De lo más profundo del hielo de la Antártida sale una señal. La Atlántida ha despertado. Los monumentos antiguos de todo el mundo, desde las pirámides de Egipto y Méjico hasta los yacimientos sagrados de China, están reaccionando a la crisis que se avecina. Los monumentos se están interconectando a través de los océanos. En la tierra cunde el pánico, porque parece que las señales procedentes de la Atlántida son el preludio de algo de mucha más envergadura...
Dos ejércitos, el estadounidense y el chino, están a punto de entrar en guerra por el control de los enigmas, codificados en fragmentos de cristal rescatados de la ciudad hundida. La humanidad ha tenido doce mil años para interpretar las claves... pero ahora al mundo solo le queda una semana.

Having picked this up at my local bookstore in the $2 sale bin my expectations weren't exactly high, going in I was expecting the equivalent of a B grade movie, lacklustre action to cover up the lack of substance and story structure. I was pleasantly surprised however that wasn't the case at all. Rather, whilst there is a bit of a Dan Brown aura about the story structure, this was in fact vastly better than his books and a very enjoyable science fiction/archaeological thriller.

Written in 2001 and set in 2012 the novel follows the idea that the earth is about to be potentially destroyed by heightened activity within the sun. Both America & China have discovered historical artifacts which lead them to believe there is something going on at several historical sites around the world which may be somehow linked to the phenomena occurring with the earth & sun's interactions.

I found the story structure was excellent and the way the author mixed in scientific & historical fact with fiction was well done leading to an aura of wonder around circumstances as they unfolded. I always enjoy when a book leads you to more reading also such as determining which information is fact and which were fictionalised, to this end the author also includes a bibliography of research used in the book. ( )

This book was an amazing journey from start to finish. No, not because of the action (there isn't much of that) and no not because of some kind literal journey. I'm talking about the journey towards the answer.


...The Deciphering.

I always love that stuff and it was VERY well done in this book. Slowly answering all the questions without the answer ever being obvious to the reader. And because there is a group of scientists with all different specializations it just never gets boring. Myths and Legends. Linguistics. Archeology. Military. And one or two I won't spoil. You never know where the next piece of the puzzle will come from.

They answer the Why, Where, and What. But never really go into the Who and How. Maybe that's a little disappointing, but still; the journey to the answer was awesome enough that even a crap ending couldn't ruin my 5 star rating. Now, the ending wasn't crap, but I'm just not sure yet what I thought about it. Maybe it was a bit out-of-place? Maybe I just expected something different?

Either way, it was not enough to bring down my opinion about the book in the slightest.

But remember; if you are going to read this book with the expectation of it being a thrilling, action packed ride you will leave disappointed. There really isn't a lot of action (and with action I mean shooting and stuff). And when it's there you want it to go back to the deciphering of the mystery (if you're like me that is)

All in all one of the best books I've read this year. ( )

Under rated book. It has some fantastic ideas regarding 2012 and although Dan Brown-like, it's actually much better. It was fast paced and a generally engaging read. ( )

Very enjoyable, fast paced. I really enjoyed this book. However, you'll have to suspend disbelief a little and just submit to the ride in order to appreciate it. Whilst reading this, I constantly felt as though I were watching the scenes as if they were designed and written as a screenplay for a movie; which incidentally would be great fun. ( )