MacGregor's Books
I was always a little disappointed with MacGregor's books. I thought they had some good ideas but were never executed very well. Then came Martin Caiden. I was excited to see a new author, and boy, were they a HUGE letdown. Those books were more like Doc Savage than Indiana Jones. I didn't have a lot of hope when the series was turned over to yet another author, Max McCoy. But holy crap, he definitely got the spirit of Indiana Jones right. And it was about time! Philosopher's Stone is still my favorite, and it was his first outing. The only scene that bothered me in that entire book was when Indy for no real reason uses his whip to catch a ride on a hot air balloon. Other than that, EXCELLENT book. Dinosaur's Eggs was pretty good. Unfortunately I don't remember much of Hollow Earth. I think I should go back and re-read it. And finally, Secret of the Sphinx was pretty enjoyable, however the editing was extremely weird. I heard there was a time travel sub-plot in the original draft and Lucasfilm had it taken out. But some parts of it were still there (unexplainable memory loss, references of deja vu, etc).
MacGregor did set up a pretty decent backstory for Indy, and his books weren't terrible, just a bit bland, in my opinion. Peril at Delphi wasn't bad. I was very dissapointed with Dance of the Giants and Seven Veils. Then came my favorite MacGregor outing, Genesis Deluge, but a lot of people don't seem to like that one for some reason. This one was followed by the Unicorn's Legacy, which I don't remember much about, but I seem to remember that Genesis Deluge, Unicorn's Legacy, and Interior World were kind of a loose trilogy. Despite having elements from the previous two books, Interior World turned out to be completely ridiculous. I thought MacGregor was hitting his stride about the time Genesis Deluge was released, but capping off with Interior World broke that idea. Maybe the next one he does, the Staff of Kings, will be better, and a return of the Indiana Jones we like so much. I wish more adventures were set in the 30s and 40s, compared to the "Young Indiana Jones" years. That's probably why I liked Max McCoy's books so much better.