I swear I could almost hear Robert Stack narrating at times, which may have been an improvement. Word of warning: It’s difficult to review this book without spoilers but I will do my best.
So the story started out fairly interesting, (mysterious island full of hidden dangers and an ancient untouched culture) but took a sharp turn into fantasy land before becoming overly repetitive and draggy. By the end I found myself checking the time because I wanted to know how much more I had to endure. Not sure the description accurately portrays how far off the rails of reality the story eventually goes, so if you are not a fan of fantasy or the extreme supernatural, you may want to look for another book. The character development was decent though pretty formulaic for these types of stories. There was just a touch of a love story, but it too stuck to the standard script. There were also some random sex acts and awkward exhibitionist behavior which seemed forced into the story under the guise of “normal behavior for an uncivilized culture.”
Unfortunately, the logic behind the underlying motivation of the plot was completely flawed. Again, without completely spoiling the plot: years of intentional inaction doesn’t just suddenly change without an extreme change in the status quo. In this case the villain’s plan lacked any catalysts for the change that would prompt his desired outcome. Very flawed and hard to get over!
The climax of the story definitely tilted toward the ridiculous, not so much from a fantasy perspective, but more in terms of the “ultra happy ending” approach. In essence, the actions of the main characters in the end didn’t fit with the character profiles the author had crafted throughout the book. It wasn’t like their actions were a product of the “character development curve;” it was just awkward. Again, difficult to overlook.
The reader was just okay. He had decent inflection and attempted to change his tone based on gender, but his accents did not align properly and were inconsistently applied to the characters. Again, it just made it more difficult to enjoy the book.
Conclusion: If you like fantasy novels and don’t get hung up on some of the minutia, you may enjoy this fusion story between reality and mysticism. If you are looking for an interesting true-to-life adventure story, this is probably not going to keep your attention for long.