I saw a brand new hardback of the latest Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Pendergast novel, Cemetery Dance. And since it was only 99 pesos (a little over $2), I had no second thoughts of buying it. Don't you just love bargain bins? I can spend an hour just browsing the titles.
The Pendergast novels are my guilty pleasure. I think I've read them all. They're so entertaining and requires no major effort to comprehend. You couldn't help but fall for Pendergast -- the stoic, über-intelligent, and esoteric FBI agent. Preston and Child aren't even clear if Pendergast is really an FBI agent, or if he was, what happened to him that he had to leave the bureau. And the Pendergast novels also have a touch of the fantastic to them. They're basically mysteries and thrillers involving archaeological elements. They can be really addicting.
I was into page 101 of the novel when I noticed something. I was reading it quite fast but I was finding it lackluster. Somehow, it wasn't that engaging anymore. Sure, all the techniques of Preston and Child were there -- the chapter cliffhangers, a murder involving (possibly) a zombie, and the weird investigative methods of Pendergast.
8 comments:
tragicomic?
I love bargain bins. Got my latest read, a pristine hardbound of Elinor Lipman's My Latest Grievance last week...also 99 pesos.
I've never read a Pendergast novel and this doesn't sound so inviting.
Right. Sometimes we change in the middle of something.
I hate it when that happens though; I usually leave them unfinished.
Oh how much do I miss bargain bins... I just have to think 'only 10 months only 10 months' hahaha.
Shame this one isnt quite doing it for you.
Peter, like you, I enjoyed the Pendergast novels I've read although they weren't many. I read them a long time ago so I forgot the sequence already. But I would like to get back to this series.
Perhaps Cemetery Dance isn't as good as the rest of the books, so you aren't enjoying anymore. Or perhaps you simply outgrew the Pendergast thing? :(
There are a lot of series authors whom I used to read, but they became too formulaic so I stopped.
Maybe it's the pressure publishers put on writers to produce, whether or not the product is any good.
And other writers just burn out, but continue to write for the money.
Just bumped into another bloggers blogroll and saw you listed, it looks like you enjoy books...well thats obvious I guess... I am currently reading your entries... I dont get to read books that much nowadays, but I find your reviews good... just so you know you are doing a good job =)
I 'read' Cemetery Dance as an audio book last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had never read anything by the author, and was pleasantly surprised. Was it the format? My brain? or just a case of Vive la difference?
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