whipwarrior
New member
Spare yourself the agony and don’t ever touch that book. You’ll thank me later.
Army of the Dead can't be as terrible as the Rinzler story Mystery of Mount Sinai, could it?whipwarrior said:Spare yourself the agony and don?t ever touch that book. You?ll thank me later.
TheFirebird1 said:Army of the Dead can't be as terrible as the Rinzler story Mystery of Mount Sinai, could it?
The story's main villain was a poorly-written, hilariously stereotypical Nazi who shot lightning from his arm. At a certain point, it felt more like a terrible Star Wars novel that stuck Indy in it before it was vomited out onto shelves.
Going to have to disagree with you there. The plots interlinking the two books are pretty atrocious, rehashing the whole "creepy ancient influences from space" that KotCS highlighted, characters are often useless and push the story back instead of contributing to anything (the two Italian kids, Isabella and Giovanni, were pretty much the Jar-Jars of that novel), and the villains were poorly thought out and described (whenever we meet Mephisto, he states he's a Nazi and member of Himmler's group over and over again, while also referring to Indy as a subhuman untermensch-we get it, he's a Nazi, and he's not even frightening like Toht or Vogel could be, but instead completely ridiculous). Just because a book is aimed towards a younger audience doesn't mean it has to be taxing on my brain cells.ThrowMeTheWhip said:The Rinzler book is fun if not a bit silly. Both the Scholastic books at least have a sense of adventure with good set pieces.
Never read it before, but I'll take your word on it.ThrowMeTheWhip said:Army of the Dead has none of that. The horrible slog comments are too kind? that novel is atrocious.
Joosse said:Hey Dutch Ghost.
Glad to see someone else on here who is trying to get through the Hohlbein novels!
So far I quite liked Erfenis van Avalon and Gevederde Slang. Het Godenschip left me a little underwhelmed.
When I have read the other Hohlbein novels I will have read all the Indiana Jones books.
But the worst I personally indeed find the Army of the Dead.
TheFirebird1 said:Army of the Dead can't be as terrible as the Rinzler story Mystery of Mount Sinai, could it?
The story's main villain was a poorly-written, hilariously stereotypical Nazi who shot lightning from his arm. At a certain point, it felt more like a terrible Star Wars novel that stuck Indy in it before it was vomited out onto shelves.
The cover art for the German books were made by an Italian artist named Berni. Not the Struzan style but I like them very muchIt does seem the best thing about the novels are Drew Struzan's cover art.
As I noted reviewing The Mata Hari Affair:Interior World are far and away the worst. Interior World is at least a fairly brisk read, though.
"Verdun wasn't so much an overworked mine as it was a labyrinth out of Greek myths. Except that the fabled Minotaur was on the outside." Hmm, maybe Interior World was not just a long drug trip, but also a WWI flashback for Indy?
I agree. I did like secret of the sphinx. It did have that weird leftover time travel stuff but other than that I liked it. Same wavelength as you on the others. AotD def the worst. The Caiden books not good.Having just reread all of them… Secret of the Sphinx is one of the better ones. Not getting the hate there.
Army of the Dead, the two Caidin books and Interior World are far and away the worst. Interior World is at least a fairly brisk read, though. The same can’t be said for AotD or either of Caidin’s offerings. True drudgery.