Amazonia
“Gripping…a first-rate nail biter.”
—Tampa Tribune
James Rollins—the author of The Doomsday Key, The Last Oracle, The Judas Strain, Black Order, and other pulse-pounding, New York Times bestsellers—carries readers into the heart of darkness in his classic thriller, Amazonia. Lincoln Child, New York Times bestselling co-author (with Douglas Preston) of Cemetery Dance and other Agent Pendergast thrillers, raves, “Amazonia grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go until the very last page is turned.”
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Community Reviews
God, I am so picky about my thrillers. I like them ridiculous, but not so ridiculous that I keep emitting strangled little interjections as I read. I don't really care as much for thrillers that jump the shark. This one sailed clean over the shark.
Nathan Rand has lost both his parents to the Amazon jungle, but more importantly his father was on an expedition that went in and never came out. Four years later, a man from the team reemerges. Going in with only one arm, he comes out with two (this is where I'm thinking, "Whaaaaat? Intrigued!"). But also his body is riddled with cancers and spreads an incurable disease that looks like it's going to be the next black plague (and this is where I go, "Too much"). Anyhow, Nathan and a team of people go into the jungle to track where Lefty came from. Because curious. But then that whole pandemic thing starts and then they decide that they also need to find a cure.
For me, I think the best part of the book was the dangers that they faced. One in particular that caught my attention were these mutated piranha things: all sharp, poisonous teeth and hind legs, like a frog mid-growth. The idea of these teeth hopping all the way up into trees and one bite killing you slowly as you get eaten alive -- yuck! I loved it. They also ran across some truly frightening locusts and a native woman whose speciality was making shrunken heads. Again, yuck. Although, I know this is probably the case in some places, it really bothered me when the author would refer to the native peoples as "Indians".
The big trouble came toward the end. The science was interesting and beleivable right up until the end, when everything just went off the deep end (genetic lab tree, anyone?). And it was all tied up too neatly. Everything seemed hopeless ten pages before the end, then voila! All resolved! And extra bits of happiness in the epilogue! Life sure is spiffy! Hmmmm. And nothing ever seemed bad enough. Bad, horrible, awful things would happen, but it was like the author was never satisfied. Why just have a man captured when you could then have him tortured, made into a shrunken head, and then used to taunt his companions later on in the book? Why not have a trained jaguar accompany them? Why not have the main character's daughter contract the disease? Well because after a certain point I get desensitized. Besides, the kid was hardly in the book. She felt out of place and I didn't really care about her. That was the other thing: some characters were well-developed, others just seemed there for story tropes. The main love interest didn't seem like a person to me. She just seemed like a confused bundle masquerading as the love interest. For example, they would always talk about how tough she was, but she was always being wimpy and weepy and blundering.
Ah well. Despite any flaws this book might have, I do love a good thriller, and I will read a thriller any day over many other things. I might try a later James Rollins novel to see if his style changes, but this one certainly will leave a mark.
Nathan Rand has lost both his parents to the Amazon jungle, but more importantly his father was on an expedition that went in and never came out. Four years later, a man from the team reemerges. Going in with only one arm, he comes out with two (this is where I'm thinking, "Whaaaaat? Intrigued!"). But also his body is riddled with cancers and spreads an incurable disease that looks like it's going to be the next black plague (and this is where I go, "Too much"). Anyhow, Nathan and a team of people go into the jungle to track where Lefty came from. Because curious. But then that whole pandemic thing starts and then they decide that they also need to find a cure.
For me, I think the best part of the book was the dangers that they faced. One in particular that caught my attention were these mutated piranha things: all sharp, poisonous teeth and hind legs, like a frog mid-growth. The idea of these teeth hopping all the way up into trees and one bite killing you slowly as you get eaten alive -- yuck! I loved it. They also ran across some truly frightening locusts and a native woman whose speciality was making shrunken heads. Again, yuck. Although, I know this is probably the case in some places, it really bothered me when the author would refer to the native peoples as "Indians".
The big trouble came toward the end. The science was interesting and beleivable right up until the end, when everything just went off the deep end (genetic lab tree, anyone?). And it was all tied up too neatly. Everything seemed hopeless ten pages before the end, then voila! All resolved! And extra bits of happiness in the epilogue! Life sure is spiffy! Hmmmm. And nothing ever seemed bad enough. Bad, horrible, awful things would happen, but it was like the author was never satisfied. Why just have a man captured when you could then have him tortured, made into a shrunken head, and then used to taunt his companions later on in the book? Why not have a trained jaguar accompany them? Why not have the main character's daughter contract the disease? Well because after a certain point I get desensitized. Besides, the kid was hardly in the book. She felt out of place and I didn't really care about her. That was the other thing: some characters were well-developed, others just seemed there for story tropes. The main love interest didn't seem like a person to me. She just seemed like a confused bundle masquerading as the love interest. For example, they would always talk about how tough she was, but she was always being wimpy and weepy and blundering.
Ah well. Despite any flaws this book might have, I do love a good thriller, and I will read a thriller any day over many other things. I might try a later James Rollins novel to see if his style changes, but this one certainly will leave a mark.
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