Relic (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child)

This was a good book.

It didn't necessarily start out that way though. I think there was a bit too much time establishing the characters, and too much writing devoted to technical description. I quickly grew tired of Meg and her dissertation. And Smithback and his writing projects. And even when it got to technical stuff, there was too much information. It was impressive, and I'm sure accurate, but I don't think I needed the names of all kinds of DNA equimpent, for example. Either the authors were writing from a place of legitimate first-hand knowledge, or they really did their homework. Either way, I applaud their knowledge. But I really felt like those kinds of things slowed the book down considerably, and, had I not had to read this book for class, I probalby would have dropped it early on.

And that would have been a mistake. Once I got about half-way through, the reminders of the dissertation or book-writing became minor annoyances. I was sucked into the plot, and enjoyed the ride as the characters unravelled the mystery. And I'd like to mention that this book had a serious mystery vibe to it. I kinda think it was more a mystery/thriller than a horror book, even though there were definitely some horror vibes going on. Where it differed from a mystery though was that, in a mystery, you're tyring to figure out "who done it." And there might be legitimate clues or even red herrings that make it seem like there's a supernatural element responsible for what's happening, but the point of the mystery is that its logical, and the supernatural stuff isn't real, and in the end, the culprit ends up being human after all. The reader has to try and figure out who and how before the book ends. This book wasn't a mystery in that regard, because there really was a monster in the end. But everything else about the book felt like a good mystery. And here's the one thing that I was disapointed in, and it wasn't the book's fault at all. I read this book as part of this "Monsters" class. So, going into it, I already knew there was a monster. I was sure of it. But, what if I had read this book on my own, without the benefit of knowing from the beginning the monster was really there. I think this book would have unfolded much differently for me. I probably would have been more like Pendergast, who after hearing Dr. Frock's inital theory of a monster, dismissed it. I'd have been trying to figure out who was responsible for the death's, and would have looked at the monster and the Mbwun figure as red herrings. This book was the only thing we read where the fact that already knowing there was a monster affected how I received the book. I really wish I wouldn't have known, because I think my reaction would have been even stronger when I found out there really was a monster.

What I liked most about this book was its believability. A great example of it is what I referred to earlier, with Dr. Frock's inital theory of the monster, and more importantly, Pendergast's dismissal of it. Too many times in a story, someone comes up with a one-in-a-million explation for the crazy supernatural thing that is going on, and everyone suddenly buys into it and acts as if the tenuous theory was as solid and true as the grass being green. And guess what. The one-in-a-million theory ends up being dead on. I hate that. In this book we had the DNA extrapolation program. I rolled my eyes at that a little, not gonna lie. But this book gave that program warts. It wasn't perfect. It didn't get the results perfect. The group didn't accept it as gospel. And most importantyly, Pendergast didn't even believe Dr. Frock's theory. He didn't believe there was a monster until he saw it. The extrapolation program's biggest impact was only in helping Meg figure out a way to defeat the monster by shooting it in the eye. I found it so refreshing that this book didn't just have everyone fully understand the monster and act accordinly based on conjecture and a DNA program.

The mystery elements worked for me in this book. I knew there was a monster, but they didn't, or at least weren't sure of it, and it was fun watching them piece things together. Like I said earlier, I wish I didn't have the outside knowledge that this book actually had a monster in it, so I would have been more with them figuring it out than watching them figure it out.

I liked that there wasn't some crazy nefarious plot on the part of Wright, Cuthvert, and Rickman. They were just selfish, pompous asses trying to cover things up. They weren't sure about Monatague, but they also didn't kill him. They just wanted to save their asses and keep bad publicity away from the museum. I just found the extent of their involvement so much more believable, because it wasn't over the top.

There were some other things that bothered me, outside of the annoying dissertation and book deal stuff. Namely, the damn sized of the museum itself. I couldn't keep track of where anything was. It sounded waaaay too big to be a real place. It had like 2,500 employees? What? Didn't they measure some of the halls in yards? I mean, this place was just too big. I started tuning out regarding where anything was and just went with the flow. How many floors did it have? Wasn't it like five? How many basement levels? At least two. I get the part about them not having accurate blueprints for the basement, though they ended up with some in the end somehow, but really, the place was just way too big to make sense to me.

Some of the characterizations were stubbornly one-dimensional. Coffey was a prime example. I get it that he is supposed to be kind of a heel. He was an ass. The reader isn't supposed to like him. Got it. But as an FBI agent put in charge as something as big as what happened at the museum, he maintained the idiot ass persona for too long. At one point, he thought Pendergast AND D'Agosta AND whoever the guy was with D'Agosta he tried to put in charge, where all playing a prank on him about the monster. I get it he didn't believe in monsters. I'm not saying he should have. But Pendergast wasn't with the other two... he basically got too completely seperate eye-witness reports about a creature, and he dismissed them completely. He might not like Pendergast, or D'Agosta for that matter, but I don't think he ever thought them actually incompetent. But the authors just had to keep him as an ass, and I just had a hard time accepting the rigidty of that character. And I don't think it needed to be that way. He started worrying way too much about how this disaster needed to be Perndergast's fault, and not worrying about dealing with the crisis effectively. FBI agents don't get put in charge of situations like that when they can't can't deal with crisis. I'd have much rather seen Coffey have to step up his game and be part of the solution, than what actually transpired on the page.

Another thing that REALLY bothered me was the fact that we got up and personal with the final fight with the monster--Meg using the miner's light and Pendergast trying to shoot out the legs--up until the climactic moment. Then we switched over to Bailey ( I think it was Bailey, maybe Garcia or Waters) and them being scared in the security room, and then Pendergast and Meg show up and we learn that they killed the monster with a final shot to the eye...second hand. SECOND HAND! WTF? It boggles my mind that we get so much desctiption in other places in the book, and we get alot of great action, and you can't frickin' describe the action of the killing shot to me in real time??? That was the one unacceptable part of this book to me. Show me the damn final conflict that you've spent all the previous pages building to. I mean... damn!

Whew. Back to stuff I liked. The monster was kick-ass. And the reveal at the end that it was Whittlesey was nice. I actually wondered about it early on... that perhaps the monster was him... but it was more of a hunch. And I forgot about it before I got to the end, so it was kind of like an "I knew it!" moment for me.

And speaking of the end, I really liked how Kawakita ends up being a real villain. This book did the cliffhanger thing perfectly. They completely set you up for a sequel, but did not hold back on the ending to do it. The book stands on its own as a COMPLETE. story, yet the authors will still able to tell me that, yeah, there's another book, and yeah, you might want to think about reading it. Very well done.

I enjoyed this book. It had some flaws, but I am glad we read it.