From Amazon
For those who never leave home without a copy of the prophecies of Nostradamus tucked in their hip pocket, Steve Alten's new thriller is just the ticket.
Domain focuses its doomsday scenario on an ancient Mayan myth and sets up an intriguing pair of saviors in Dominique Vasquez, a psych grad student who's an intern at a Florida psychiatric facility, and Mick Gabriel, her first patient. Mick, the son of two famous archaeologists, has languished in the Miami asylum for over a decade after attacking the man who publicly humiliated his father and who now happens to be the American secretary of state. The elder Gabriel believed he had unearthed the riddle surrounding the origins of Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the desert glyphs of the Nazca desert, the temples of Angkor Wat, and the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan peninsula--and that the answer pointed inexorably to the doom of humanity.
As the winter solstice of 2012 approaches (the day of reckoning prophesied by the myths of the Kukulcan Pyramid at Chichen Itza), Mick enlists Dominique in his effort to save mankind from the apocalypse. Engineering his escape from the hospital, she accompanies him on a desperate search to find his way into the pyramid before the radio message from space, which has already activated a deadly alien weapon buried deep in the Gulf of Mexico, can open a galactic gateway to a world where evil will reign for all eternity. Alten's talent for pacing far outstrips his other writerly gifts. The political subplot is ludicrous, the special effects way over the top, and the villain-in-chief, who happens to be named Borgia, is merely a cartoon. But the story is original enough to pass muster and the past success of similar apocalyptic thrillers bodes well for this one. --Jane Adams
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
The author of Meg taps Mayan mythology and Old Testament lore in his sci-fi/fantasy take on the age-old battle of good and evil. Archeologist Julius Gabriel is ridiculed when his research shows that ancient wonders like the pyramids, Stonehenge and Angkor Wat were built with extraterrestrial help to play a role in an Earth-based Alien Armageddon on Dec. 21, 2012, the winter equinox. When Julius dies of a heart attack, his son, Mick, attacks Gabriel's main tormentor and former partner, Pierre Borgia, now the U.S. secretary of state, and Borgia has him thrown illegally into a Florida insane asylum. Dominique Vazquez, a part-Mayan psychiatric intern, is assigned Mick's case, but the plan to control him backfires when she reads Julius's journal and joins forces with Mick. She helps him escape, and they rush to the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan Peninsula, where evidence supports Mick's claims. As evil alien interference in human affairs triggers disaster, Mick learns he was born to lead the opposing alien forces for good in an apocalyptic battle. Alten's imaginative roles for the pyramids and Peru's Nazca peoples are the perfect springboard for what is set up to be a continuing series grappling with sweeping, Star Wars-like themes. Characters are worthy of the best role-playing games; sorcery aces technology every time; and Alten draws clever parallels with Mayan myths in this ripping space-age yarn equipped with a credible love story and strong Earth-bound side plots. (Feb.)Forecast: Meg had its fans--the novel was a minor bestseller--but not enough to keep sales of Alten's second novel, The Trench, from dipping precipitously (it's notable that Forge makes no mention of that novel in its publicity for Domain). This title is bound to do less well in hardcover than in its eventual mass market edition, which can excerpt any positive reviews.
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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
