The Anomaly

I picked this up at Goodwill and it was one of my better finds.

This is going to be a short review, because I can't delve deep into this without giving away spoilers.

Nolan Moore is a Youtube armchair archaeologist. He does a show called The Anomaly Files, which is really more of a conspiracy theory, History Channel-type of thing. He has no formal training in anything archaeological. He's an ex-screenwriter.

He and his team are in the Grand Canyon, searching for a mysterious cavern that was discovered in 1909 and then never properly covered. The odd findings reported put it on Nolan's radar.

Nolan is the POV character and he's very likeable. He's a definitely flawed person, but the good thing is that he's also extraordinarily self-aware.

Then we've got Ken, the jaded British alcoholic who's in charge of the whole thing; Molly, his no-nonsense right hand; Pierre, the young, handsome, a little too perfect cameraman; Feather, a New-Agey liaison from their newest funding source; and Gemma, a web journalist who seems more determined that they fail than succeed.

I don't think it's a spoiler to say they find the cavern. And they get trapped in it. From there, rolls out a quite interesting sequence of events that I haven't seen done before or if I did, I sure don't remember it. I really enjoyed this from start to finish. It is a bit of a slow starter, but it's worth it. The end is just action after action and completely makes up for any slow build.

The second book in the series came out this year and I plan to order it Friday.

If you like Preston & Child stuff, try this out. It's a faster, simpler read, but it's still good. The author is a screenwriter and you can tell, but not in a bad way. This thing just screams "make me a movie."

24 Hours in Ancient Athens

Ah, I do love this series.

This most recent installment was written by the same author as the Roman volume, so it's well-written and very informative.

I think I enjoyed this one the least of the three. I'm not even sure why. The Egyptian one I liked, because of the subject matter and despite the terrible editing issues. The Roman one I enjoyed a lot. I enjoyed this, too, just...less so. Honestly, I can't even really say why.

Maybe it felt like the author was trying to cram too many historical people into a single day of life. It felt like constant name-dropping rather than an actual look at daily life. The chapters are nicely intertwined like the past books. You'll see the same people pop up a lot, especially Alcibiades. I swear he's mentioned or actually present in every other chapter.

The best thing is how many of the scenes are taken from actual ancient sources. It feels well-researched and well-written for what it is. I think I just would have preferred a few less big names and more regular people.

Adventurers, Inc. 2

Ah, another dramatic adventure. Of course.

This time Susette is in the POV position and the girls are at the Grand Canyon. They're doing some rafting on the rapids and Susette is worried because she had a bad childhood experience with swimming and is scared of the water.

Once again, we remove the main adult character who SHOULD be there: John, their teacher. He's not going rafting with them because he's too busy visiting an old girlfriend.

The girls should be in capable hands though, because chaperone Debbie's ex-boyfriend is a guide for the river rafting people. So yeah, they should be safe with him.

Except after rock-climbing up for lunch, he and Debbie stupidly let all the girls and their young trail guide Tommy rapel back down first. I don't think this is something that a responsible guide would actually do. The second adult should have gone down first, then the kids, then the last adult.

So when Debbie goes to rapel down, the rope breaks and she's dramatically saved by Jim (her ex). Oh, I should mention that while the girls are having lunch at the top of the cliff, Jim bellows at Rosina for stepping on the rope because it wears it down. Dude, don't yell at kids if your dumb ass didn't TELL them not to do it and why.

Now we've got Debbie and Jim at the top of the cliff and the five kids down below. Tommy gets them back in the raft and they go for help, but there's a spontaneous waterfall. They tried to explain how this happened, but I didn't buy it.

After surviving the waterfall, Toni, Allison and Rosina make it to shore with the raft, while Susette gets caught in a whirlpool. She's rescued by Tommy, but then they have to make their way back to the others, which terrifies her. He gives her and pep talk and they do it, mostly because he's hurt his wrist and needs her help.

They get back to the top and go to Tommy's nearby home for help and everything is fine. Susette feels braver and understands that you can't be brave without being afraid.

There's also the romantic subplot, of course. Tommy and Susette end up a cute little couple. As you can probably tell from the cover, Tommy is half-Native American, which is awesome. So few Native American characters in this type of series. And there's a stupid other plot where the girls think Debbie is going to leave the trip and stay with Jim because she's mad at John, so they spend most of the book badmouthing Debbie to Jim and Jim to Debbie only to get caught at it. And then they see John and Debbie kissing with literally zero build-up to that.

I like Susette as a character and I like Tommy a lot, too. Toni's way more obnoxious this time and she's definitely turned into a Kristy. She's also suddenly not afraid of heights at all anymore, which I find unbelievable. Allison was just kind of there, and I continue to relate to Rosina, who is not at all outdoorsy.

Next up, it's Rosina's turn in the spotlight for a sailing trip around Maine.