Pyramid of the Sorcerer review
Okay, I finished Pyramid of the Sorcerer a few minutes ago. First things first: The cover: I really like the covers to both of these young reader books. Greg Knight did an awesome job. For some reason, they remind me of the Jim Steranko production sketches of Indy for Raiders. I hope this series continues and he does more covers.
I'll try to remain Spoiler-Free, but read ahead at your own risk:
On to the book itself. The writing was fast-paced. I was a bit surprised at the amount of fighting in the book, especially since it is a young reader book, but at the same time very happy. I was worried that Indy would be diluted for this series, but he's pretty much the same Indy from the movies. He gets in numerous fist fights. Assassins try to kill him a couple of times. There are even a few deaths in the story, which really surprised me. I've never read any of the Scholastic books before, like the Star Wars series, because I didn't want G-rated entertainment for Star Wars and Indy. I wanted at least PG, and that's about what these books are.
The story was about the Hall of Records, which Indy has already explored in another book (Secret of the Sphinx, Max McCoy). There is no reference to the other book, and this Hall is very different from the other one. It still holds secrets of the past, present, and future, but there is no Omega Book, and it is not in a stationary location beneath the sphinx. It has a sci-fi dimension-hopping capability and moves from place to place on the earth when it is in this dimension. The Hall is populated with tiny marble-like spheres that are storehouses for different events throughout history as well as future events, and the Nazis are after it so they can manipulate the future to their cause. It is set in 1941, and shows us the beginnings of Indy's involvement with Army Intelligence. There are also some familiar faces as well. Col Musgrove from Raiders is a main character in the story, and Indy's adventures from Fate of Atlantis are referenced early on in the set-up of the story, as well as a paragraph or two about Sophia Hapgood from FoA.
All-in-all: I enjoyed this book. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to get through it, if that much. I have the second book and am really looking forward to that one (the Nazi with the mechanical arm on the cover has definitely peeked my interest.) I really wish we had more of the adult novels, as I like a little more detail in my stories (definitely not Caiden-like overload, but McCoy had a good descriptive writing style that maintained a good pace), but if you like Indiana Jones, you'll like Pyramid of the Sorcerer. I really think any younger readers will enjoy the book as well. I gave a copy to my two boys, one who is 13 and the other 14, hoping it will spur more interest into Indy mythos. My only question is how this will fit into continuity, since another Indy novel already explored the Hall of Records.