Sacred Stone (The Oregon Files)
by Clive Cussler, Craig Dirgo
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Book Summary Information
Author: Clive Cussler, Craig DirgoEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-04
ISBN: 0425201023
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Berkley
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780425201022
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Sacred Stone (The Oregon Files)
Book Review: Nonstop action, nonexistent plot
Summary: 2 Stars
Building on his fame as an adventure writer, Clive Cussler has taken on several collaborators who have launched series of novels revolving around similar themes as Cussler himself. This book must be an early one in the Oregon Files series (doing a bit of fact checking, I note that this is the second one in the series). Since I am a fan of Cussler's, when I saw this book at a used book store - and knowing that I did not read it before - I picked it up.
I should not have.
The main outline is that a radioactive asteroid crashes down to earth where it is recovered and revered by Eric the Red who builds an elaborate and hidden temple to it in Greenland. Move several hundred years later and we learn of a U.S. Army Lieutenant who gets killed in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. Now move to the near future and what connects these two stories?
Well, the asteroid is discovered by an archaeologist, but he is in the employ of a mysterious rich man who sends a hit man to collect the stone. At the same time, a Muslim terrorist group also comes to get it as well as The Oregon commander - Juan Cabrillo. How come something that is so well hidden becomes such a hot commodity that everyone arrives at the mountain where it is hidden within minutes is one of the common themes of this book and it drives you absolutely insane after a while since there is no way anything like this could actually happen.
The twists and turns continue: Somehow the Arab terrorists are killed, but they have a plot underway to bomb London by exploding a nuclear bomb in the center of the city during an Elton John concert attended by Prince Charles. Of course, the Oregon folks manage to stop the bomb from exploding and disarm it with 80 seconds to spare while one of their crew impersonates Prince Charles (why not have someone impersonate Elton John?). This is done by having Juan Cabrillo leap from motorcycle to motorcycle to grab the bomb while a marksman shoots and kills the Arab teenager who is driving it to its destination. At high speed. While twisting and turning in the streets.
Not enough for you? How about this mysterious rich man who manages to steal the radioactive stone, switch it for the meteor that is in the Kaaba in Mecca, plant bombs that are spread all over Jeddah, and try to conduct a Kamikaze attack on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem? In each instance, only Juan Cabrillo and his team succeed in stopping him with the active ignorance of the particular country's security and miltary forces. As a matter of fact, all the activity in Saudi Arabia is done covertly!
It just goes on and on like this and there are myriads of mistakes in the plotting. In London we are told that the Beefeaters guard Buckingham Palace; while in Jerusalem they manage to land helicopters repeatedly in allies next to the Dome of the Rock. Has anyone bothered to do any research on this book?
One of the most egregious examples for me was that there is a restriction against non-Muslims entering Mecca. So, Juan Cabrillo gets the U.S. Army to search for all their Muslim members in the region and as a result 34 are identified from the Air Force, Army and so on. All of them are sent on a mission that is both covert and extremely dangerous. Are they all special forces? Are they trained for this kind of stuff? Well, no. However they all jump to volunteer and perform all kinds of heroic feats with no preparation and no training.
We are also supposed to believe in the split second timings and misdirections that are prevalent throughout this book. There are multiple chases happening all over the world, and not until the very end do we see the good guys managing to catch up to the bad guys. Up till then, the bad guys are always a step ahead. Across 400 pages and 10 days of story time, that is just not credible.
Finally, let me complain about the threads that appear and disappear with no reason given. Supposedly the asteroid can be cracked open and will release some sort of thing that sucks up the earth's atmosphere - what happened to that? A deadly virus is created that kills pretty much on contact (as a young fox finds out) - but that virus is harmless when it comes time to dispose of it; Huh? There is a very well known man who creates these kinds of viruses, but he is allowed to live and sell his wares to the highest bidder. For some reason though, the CIA decides to kill him at the conclusion of this book. Also, the CIA now has doctors who conduct torture sessions. Nice, eh?
All in all, this was a waste of time as far as any kind of reading pleasure is concerned, but it was fun to read the improbable and impossible situations getting neatly resolved in the end. Not one of the better stories by Cussler or his cohorts. Later books in this series are much more realistic and much better plotted. I believe Cussler changed co-authors, so maybe that was the main improvement?
In any case, I do not recommend you read this unless you want to have the complete set of Cussler or Oregon File work in your library.
Summary of Sacred Stone (The Oregon Files)
A power that could destroy the world
A prize that men will kill to possess
Juan Cabrillo must find it first...
Two opposing groups seek a 50,000-year-old radioactive meteorite known as the Sacred Stone. Muslim extremists have stolen a nuclear device and need the stone to give them the power to vaporize any city in the west. A megalomaniacal industrialist leads a group seeking to carry out the utter annihilation of Islam itself. And caught between the two militant factions is Juan Cabrillo and his crew, who must do whatever they can to stop the impending doom...
A prize that men will kill to possess
Juan Cabrillo must find it first...
Two opposing groups seek a 50,000-year-old radioactive meteorite known as the Sacred Stone. Muslim extremists have stolen a nuclear device and need the stone to give them the power to vaporize any city in the west. A megalomaniacal industrialist leads a group seeking to carry out the utter annihilation of Islam itself. And caught between the two militant factions is Juan Cabrillo and his crew, who must do whatever they can to stop the impending doom...
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