The Lost Realm

I normally enjoy a Michael Crichton novel, relishing escaping into the thrilling almost science fiction of some of his earlier works such as: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Timeline, Sphere, and Congo.  However, this one left me a bit dizzy, trying to piece together the separate, unrelated view points into a cohesive plot line.  It tries to come off like the movie Snatch, separate seemingly unconnected view points that over the course of the story show a relation that heightens each individual story, but falls short of that goal.

Instead it reads more like a collection of author notes on varying elements of genetics and bio-engineering pieced together to try and represent the author’s views on the topic.  The pieces that are there are fairly well written, but a number of the characters come off as shallow and poorly represented.  I also found that a number of the story arcs weren’t closed to my satisfaction and left me wondering what the point of that arc in general was.

If you’re curious about genetics or bio-engineering, you may thoroughly enjoy reading the author’s view points in this fictional representation, otherwise you may find this to be a waste of your time.

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I will admit that I’m a bit behind the times here.  This book was published in 1994 and is the first book in the Epic Fantasy series “Sword of Truth” and is now the source material of a new network Drama called The Legend Of The Seeker.  That said, having resumed my unmitigated hunger for new books to read, I thought now an appropriate time to tackle this series.

I must say, I was quite impressed character development and timing that Terry has shown in this book and I can definitely see why it is rated as one of the must read fantasy series.  While a little disappointed with the conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed following Richard, Khalan, Zedd and the rest of the cast in their journey across the three lands.

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I found The Templar Legacy to be an interesting read, it starts with a bang and doesn’t really let up until its conclusion. Fans of Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code may appreciate the well researched locales intermingled with the fast paced storyline. In fact, often while reading through this novel, it felt almost as if Steve Berry was utilizing the formula that Dan Brown applied in his books. Mind you however, that is purely conjecture, as I have yet to read any of Steve Berry’s previous works.

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