The Lost Island

The Lost Island by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child was the second book I managed to dig up in my office's trove of book treasures. Reading the jacket cover, I knew that this story was exactly what I was in the mood to read -- following ancient clues that lead to a discovery with global implications.

Right up my alley.

After reading it though, overall it wasn't my favorite of the group of books I read. As much as I love reading these kind of stories, unfortunately I felt I was brought out of the story a few times with thoughts like "really?" or "what?", which often lead to rereading the same passages thinking I misread them. Most of these thoughts revolved around the events of the story. I can get fully absorbed without question in stories where a guy impregnates a girl from a different parallel universe, teenagers fighting to the death for the entertainment of the elites, even purgatory being a fancy bar where people play games to determine whether their souls gets recycled back to the world or gets disintegrated into nothing.

In short, I can be 115% in the world of the story no matter what it throws at me. But only if it successfully carries me there without flipping the boat.

I'm sorry to say that I couldn't stay on the boat with the premise of the story. While I wanted to believe in the miracle plant and the creature that makes a thundering appearance, the different points guiding the logic behind those elements felt a bit feeble. It didn't really help when the beginning of the book felt strong; I was so in on the first heist. Then it took a sharp left turn probably when the allusion to the creature's existence came up.

There was also the issue of the main character, Gideon, feeling more like a supporting one for the majority of the story. I didn't feel compelled to have a stake in his success. In fact I sometimes felt he could disappear and it wouldn't matter.

Probably the biggest reason that brought me out of the story was when it felt like I had been reading one author and suddenly the next chapter felt like a different author. In fairness, I obviously knew there were two authors for this story, so it may very well be that burden of knowledge having an influence. Nonetheless, the chapters that were just about Eli Glinn, Gideon's employer, sounded like it had a different voice than the one just before it, which definitely made me pause.

Still.

In spite of all the above, I read to the end. I read to the end because I wanted to know how it all ended. And there's something to that. Even if the writing at times it felt like there were obviously two different authors writing, I still felt the tension in the characters' mission. And the mysteries surrounding the ancient clues were making me desperate to find out what they were hiding.

Above everything else though, there is at least one reason to read this book: the action scenes. These scenes were probably one of the few moments I was completely absorbed in the moment. My favorite was definitely the sea chase that lead to the shipwreck. I probably will never forget the image of the bullet piercing the woman's forehead or the sensation of extreme thirst as they were floating out in sea. If I were ever to write an action scene, I would definitely refer back to this book for inspiration.