Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #195237 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Released on: 2008-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 512 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312945947
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Golemon's second thriller fails to deliver on the promise of his first, Event (2006), which introduced the exploits of a supersecret U.S. government agency, the Event Group. The author, a former U.S. Army Special Ops member, draws the reader in with an intriguing prologue: in 1534, explorer Francisco Pizarro and his men, in their search for El Dorado, encounter a vicious creature determined to guard the legendary treasure trove; in 1876, at Custer's last stand, Capt. Myles Keogh takes to his death a secret from hundreds of years in the past. In the present day, the intrepid men and women of the Event Group follow the trail of Pizarro's expedition in an effort both to find the lost Incan gold Pizarro was seeking and to rescue the U.S. president's daughter, who has disappeared while on the same quest. A shortage of well-developed characters and plausible scientific speculation, however, makes this a less satisfying adventure than its predecessor. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

From the Back Cover

Customer Reviews

Pleasantly surprising as a fun action/adventure thriller
I recently saw a copy of David Lynn Golemon's first book, and thought it looked good enough to buy...unfortunately I didn't have the $ when I first spotted it. I came back a couple days later and discovered the only copy left at the local bookstore gone. Oh well...but out of nowhere I spotted Legend, which is a direct sequel. While after finishing this I wouldn't say reading the original is necessary, I would say doing so probably will help this experience a lot.

The story takes us from the island of Iwo Jima and digging in a previously unknown tunnel to discover something horribly dangerous and hidden for more than half-a-century after being accidentally discovered during the original Japanese occupation and deliberately re-buried...to the jungles of South America, over to the Vatican in Italy and MANY locations in between...including different times in history. At first I was a bit puzzled at how the author was going to merge these plotlines together, but never fear, he does and he does it--in MY opinion rather creatively.

For those of you who enjoy your action tales to have a healthy dose of the X-Files, some supernatural undertones mixed evenly with a great deal of violence, Legend is a book you probably ought to add to your collection. It requires you to drop your suspension of belief rather quickly -- but then again, what novel that proposes to have an X-Files-like theme doesn't? As for whether or not I enjoyed this book...I am actively searching to buy Event, his first novel if that means anything. If you enjoyed Steve Alten's Domain (a REAL page turner, BTW) this is right up your alley. As long as you aren't looking for absolute realism in your escapist fiction, you can certainly do worse than Legend.

The Next EVENT
Legend starts off fast, just like Event and hooked me right away. Something I enjoyed more in this book than I did in event was the concept in general. In event we had aliens and Roswell, which are overdone (though Golemon handles the subject with originality). In Legend we deal with the story of El Dorado, the gold mine and a little something extra thrown in for good measure. Of course, we also had some cool creatures, which is always welcome. The end of the book was absolutely page turning and I plowed through it late into the night...and then again in the morning.

So...why four stars and not five? Same reason as Event I'm afraid. I found the middle of the book to be a tad slow for my taste. And again, the cast of characters is absolutely massive. I'm catching on to who the main characters are, but this is after two books. So it seemed like an improvement, but I think that simply because it was book 2. I think Golemon's EVENT books are comparable to Rollin's Sigma books, but Jim has a tight cast of characters. EVENT is a huge organization and a lot of people get lost in the mix. When the good guys started dying I was actually very pleased because then I could figure out who was who. And I think I have the main characters squared away now, so the next book should be an easier read.

That said, I AM looking forward to the next one and will pick it up right away. For fans of Rollins, Reilly, Preston/Child....and me :) the EVENT series will be enjoyable reading. Legend is my favorite of the two published. Keep them coming, David!

-- Jeremy Robinson, author of Pulse (A Chess Team Adventure) and Kronos

Golemon's 'Legend', A Tedious Read
David Golemon's book reminds me of a low budget Hollywood suspense thriller released in the motion picture graveyard of February and staring Vin Diesel or 'The Rock'. It's written on an almost juvenile level with very little depth and contains dialog that is often awkward or downright cheesy.

I'm surprised by the positive reviews, as I found the book to be a shallow cookie cutter story line that might make you wonder if IKEA might have suddenly entered the book publishing business.

The story revolves around the mysterious 'Event Group', which is yet another secretive government agency; as if the CIA, FBI, NSA, and Secret Service weren't enough. But the Event Group is apparently more important than its peers, as is treats the other agencies like red-haired step-children compared to itself.

At times, the book is quite tedious to read, as you are well aware of what is going to happen over the next 25-50 pages, but are forced to endure the vanilla action scenes.

Picture stereotypical action hero running through a barrage of bullets, never failing to escape injury, but taking plenty of bad guys down with him, while his enemies can't seem to hit the broadside of a barn, even though they are 'highly trained' military personnel and hold every possible tactical advantage.

As for the characters, Golemon apparently feels character development equates to giving a character a name, a gender and describing their professional background in science, government and military service; though somewhere in story, I do believe I spotted a token black guy.

As such, you could care less about any of the characters and they are little more than a name and a rank.

The story moves along quickly, but it is a pretty horrid plot. Without spoiling the suspense for you (some sarcasm there), let's just say that it is very convenient that some of the worlds most excavated historical sites suddenly turn up large artifacts the week of this story unfolding.

'Hmmm, who knew this treasure chest had anything useful in it. We should have opened it a long time ago.'

I also found several editing issues throughout the book, but without bogging down this review, I'll let them be. Just be aware that a literature masterpiece, this book is not.

All-in-all, I'd be surprised if Golemon could get better than a 'C' in a college creative writing class and I'm surprised he was ever published.

In summary, this novel is almost 'fan fiction' modeled after any number of existing story lines, and Golemon just changed the names and the setting. Ok, it's not quite that generic, but its close.

Unless you're stuck in a situation where you have to buy a book from a grocery store isle to alleviate your boredom, I'd certainly pass on anything written by Golemon. Even if, there has to be something else available. At the very least, read something else again; you'll get very much the same experience but with better writing.