Age will happen, but more than that, there is also the possibility that the human race will cease to be, unless...

So glad there is an "unless"! This book is an adventure against the clock. Stella Cody must find out the history of the 13 crystal skulls mentioned in the Dresden Codex in order for us humans and perhaps the world itself to have a chance.

Dr Cody, whilst on a caving trip, finds a crystal skull that has been hidden since the time of Elizabeth I. We follow her as she attempts to decipher journals, maps and old tales in order to find the time, date and location that the artefact must be placed into the earth. We travel from 2007 back to the 16th century through the medium of the diaries of Cedric Owen the last keeper of the skull. Of course all the time Stella's attempts are hampered by the fact that someone is trying to stop her from finding the truth, murderously so.

This was a good, solid story, well written and researched. The voices of the two main characters, 21st Century Stella and 16th Century Cedric are separate and distinct from each other, which is no mean feat. Perhaps the colourful and dangerous 1500s was slightly more believable and enjoyable than the lacklustre 2000s. After all how could 2007 compete with notable characters such as Nostradamus, Catherine de Medici, Sir Francis Walsingham the Spymaster and Fernandez de Aguilar (last is fictional and I'll leave it up to you to discover who he is and what he does).

Yet it was still a good adventure mystery, with the whodunits not becoming completely clear until the last few chapters of the book. This was an enjoyable and easy read for me. ( )

Review here: http://whatistechnoagain.wordpress.co... ( )