Relic

Pendergast, Book 1

By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 13 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Relic, a Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child thriller that introduces FBI Special Agent Pendergast

Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human....

But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.

Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who - or what - is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?

Prolong the suspense: listen to the sequel, Reliquary.

©1994 by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. (P)1995 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"With its close-up view of museum life and politics, plausible scientific background, sharply drawn characters and a plot line that's blissfully free of gratuitous romance, this well-crafted novel offers first-rate thrills and chills." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Wildly cool....Thrill hounds couldn't ask for a creepier environment....a thriller staged in the world's scariest building, with no room for the squeamish." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Spellbound!

I sort of listened to this series a bit backward and this exciting title filled me on how another happened and adding even more depth to the wonderful players in this title. I literally could not quit listening and ran my ear pods nearly dry a couple times. Thanks you Douglas and Lincoln for yet another wonderful creation.

Long chapters of science

The premise was OK. Not as good a future Pendergast books would be.

There were long chapters that droned on with science that wasn't necessary to follow the story line.

Again there was not enough Pendergast in this book.

Nailbiting Thrills and Perfectly Drawn Characters

This is my first experience with Detective Pendergast and I can assure it will not be my last. I have already downloaded the sequel and can't wait to see what happens next. I was dubious of this monster type genre at first, but the museum provides such a titilating backdrop and the characters are so interesting that my preconceptions quickly fell away. You won't regret trying this one!

Clever story; terrific narrator

I listened to Relic over a couple of long trips in the car recently. I would describe it as Michael Crichton meets Sherlock Holmes, and the story is engaging.

However, the narrator, David Colacci, turns a good listen into a great listen. He makes the characters come alive. You love Pendergast, root for D'agosta, and want to see Coffee flayed alive. Colacci may be the best Audible narrator I've ever listened to. I was crushed to see the sequel, Reliquary, is narrated by someone else. AUDIBLE, DO US A FAVOR AND BRING BACK COLACCI AS PENDERGAST IN RELIQUARY!

Last, the conclusion to Relic is clever and caught us totally off guard. As soon as the book ended, my wife and I went back to the first chapter to pick up the clues we missed the first time around. An excellent listen.

That poor museum

I feel like I've heard amazing things about this series (though I couldn't tell you where)… But I can't say I'm impressed. Relic is a thriller, a sort-of mystery in which the murderer isn't going to be the butler or anyone else remotely as ordinary but something entirely Other. It's not a genre I ordinarily go in for, but since I've picked up an installment of the series here and there in various formats I thought I'd start at the beginning.

It didn't begin well. It opened with the sort of prologue that usually makes me sigh, this one in a South American jungle with an expedition going sideways and pear-shaped all at once. And then it picked up and dropped down in Manhattan, as bodies began to drop.

One question: How can you get ballistics on blood spatter? Because Preston & Child seemed to think that's a thing.

Some of the science and technology in the book seemed … kind of adorable. Originally published in 1995, you wouldn't think it would be quite as outdated as it was – but it really was. The information gained from the DNA analysis seemed pretty far-fetched. Can you really tell from reading the DNA how long a gestation period is, or whether a species' estrous cycle is suppressed? Or even the average weight of a given creature?

The storytelling was at times very nice. I made a note at one point: "What the hell happened to that guard?" He was placed in apparently imminent danger, and then … not mentioned again for long enough that I honestly started wondering if he'd been forgotten by the authors. And then, "Oh. There he is. Nicely done." But I have to say I was pretty surprised when what I assumed was the climax of the book came eight hours into a twelve-hour book. I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that in the midst of all the action there is substantial damage done to the museum and, of course, to a number of exhibits – and that hurt. Artifacts thousands of years old, smashed to bits for no good reason. That always hurts – more, in some cases, than character deaths do.

There's a fair amount of repetition in the style of writing. There were at least a couple of mentions of how the creature looked just like the little figurine from South America – and then someone who should know better asks "what does it look like?" And if the New York FBI agent had given the same directions to the SWAT team one more time I would have started swearing. The whole plot was a little predictable – although there was at least one death I didn't expect. At one point Pendergast murmured "not yet" to himself over and over as he waited for his shot … which was absolutely moronic given how often everyone stressed the creature's enhanced senses. He might as well have been yelling "Hey! Come kill me over here!"

It was such a shame that the old botanist told our heroes about the Mbwun legend, and then a few minutes later (audiobook time) the long-lost journal told almost the exact same story. There was no new revelation, no surprise, despite the fact that it was a first-hand account from someone who seemed to actually have experience of the terrible bargain the Kathoga tribe made. Nothing. The story of a bargain with the devil in which people have to eat their own children should not be boring, but, told for the second time in the space of a handful of chapters, it was.

I wasn't overwhelmed with excitement about the characters; they skirted the borders of cliché at times, with the irascible cop, the high-handed Fed who swanned through doing what he needed to, the scientists so focused on their jobs that they've forgotten about life, the journalist who … well, ditto, in his way. Margot not quite but almost escaped being a token Girl. I will say I grew to enjoy FBI agent Smithback, with his Southern gentility and complete disregard for anything trying to get in his way.

I wish the journalist in the group hadn't chosen to act like an idiot journalist at a really stupid time. It would have made so much more sense for him to be helpful and useful, and then capitalize on that later for a story. And were the mayor's fine words real, or because he just heard the reporter called out as such? I don't believe that was ever clarified – in this book, at least.

There was a sort of anti-sexism that surprised me, and kept surprising me – both in its usage and in how it affected how I absorbed the book: the redoubtable Miss Rickman is consistently referred to as just "Rickman". And almost every time, right up to the end, I kept thinking they were talking about a male character. Women just aren't often referred to by their last name alone (I think it happens to my brother all the time, but to me only once at one job, because there were two of us with my first name and the other one came first). What particularly made it odd was that Margot Green is consistently referred to as Margot, but Rickman is Rickman.

I know there are plenty of real examples of Evil Bureaucracy putting profit, pride, and publicity before public safety, and so on – but it gets old. They're never my favorite stories. They're not unrealistic – and maybe that's why they're not my favorites. I don't understand why, say, the directors of a museum would insist on proceeding with an exhibition opening when doing so might put thousands at grave risk. Or why an FBI agent in uncharted waters would fail to take heed of every concern, no matter who it came from, when thousands of lives were about to be at grave risk.

I think it would have been a lot of fun to have everything going on below the surface – the beast or whatever cornered and captured in the basements, everything fixed and solved by the heroes of the piece while the nasties celebrate uninterrupted above, and then the good guys showing up disheveled and blood-spattered and exhausted, maybe damaged – and triumphant.

The sound effects in the audiobook were incredibly obnoxious: echoes in the basement, a muffled overlay for someone on the phone or walkie, etc. Please. Don't. It was especially annoying because it was obviously meant to add a touch of realism – but something that could more naturally have added realism and urgency, a simple amping up of intensity in the narrator's voice in speed and timbre, didn't happen. Part of the climax was read as calmly and sedately as the places in which emails and computer readouts are read. The delivery of Smithbeck and his accent was enjoyable, though.

After a while, that extended climax began to feel like The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure or something, with several discrete groups struggling to survive against a force greater than they are, amounting to a disaster. It just kept going, and going, a difficult situation becoming almost impossible, becoming almost unsurvivable. On the whole, it wasn't entirely my cuppa. I think I will keep going with the series, though; there was enough there that gave me hope for later stories that no longer involve the plot points of this one and its immediate sequel. Anyhow, I own 'em – I'll probably get around to 'em.

Found my new favorite authors

Would you consider the audio edition of Relic to be better than the print version?

After reading Cabinet of Curiosities and loving the writing style of Preston and Child I had to start from the beginning and was not disappointed. I loved the first Pendergast book and cannot wait to continue with the rest of the series. Being a huge James Patterson fan, it has been refreshing to really enjoy a completely different writing style that has kept my attention. Looking forward to the rest!

Who was your favorite character and why?

I enjoy Smithback's character because he is completely obnoxious, but you grow to love him because beneath it, he is is a decent guy, but the subtle comedic relief of the book.

What does David Colacci bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I loved how he portrayed each character's voice and took great detail to account for the sounds that the voices would make in various rooms (such as a deep basement, or over a walkie talkie)....the attention to detail makes the narration one of the best I've heard.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I really enjoy reading the bits of history and facts that are sprinkled in the plot of the story.

Mindless Fun

When I originally found the Pendergast series, I found them out of order. I read Brimstone and Wheel of Darkness and absolutely loved them. Sure, I didn't know who the characters showing up were, but they were fun and the story was suspenseful/creepy. I always avoided Relic and Reliquary, because I viewed them as the red-headed-step-children of the series. A creature eating people in a museum. Ooooooooooo so spooky *sarcasm*. But they were on sale and I thought why not.

So here it is, the book was a lot of fun. Is the science outlandish? Absolutely! Is everyone incompetent except for our main lead characters? Well of course! Is it dumb fun? You're damn right it is!

The story may seem slow the first 2/3 of the book, but that is because that last third is non-stop action and bloody fun. Don't worry. The first 2/3 are bearable thanks to fun scene stealing characters like D'Agosta and Pendergast. They are a fantastic duo and their relationship in a later book in the series is why I decided to read this series from the beginning.

Don't expect a masterpiece of fiction. Enjoy it for what it is. A fun campy B horror movie with wild characters.

Riveting.

One of the best books ever. Just the right mix of suspense, horror and otherwordlyness that we are used to with these authors. Nattator is no Scott Brick but he's pretty good.

Tedious

For me it had potential, but too many “technical” details. Too slow. Low energy narrators.

Fun Story, Terrible Performance

Having read a bit from the authors I knew what I was getting into. Fun story with good pacing. Bogs a little on the technical breakdowns, especially when compared to a Crichton book. Ending is a bit of a stretch, but that's why it's in the fiction section. Overall I really liked the book, but the narration was so bad and out of sync with the action that I found myself starting to get annoyed. I mean how can someone read so slowly with such big pauses during the main climax of the story with action going on all around the characters. Oh well, still worth the listen