2011 Bantam Books Mass Market Edition
This is a book of epic adventure, #6 in the series featuring archaeologists Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase. These books are reminiscent of the Clive Cussler novels in that they involve fantastic locations and non-stop action. And a huge body count. In this book I counted 87 deaths, plus however many people were killed in a terrorist attack on a G20 meeting of world leaders. That is 87 deaths in 500 pages or about 1 death every 6 pages.
The plot involves a search for the Sacred Vault of Shiva, a legendary place that contains, so the story goes, the Shiva-Vedas, stone tablets containing the wisdom of the Hindu god Shiva. An Indian billionaire wants them because he believes that with the wisdom of Shiva – and his control of worldwide information flow via his Qexia search engine – he can bring an end to the current final stage in the Hindu cycle of existence, the Kali Yuga era – an end that would embroil the entire world in war, death and destruction but would also usher in a new era of peace and enlightenment. Khoil, the Indian billionaire, wants to be in charge when the new era begins and also wants to do everything he can to hasten its arrival, which he believes can be best achieved by killing all the world leaders meeting for the G20.
So the fate of the world hangs in the balance. It is the Indian billionaire and his army of mercenaries against two archaeologists and a few close friends. Guess who wins?
How they win is kind of fun, if you are willing to suspend your disbelief. In addition to the Shiva-Vedas, the sacred vault contains a wide assortment of amazing ancient fighting machines, including some rocket-powered gliders at least 1000 years old. One of the gliders is used to escape the mercenaries. Yes, the heroes board an ancient flying machine and it not only is still functional, but manages to safely transport them out of the Himalayas despite being chased – and shot at – by a helicopter gunship.
See what I mean about suspending disbelief? Pretty ridiculous, really, but the book was a fun summer read.
Still, I would take a Clive Cussler book over an Andy McDermott book any day.
5 out of 10.