Friday, October 13, 2006

BOOK REVIEW: DANCE OF DEATH

My favorite authors are Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and I just finished my next book of theirs, DANCE OF DEATH. Most of their books are stand-alone features, but lately the characters of Aloysius Pendergast and his brother Diogenes have been at the forefront, with DOD being the penultimate entry before things conclude in BOOK OF THE DEAD (which I am awaiting to arrive in mail order hardback). What's so frickin great about DOD is that it returns so many characters from their past books: Margo Green (Relic, Reliquary), Bill Smithback (Relic, Reliquary, Thunderhead, Cabinet of Curiosities), Nora Kelly (Thunderhead, Cabinet of Curiosities), Vincent D'Agosta (Relic, Reliquary, Brimstone), Laura Hayward (Reliquary, Brimstone), Bryce Harriman (Relic, Reliquary, Cabinet of Curiosities, Brimstone), Viola Maskalene (Brimstone), Eli Glinn (Ice Limit) and so on. So even though you don't need to read all the books in order to understand DOD (well, you might want to read BRIMSTONE to prepare you), it's a hell of a lot more fun to have read them first. The premise of this book is that SPecial Agent Pendergast's brother is killing off those people closest to Aloysius: which, if you think about it, is brilliant...because all of the people who might get killed off have been major characters in past books who you KNEW wouldnt get killed off. But in DANCE OF DEATH all bets are off and ANYONE could be the next victim. In fact, I was reallllllllly upset a couple of times in the book when a favorite of mine bit the dust. But that's life (er, death, actually). And this book is one of their best. I am actually glad that I am reading them now because the final book in the series (BOOK OF THE DEAD) has already been published - so I won't have to wait long before I know how this masterpiece finishes off. A

3 Comments:

Blogger Mikey said...

I guess I have a lot of reading to do over the summer to even catch up...for now it is text books for me!

5:09 PM  
Blogger Mo and The Purries said...

I agree, Dance Of Death was a good one -- but I think I liked Book Of The Dead even more.
I'll be waiting for your review of it.

It’s A Blog Eat Blog World

11:02 AM  
Blogger Sean Storm said...

MORGEN!!! AWESOME! I love the eye icon (just like in the book). To bring you up to speed, I am about half-way through the book. Since I dont like to spoil things for others, I wont say whats going on other than the Curse of SENEF tomb is being explained and that another body just went belly up in the pit of New York Museum of Natural History. And yes, BOOK OF THE DEAD is outpacing DANCE OF DEATH at this point for me.

1:49 PM  

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