The Emperor's Tomb

De: Steve Berry

Narrado por: Scott Brick

The tomb of China’s First Emperor, guarded by an underground army of terra-cotta warriors, has remained sealed for more than 2,000 years. Though it’s regarded as one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world, the Chinese government won’t allow anyone to open it. Why? That question is at the heart of a dilemma faced by former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone, whose life is shattered when he receives an anonymous note carrying an unfamiliar Web address. Logging on, he sees Cassiopeia Vitt, a woman who’s saved his life more than once, being tortured at the hands of a mysterious man who has a single demand: Bring me the artifact she’s asked you to keep safe. The only problem is, Malone doesn’t have a clue what the man is talking about, since Cassiopeia has left nothing with him. So begins Malone’s most harrowing adventure to date—one that offers up astounding historical revelations, pits him against a ruthless ancient brotherhood, and sends him from Denmark to Belgium to Vietnam then on to China, a vast and mysterious land where danger lurks at every turn.

©2010 Scott Berry (P)2010 Random House Audio

Boring.

Not his best work. Slow and hard to follow. Too confusing at times and easy to lose interest. Probably won't read another Cotton Malone book. All are too similar.

one long chase scene

Could not wait for the book to end, found the facts about chinese history very interesting,but the action became very boring.

obtuse story - very unbelievable

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I usually love Cotton Malone stories but this was awful. the story was very repetitive and so far out there that it was laughable.

What could Steve Berry have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

a more believable story line and not nearly so much repetition.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

Scott Brick was fantastic as always

Disappointing

I have not read/listened to much that is called "Thrillers". But I did enjoy a few this summer and thought that I might give some more a try. This book never caught me. There was just too much action and not enough character development. Maybe this is some people's cup of tea, but for a person new to this kind of fiction, it was a real disappointment.

Below average Berry Story

This is another Cotton Malone story involving ancient artifacts as keys to modern day political intrigue. This book is centered around China back to the time of the first emperor.Qin Shi and how artifracts are key to the succession to the leadership of China. As usual, Berry provides interesting historical facts about ancient China as well as the contributions of the Chinese to the world, the compass, printing, the zero, the compass, the stirrup, the abacus, the seismograph, the rudder, the parachute, and masts and sails to name just a few.

Cotton Malone is a former government agent turned bookseller. He and his companion Cassiopeia Vitt get involved in the battle for succession that takes from Europe to the tomb of the first emperor. However, the story is beyond belief, even for this genre. The story has the candidates for being the new China premiere travelling the world themselves and participating in break ins, thefts, shooting, murder, using government assets to kill civitilians etc...I love these political mysteries because I can suspend belief to get drawn tinto the story - but this story goes way too far...at thend there are a lot of dead people in Europe and Asia and it's hard to figure out how anyone explains any of it...

The other annoying feature was that most of the main characters were chinese, but there were few times that any of them spoke chinese...or at least it was not clear to me. Also, the narrator indicated he was speaking chinese (or english with a chinese accent?) but speaking slowly and haltingly...you may take offense at this characterization if you are asian...

I almost liked it

This title has a few things going for it - reasonably good plot, and EXCELLENT villains. However, the protagonists, all two or three of them, are both boring and implausible. I soldiered on as long as I could, bolstered by long views of the bad guys' side, but I finally had to remind myself that I would only waste a few dollars by forgetting the story and turning to some other book.

I generally like Scott Brick as a reader, but this wasn't the kind of script that was good for him, even if the script was any darn good.

Couldn't finish listening

I typically love listening to Scott Brick, but between his overplay of the lines and the story that I just couldn't get interested in, I was bored to tears. I listened for about 4 hours and then decided I wasn't going to waste my time trying to get invested.

Yawn...

I see that everyone seems to like this narrator. I think he is terrible. I will admit, I love when each character has his/her own voice. When the book first starts, the narrator does not "do voices" and it is somewhat difficult to follow who is saying what with his slightly irritating inflections, usually at the ends of sentences. When a Russian character enters the scene, all of a sudden this character has a flawless Russian accent (and I mean PERFECT!). And then the narrator starts giving distinctive voices to the rest of the characters. However, these voices are sketchy and inconsistant throughout the rest of the story (except the Russian). The main character has an American southern accent. I think.
At times, he uses the same "voice" for several Chinese characters. This voice is the slow, deliberate voice of an elderly Chinese man - seems believable. But when this character has a long monologue, the narrator speeds up the reading and the effect is lost.
This is my first exposure to Steve Berry, which is unfortunate because I think I might enjoy his books. There is a lot of history, but I am not sure it is only for buffs. I am not a history buff, but I did find it interesting -- although I also did a lot of rewinding...
Its an ok audio book as far as that goes, but definitely don't pay full price for it!

Waste of time and money

I purchased this audio book on sale.....and now I know why it was on sale. The narration was so bad, it was nearly impossible to differentiate between characters. The attempt at Chinese accents hurt my ears it was so bad. Don't waste your time or money on this one.

Chinese Garbage Disposal Unit

Any additional comments?

This was my first Steven Berry "adventure". While I appreciated the voluminous tidbits about Chinese history like Mao's failed embalming and his communist inspired genocide, the actual plot line was terrible and characters laughable. The torture scenes were unnecessary. Scott Brick reads well as always, but even he cannot save this monstrosity. Awful!