The Wheel of Darkness
by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Book Summary Information
Author: Douglas Preston, Lincoln ChildEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-07-01
ISBN: 0446618683
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Vision
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780446618687
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of The Wheel of Darkness
Book Review: Adventures of a supercilious bastard
Summary: 2 Stars
I found the earlier novels of these two more intriguing, as it seemed they would revolve around the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History, and engage us in interesting and educational mysteries. Then, inevitably, the novels began to focus on the utterly unlikable and somewhat ridiculous Aloysious Pendergast. Comparing him to Sherlock Holmes is laughable. Holmes was a brilliant, tortured, imperfect detective who actually had to go out and LEARN things in the course of his investigations. Pendergast seems to have been born knowing everything about everything about everything. Not very exciting as whenever something unusual happens we know Pendergast will explain it away in the next paragraph. He doesn't seem to possess a single flaw that can help us empathize with him. This doesn't give Preston or Child much opportunity to create real tension in their books, and tension is noticibly absent in The Wheel of Darkness.
Escaping from their awful lives of wealth, Rolls Royces and lofts in the Dakota, Pendergast and his tedious "ward" Constance Greene spend time in a Tibetan monastery that no outsiders (except of course, sigh, Pendergast) should have access to. A bizarre artifact is stolen from the monastery and it's the Supercilious Bastard to the rescue, pursuing the thief aboard an ocean liner. Here we meet an assortment of characters, most of whom were created so that the authors can prove how much better Pendergast is from everyone around him. This is ironic, because it's these very characters that give the novel its only source of actual excitement. Will the female captain Mason be able to overcome the chauvanism that plagues her career? Will security officer Kemper be able to forget his troubled past as an ex-cop on the Boston PD? And what about Maria, the Belarusan housekeeper who used to be a professor of literature in her country before the Soviet Union collaped?
Pendergast's one redeeming quality in prior novels was that he was always a gentleman. Here, he resorts to blackmail and petty thuggery to get what he wants. And I have no idea why Constance Greene keeps showing up in these books. Here she's just a pretty girl, regretting her wardrobe that costs enough to feed twenty families for a year and wishing she could be back in the monestary again. (Note to authors: if you want your reader to buy that your characters don't give a fib for material wealth, don't have them wear gowns and suits that cost $5000 a pop).
Anyway, Pendergast saves the day, as we knew he would from the beginning, and with so much ease it's not worth getting worked up about any incident that takes place leading up to the conclusion. Oh, and there's a lovely scene where a child gets disembowled by the killer. I can't decide if Preston/Child want to bore us to death with predictability and horror, and vice versa. And at this point, I couldn't really care less.
Summary of The Wheel of Darkness
FBI Special Agent Pendergast is taking a break from work to take Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed. They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen. As a favor, Pendergast agrees to track and recover the relic. A twisting trail of bloodshed leads Pendergast and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Britannia, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner---and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror.Contemporary Books
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