general

Let me first say that I hope you haven't avoided this book because you saw the movie. This book is absolutely GREAT! While the idea of a monsterous villian stalking and killing helpless people is nothing new, Preston and Child have come up with a refreshing and interesting way to develop this killer and have created an extremely spooky setting.

From page one, you can see that this book is something special. You are immediately thrown into the heart of the Amazon jungle in search of a tribe of legendary and much feared natives.

Next, the authors send you to to New York City. The rest of the novel is set in a huge old dark museum filled with countless natural artifacts, forgotten passages, a very nasty killer, and a lot of fresh blood.

I hate giving anything away about plots in my reviews so hopefully that will be enough to set the stage. This book is very well written, the character development is thorough, the scientific explanations are complex but written in such a way as not to confuse the layman.

I really enjoy the way P&C always like to throw in a little scientific tidbit every chapter or two to keep you guessing as the story unfolds. They also hold nothing back when it comes to graphic depiction of the violence in this tale. The book itself practically drips blood.

If you are into the scientific thrillers, this is as good and original as Jurassic Park. If you easily get bogged down by all the biological explanations and computer jargon, you're probably not a Preston/Child fan anyway. Even so, this book still carries a white knuckle plot and a heavy dose of gore to pull you through. Maybe not for those prone to nitemares.

A great book which borrows from the plots of Alien, Jaws, and Jurassic Park. Still, the cliches are written in new and interesting ways. The setting for the book, the American Museum of Natural History, couldn't be better. The dark, lonely hallways of the museum make it the ultimate haunted house. Yet, the authors write about the settings in little detail. One would have to visit the museum to truly capture the sense of menace the museum provides. The plot is believable but the characters are a little one-dimensional. Yet, this is not a character driven novel, this is just a fun read meant to be taken lightly. The creature is one of the most interesting monsters to have been created in a long while. I can't wait for the sequel or the movie.

Although a fairly blatant spoof of the Michael Crichton formula, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's "The Relic" is a superb, fast-paced suspense/horror read that is one of the best of its kind produced in the middle 1990's. The authors use excellent characterization, an in-depth look at museum politics, some soft humor, and stupendously eerie sequences that will have readers' hair standing straight up.

Preparing for a special new exhibit at Chicago's Natural History Museum, scientist Margo Green receives some unusual crates with incredible artifacts from the Kothoga indian tribe. Inside many of the crates is a strange plant and nothing more, which seems awfully fishy to the scientist and she researches the relics further. As she gets closer to the truth and the the museum gets closer and closer to the grand opening of their new exhibit, a horrific monster begins to terrorize the building. With the help of her long-time friend Mr. Frock and a rogue FBI agent who investigated similar murders in New Orleans, Margo Green fights for her live against a creature that embodies more secrets than she could imagine.

Preston and Child produce a tremendous tale, splicing several genres together that will satisfy fans of Koontz, Crichton, Grisham, King, and Deaver. Stylishly scary, eloquently written, and a fantastic, whoulda-thunk it finale that will astonish. Adapted into a very well-made motion picture a couple years after its release--the book is far better, emphasizing the personalities of the main characters to their entirity and adding numerous extra plot twists. Simply excellent.