Novel Discussions

Venture

New member
Who has read what? I've recently been introduced to the wonderful world of Indy fiction. I just finished Genesis Deluge and Secret of the Sphinx, and I'm getting ready to start Philosopher's Stone. So far, I'm enjoying them immensely. Anybody have a favorite? Let's discuss...
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
I've read all of them...Hollow Earth is my favorite, mostly because of the unusual setting - Kansas, Oklahoma, New Orleans, and then the Arctic. It's an American adventure, but yet it feels like Indy.
 

HovitosKing

Well-known member
I've also read all of them, and I think that "Secret of the Sphinx" and "Unicorn's Legacy" are my personal favorites. I think Max McCoy is the best author, though Rob MacGregor is close. Martin Caidin is really, really awful, and his two novels are my absolute least favorite.

McCoy is my favorite author because he has a knack for description of physical environments. His colorful details about caves, inner sanctums, and maze-like locales are really great for adventure novels. MacGregor, however, does the best job of capturing the Indiana Jones personality that we all know and love. Martin Caidin really didn't add a single thing to the franchise, and his books have more of a "spy thriller" feel to them. The main character doesn't act or sound like Indiana Jones.
 

Venture

New member
Of the two I've read, I must say I enjoyed MacGregor the most. I'm a character-oriented kind of guy, and his characterization was a little better. I'm thoroughly convinced I could read a book with absolutely no action if the characters were interesting enough. But I enjoyed both. Give me some plot descriptors to help decide what my next purchase will be. What's Hollow Earth about?
 

HovitosKing

Well-known member
Let me say this, before you get started. If you're reading Rob MacGregor, you may want to read them in the order of publication. MacGregor was under licensing agreement not to use some of the other Indy characters we know so well, so he created some of his own (very likable characters, I might add). Throughout the series, some of these characters make various appearances and recurrences, and they build and develop off of previous adventures.

Max McCoy, on the other hand, can be read in any order. Though they do make references to other adventures in the series, it's not all that important to have read them. A sort of subplot runs through the books, though, stemming from a crystal skull Indy finds in the first novel of McCoy's series. The last novel does a nice job of tying the subplots together, and it's nice to see Indy confronting the curse of this skull in each novel.

Omit Caidin.

For plot descriptions, you can search for the novel on Amazon.com and read about it there. "Hollow Earth" was a great one, though. There are only 3 novels in the entire series that I would be wary of recommending without reserve: Martin Caidin's two (which will remain nameless), and Rob MacGregor's last installment, "Indiana Jones and the Interior World." This book was extremely weak and relied heavily on characters from another dimension of reality that gain access to our world through a sort of temporal/physical displacement portal. Very unlike Indiana Jones plots, and somewhat strange. The dialogue seems a bit lacking, too.

Good luck, and let me know how the reading goes!
 

HovitosKing

Well-known member
New name for "Dinosaur Eggs"

While we're on this topic, I want to address something that has always grated on me. I think that one of Max McCoy's novels, "Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs," has the most uncool title ever given to one of Indy's novels. Even Marty Caidin came up with some cool titles, even if that's where the creative genius stopped.

"Dinosaur Eggs" has Indy racing through Asia, trying to locate a missing professor on behalf of his beautiful daughter. "Fresh from a ride on a Nazi submarine, Indiana Jones is persuaded by a beautiful missionary to search for her missing father in Mongolia. Professor Angus Starbuck has discovered a dinosaur bone in the Gobi Desert. But unlike other such discoveries, this bone isn't ancient! As Indy crosses from China through a treacherous mountain pass to Outer Mongolia, he runs afoul of the region's fiercest warlords. Meanwhile the world's last innocent people, dwelling in a Stone Age paradise, are poised on the brink of destruction. Suddenly Indiana Jones is dueling wild dogs and bloodthirsty killers in a desperate effort to save the most historic discovery of the twentieth century: the last living triceratops! (quoted from the back of the book)"

This is hands down a wonderful book, with tons of exotic travel, mystery, and of course, action and adventure. I loved the book, but the title seems better suited for a kindergarten coloring book.

What alternate title would you give the book? Even if you've never read it, you can read the synopsis I just gave and come up with something!

"Indiana Jones and the ..."
 

Venture

New member
How about Indiana Jones and the Last Lizard King? Too hokey? Ah, well...regardless, I think I'll read that one next. Many thanks, Hovitosking!!!
 

Aaron H

Moderator Emeritus
IJ & the...Mongolia Crisis
(sorry best I could think of)

I hope to buy all the books by the end of the year, I've started with my favorites, Sphinx, Stone, & Genisis.
 

HovitosKing

Well-known member
<I>Indiana Jones and the Bedlam of Jurassica</I>? How's that, in response to my own post?? Too overly dramatic.
 

Webley

New member
The best Indy book out thar is Indiana jones and the white witch by Martin Caidin. Every It starts in 1930 in England.Its all ADVENTURE
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Cain said:
Webley said:
The best Indy book out thar is Indiana jones and the white witch by Martin Caidin. Every It starts in 1930 in England.Its all ADVENTURE

What's it about?

It's about some sword of fire whose name escapes me at the moment...no, wait, it's Caliburn. The real object of the quest is some gold coins, and it ends on a Civil War battlefield during a reenactment. It isn't all that good, in my opinion.
 

HovitosKing

Well-known member
Right, about Indiana Jones befriending a witch, who takes him to her coven and introduces him to some old bag who has Excalibur, which then helps Indy find some gold coins on a Civil War battlefield. If I remember correctly, they found the coins by tripping over a cannonball (which was just lying around on the surface of the field, covered in tall grass). Really stupid novel, if you ask me.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
I recommend Hollow Earth highly. The predominant bit is about one of the North Pole explorers who is killed by Nazis and has some info about a Scandinavian myth. Most of it takes place in the U.S. though, including a Nazi gunfight in a Kansas train station, Indy being buried alive, and a duel with Belloq in New Orleans on Mardi Gras. It gets my vote.
 
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