Review: Too much religion
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 6, 2013
Just like the book is a tale of 'good' and 'bad', my comments about it are just as polarised. I did finish 2013: Beyond Armageddon but it was a struggle at times.By the way, in case anyone's thinking that I've marked the book down from 5 stars because I don't share the same beliefs, that's just not so. To me, reviewing a book is not about whether you like it or not, it's about clinically assessing how well it meets the standards of the genre it represents. That's my philosophy.Anyway, what I liked about the story was the level of research that had clearly been carried out (the devil's in the detail). Even if some of it might have been flawed (as other reviewers have suggested), this sort of tale is hokum anyway - it doesn't set itself out as being a serious treatise. It's fiction, after all.Yes, the locations came to life and I felt there.Now the negative. The dialogue was stilted, the characters two-dimensional and the plot was completely implausible (just 'happening' on such an important find etc). Other reviewers have already gone into this in more detail and I see no merit in restating what has already been said. It came across a bit like:"We need to do something incredibly dangerous.""I don't like the sound of that.""It's to save the Human Race.""Well, that's OK then. Sign me up."The ending's obvious from a long way out. Basically, it was Dennis Wheatley without the crumpet (British word meaning sexy and scantily clad/naked girls).In my humble opinion, Mr Ryan would do better with less ambitious plots where there could be more character development. Would I read such books written by him? Definitely (if there's less religion in them).