Amazonia

I tried to read this one slowly, but it never happened. One of the best gripper of a story from my favorite author. An apt book for action lovers, though too much of action to taste. A lost expedition group, a contagion disease, a group trailing the lost group and another group planning to confiscate what the trailing group find, a hidden tribe with secrets, corrupted and fearful creatures, awful slaughters, terrifying woman, betrayal.... The only lean part is was towards the end. Even though this book is a work of fiction, the last but second chapter was a bit of over exaggeration, like in terms - way much beyond imagination... Except that the story is overwhelming with lots and lots of action and adventure. A good research over Amazon show more forests, its power of healing and its power to destruct - a different angle to me of the dense vegetation... show less

I was just unable to finish this. Got to page 62 and gave up. At least, for now.

I didn't really buy the action scenes that occurred (python attack, big cat attack/play) and when the main character (father went missing 4 years ago) went child-tantrum, throwing his chair back and screaming "they're dead! They're all dead!" because he just found out a highly skilled group will be doing a new search to find out what happened to dad... well... soap operas ain't my thing... and that was a soap opera response.

EDITED TO ADD:
I've been thinking about this and decided to do a more full review, even though I only read 62 pages. Thinks kept bubbling up and I'm hoping that by typing them out, I'll get them out of my head. This read was annoying. I so show more looked forward to it. The basic idea sounded fun and reminded me of Relic (on which book's page Goodreads recommended this book), a book I truly enjoyed. Obviously, not fun.

A few things that bothered the hell out of me, for a book that wasn't written for NaNoWriMo:
Manny and his Jaguar:
1-The fake hunt, where he's supposedly training the young cat to hunt, so it can be released into the wild and survive on its own. Uh-huh. Because it will help for it to be trained to hunt humans. And to hunt by not hurting the prey. And, when play-hunted by his "pet", he instinctively goes for his knife and whip... of course, he does. All to make it seem like he's in danger. (and I can only assume that he'll bring the cat along with a special forces team that would, in real life, end up tagging the thing with a few dozen bullets).
2-They're going to be seeking the Jaguar People who, in local myths, mate with jaguars and yadda yadda. No doubt Manny will be taken as either a "brother" or a mythical being, because of his close connection to a jaguar. That's not obvious.

Our Hero wonders why a Special Forces team would possibly be needed for an expedition into the Amazon when
A) his father's team disappeared and they're looking for them
B) there are possibilities of armed drug smugglers
C)he was just attacked for ridiculous reasons by a tribe he had been living with because (yes, reallY) he saved the chief's daughter.
Our Hero, in other words, is a clueless knob.

Stereotypical "white doctor in tribal lands doesn't understand magical power of tribal medicine". Even worse, said doctor is working at the local hospital, even though she's only there for a day, preparing for trek into jungle. Why is she working at the hospital? I didn't catch an explanation, but it gave a chance to introduce another character's knowledge of tribal medicine, her lack thereof, and the hero's facility with both cultures. But... she shouldn't have been there.

Yeah... that's a lot of annoying, in 62 pages. show less

James has created a tantalizing tale of Amazonian jungle mystery, packed with plenty of fast paced action, love and a little gore. Maybe a tad more than a little-but never over the top.

This was a very gripping read. I really liked the information about plants and animals that can be found in the Amazon basin although it convinced me that it's not a place to venture unless you are very familiar with the hazards associated with them.

Fortunately Nathan Rand, a young researcher, is well-versed in the flora and fauna of the rainforest. His father and mother researched the area before him and he grew up in its (somewhat scary) environs. His father disappeared four years before while trying to conduct a census of the Indian tribes and his mother had died before that. Nathan spent years trying to find his father but had never been able to find any trace. When a soldier from the exploration force stumbles out of the forest it show more is the first clue to what happened to the group. Unfortunately the soldier dies within hours and without being able to disclose any information. However, it is clear something amazing happened to him because he had lost an arm previous to entering the Amazon but when he came out he had both arms. The ability to regenerate limbs piques the interest of the American government and large pharmaceutical companies. A new expedition is put together to follow the soldier's trail and Nathan Rand is part of it.

I thought the violence was a little overdone and the ending was tied up rather too neatly. I also have one small quibble but since it is a big spoiler I would advise not reading the following until after the book has been read.

The soldier who stumbles out of the forest is riddled with tumours and also carries a deadly prion that infects anyone in the vicinity of his body who is young or immune-compromised. It is revealed that the sap from the Yagga tree which is responsible for the healing properties is also the source of the prion. The nuts of the tree contain an antiprion that defeats the disease and at the end of the book it is revealed that a month's treatment with the antiprion totally eradicated the prion. But, if all it took was a month's treatment and the soldier had been in the jungle for over 4 years, why did he succumb to the prion? He must have had well over a month's worth of the antiprion during his stay in the jungle. He should have then been free of the prion. This is never explained as far as I could see.

But, aside from that plot defect, this was a well-crafted novel and I'll look for other James Rollins books. show less

I almost read the entire book in one evening, I just couldn't stop. James Rollins is master when it comes to writing adventure books and this book is so incredibly engrossing that I just couldn't stop reading. Just one more chapters, and suddenly it's two hours later. The only drawback? The romance, I don't know why, I just wasn't fond of it. I'm not against romance in adventure book, but I want it to feel real, and the romance between the main characters, well it was just corny, one step away from a harlequin novel, but beside that the book was really good!

When the mood strikes for a good adventure thriller, a James Rollins book always does the trick. Amazonia was able to carry me away to the jungles of South America, and involve me in an expedition searching for a lost party of scientists. Of course nothing is as it seems and the story includes a rival team, an unknown illness, medical research, native Indians and … something else that’s out there in the jungle.

Of course the story is far-fetched and quite unbelievable, but that is exactly why I read these types of books, for pure escapism, if I actually learn a fact or two about South American jungles, well that is an unexpected bonus.

This is adventure with a capital A. A non-stop thriller that takes off like a roller coaster and show more gives you quite the ride. If you are in the mood for danger, intrigue and thrills, without leaving the comfort of your armchair, I definitely recommend Amazonia. show less

Verdict: DNFed at 59%.

1.5 stars.

Let's begin with the good stuff about this book: I liked the idea of it, the exotic setting, the entire mystery aspect and its medical/science grounds. Also, I really appreciated the fact that the science throughout the book was explained extremely thoroughly - the downside of that being, of course, that the book pretty much read like a textbook.

Characters flat; writing flat; plot flat and repetitive.

I particularly did not enjoy the cheap thrills that kept being flung my way: Oh my God, deadly alligator strikes again! Please.

People died left and right - I didn't even like them that much when they were alive, so was them being savagely murdered by crazy amazon fauna supposed to make me root for anyone? I show more did not care one whit about any single one of them.

Overall I would say, the premise proved to be greatly intriguing; the execution - not so much. The only thing that kept me reading for as long as I did, despite my numerous misgivings, was wanting to find out what the mystery all came down to at the end - but even that urge dwindled away at some point. While I do still vaguely wonder about the outcome, I know I'm not going to revisit this novel. The plain truth is, it's simply not worth the haul. show less