I’ve been listening to lots of audio book lately. I say lots, but really I’ve only finished two and they have both been written by Clive Clussler. As I’ve mentioned in the past entries, it is probably helpful for me to keep records of what I’ve watched, listened to, and read so in the future. I can then refresh my memories quickly and provide recommendations to others.

The Kingdom

The Wikipedia article on The Kingdom provides a decent overview of the story as a whole. There is no need for me to re-write the plot when it can be accessed with a click and a little reading.

DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS UPCOMING! STOP READING NOW TO AVOID THE SPOILERS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Likes

  • Sam and Remi worked as a husband and wife team not only to accomplish their treasure hunting goals, but also to stay alive. The character of Sam’s was distinctly masculine, while the character of Remi was convincingly feminine.
  • It is not very often you read a story set in places such as Nepal, Indonesia, India, Tibet, and China. I enjoyed the “sites and sounds” from these various cultures from the book.
  • I also enjoyed some of the high-tech detective skills the protagonists put into practice. It wasn’t a full sale detective novel, but it had elements of critical thinking and smart use of technology. Even if some of the implementations were a little bit sloppy (the SSID of the wireless network in King’s father’s “abandoned” home was publicly broadcasting instead of hidden), I appreciated the authors trying to include cutting edge technologies (at least cutting edge for an 80 year old man) in the story.

Dislikes

  • The precursor concerning the airship did not really need to be included. If it was going to be included the main Sam and Remi story did not integrate well. In fact, that was among the most unbelievable portions of the thriller. After so much time there is no chance
  • Understanding that I was reading a novel, parts of the story were a little too unbelievable, this mainly consisted of:
    • Sam crafting fire-bricks to fly the airship after several decades of rot. Materials continue to break down if exposed to sunlight. If the airship was totally buried in ice then I might believe the materials could be strong enough for reuse, however this was not the case. Most, if not all the ship, was above the ice.
    • Sam and Remi going unnoticed against a group of trained solders that had thermal goggles has very low likely hood. Even if they could have somehow concealed their body heat the solders would have probably thought to look for their bodies.
  • The Golden Man portion of the story was silly. I could be more understanding if the Golden Man was an idol (which it was) but including the myth that this skeleton was supposedly a Lucy was corny. I am not convinced in macro-evolution (change from species-to-species) is true, which had some bearing on the believe-ability of the story. However, even if I was convinced, then I certainly would not believe the “curse” was true, because that would point to some kind of supernatural.

Stars

I give The Kingdom 3.5 stars out of 10. As you can tell, I really didn’t like it much.