Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead [Mass Market Paperback]

This book makes Martin Caidin's Indiana Jones novels feel like masterpieces. Indiana seems a secondary character in his own book. There was nothing even remotely characteristic about him. Steve Perry writes Indiana Jones as cautious and scared. The action was missing. There are so many characters coming and going that I couldn't keep track of who was who. I was EXTREMELY frustrated reading this book. I couldn't allow any of my friends and family to share in the heartache of this book so it's been thrown away. I would have given it a zero if I could.

The easiest way to determine if this is a book you might be interested in reading is to ask yourself this:

Did you enjoy Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

Are you interested in reading this because it's Indiana Jones, or are you simply looking for an adventure story?

Indiana Jones. Zombis. Sounds great, right? Sadly, no.

I will be straightforward with my biases. As far as the films go, I despised Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Not only was the story profoundly unsatisfying, it focused far too much on peripheral Indy characters (I'm guessing if Indiana Jones had his own version of Entourage, it would look like KotCS).

That said, this book is an inferior story to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I certainly mean no disrespect to the author, Steve Perry, and I admit I have never read his other work, but as an Indiana Jones novel, this fails on multiple accounts.

1. You could easily substitute some other name for Indiana Jones (and a few cliched references to adventures past), and you wouldn't notice the difference.

2. While it might make a decent, general adventure story, it doesn't follow the tried and true formula for a good Indiana Jones story - the initial adventure the viewer/reader sees the tail end of which is not or little related to the rest of the story, the reveal of the MacGuffin, the globe-trotting to exotic locations and piecing of clues, the unusual and intense action scenes, and the big finale. Similar to KotCS (and also largely Temple of Doom), this breaks from the Indy Formula and focuses on simply one linear story in one locale. The sense of adventure definitely hurts as a result.

3. There is far too much focus on the villains and peripheral characters. Every two to three pages followed the same pattern of: Indy & Mac, the German team, the Japanese team, the Haitian bokor (wizard/priest). The constant break in narrative was quickly tiresome. While we gained unique insight into the villains, their thoughts, and even felt sympathy for them (like learning Yamada's family lived in Nagasaki, which we all know had the bomb dropped on it shortly after the events of this book), an Indiana Jones novel is not the place for such lofty aspirations in exposition. It works far better to follow Indy through the adventure, learning the twists and turns as he does.

4. This is an annoying Indiana Jones. Whereas KotCS made him more professorial (i.e. annoying) in explaining things at awkward moments, this book takes it to new heights. And it was particularly grating to keep reading Indy think about how he'll have to get his fedora fixed. We all know that the chances his hat survived all these adventures in one piece is ridiculous, but do we really need the mechanics of how he has a hat guy and how much it costs him? The nonchalant, cool Indy of Raiders and Last Crusade is conspicuously absent.

5. This is probably more a criticism of Lucas, but the Mac character found here and in KotCS is a flimsy, one-dimensional character.

So, while Steve Perry clearly has a decent understanding of Haitian pagan religious practices and Japanese culture (and actually you learn a few interesting tidbits as a result), it just doesn't work for a novel like this.

This book should be a very quick and entertaining read. Instead, I found myself laboring to finish it. Not once, did the Raiders March ever pop into my head. If you want that kind of experience, you would be better off reading the earlier Rob MacGregor books or Max McCoy.

Two and a half stars. I have to agree with some of the other reviewers here. I also have read the Indiana Jones novels by Rob Macgregor and the ones by Max McCoy (skipping the two by Martin Caidin). Those books were really very good. I loved those books. I had hoped that with a big named author like Steve Perry writing, that "Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead" would be another great Indy tale in the long line of tales out there. It's passable, but not all together that "Indiana Jones-ish" if you take my meaning. I mean, if the main character wasn't called Indy, it would be just another adventure yarn. There is some atmosphere here and there, and a few somewhat decent moments if your a fan of Indy and just want to see him get wrapped up in something. But honestly, a lot of the writing here just seems like filler. Don't get me wrong. Its well written and all, but the adventure itself is slow going. This is not a fun, adventurous crazy train ride of a story. Its a trek with a lot of information, and a lot of concentration on other characters aside from Indy himself. When Indy does come into play, there is simply not a whole lot of Indy's famous character here, just bits and pieces. I think I see what Steve Perry was going for in the book, a dark trek on an miserable island in the rainy jungle with Zombies, etc. I see the potential. But on paper, it came out only sort of so so.

I hope Steve Perry will try again, or someone else will.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 19 reviews  2.9 out of 5 stars