Steve Berry - The Alexandria Link (2007)
Reviewed by David J. Montgomery
Steve Berry's The Alexandria Link is the latest in a series of religious-themed thrillers that burst into prominence with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Each of these novels uses controversial theories and speculation about Western religion – usually relating to the truth of the Bible, its history and stories – as the basis for a thriller plot. The results have proven very popular with readers, if generally less so with critics.
How well these books work depends a lot on readers' tolerance for hypotheses presented as fact, and how eager they are to be lectured to during the course of what is meant to be a rousing piece of entertainment. Berry happens to be one of the better practitioners of this, as demonstrated by his previous novel, The Templar Legacy. If his latest adventure doesn't work quite as well as that earlier book, it still succeeds as a diverting story.
The Alexandria Link features the return of Cotton Malone, the former Department of Justice covert operative who was introduced in The Templar Legacy. Malone is now working as a bookseller in Denmark, but his shadowy past refuses to leave him alone. When his teenaged son is kidnapped by men determined to force Malone to do their bidding, he has no choice but to agree.
Malone's mission in the previous book found him on the trail of the legendary Knights Templar, and this time out he's pursuing an even grander goal: the fabled Library of Alexandria, the ancient repository of all the world's knowledge. The Library, of course, was destroyed in ancient times – historians differ on the date, but it was reportedly sometime between 48 BC and 642 AD – thus making its discovery all but impossible.
Malone, however, knows something that nobody else does: the whereabouts of a man known as the Alexandria Link, the last person on earth who knows the secret location of the Library. It is that secret that the men who have taken Malone's son want to know. He, of course, is determined to tell them nothing, while still saving his son's life.
The Alexandria Link is by and large an engaging story, even a fascinating one in parts, but it is also a maddening one, overly-long and filled with squandered potential. Other than the hunt for the Library itself, which is best part of the book, the main engine driving the plot forward is a rather tepid tale of political intrigue, and it is not nearly so interesting.
The way the shifting alliances of the President of the United States, the Attorney General and other key government officials are gradually revealed makes for decent reading, but it slows down the plot's pace to a crawl. Often these sections seem out of place, as if they belong in another book entirely, especially as they have little to do with Malone and his adventures.
The pacing of The Alexandria Link is a problem throughout. The first half of the book in particular drags, with the narrative bogged down in long passages of expository dialogue designed to educate the reader on the complex history of the ideas involved. These parts are necessary, no doubt, for Berry to adequately explain his story. But they don't always make for the most thrilling reading.
This problem is not helped by the numerous subplots that take the book's focus away from the main thrust of the story involving Malone. These detours are never as interesting as what is going on with the story's hero, and they never seem to be especially important to what the reader is likely to be most interested in: the hunt for the Library.
Despite those flaws, the bulk of the book is entertaining, especially for those who are intrigued by the historical subject matter and its potential applications for modern-day politics, religion and society. As the hunt for the Library heats up, and the peril that Malone faces grows along with it, the story finally builds real momentum and becomes the kind of page-turner it could have been from the outset.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
Comments
I am only 14 and my friends laugh that i read these kind of books.my parents don't want me to belive the things that challenge what the bible says.i don't take them sriously, u r just a fantastic author.anyway i was hoping that you could explain to me why in chapters 8 and 34 your sequence of 10 letters has a V as the third letter and on the internet they have a U as the third letter.Could u explain the differences to me?i don't want to challenge your authority on the subject i just wanted to know which was rite and which was wrong.so if u dont mind i would really like it if u were to explain this to me.thanks.your fan, Brian Hart
P.S-the alexandria link is the first of your books that i have read.i have allready bout this book and the templar legacy.i cant wait to finish this one and move on to more of your books!
Posted by: Brian Hart | Mar 27, 2008 10:06:19 PM
Hello Brian,
You are amazing reading this book at your age. If you contact Steve Berry directly at his www.steveberry.org, he will be glad to get back to you. I am reading The Alexandria Link for the second time and would love to see a movie based on this book. There is also a new book from Steve Berry coming up, The Paris Vendetta, will be released on December 1. You will be able to find it at your closest library.
Keep reading,
Carla
Posted by: Carla | May 7, 2009 1:46:16 PM
