Note: Even though this is Book 4 in the series, it works just fine as a standalone.

 

I return once again to the world of Anne Manx! This time, the rightful heir to the Amazonian throne seeks her aid. The planet of Amazonia has been peacefully ruled for generations by the Queen, who raises up a clone of herself as heir to the throne every several decades. However, the current Queen’s first clone was imperfect and she was discarded. A second clone has been raised to take the Queen’s place when the time comes. Meanwhile the first clone was adopted by a poor woman who named her Spunky. Now Spunky Brandburn seeks out the diamonds that are needed to run the cloning machine, the only machine that might fix her imperfections.

Jean Richmond returns to the series! I first met Jean Richmond in an off-shoot story, Jean Richmond Smokes a Joint, and then again in the early Anne Manx books. I have a bit of a girl crush on her. I know, she’s the evil one but I can’t help enjoying her character so much! Now she’s here causing havoc and entertaining me. Her presence does bring up the memory of loss for our hero Anne Manx and Anne wants her incarcerated or dead, understandably so. I really enjoy the dynamic between these two ladies.

Spunky Brandburn was an amusing character most of the time. Sometimes her personality was just a touch too much. She had some great lines though. Spunky is borderline mentally deficient, so her character gets to say some odd things that come across as amusing instead of as offensive. Spunky is a kind-hearted soul that has trouble seeing evil in anyone and I couldn’t help but root for her.

The heart of this story is good overthrowing evil but because of the cloned royal family thing going on, it’s a bit more complicated. Then there’s the stolen diamonds to deal with, even if they were stolen for a decent cause. This book had a few twists I wasn’t expecting and I loved that one of the main characters was handicapped. Science fiction in general could use more such diversity.

The trademark humor of this series is on full display. Double entendres had me chuckling through my hot tea (poor computer keyboard!). A chunk of the humor is definitely intended for adult audiences though there’s no descriptive sex or such. I think teens would be fine with it and this book would probably give them a good example of what witty adult humor looks like.

I received a copy of this book at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Narration: Once again, the performances all around were excellent. Claudia Christian will forever be the voice of Anne Manx in my head. Patricia Tallman’s enjoyment in the role as Jean Richmond comes through clearly. Barbara Harris pulled double duty as both Spunky and the Queen of Amazonia. It’s amazing how different the two characters were and Harris performed both quite well. There’s a slew of other voice actors picking up the smaller roles and it was great to have such different character voices. The music and sound effects were put to good use, adding drama and tension, yet never drowning out the dialogue.

What a huge disappointment. My rating now might change depending on my further assessment of the novel. I'm still contemplating whether I should give it 1 or 2 stars. Most of my 1 star are for my dnf books, so I might go ahead and give this a 2. Lucky bastard, but like I said, it might drop down to 1star one day.

The main problem would be the characters. Almost all of them were flat and dull. Dull to the point that you wouldn't mind them dying. To be honest Kelly and her daughter were the only ones well developed. That says a lot about this novel, she's not even the main character. Nate was terribly boring, despite his knowledge of the Amazon and all. No sympathy felt while reading this.

Another huge problem would be the plot, or the substance of it. This novel had huge potential, but wow, it failed big time.

The Amazon. That alone drawn me in to read this novel, and obviously I was expecting a lot. I was expecting to read more of the animals, insects, and other weird made up creatures, but instead I was shoved with plants, and a few mildly interesting creatures.

Don't get me wrong, the plants mentioned in the novel were fairly interesting, but it wasn't adequate to make the novel as amazing as it should've been. Like I said, we're talking about the Amazon here, anything can happen. It being a huge mystery, James Rollins could've given us more than what he did. I can't further express how disappointed I am, because the list would go on and on if I am to talk about the inadequacy of the Amazon experience I was looking forward to.

Next issue would be the "secret" of the Amazon. It was okay, but nothing to be amazed about.

Sure the fact that his father was still alive was a little bit shocking, but I wasn't that impressed. Even the cure itself was utterly boring for me. Need I repeat myself, James Rollins could've given us more.


Before anyone comment on maybe I'm not fond of this genre, I will stop you right there and say that I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan, especially of this genre to be precise. Amazon, jungles, underwater, desert, etc. Those things interest me, especially the animals and weird horror filled things that could be unraveled. Mystery filled Sci-Fi adventure is an amazing genre for me, I've read some books, and also seen some movies regarding these, and I liked them.

So to sum it all up, I really didn't like this novel. It had a huge potential to be one of my favorites, but it ended up being one of the novels I wouldn't recommend to anyone. I didn't like it, but I guess it was also okay in a way. Mildly interesting botany facts, and a few mildly interesting creatures. If I were you though, I'd read something else of James Rollins. I've read some of his other novels, and really liked them. I did have huge expectations before reading this, so maybe that contributed to this awful disappointment I'm feeling right now.

2 bloody awful stars.

I almost read the entire book in one evening, I just couldn't stop. James Rollins is master when it comes to writing adventure books and this book is so incredibly engrossing that I just couldn't stop reading. Just one more chapters, and suddenly it's two hours later. The only drawback? The romance, I don't know why, I just wasn't fond of it. I'm not against romance in adventure book, but I want it to feel real, and the romance between the main characters, well it was just corny, one step away from a harlequin novel...but beside that the book was really good!

This was the September selection for discussion in my Shelfari Mystery & Suspense group. I've wanted to read something by James Rollins but wasn't certain that this was the first I should try. Fortunately, the friend who recommended it (who has never steered me wrong) knew better as this was an exciting experience. 

The set up
The story takes place in a remote area of the Amazon jungle. A team is sent there to try to find out what happened to a science expedition four years prior. One of the members from that expedition suddenly showed up in one of the villages and died soon after. His physical transformation was inexplicable and the government organized a mission to investigate. Project Amazonia included a team of scientists, U. S. Rangers and the son of the leader of the earlier expedition.

The issues
The Amazon jungle is like no other environment, with botanical riches that can nurture, heal and destroy you if you don't know what you're doing. The normal hazards facing the team weren't the only problems this group faced as a mercenary was tracking them with evil intentions. They also had to contend with extraordinary situations as they reached and went beyond the region where the first expedition was last tracked. 

What I really liked about this story
Aside from the nail-biting excitement from not knowing what new fresh hell lay around the next bend, the story was rich with cultural lore and botanical insight. I've known intellectually the value of the plant life in the Amazon but this was a fascinating education. It all was used to create a fantastical situation that rivaled any adventure film I've ever seen, laid out in a way that made it seem plausible. 

The mix of characters was equally interesting, especially with two women on the team. The obstacles they confronted were beyond frightening and as no one was sacred in this story, I never knew who wasn't going to make it to the next challenge. And, there was even a little romance, which I didn't anticipate. 

What I didn't like so much
Not everyone survives this exploration and at times, I felt like the bad guys were always winning or having the advantage. It started to get me down after awhile. I needed more wins for the good guys. 

The bottom line
Amazonia is an incredible story that was tons more interesting and exciting than I ever imagined. I liked the writing style and the characters were well developed. Without giving away too much, this book is equal parts fantasy and adventure as it is mystery and suspense. The treasures and secrets of the Amazon are immeasurable and the story leveraged every part of it. The action started on the first page and it never let up. I'm really glad I read this book.

An interesting account of the rise and fall and rise and fall and rise of Amazon from a small company to a huge juggernaut of a store, the triumph of accountants over the book people and the triumph of Jeff Bezos' vision of an online book marketplace that has moved away from books and diversified. James Marcus spent five years, starting quite early in the company's story, with amazon and he details a lot of what happened from his point of view. It's interesting and you can see some of the pangs of regret as his job takes over his life and his life suffers. I was an early adopter of amazon and remember early days of shopping there but some of what he is proud of and remembers from then really didn't filter through all that well to my level. A shame really, but then again it was an interesting thing to watch from the outside then and interesting for me to watch from the inside now, looking back. Where amazon is going to go is anyone's guess but it has certainly carved a niche for itself in the world of books.