In the Courts of the Sun

By: Brian D'Amato

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 27 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

December 21, 2012. The day time stops. Jed DeLanda, a descendant of the Maya living in the year 2012, is a math prodigy who spends his time playing Go against his computer and raking in profits from online trading. His secret weapon? A Mayan divination game---once used for predicting corn-harvest cycles, now proving very useful in predicting corn futures---that his mother taught him. But Jed's life is thrown into chaos when his former mentor, the game theorist Taro, and a mysterious woman named Marena Park invite him to give his opinion on a newly discovered Mayan codex. Marena and Taro are looking for a volunteer to travel back to 664 AD to learn more about a "sacrifice game" described in the codex. Jed leaps at the chance, and soon scientists are replicating his brain waves and sending them through a wormhole, straight into the mind of a Mayan king. Only something goes wrong. Instead of becoming a king, Jed arrives inside a ballplayer named Chacal who is seconds away from throwing himself down the temple steps as a human sacrifice. If Jed can live through the next few minutes, he might just save the world.

©2009 Brain D'Amato (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A remarkable, unique, stand-out book.... In a word: awesome. Or brilliant. Make that two words: awesome and brilliant." (Raymond Khoury, author of The Last Templar and The Sanctuary)

Would make a great movie.

The best thing about this audio book is Robertson Dean's narration. Without a doubt, Dean is the only reason I actually finished the book. The excessive description and details are informative, but they really get in the way of moving the story along. With a quicker pace and a better ending, this would probably make a pretty good scifi movie. The science is a stretch but there are some really fantastic parts in this book. I never like to read or listen to abridged versions of books, so I would strongly suggest better editing for D'Amato's next project. I'm glad that I listened to the book, but it was rough getting to the end. If you liked the main science premise of this book, you'd probably like the audio book "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly, which by the way is only about an hour long.

Unique and well constructed

There are some parts that are long and seem to have a bit more detail than necessary but its constant with the main character nature and, as he's the also narrator it fits very well and I found it enjoyable. The time travel scenario was unique and I enjoyed the authors take on the Maya game, the game in general. It's probably not for everyone but it kept interested and entertained. The book is better than the sample, so if you like the sample, you'll probably like the book. If you don't like the sample, I wouldn't recommend it.

Fantastic stream of consciousness

Where does In the Courts of the Sun rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I listen to many audiobooks a year (20-40 average), and this is definitely in my top 20 ever listened to.

What was one of the most memorable moments of In the Courts of the Sun?

The author paints a fantastic picture and brings you into the world of Jed. The narrator does a fantastic job portraying the main character as one with aspergers.

Which character – as performed by Robertson Dean – was your favorite?

Definitely Jed. Mr. Dean really brought him to life for me. Definitely NOT one-dimensional!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

absolutely! Unfortunately, due to the length of the book this wasn't viable.

Truth be told in blurred lines

Great exploration of modern horrors and ancient terrors. Glad for the factual insight imbedded is this romp to 2012. So much has been done in the name of freedom America to support the crushing of freedom outside our borders thats its sick. I worked for the ranking republican of the armed services back in 1972 (oh yea watergate time) and it is not un-American to shed the light of day on the mischief preformed by our government to support big monied special interest in the Americas. Dictators have been installed with our help in many locals who then crush their opponents and the indigenous peoples. It is not anti american to believe that uncovering past errors can protect us from repeating these errors again and again. The rise of socialist demagogues can be easily traced to USA interference Bolivia and Venezuela to name just two.
But back to this book its a broad brush of entanglements that look into the hidden world of ancient peoples and ideas.

Confused time line and story stream

I round the narrator to be quite good in this book especially with the pronunciation of the various languages. I found however that the story line confused the hell outta me and I was often not sure where it was going. For me the author never really described the "divination" or "sacrifice" game in a way that i had any more than a vague understanding of how it worked/looked or was even played.

The pace of the book was very slow once you got past chapter 1. I liked how it opened and was really disappointed with how long it took to get back to the opening action. The author seemed to use alot of obscure words for describing things and for me it really confused the whole story which I think could have been quite brilliant given its subject. I suffered through the audible and was faintly entertained but I've listened to much better.

Not for everyone

Interesting premise. Excellent narration. If you can get past the left wing paranoia reminiscent of 9-11 "truthers" and the nihilism, you will enjoy the story at least in part. Overall, unless unrelenting pessimism, a very dim view of human nature, and a belief in the pointlessness of human civilization (Mayan and modern)are your cup of tea, skip this one. If graphic violence and torture bothers you, I would also skip it. You can sum up hours of listening as -- "life is pain, so what's the point?"

Interesting but bleak

The narrator did a great job.
The story held my interest and provided a fascinating view of Maya culture. I got a real kick out of who the perpetrators of the Orland event turned out to be.
The cynicism was off-putting and the ending was cut-off and disappointing. Very bleak view of the world at the end.
In all I'm glad I listened to it and I'll just forget the last 15 minutes.

Great Concept... Poor Execution

What would have made In the Courts of the Sun better?

The concept for the story was amazing, but I could not get past the writing style. It sounded like a whiny teenager at times. Oh Em Gee, Totes, etc. really got on my nerves. I'm used to reading authors such as Clancy, Rollins, and many other greats and this just did not measure up. It is almost as if it is geared toward a young audience (I'm 42).

What did you like best about this story?

The story was an amazing concept and I really wanted to enjoy the book more than I did. I just could not get past his writing style. Robertson Dean's performance made it tolerable so I did listen to the end, but I will not purchase the second book.

In The Courts of the Sun

Way too long, Should have gotten to the point quicker.

..he hates America...

Save your credits. The book is chock full of little snide hateful comments about mormans, christians, americans, Bush, Reagan and anything vaguely conservative. It's a real shame, because the comments aren't even part of the story...they're just added on for hates sake. It's like the author wrote an entertaining book, decided he wanted Michael Moore to like it, and so vomitted up a bunch of venom towards conservatives and stuck it in every few pages. The rude comments are so extraneous that they drag the listener out of the story every few minutes. A cowardly attempt to get the liberal media to give his book a good review. If you are part of the "hate america first" crowd you will probably like the unnecessary obnoxious asides. Everyone else will think they ruin the listening experience.