Stel Pavlou

Having picked this up at my local bookstore in the $2 sale bin my expectations weren't exactly high, going in I was expecting the equivalent of a B grade movie, lacklustre action to cover up the lack of substance and story structure. I was pleasantly surprised however that wasn't the case at all. Rather, whilst there is a bit of a Dan Brown aura about the story structure, this was in fact vastly better than his books and a very enjoyable science fiction/archaeological thriller.

Written in 2001 and set in 2012 the novel follows the idea that the earth is about to be potentially destroyed by heightened activity within the sun. Both America & China have discovered historical artifacts which lead them to believe there is something going on at several historical sites around the world which may be somehow linked to the phenomena occurring with the earth & sun's interactions.

I found the story structure was excellent and the way the author mixed in scientific & historical fact with fiction was well done leading to an aura of wonder around circumstances as they unfolded. I always enjoy when a book leads you to more reading also such as determining which information is fact and which were fictionalised, to this end the author also includes a bibliography of research used in the book.… (more)

Amazing. Why do I have to give this only 5 stars? Why not 50? From what I know of the author, this just shows the range of his talents. Within this book is a good mix of history, myth, current times, science, literary fiction and horror. I pretty much agree with Al in that if I were a mainstream author, I wouldn't know where to put it, either. But who cares? It's certainly a good cerebral read.

In any event, there will be a full blown review shortly. You'll find it where I usually publish those things: accidentallymars.wordpress.com. Good job, Stel. Good job. (By the way, I totally geeked over your mention of Cold Harbor Springs Laboratory. I thought I was the only one who gave them full study on a fairly regular basis.)… (more)