Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead

metalinvader

Well-known member
Just finished the book about an hour ago.I pretty much enjoyed it though,I could have used a little more action.A solid 4 out of 5 if you ask me....

Pros:
(Spoilers do apply!)

*Indy using his whip to help defeat Boukman.Very bad ass!

*Indy and Mac using actual archeology tactics while looking for a place to dig for the pearl.

*General Yamada...Samurai sword...Zombie head...'nuff said..

Cons:
Not to much action in the beginning.I would have liked to have seem some WWII mission involving Indy and Mac spying on the Nazis.

All in all,Like I said 4 out 5.Pick it up if you havn't,It's a pretty solid Indy adventure!
 

Lao_Che

Active member
The Amazon page has a preview, if it hasn't already been mentioned.

What I like about the OSS paragraph is the image in my head of Indy being supplied a copy of Sky Pirates to know about planes.
 

Arab Swordsman

Active member
I'm less than 100 pages in and while it's not bad the references are very irritating. We get it...Indy fought weretiger men things and fought a dragon in Emperor's Tomb. I cannot believe Indy thinks about past adventures this much and only the same 3 or 4.

Plus so far this book does a horrible job portraying Mac. We know from this book until the time KOTCS rolls around that he's a gambler and will flip flop loyalties for a price. But in this book he's a saint. You have to wonder if he and Indy were so tight for at least 15 years he would betray him to the Russians in KOTCS so easily?

Someone else said it well before: between the movie, Staff of Kings game, and this book the Indy story's have been weak to say the least. I hope this book gets better.
 

WeAreGoingToDie

New member
bennihana123 said:
I didn't know they reprinted the novelizations of the original trilogy. I'll have to keep an eye out for those. :whip:

Yeah! They fit in perfectly with the other novels on a shelf. Temple of Doom and Raiders are easy to find, I got mine from Borders.com. However, Last Crusade was hard for me to find. I had to rely on Borders used books section, finding it new from a large new/used books company from New Jersey.
 

Icybro

Member
Arab Swordsman said:
I'm less than 100 pages in and while it's not bad the references are very irritating. We get it...Indy fought weretiger men things and fought a dragon in Emperor's Tomb.

I'm about a hundred pages in and enjoying it so far. I even like the references, but one thing is bothering me: when did Indy encounter "Peruvian werejaguars"? There's a young Indy book about weretigers, but that takes place in India . . . :confused:
 

DoomTown

Member
Icybro said:
I'm about a hundred pages in and enjoying it so far. I even like the references, but one thing is bothering me: when did Indy encounter "Peruvian werejaguars"? There's a young Indy book about weretigers, but that takes place in India . . . :confused:


I'm about 200 pages in, and I'm really liking it a lot too!!! I think it's a pretty good addition to the other Indy books...But I,too, have NO IDEA what he's talking about with the whole werejaguars thing...theres also another woman he mentionswhom I never heard of...Rosita.Maybe from the same adventure??? Perhaps a new book already in the works??? Anybody have any idea???:confused:
 

Insomniac

New member
KVoss said:
I'm about 200 pages in, and I'm really liking it a lot too!!! I think it's a pretty good addition to the other Indy books...But I,too, have NO IDEA what he's talking about with the whole werejaguars thing...theres also another woman he mentionswhom I never heard of...Rosita.Maybe from the same adventure??? Perhaps a new book already in the works??? Anybody have any idea???:confused:
I thought that they might also be working on prequel to this adventure with the revolution and Rosita!
 

Lao_Che

Active member
Icybro said:
I'm about a hundred pages in and enjoying it so far. I even like the references, but one thing is bothering me: when did Indy encounter "Peruvian werejaguars"? There's a young Indy book about weretigers, but that takes place in India . . . :confused:

I'm wondering the same about the early 1941 Peruvian revolutionary as well. Definately not any of the English books.
 

LawgSkrak

Member
WeAreGoingToDie said:
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Forgive me for not rotating them :hat:

Why do you have those INdy books on the shelf upside down????:D

And one of them (Dinosaur Eggs?) is floating!!!!!
 

Insomniac

New member
Im on chapter 25 and really don't want it to end it's finally getting to its climax and the most interesting point!
 

Icybro

Member
So I finished the book this morning, and basically I've decided it was a disappointment. Here's why (SPOILERS!!!):

Three is two villains too many. Boukman was pretty bad-ass, but half the book was about the Germans and the Japanese, who are, for all practical purposes, identical: ambitious, racist--but disciplined--soldiers. And between the two of them, they contribute almost nothing to the plot. The two groups follow Indy for a couple hundred pages without confronting him, then all but two individuals get killed by zombies. Indy finally meets those two (Gruber and Yamada) face-to-face when they're all captured by Boukman. And the big payoff? Indy borrows Yamada's knife to free them all . . . and Gruber and Yamada promptly run away, then die. All those pages devoted to developing these characters (including several long passages about Yamada's family history), just to lend Indy a knife. What a waste.
 

UltimateManGod

New member
Okay. My turn. I for one really enjoyed the book. I'd definately rank it in the top 5 or 6. McCoy's books are hard to beat. I don't really understand the complaint of too many references. There were only a few early on in the book, and several were logical connections. It got to be a bit much, but not enough to really take away from my enjoyment of the book. On that subject, this is the first original novel the really gets into the character's thoughts. An honestly, once I think of something memorable, I fixate on it a bit. Not a stretch to think Indy wouldn't do that too. I thought the lack of research on Carribbean geopraphy would annoy me, except for the fact that the main part of the book is on an island that doesn't exist. It can have any geography it needs to have. I really liked seeing Indy and Mac working together. It kinda makes Mac's turn in KotCS have more meaning. This doesn't mean everything was perfect. Although I found Gruber and Yamada interesting, I didn't feel they brought much to the story. It coulda been executed well enough without them. However, I totally understand their hesitancy to work together. The German and Japanese alliance in WWII was not nearly the same as the US and Great Britain's. The Germans and Japanese were concerned with their own country rather than the benefit of the group. Overall, I felt the book had a good amount of tension and action, but it wasn't another cookie cutter storyline where everything fits the mold. It's something Indy needs. Definately NOT an disappointment and certainly worth the time to read. Especially if we actually want more Indy books, which I do.

A solid 8/10 from me. I'd still like to see some more reviews from everyone else too.

Sorry to ramble on like that.
 

indyclone25

Well-known member
only been able to get to chapter 5 so far and i mean thats not a good thing since some chapters are only 5 pages long ---:D ---- but i hope to read alot tomorrow since i have nothing but time on my hands. so no distractions yahoo!!!!
 

James

Well-known member
It's more Val Lewton than Steven Spielberg, but I did enjoy it. The only glaring problem is that I'm not sure Indiana Jones actually needed to be in it. The elements that work would be there even if you removed Indy and made "Marie" the main character.

I give Perry credit for actually taking Indy to a new locale, as well as providing him with a truly fantastic villain to battle. There's no attempts at realism here as he literally comes face-to-face with the undead. This results in three major encounters that are both suspensful and worthy of the Indiana Jones name.

Unfortunately, much like the storyline's quest, getting to those moments requires a bit of patience. The plot is a very thin premise that doesn't justify the book's 300+ page count, and there are times when Perry will just go on a random tangent. (If Indy is going to set up a tent, I don't really need to know the specifics.) To compound matters, Indy has little motivation for seeking the MacGuffin and there's hardly any action during the first half of the book.

Both Indy and Mac come across as stock heroes at times, and a sequence where they go to great lengths to "properly" excavate a site just doesn't ring true at all. It may be a more realistic look at archaeology, but it's not what would happen in an Indy movie. :D

Perry does get a little carried away with the references to LC's prologue, but I enjoyed most of the others. I like the idea of Indy encountering "were-jaguars" and the nod to KOTCS is clever.

The Haitian setting offers great atmosphere, especially once the weather becomes as threatening as the walking dead. The final act is also quite suspenseful and Perry does a good job of mining the book's central concept. It's not the kind of fast-paced adventure you would expect for Indiana Jones, but I appreciate that Perry didn't try to simply imitate the traditional formula.
 

DocWhiskey

Well-known member
KVoss said:
I wonder if Harrison Ford has read it??? :D

I doubt it. In fact, I doubt Ford has read any of the Indy books.Who knows if he even knows they exist.

When I had Karen Allen sign my Indiana Jones Magazine a few weeks back, she didn't even know it existed!
 

metalinvader

Well-known member
DocWhiskey said:
I doubt it. In fact, I doubt Ford has read any of the Indy books.Who knows if he even knows they exist.


Ford knows the books at least exist,Though I doubt he has read them..

He appreciated how I rendered him on the book covers. He gave me special permission for the Disney project as well because he obviously trusts me at what I do. I would guess that he approves.

http://www.theraider.net/features/interviews/drew_struzan.php
 

Lao_Che

Active member
Icybro said:
Three is two villains too many. Boukman was pretty bad-ass, but half the book was about the Germans and the Japanese, who are, for all practical purposes, identical: ambitious, racist--but disciplined--soldiers. And between the two of them, they contribute almost nothing to the plot.

What I find interesting is that it's only Yamada that gets given any sympathetic background. And apparent future. Which is my favourite part of the novel: his family lives in Nagasaki.
 
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