Book Review- Crusader Gold by David Gibbins
March 14th 2007 08:35
Hi everyone
I have just finished reading the book Crusader Gold and thought I would post a review about it.
I saw this at Whitcoulls and after reading the back cover, which has comments like 'What do you get if you cross Indiana Jones with Dan Brown? Answer David Gibbons
Now having read all of Dan Browns books, that should have told me something but anyway I handed over the cash and looked forward to reading it.
Synopsis
The elusive Crusader Gold: the greatest prize missing from the final bloody conflict of the Crusades. For many it is the Jewish menorah, the huge golden candlestick looted by the Romans in AD70 when they sacked the Temple in Jerusalem and marched through Rome in triumph. It was carried off to Constantinople. Now, nobody knows where it is. Some Jewish activists today think it survived and is concealed in the Vatican. Some think it took another altogether more extraordinary turn, at the beginning of history itself ...Jack Howard is the only man who can find out. But the clock is ticking against him. Will ancient history give up one of its darkest secrets? The quest to find out takes him from the fall of the Roman Empire to the last days of Nazi power - and uncovers a trail more thrilling than anyone could have imagined.
After reading this on the back cover, I was expecting a great read but to be honest I found I was pretty disappointed with it. David has done quite alot of research for his story but the characters seemed to jump from one part of the world to another. Eg one minute they are in Constantinople (Istanbul) and then in Iona, Scotland before heading to Greenland etc.
Now this is explained why they have to travel but the story just seemed it didn't flow smoothly and that it jumped from chapter to chapter.
Also I was well over halfway through when I was wondering, are they going to find it as I was running quickly out of pages for a good conclusion to the story to happen.
I found that some scenes went on for too long and that I found it hard to imagine what the characters where meant to be doing? Eg Long and protracted ice berg part.
The plotting and characters were okay although I never got to the stage that if something happened to one of them, then I would be disappointed. Getting close to the end of the book, I also had the feeling that he was running out of pages, so the whole thing was brought to an quick end. In one part they are in Mexico, in the jungle or beach, new chapter starts and they are somewhere else. This left me wondering 'What, where are they then?'
Only to turn over the page and find out that they are now back on their boat. Not good really.
Overall, I wouldn't suggest buying this book, borrow it maybe but I wouldn't spend money on it, big book but short on substance really with an anti climatic ending, so by the end I felt a bit conned really. But it seems some of the stuff mentioned in the book can be seen on www.davidgibbins.com
One of the most stupendous sights I have ever seen is the Ilulissat icefjord in western Greenland, the setting for some extraordinary drama in my novel Crusader Gold. The photos below were taken during an expedition to Greenland in June 2004. We approached the fjord in the Russian research vessel Akademik Ioffe, then explored the ice close-up in Zodiacs. The images you see here are not of the glacier itself, which lies almost 40 kilometres down the fjord, but are giant icebergs which have broken off the glacier and come to ground on Isfjeldbanken, ‘Icefjord bank’, an underwater ridge at the entrance to the fjord. Once free, the bergs head out to sea and are pushed by the current around Baffin Bay, and into the north Atlantic – the berg that sank Titanic very probably came from Ilulissat. These pictures speak for themselves, but the figures are astounding: every year the glacier calves some 35 million tons of ice, enough to supply New York City or London with fresh water. In the last decade the glacier has receded dramatically, one of the clearest indications of climate change in the Arctic, though as these pictures show the quantity of ice being discharged remains staggeringly high. (Author D .Gibbins)
Some interesting info on various linked sites and after reading this novel, it has perked my interest in ancient Viking/Norse history etc.
shall leave you with thought for the day 'Life was meant to be lived and curiously must be kept alive'. One must never, for whatever reason turn his back on life' -Eleanor Roosevelt
Hal
I have just finished reading the book Crusader Gold and thought I would post a review about it.
I saw this at Whitcoulls and after reading the back cover, which has comments like 'What do you get if you cross Indiana Jones with Dan Brown? Answer David Gibbons
Now having read all of Dan Browns books, that should have told me something but anyway I handed over the cash and looked forward to reading it.
Synopsis
The elusive Crusader Gold: the greatest prize missing from the final bloody conflict of the Crusades. For many it is the Jewish menorah, the huge golden candlestick looted by the Romans in AD70 when they sacked the Temple in Jerusalem and marched through Rome in triumph. It was carried off to Constantinople. Now, nobody knows where it is. Some Jewish activists today think it survived and is concealed in the Vatican. Some think it took another altogether more extraordinary turn, at the beginning of history itself ...Jack Howard is the only man who can find out. But the clock is ticking against him. Will ancient history give up one of its darkest secrets? The quest to find out takes him from the fall of the Roman Empire to the last days of Nazi power - and uncovers a trail more thrilling than anyone could have imagined.
After reading this on the back cover, I was expecting a great read but to be honest I found I was pretty disappointed with it. David has done quite alot of research for his story but the characters seemed to jump from one part of the world to another. Eg one minute they are in Constantinople (Istanbul) and then in Iona, Scotland before heading to Greenland etc.
Also I was well over halfway through when I was wondering, are they going to find it as I was running quickly out of pages for a good conclusion to the story to happen.
I found that some scenes went on for too long and that I found it hard to imagine what the characters where meant to be doing? Eg Long and protracted ice berg part.
The plotting and characters were okay although I never got to the stage that if something happened to one of them, then I would be disappointed. Getting close to the end of the book, I also had the feeling that he was running out of pages, so the whole thing was brought to an quick end. In one part they are in Mexico, in the jungle or beach, new chapter starts and they are somewhere else. This left me wondering 'What, where are they then?'
Only to turn over the page and find out that they are now back on their boat. Not good really.
Overall, I wouldn't suggest buying this book, borrow it maybe but I wouldn't spend money on it, big book but short on substance really with an anti climatic ending, so by the end I felt a bit conned really. But it seems some of the stuff mentioned in the book can be seen on www.davidgibbins.com
One of the most stupendous sights I have ever seen is the Ilulissat icefjord in western Greenland, the setting for some extraordinary drama in my novel Crusader Gold. The photos below were taken during an expedition to Greenland in June 2004. We approached the fjord in the Russian research vessel Akademik Ioffe, then explored the ice close-up in Zodiacs. The images you see here are not of the glacier itself, which lies almost 40 kilometres down the fjord, but are giant icebergs which have broken off the glacier and come to ground on Isfjeldbanken, ‘Icefjord bank’, an underwater ridge at the entrance to the fjord. Once free, the bergs head out to sea and are pushed by the current around Baffin Bay, and into the north Atlantic – the berg that sank Titanic very probably came from Ilulissat. These pictures speak for themselves, but the figures are astounding: every year the glacier calves some 35 million tons of ice, enough to supply New York City or London with fresh water. In the last decade the glacier has receded dramatically, one of the clearest indications of climate change in the Arctic, though as these pictures show the quantity of ice being discharged remains staggeringly high. (Author D .Gibbins)
Some interesting info on various linked sites and after reading this novel, it has perked my interest in ancient Viking/Norse history etc.
shall leave you with thought for the day 'Life was meant to be lived and curiously must be kept alive'. One must never, for whatever reason turn his back on life' -Eleanor Roosevelt
Hal
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