The Last Oracle
Ratings40
Average rating4.2
Overall I enjoyed the book, lot's of weird stuff and scary action.
A problem I had with the movie “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” was that Indy Jones was the good guy but it was a low bar because the bad guys were Nazis.
There is a little of that problem with this book because while Sigma are the good guys, the bad guys are child abusers from the Soviet Union.
I'm noticing a trend in this book as well as his previous book. The symbology and occult themes are giving way to modern-day explanations for ancient mysteries. It kinda ruins the mysticism I've come to love from this series and the genre as a whole. I hope future books in the series bring back “the unknown” a bit more.
This book deals with the very cool notion of a branching lineage from the Oracle at Delphi, but waters it down by presenting that lineage as a group of autistic savants with brain implants. It's a well thought out plot and is mostly believable, but it just disappoints me a bit personally. Leaving that feeling behind, I really enjoyed this group of characters probably most out of any in the series. Grey and Painter are great as always, and the secret spoiler character is explained well, but I must give a special shout out to Kowalski. I hope he shows up in future novels. His fascination with shoes is endlessly entertaining.
The more elaborate plots points are a bit far-fetched, but they really don't get blown out of proportion until towards the end, so I didn't find myself put off by their over-the-top notions much at all.
Of the 5 books in this series I've read so far, this is the best as far as cover-to-cover action. There really isn't a dull moment to be found, and James Rollins is a man who knows how to write action. I've said it before and I'll say it every book until it happens that he needs to helm any future Indiana Jones movies.
I thought of getting book one before reading this but figured it shouldn't matter. And after finishing it, I was right. The story does contain some tie-ins to previous books, but I think it's pretty minimal and doesn't affect enjoyment of the story.
And enjoy it I did it. My first thought was a more action-oriented Dan Brown. I really liked the pace as it kept things moving along steadily. The plot was sufficiently twisted yet pretty easy to follow. The characters were a little two-dimensional though and you don't really out find out much about them. Perhaps more had already been said in previous books and this one just assumed you know them already. The children in the plot and one of the main characters (the one with amnesia) were the better ones.
Overall though, I really enjoyed the plot and pace. Safe to say I'll pick up more books from James Rollins.