I'll be damned! This silly book turned out to be one big, over the top, cheesy, load of fun! I enjoyed it quite a bit. I’ve read some reviews where people called The Relic a mystery horror (and I guess in some ways it is) but I tend to look at it as a crazy, disaster, monster film. If you took The Position Adventure, threw in a furry, brain-eating, velociraptor, and then had a total nincompoop in charge of the rescue mission -- that would be this book. Yes it’s that crazy. There are lots of WTF moments. Were the characters one dimensional? Hell, yes! But I grew to be fond of them. D’Agosta is the hard broiled New York city cop just trying to do his job. Smithback is a slimy journalist who turns out to be not such a bad guy. Dr. Frock is the crackpot scientist genius. Pendergast is the amazing (Sherlock Holmes like) FBI Agent who comes from out of nowhere to assist. Wright is the totally self-absorbed director of the museum who cares more about money than human life (he has a couple of cronies that hang out with him.) And Coffey! OMG that guy was hilarious. He gets the Dwayne T Robinson award for being the most obnoxious (I’m in charge of this operation and we don’t need fire exits) stupid asshat. I’m still laughing at that guy!And last but not least there’s Margo Green the doctorial student. She’s pretty boring. I think of her as the token female character that was put in so it wouldn’t be just men. It's a full cast. :DDid I have problems with the book? Yes -- I thought it was too long. The beginning is painfully slow. I think some text could have been cut out to make the story more taut. Maybe it would have been more interesting if there had been real characters with real dialogue, but that wasn’t the case, so it was a bit tedious to read. There's lots of science babble, which is repeated several times, and since the scientific theory is so damn silly anyway, it’s probably kind of superfluous. The ending was great though. I couldn’t set the book down. I wanted to know what was going to happen and find out who was going to get eaten. This book has so many clichés, but they are fun clichés. I was laughing while I was reading. So if you want to read a disaster, monster book that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I think you would enjoy this. I'll definitely be reading another Pendergast book. This was fun.This was a buddy read with Margaret. :D
Creature stories are one of my guilty pleasures and Relic is the perfect entree. the novel is the earliest work of the partnership between Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and is certainly representative of much of their work: a mixture of horror, crime, and the supernatural. Although considered a techno-thriller, Relic leans more toward the horror category in my opinion. It is nonetheless a fun, quick read.After years of rumors, and just days before the opening of new exhibit on superstition, people start dying. Their bodies are found horribly mutilated and decapitated. The police investigate only to find that the deaths do not appear to be caused by a human, but few are willing to entertain the idea that a non-human creature is behind the killings. Meanwhile, while working to prepare the museum for one of its biggest openings of all time, the museum staff is in fear of a suspected serial killer.Relic, being written in the mid-nineties, is a product of the times. Reading it, one gets the sense of Crichton's Jurassic Park, not only because, like the park's dinosaurs, Relic features a creature out of place and time, but also because Relic sports that early nineties fear of computerization. Just as Jurassic Park's computerized containment systems failed, leaving humans to the slaughter of scientifically-revived Velociraptors, the New York Museum of Natural History's is also completely automated, failproof, and -- surprise! -- a death trap.Relic's characters are standard fare for this type of fiction, but FBI Agent Pendergast is the obvious standout. Pendergast is the smooth, brave, resourceful and has a sense of humor. Overall, Relic is a fun, quick read those who enjoy blending technology with horror and the supernatural.
What do You think about Relic (2005)?
MINI REVIEW: A chilling thriller that takes place mostly in a colossal museum in NYC. Don't be fooled if you hate museums. It's still very interesting with a combination of horror, sleuthing and melodrama. Characters are mostly vivid and while one could argue several plot points were predictable they were still satisfying. BTW, the movie is a terribly poor representation of the book. CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: A minus; STORY/PLOT POINTS: A minus to A; CREEPINESS/HORROR: B plus; OVERALL GRADE: A minus to A; WHEN READ: May to July 2010.
—StoryTellerShannon
I read this in my late youth, or, early middle age?.. okay, late youth...It's a good read, fun, with a scary monster a great setting (Natural History Museum in NYC) and a believable (if a little brainy) action Heroine mixed in with a cast of strong supporting characters.It should be noted that this is really "Pendergast #1 but, in my opinion, Pendergast comes across as one of the very active strong supporing roles here, the real star is our sexy hot scientist lady. The Pendergast series doesn't really take off as "his" until book #3. In this thriller-sci-fi-creature-feature we have strong and very fun supporting characters, NYC cops, the Mayor, other scientists and the token crazy old semi-retired natural history curator type. The monster great, scary and HUNGRY! and his back story is eewwwy spooooky! Lots of action, bullets flying things blowing up, things burning, claws flying bodies piling up and even some flooding. Lots of courageous types, a handful of snooty arrogant types and other people who needed a good munching on by the monster. It's a lot of fun, well written and I really like the complicated plot. Complictated more by all of the things going on at the same time rather than the back story and romantic history of... yeesh... great story.Weakness- Maybe it's not really a weakness, and in some light could be a strength. There were some very sexy characters fighting the "big ugly" in close quarters and yet, no romance... none, zilch nada... I mean... they didn't even have SEX! ... what is this world coming too? ... maybe a little more "wham-bam-thank-you - (insurt Sam, Maam, or it as appropriate)" wouldn't have hurt. I don't mean make it a sci-fi romance, but, come on... the Lead Heroine was a hot babe.. and "Pendergast!" and... I'm just sayin' if Monster Hunter International can manage a romantic angle without loosing the high flying actin aspect then maybe a little canoodling in the coat closet at the big party isn't too much to ask for?summary, this is a good story in the Dean Koont'z Watchers and James V. Smith "Beastmaker" vein. Exciting fun and... you get it.
—The Pirate Ghost (Formerly known as the Curmudgeon)
The books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are my guilty pleasure reading because they don't pretend to be anything more than thrillers with some interesting characters and plot twists. With all the more serious literature and scholarly material that I read, do research on, and teach, it's a welcome relief to just sit back on a weekend and take what I know will be a fun ride with these two authors.I was pleasantly surprised by this book, actually; it was the first of their many books that I read (and I've since read all their books but the last two, which I haven't had time to read yet). I found myself getting wrapped up in the story, I liked the characters, and the book was really well-written. I finished it in two days. I try to always have a Preston/Child book on hand to read when I get some real "down time" reading time - when I can just read for story without having to analyze. I like Pendergast - his quirkiness is endearing, and I'm glad that Preston and Child have continued his story in others of their books.I HATED the movie version of this book - it took the story in a different direction, didn't feature Pendergast, and, frankly, made it more of a "monster from the swamp" plot than focusing on the slightly more realistically possible situation in the book. That's what I like about these books - "out there" in weirdness, but realistically possible.
—Diana
