Novel discussion

IndyBuff

Well-known member
As a bookworm and fellow Indy fan I've noticed that the Indy In Print thread is virtually empty. I've been re-reading the Indy novels and I'm curious what others think and I also want to see if anyone's interested in discussing the books. Sure, they're not classics or brilliant literature but they're fun to read and give great insight into Indy and his past. Also, if anyone's managed to read Wolfgang Hohlbein's books I would like to hear your opinion, considering that I don't speak German and I can't get my hands on any of his Indy novels.

I'm currently reading The White Witch for the first time (The Hollow Earth is the only other Indy book I've never read before) and so far I must admit that I'm enjoying it. While Caidin is certainly my least-favorite Indy author I'm finding myself enjoying this one and I like it a lot better than The Sky Pirates. While The Sky Pirates had a decent story and interesting characters I would probably rank it as my least-favorite Indy novel and I think I enjoyed it more on my first time through. The White Witch is still somewhat mediocre but I like what I've read so far.

So, any other fans of the novels out there? :whip:
 

HovitosKing

Well-known member
The worst part of The White Witch was the lame ending. I think Caidin's books were well-written, just off the mark when it comes to Indy-like plots and characterizations. The Rob MacGregor books were a lot less interesting the second time around. All in all, I'd say the only author worth his salt was Max McCoy. I enjoyed each of his books very much.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
HovitosKing said:
The worst part of The White Witch was the lame ending. I think Caidin's books were well-written, just off the mark when it comes to Indy-like plots and characterizations. The Rob MacGregor books were a lot less interesting the second time around. All in all, I'd say the only author worth his salt was Max McCoy. I enjoyed each of his books very much.


I have some of those same thoughts too. Caidin is a good author and while I really liked his Indy books, I feel that he didn't really capture the character of Indy very well. He made him kind of grumpy and aggitated most of the time and his ending for The Sky Pirates was too abrupt, in my opinion. His stories were certainly unique but kind of dragged in places. I really enjoyed MacGregor's books but I still feel that McCoy was clearly the best. MacGregor had some great ideas but some were kind of far-fetched at times (The Seven Veils and The Interior World had some bizarre parts) but overall I had a pleasant time reading them.

I've enjoyed all the books so far and hopefully I'll get to The Hollow Earth soon. I like every Indy book; I just think some are a little better than others.
 

Johan

Active member
I've had a thread on Caiden B4

It was quite a big arguement for some reason as I recall. I was calling for the caiden books to be taken out of the Indy novel series.
It seems to me Caiden wrote some books and decided to put the main charachters name in after he wrote them as Indiana Jones. I thought they were horrible. He's a good writer but not and Indiana Jones writer. Of course what can you expect from a guy that writes flight manuals.
 

Ouroboros

New member
Long time spectator at the Raven, I'll go ahead and jump in here. I've been an Indy fan for a good fourteen years (Last Crusade at 5 years = revelation), but only recently began to track down the novels and read them, what with the upsurge in Indy related news (Indy IV, DVDs, game, etc.). So far I've read Dance of the Giants , The Genesis Deluge , and The Philosopher's Stone . As far as I'm concerned, the last of these books was the only one that really felt like an Indiana Jones novel.

Dance of the Giants never clicked for me because it just didn't feel very Indy. I think it was a combination of England, the somewhat less- than- spectacular action, and the slow climax.

The Genesis Deluge was a bit better, and definitely felt more like an Indy adventure in the last half. The two things that grated with me were the too-quick ending and the religious undertone. MacGregor wrapped up the story in about two pages, when he could have spent at least thirty. Second, he seemed to use the biblical theme to inject a lot of his own opinions about religious tolerance. A moment where Indy hopes Shannon maintains a level of tolerance toward other religions rang particularly hollow for me, as it seems like Indy simply wouldn't care. He grew up around a religious fanatic, and seemed like he just sort of dismissed the whole thing out of hand...except of course when faced with unassailable evidence to the contrary, i.e. the open Ark of the Covenant.

Finally, The Philosopher's Stone was quite good, except for the strange scene where Indy climbs into the flying blimp, which just seemed like an attempt to add some action. Otherwise, the action and plot seemed very Jones-ish, moving along at a fast clip. Also I liked the fact that we were removed from Indy's psyche a bit more than with MacGregor. However, again the climax felt a little understated. This is Indiana Jones after all.

So that's all I've read at the moment, but I've still got The Dinosaur Eggs and The Hollow Earth on my shelf.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
First off: Ouroboros, welcome to The Raven! :whip:


As for the books, I liked them all but some are better than others. Any of the Max McCoy books are great and I think he was the best author. MacGregor did a pretty good job too and Martin Caidin had his moments but should have spent more time on his plots and on studying Indy and his personality.

The Philosopher's Stone is one of my favorites and as soon as I finish The White Witch I intend to read it. The Genesis Deluge was great and probably ranks as my favorite at the moment. The underground maze and the fight in Istanbul seemed like something taken right out of the films and really kept my interest. Dance of the Giants was another favorite of mine.

All of the books are good but I strongly recommend reading them in order, mostly due to the fact that they run chronologically and some characters are used in multiple books, making it confusing for anyone reading them out of order (like I did the first time). Here's the order of the novels in case anyone doesn't know:

Peril At Delphi
Dance of the Giants
The Seven Veils
The Genesis Deluge
Unicorn's Legacy
The Interior World
The Sky Pirates
The White Witch
Philosopher's Stone
Dinosaur Eggs
The Hollow Earth
The Secret of the Sphinx

You can find most of these books online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com. I strongly recommend them all. :)
 

KDuncan

New member
Indy said:
As for the books, I liked them all but some are better than others. Any of the Max McCoy books are great and I think he was the best author. MacGregor did a pretty good job too and Martin Caidin had his moments but should have spent more time on his plots and on studying Indy and his personality.

The Philosopher's Stone is one of my favorites and as soon as I finish The White Witch I intend to read it. The Genesis Deluge was great and probably ranks as my favorite at the moment. The underground maze and the fight in Istanbul seemed like something taken right out of the films and really kept my interest. Dance of the Giants was another favorite of mine.

All of the books are good but I strongly recommend reading them in order, mostly due to the fact that they run chronologically and some characters are used in multiple books, making it confusing for anyone reading them out of order (like I did the first time). Here's the order of the novels in case anyone doesn't know:

Peril At Delphi
Dance of the Giants
The Seven Veils
The Genesis Deluge
Unicorn's Legacy
The Interior World
The Sky Pirates
The White Witch
Philosopher's Stone
Dinosaur Eggs
The Hollow Earth
The Secret of the Sphinx

You can find most of these books online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com. I strongly recommend them all. :)

Yipes, not a one at my library system. The closest I could find is some "Young Indiana Jones" series..
 

Johnny Nys

Member
I've got all the novels. I didn't even know there WERE novels until I got all the Holhbein ones for my birthday several years ago. After that the others became available in the stores and I bought them as I found them.

The Holhbein stories were a lot of fun, but then again I read them when I was in my early teens. Action packed, very visual, humourous - what you'd expect from an Indy MOVIE. Yes, the novels seemed to me like movies on paper.
 

Junior Jones

New member
I wish someone would translate the Hohlbein books into English.

I spent six months with a German/English dictionary and managed to work out the prologue to Gefeiderte Schlange, the Feathered Snake. Then I saw someone else's translation online and realized how far off mine was.
 

Jay R. Zay

New member
pay me and i'll do it. but it won't be cheap; it will cost me quite an effort to read a piece of hohlbein's crap ever again. ;)
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
Jay R. Zay said:
pay me and i'll do it. but it won't be cheap; it will cost me quite an effort to read a piece of hohlbein's crap ever again. ;)

Just out of curiosity Jay, what didn't you like about his books?
 

Jay R. Zay

New member
Indy said:
Just out of curiosity Jay, what didn't you like about his books?

i've read them for a very long time, mostly because he was the only popular author i knew. the repeated pattern in his novels is that he starts slowly and ends up with a ridiculously epic finale that does not fit to the rest of the book.

he starts with some strange incidents on an oil rig or a tunnel drilling. and he ends up with people from the government being involved, the police being involved, aliens, god, secret societies, ... . and then - in a flash - everything is gone. the problems solved, everything's done. all of these endings come suddenly. he once said, he would have loved to write his books longer and longer and longer and he'd always be disappointed when he had to come to an end. and that's what they feel like. the feel like he was building his plot higher and higher, more and more confusing and excessive and then he loses the ground under his feet. government conspiracies, intergalactic wars, .. from something that could have been a very interesting dark creepy little horror story. and then he notices - "oops, page 891, and i the book was supposed to have not more than 900 pages" - and then there is a little miracle and the story is over. this gets annoying after some time. i want a story where somebody has an ending in mind when he starts writing it, not that he adds new things to the story while writing it, and when here realizes that he should come to an ending soon, he cuts off the plot and writes "The End" and that's it. these aren't clever stories, he just writes down everything that comes to his mind and calls it a "story".

also, he wants to imitate stephen king. he references him in many of his stories, copies his style, some of his ideas - i like king, but i don't need two of them.

last but not least, he has no sense of dialogue. these dialogues are pseudo-important, they try to sound epic but mostly, they are just poor stuff.

hohlbein to me is a cheap version of stephen king. he doesn't know how to arrange good stories, he hasn't got any great ideas that inspire him to write a story - it's just like he has a little idea, starts writing, the story accidentally develops under his hands to become something entirely different and every time he thinks that it's about time to end it, he adds 5-10 pages and is done. 890 pages of preparation, you never know where this whole story is going, what he is aiming for, what the great goal is, 890 pages of pointless confusion, boosting into nowhere, and 10 pages to get down to the ground. books don't work this way and after realizing that in every damn story i knew from him, the old ones, the newer ones, every single book was written according to this pattern, i stopped reading them.

by now, i usually focus on original english books (i.e. in english) anyway. even if the book is deadly boring i can tell myself i'm doing something to improve my skills. ;)
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
Thanks for sharing you opinions Jay. Some people seem to like his books and others don't and I'm glad you gave those insights. I still wish somebody would translate his books into English so I could read them but that doesn't look too likely anytime soon.
 

Webley

New member
KDuncan said:
Yipes, not a one at my library system. The closest I could find is some "Young Indiana Jones" series..
Hay thouse can be some good reeds I got one were Indy meets Sallah for the first time in 1913 in Luxor Egypt with an old ring that brings Indy a hidden tomb


It called Young Indiana Jones and the Tomb of Terror

It was a cool book.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
The Young Indy books are great too. I read those quite a bit when I was younger. They're worth checking out. :)
 

KDuncan

New member
Indy said:
The Young Indy books are great too. I read those quite a bit when I was younger. They're worth checking out. :)


Hmm, cool. I'll check them out after I catch up on all my Perry Mason books I got.. are they as good as the books you were discussing earlier on this thread?
 

Webley

New member
KDuncan said:
Hmm, cool. I'll check them out after I catch up on all my Perry Mason books I got.. are they as good as the books you were discussing earlier on this thread?
No thay are kids books but still fun.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
Webley said:
No thay are kids books but still fun.

Webley's right. They're fun books to read but definately for younger kids. The Indy novels we've been discussing are great but they're geared more toward teenagers and young adults, so some of the reading is still a bit simplistic. I still recommend both if you can find them. :whip:
 
Top