My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This novel picks up almost immediately after The Dig (book 1)left off. Matt is in a holiday resort with his girlfriend Trudi, when the archaeologist who learned of Matt’s ability in the first book shows up and kidnaps him. Forcing him to read “The Opal” Matt is thrown into the world of the Vikings and here the book is at its strongest, diving in and out of the sci-fi historical fiction idea that caught my attention in the first book.
As others have mentioned on Amazon reviews this book Siemsen made this book a lot more Action Movie/thriller based than the first novel and I do think that put me off a little, that being said the historical aspect for me was still really intriguing and still gave me that urge to turn the page and find out what will happen next.
Siemsen also went a lot more creative with the settings in this book as it featured a lot of globe-trotting and I think that meant a lot of detail in each area that the reader was having to learn, his first novel was a lot more focussed in one areas surroundings, this again had a positive and negative affect on me. I like an author to be creative with settings but think this had a bit too much chopping and changing of locations, making it feel a little laboured in places.
The characters in this book are excellent and if I am honest one of the main reasons I came back for more. I like how Matt grows in this book and the insights we get into his childhood. A great development of this character.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, it has a great storyline and interesting mix of characters. It was not as strong as book 1 in the series, but was still a great book and highly recommended. I have already bought the next one from this great author.
New2Writing 