The Wheel of Darkness

Six-word review: Bizarre departure for investigator Pendergast fans.

Extended review:

This was a reread for me, and now I remember why it took me so long to come around to reading the series from the beginning. This is noplace to start with Agent Pendergast. Almost any of the preceding seven books except perhaps The Book of the Dead, which is the third of a trilogy within the series, would make a better introduction.

First, the story takes place on an Atlantic crossing during the maiden voyage of an enormous luxury ocean liner. This common fictional device of isolating the crime-solving protagonist from outside resources while perpetrator and potential victims are all trapped together (on an airplane, on an island, in a haunted house, show more etc.) has the effect of separating Pendergast from all the interesting secondary characters that usually interact with him, so that we have no developing relationships to follow except the one with his ward, Constance.

Second, the book is really not a standalone. It relies heavily on contextual information supplied by its predecessors in the series, most notably Pendergast's and Constance's respective histories with the agent's brother Diogenes, who played a principal role in the trilogy. The number of allusions to the characters' recent personal experiences--and the inclusion of the voice of Diogenes himself--means that any reader who has not been following the series sequentially will miss the significance of or be confused by several key elements, and various other references will be meaningless.

Third, Pendergast himself spends a portion of this narrative behaving in a way that is deeply out of character for him. To appreciate how much, and to give that development its due weight, the reader must have some prior familiarity.

And fourth, there is a supernatural element to this story that, although explained in some fashion, takes it out of the realm of a world whose rules and conventions we know from our own experience. Once we leave the realistic setting behind, we can't be sure what kind of world we're in. There is no world-building of the sort that we expect in urban fantasies and magic realism. It's disorienting not to know what to accept as being what it appears to be and what to regard as hallucination or trickery that requires exposure.

Consequently I found this installment not only unsatisfying but in a number of ways annoying. For the sake of the longer arc that spans the plots of several of the novels, I'm glad I reread it, and I will certainly go on with the series, but with a little wariness now that I've come to doubt whether the authors--who have perhaps become a bit bored with their own creation--will play fair with the reader. show less

Book 8 of the series featuring the pompous, James Bond-alike Aloysius Pendergast. But who's counting? This is the second I've listened to on audiobook, and aside from a few references to past events, the books stand alone on their own merit. Superbly read by the actor Rene Auberjonois; this tale starts with a missing artifact of great evil held by 1000 years in a Tibetan monastery. The supernatural tale that ensues takes to the maiden voyage of an ocean liner that could well end up the second coming of Titanic.

The pacing is good and engaging in a brain candy sort of way. The idea of anyone launching a modern, £1,000,000,000 luxury liner is probably grossly overestimating demand for such a mode of travel. The supernatural element adds a show more twist to an otherwise predictable novel. Some of the diversionary color was almost as compelling as the main plot line, and that alone is enough to entice me to pick up another of the series next time I come across one at a good price. show less

Preston & Child han tenido un gran acierto con este libro, después de escribir un libro tan bueno y tan brutal como cierre de la trilogía de Diógenes, me daba miedo esta entrega, era difícil que se superaran o al menos se igualaran con El libro de los muertos, la séptima entrega de esta serie.

Pues bueno, han dado un giro tan extraordinario que es imposible comparar este libro con el anterior, sin dejar de lado su estilo narrativo sigue la serie, le han dado continuidad a la historia de Pendergast y sobre todo le han dado un papel mucho más importante a Constance, pero este libro nada tiene que ver con el anterior, esta historia resulta mucho más ligera que la entrega anterior, pero no por eso menos interesante y atrapante.

En show more una combinación perfecta de la historia del Titanic, con un estilo detectivesco muy de Agatha Christie, nos envuelven en una historia, con sus ya muy singulares temas esotéricos, nos acercan mucho más a la personalidad de Pendergast, que hasta el momento siempre había estado rodeado de un misterio muy peculiar, conocemos al personaje casi desde la primera entrega, pero realmente no sabemos mucho de él o de su personalidad, esta es la primera vez que lo he sentido más cerca del ser humano que por supuesto es y sin dejar de ser ese agente del FBI, ahora se ha embarcado en una investigación privada junto con Constance, otro personaje que había aparecido siempre a la sombra, una mujer que me había parecido siempre extraña por la manera en que se escondía, bueno ha sido un buen giro tenerla en primera línea, siendo ya más una persona normal, siendo además el brazo fuerte de Pendergast.

El final como siempre ha sido fabuloso, nos dejan con esa miel en la boca para querer seguir con el siguiente, como siempre estos autores me dejan con un extraordinario sabor de boca, siempre que termino uno de sus libros quiero correr por el siguiente, sin duda van más allá de entretenidos, que sí, que son raros, que sí que son peliculeros, que sí, que tocan temas fuera de toda realidad, pero siempre lo hacen de manera prodigiosa y como siempre digo, por encima de todo está el entretenimiento.

A por el que sigue, sin duda cada libro me gusta más que el anterior. show less

Barring a few wrong maritime facts, this was a fun adventure which started in a remote Tibetan monastery and ended on a sleek modern ocean liner. Aloysius Pendergast, an FBI agent, and his ward, Constance Green, learn of a item of untold evil and danger stolen from the monastery and track the item to the liner, Britannia, on its first voyage from Southampton to New York. Pendergast uses his amazing well of skills and knowledge to eliminate crew and passengers to a small list of possible suspects and then worked to learn who had the item, known as the Agozyen. One by one, people vanish, commit suicide, and are found brutally murdered. To top everything off, the female captain seems to have lost her mind. Will they find the item and show more contain the evil released in time to prevent the ship from running up on rocks and sinking?

Points in favor of this book: A female captain - Yay!
The opening setting of the monastery in the Himalayas.
The action scenes on the ocean liner.

Points not in favor: This is my first Pendergast book and, not knowing his back history, I found him aloof and off-putting.
Many glaring mistakes that an amateur boat handler could have pointed out to the editors.

In all, though, it was a thrilling ride. show less

Well thankfully we didn’t end up in the Museum of Natural History again. Now that the chase for Diogenes is over (at least in the physical world), Constance needs a break. P takes her to his favorite and almost unknown Tibetan monastery for some R&R. Well, sort of. If sleeping on the floor in only horsehair blankets, eating bark mulch and yogurt and meditating until your eyes no longer focus counts as R&R.

While there, they learn of the theft of an ultra-secret (so secret even most of the monks living there don’t know about it) spiritual artifact. How exactly something so secret could be stolen from an almost unknown monastery that is practically unreachable physically will of course be shown in due course. Of course they have to go show more and find it.

So, the duo trace the thing to an ocean liner and through his usual semi-magical use of contacts, persuasion and illicit information, P gets them on board with luxury accommodations. Constance would rather stay at the monastery, but she of course follows him and pledges to help.

The 1930s adventure serial flavor is still very much at work here. And it’s good. The thing about those was that they hinted about a lot of things, but didn’t give them up to you all at once. The point was to stretch things out. To make it last. To build suspense and anticipation in the audience. These two authors get that and have preserved it nicely through the series. There are things about Constance that are still maddeningly vague.

This one isn’t as world-stoppingly compelling as say, Cabinet of Curiosities, but it is a page-turner and has a nice blend of atmosphere and action. The very end is quite harrowing indeed. Interesting to see anti-terrorist measures be used against those whom it was intended to protect. It wasn’t done in an accusatory way, just pointing out how such a measure could be turned. show less

Oh my! Well, I have been a totally faithful follower of the Agent Pendergast series from day one and so I rushed out and bought this one the day it started selling at the bookstores. It started out promisingly enough, then I began saying mentally to the authors "what happened? Where's the old Agent Pendergast? Did you guys just need the money for this one?" I have to say I was quite disappointed in this one.

Here's a brief synopsis, no spoilers:
Pendergast and Constance are in Tibet, off to study at a monastery because after their last adventures, they are tired of the world. While there, Constance is initiated into the ways of the dharma; Pendergast is summoned into the sanctum sanctorum. He discovers that a sacred artifact has of late show more been stolen, and that it must be recovered or the world may be in serious jeopardy. His search puts him on the maiden voyage of a new ocean liner, and from there, all is havoc, mayhem and murder.

We do occasionally get a glimpse of the well-known Pendergast (the one that followers of this series have come to enjoy immensely), but I felt a lot of the time that I was reading a script for a high-seas horror flick.

I love these authors, so PLEASE...bring back the real Agent Pendergast.

If you want a thrill ride, read it, but if you were hoping for Preston & Child's usual awesome read, this one just didn't do it! show less

I love and hate these novels. I can't stop reading this series because I want to know what is happening with Constance and Pendergast. At the same time, Pendergast and Constance are too mysterious, too self-contained...too unknown. This story just reminds me why I don't like the idea of cruising across the open ocean. *shudders*