Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone

Arab Swordsman

Active member
Hello everyone! I'm new to the boards and wanted to say hi.

Does anyone remember what role the Crystal Skull played in Max McCoy's book IJ and the Philosopher's Stone? I remember it being the prize Indy was looking for at the beginning of the book but I wasn't sure if it played a key part of the story. For some reason's I have Crystalk Skull's on the brain :hat:
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Welcome to the Raven, Arab Swordsman!:hat:

Indeed, a Crystal Skull featured prominently in all of Max McCoy's books, not just the beginning of "Philosopher's Stone." It was a continuing storyline throughout his books and the last book, "Secret of the Sphinx" even ended with it. Whether it holds the same power as the one to be featured in KOTCS (I doubt it's the same power/curse) is the question. But, he did get it from South America and that seems to be where Indy is headed in this new movie. Anyway, it wasn't a key element to any of the particular stories' MacGuffins (philosopher's stone, Omega Book) but was key to Indy's character and to his love interest, Alicia and was the element which introduced Belloq and Indy to each other and started their rivalry that we see in Raiders so in the big scheme of things, it was a key to Indy's story.
 

Peacock's-Eye

New member
Philosopher's Stone

Just picked up the 4 Max McCoy Indy novels, and have finished IJ&TPS.

Overall, I think it did a great job of recreating the structure and elements from the movies. I enjoyed the historical detail, complexity of the "prize", and the action set pieces.

On the con side: the action wasn't nearly exciting enough - a little editing could have made all the action more memorable. McCoy has a habit of describing things that just happened in the past tense - to keep tension up, it's better to keep everything in an action sequence in the present tense, well, as much as possible.

The character of Alistair (sp?) was weak and underdeveloped.
The climax was muted and unimpressive.
Sarducci should have been kept as a recurring villain.

Apart from that, and a few other quibbles, the book provided me with a few hours of old fashioned escapism. McCoy captures Indy pretty well, expanding on his scholarly and romantic sides. One weakness McCoy shows is in capturing the rapid-fire dialogue of 1930's cinema & pulp literature. Indy should've been a whole lot looser when in his 'adventurer' mode.

But a good start to McCoy's run. I didn't feel the lack of the other, preceding books in the series at all. I've started "Dinosaur Eggs" and it's already a better read with more of the Indy flavor. Should be good.

INDIANA JONES & THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
I give it 3 outta 5 Indy's!

:whip: :whip: :whip:
 
free brand new copy...

I accidentally ordered 2 copies of philosopher's stone from amazon in their 3 for 4 promotion. So if anyone wants it for the cost of shipping, pm me.
 

Indy Scout 117

New member
Peacock's-Eye said:
INDIANA JONES & THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
I give it 3 outta 5 Indy's!

:whip: :whip: :whip:

nah see that one was my personal favorite...mccoy is an amazing indy writer.

ill give it 4 1/2 indys

:whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :gun:

(love the indys whipping at the same time :p lol)
 

Morning Bell

New member
I just finished re-reading this a few days ago and I still think it might just be the best Indy novel. It really feels like something out of the films and the Crystal Skull doesn't play that big of role in the book, although it does continue on in some capacity in McCoy's other books. It's not the same type of skull from the new film but it's neat in its own way and Indy has a strange attraction/fear of it that's neat to see played out.
 

Joosse

New member
Out of the McCoy books I prefer Dinosaur Eggs and Hollow Earth to this one.

But it was still good fun to read!

4 out of five Indy's for me.

:whip: :whip: :whip: :whip:
 

JP Jones

New member
So I bought the first of the McCoy novels a few months ago, and I've been reading it on and off since. I'm about 3/4 finished and I can't help but to compare it to Last Crusade. The two are, so far, very similar. A great prologue , followed by a slow bit of rising action (real slow), followed by a non-Indy like location (London), but a fun time nontheless.

And the chapter I'm at, with the arrival to Rome is where I'm hoping the book will pick up dramatically just as LC did, and I do see it happening, with Rome being a great Indy location, and Alistar's story becoming clearer.

Can't wait!
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Voynich manuscript partially decoded...
AN award-winning professor from the University has followed in the footsteps of Indiana Jones by cracking the code of a 600 year old manuscript, deemed as ?the most mysterious? document in the world. Stephen Bax, Professor of Applied Linguistics, has just become the first professional linguist to crack the code of the Voynich manuscript using an analytical approach.
The world-renowned manuscript is full of illustrations of exotic plants, stars, and mysterious human figures, as well as many pages written in an unknown text. Up until now the 15th century cryptic work has baffled scholars, cryptographers and codebreakers who have failed to read a single letter of the script or any word of the text.
Over time it has attained an infamous reputation, even featuring in the latest hit computer game Assassin?s Creed, as well as in the Indiana Jones novels, when Indiana decoded the Voynich and used it to find the ?Philosopher's Stone?.
 

TheFedora

Active member
So I have the book and have read it once...can anyone clear up something? (this is the only Indy novel I own by the way) Anyone know how the philosopher's stone was supposed to work? I got a sense of confusion, because we did see the original creator of the stone when he and his wife rescued Indy in their car like midway through the story. And they knew and followed Indy as well. But in their case the philosopher's stone seemed to work and succeeded in lengthening their lives.

But when they reach the philosopher's stone in the desert there's a warning not to stand in front of something I forgot what. And Indy watches the bad guy do exactly that. But then the stone does what it promises to do...turn into gold. But then it starts turning the rest of the body into it as well before eventually disintegrating you. I was curious...what sort of energy could this possibly be? My first thought was radiation, But then it is apparently contagious, as when the villain touches the revolver that has been turned into gold it spreads to him.
 
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