Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead

Lao_Che said:

To be fair, I think the island itself was supposed to be the obstacle.

Click to expand...

I get your point, in the same way the Temple in TOD was the real obstacal not the rather mundane looking Sankara Stones.

Overall though this novel was very medicore and could have been much better, like most of the recent Indy stories.

I finished AotD about a week ago and... well... it sucked. So could anybody inform me of an Indy book that doesn't suck so I can pick it up?

I liked the book and the overall idea. The witch doctor and zombies chasing them along with the German and Japanese made for some interesting possibilities. Good visuals and overall I give it a 3 out of 4.

Lego Indy said:

I liked the book and the overall idea. The witch doctor and zombies chasing them along with the German and Japanese made for some interesting possibilities. Good visuals and overall I give it a 3 out of 4.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear that there are people out there who do like the story.

Me, I'd also give it a 3.

A 3 out of 10 though...

Joosse said:

Glad to hear that there are people out there who do like the story.

Me, I'd also give it a 3.

A 3 out of 10 though...

Click to expand...

What does everyone expect? I think the stories we get about Indiana Jones are fun. Do you want them to be nominated for best pictures or Nobel prizes for literature? Just enjoy them.

So far it seems like this book isn't getting the best reception in the park.

Lego Indy said:

What does everyone expect? I think the stories we get about Indiana Jones are fun. Do you want them to be nominated for best pictures or Nobel prizes for literature? Just enjoy them.

Click to expand...

I agree that stories about Indiana Jones are fun, that's why I enjoy lapping them up.

But this one here, from New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Perry (as advertised on the cover) should have been better.

He had the whole of the Lucasfilm archives available to him, but he didn't even bother to do some proper research.

He wasn't even trying.

He just churned out a generic story wich he probably had lying around anyway and pasted the name 'Indiana Jones' on the main character.

STILL reading it. Not a page-turner.

Not enough Indiana Jones. Too much exposition and zombi lore.

Dr.Sartorius said:

STILL reading it. Not a page-turner.

Not enough Indiana Jones. Too much exposition and zombi lore.

Click to expand...

AGREED!!!!!!

Only on chapter three and I'm getting kinda bored... Indy spends too much time explaining everything and not being Indy

JP Jones said:

I finished AotD about a week ago and... well... it sucked. So could anybody inform me of an Indy book that doesn't suck so I can pick it up?

Click to expand...

JP, I'd start with MacGregor's Peril at Delphi and go on through there. The Caidin books have their charm, and there's just two of them, so I wouldn't skip them. And then the McCoy's. 12 in all, the Bantam novels are.

And, yes, this novel was pretty mediocre. I read it over a couple of nights a few weeks back. I enjoyed Gruber and Yamada somewhat, but the Boukman material I couldn't find a way into. The trek through the jungle serving as the bulk of the narrative was acceptable, albeit largely uninteresting. (Seven Veils and Dinosaur Eggs have always been a couple of my least favorites, based on their similar trek structures.) Mac was undeveloped. I did like that Perry gave some attention to Indy's advancing years in the context of his feelings towards Marie. The final reveal of Gruber and Yamada's fates was a nice note.

All in all, I think it works decently as a minor adventure, one without all of the spectacle of some of his others. From that perspective, I like it: like, say, Unicorn's Legacy, or the Indiana Jones Adventures Volumes, they aren't all grand in scope. I appreciate its existence more than its actual content, which isn't much of a compliment, but one I'll stand by.

I'd give it about a 4 out of 10. I've read all the Indiana Jones novels, and this is my least favorite. I mean, it wasn't completely horrible, but it could've been a lot better. I don't really care if I ever read it again :-S

Just finally got around to reading this, and have to say, it wasn't that bad. After reading your reviews on here, I was expecting a steaming pile, but what I got was a fun little Indy story.

Has anyone reread since getting it, and had their opinion change? Also, was the mention of another black pearl a reference to The Emperor's Tomb? (I haven't played that game yet, so I wasn't sure.)

Was there any other mentions to Indy EU in this book that I may have missed?

I haven't reread it yet, but I plan to do it soon.
And yes, it is a reference to Emperor's Tomb, the only other reference to Eu that I remember is also from Emperor's Tomb, when he thinks about the dragon.

The only thing about this book that annoys me is the fact that we aren't getting anymore. Still think Staff of Kings should at least get an eBook release. Not sure what Lucasfilm is thinking there.

LawgSkrak said:

Has anyone reread since getting it, and had their opinion change?

Click to expand...

I bought the book when it came out and still haven't read it yet!

Yeah that was the boat I was in. I recently started rewatching YILC, and decided to finally read Army of the Dead.

Like I said, I thought it was great. Couldn't put it down, actually. Don't really see why it gets so much hate.

I finally started reading it this summer on vacation at the beach. Then after coming back home it started collecting dust again on the nightstand beside our bed. I just finished it about a month ago.

Meh.

My biggest fault with the story is that it spends too much time following the villains and not enough on Indy and company. The author gives equal amount of read time to the Japanese, German, Natives, and Indy...with some entire chapters dedicated to the villains. You might go 3 chapters without ever reading about what Jones is doing.

Comparing it to the older novels, I put it on par with Martin Caidin's stories. And that is not a compliment.

Maybe I enjoyed it more than others because I actually read the whole book in two days, with no long breaks in between.

And NO, not anywhere near as bad as the Caidin books. Not even close.

I guess I never commented on this. I read it in a short period as well, LawgSkrak, one or two days, and I still thought it was fairly lousy.

I wasn't as bothered as some by the level of focus on the antagonists - the German and the Japanese commanders were somewhat interesting, if conventional - but they did still drag. The bits with the Boukman weren't terribly interesting, however.

We did get the one scene with some actual archaeological technique, and that was welcome, but apart from that so little happened; just a lot of trekking through a single place without much in the way of action. (McCoy's Dinosaur Eggs is probably the model for an Indy narrative of this sort that does it well.)

The use of Mac was a major lost opportunity, without any effort made to flesh out a character with a lot of possibilities. I don't think it even took the opportunity to clarify whether he's a professional treasure hunter or archaeologist.

Perhaps the best that can be said for it is that it fills in a time in which we know little about Indy's adventures, and takes him to a locale in which we have never seen him in any fiction above the level of the comic books or Find Your Fate adventures.