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The Charlemagne Pursuit: A Novel | 
| Author: Steve Berry
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $17.16
You Save: $8.84 (34%)
Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 1108
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0345485793
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345485793
Publication Date: December 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
As a child, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone was told his father died in a submarine disaster in the North Atlantic, but now he wants the full story and asks his ex-boss, Stephanie Nelle, to secure the military files. What he learns stuns him: His father’s sub was a secret nuclear vessel lost on a highly classified mission beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.
But Malone isn’t the only one after the truth.
Twin sisters Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk are fighting for the fortune their mother has promised to whichever of them discovers what really became of their father–who died on the same submarine that Malone’s father captained.
The sisters know something Malone doesn’t: Inspired by strange clues discovered in Charlemagne’s tomb, the Nazis explored Antarctica before the Americans, as long ago as 1938. Now Malone discovers that cryptic journals penned in “the language of heaven,” inscrutable conundrums posed by an ancient historian, and the ill-fated voyage of his father are all tied to a revelation of immense consequence for humankind.
In an effort to ensure that this explosive information never rises to the surface, Langford Ramsey, an ambitious navy admiral, has begun a brutal game of treachery, blackmail, and assassination. As Malone embarks on a dangerous quest with the sisters–one that leads them from an ancient German cathedral to a snowy French citadel to the unforgiving ice of Antarctica–he will finally confront the shocking truth of his father’s death and the distinct possibility of his own.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Suspense, yes; but also new heights of implausibility December 8, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I love a good thriller, and there just aren't enough of them around. So I was thrilled to discover Steve Berry's early novels. I enjoyed the first one or two of his Cotton Malone books as well. But as he has moved from one book to the next, the body count seems to rise, the characterizations have become more stilted, the action choppier, and the plots have tumbled into territory that become laugh-out-loud implausible. (Sure, Berry provides detailed author's notes showing exactly how he develops his plots, and the historical clues that he relies on, but the real test isn't whether he can make a case for it in the author's note, but whether it feels 'natural' to someone reading.)
I would probably have given this book a 3.5 star rating if the system allowed it. But the core plot device -- the quest in Antarctica for a mysterious superior civilization that preceeded the Mayans, the ancient Egyptians, et. al., that had a connection with Charlemagne, and that evil forces (in the person of a manipulative U.S. Admiral, Langord Ramsey) want to keep secret for their own reasons -- is just too strained for four stars.
Nor is the writing good enough to carry the book over the four-star rating threshold. It's choppy, a la James Patterson, with 94 chapters in only 500 pages, a lot of one-sentence paragraphs, and 8-word long sentences. The perspective keeps jumping back and forth between antiquarian book dealer Cotton Malone and his former intelligence boss, Stephanie Nelle. Each time a gun fires in one location, the action immediately jumps back to the other protagonist. These are all tools that all suspense writers employ, but again, they work best when the reader doesn't realize that they are being used at all. The only times where the reader can really settle into the action are those during which Berry's protagonists settle down to some serious exposition. "Early Sumerian texts... talk repeatedly of tall, god-like people who lived among them," says one professor (the target of an assassin hired by the evil admiral).
Sometimes, less is more in a good thriller. Cramming Charlemagne, the Nazis, a vanished experimental submarine, a quest for a mysterious lost civilization, a competition between two twin sisters for the truth behind their father's death (he and hero Cotton Malone's father died in the same submarine accident) and the homicidal admiral in a single book left me limp with exhaustion. I was so distracted that I kept having to page back to remind myself of some fact or plot twist. I even lost track of the body count (which is pretty substantial.)
Berry, early in his writing, focused on more plausible but still exotic quests: for the Amber Room, for the great library of Alexandria, the secrets of the Templars. In his last outing, the quest was for a magical spring that could cure HIV/AIDs, and the evil character was a female dictator of a central Asian nation. Don't ask me to swallow too many implausible plot/character twists in a single book...
All this said... I have still given the book three stars because Berry has a knack for what makes a good thriller. When Malone finally heads off to Antarctica, you can't close the book up. You want to know how all the pieces link together. And it's a good enough yarn to keep you occupied on a long plane ride, or when there's nothing you want to watch on television. So it fills a certain niche -- the kind of book you can pick up, read and then forget about. But only a Steve Berry devotee should be ready to pay the full cover price.
A final note about the final pages (I don't view it as a spoiler because it has nothing to do with the main plot); to my mind, it's kind of tacky to start the next book (which will probably not come out for another year) in the closing pages of the current one by having your hero creep out, Beretta in hand, to investigate a possible intruder. Since when did the TV cliffhanger phenomenon show up in books??
This one is an out-of-the-park homer December 5, 2008
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Steve Berry does it all right in The Charlemagne Pursuit. He starts right, in the pulse-pounding submarine accident that triggers the action in the book; he ends right, with late-night antics about to begin; he keeps his story moving at a fast clip in between, with love, murder, betrayal, revenge, more betrayal, hate, then love again.
It's a pleasure to give yourself over to a plot-driven thrill ride of a book at least four or five times a year. I couldn't make a diet of them myself, because they take so much out of me. At least the good ones do, and this is very much a good one. Cotton Malone, our main character, is a man with a bitter past: A lost father, a failed marriage, a career he sacrificed what he now knows is too much to keep. His emotional landscape is a frozen tundra, or so he wants to believe, and he works hard to sustain that fantasy for more than half this book. Why, then, is it such a pleasure to read his adventures? Because Cotton Malone's chill is real, ladies and gents; because we're clued in to his brokenness and not required to experience it with him as it happens, but asked to believe it happened as it's told, most current readers and reviewers seem to be dismissive of the character's reality.
This is puzzling. Cotton Malone develops as a rounded and complex character during the course of this novel. The knock on thrillers is that the characters are simply cut-outs that move through the paces the author has designed for your entertainment, and I have certainly read my share of thrillers that fit this description. The Charlemagne Pursuit is not one of them, and neither was The Venetian Betrayal. Steve Berry writes a whacking good story, and he tells it through the actions of well-drawn characters. His villains are motivated by things that make sense in their world, his heroes are likewise people whose reasons to do what they're doing are consistent with the story we're told about them; if readers are not satisfied by the author's technique, I suggest that the fault could easily be said to reside in them, not in Mr. Berry's writing.
This is a very satisfying read, and Cotton Malone makes my list of people I'm glad I met in 2008.
 Non-stop action September 21, 2008
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
In this fourth novel featuring the one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, Cotton Malone, Cotton sets out to discover the full story behind his father's death thirty-eight years ago. Cashing in a favor with his ex-boss Stephanie Nelle, Cotton learns a shocking the shocking secret that the Navy covered up. His father died in a top-secret submarine mission beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.
Within minutes of receiving the highly classified file Cotton finds himself in danger. In order to save himself and learn the truth behind the cover-up he teams up with twin sisters Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk whose father also died on the submarine. Filled with unease about working with the twins Cotton cautiously embarks on a perilous journey by solving clues left in a diary found in Charlemagne's tomb.
Filled with non-stop action, The Charlemagne Pursuit kept me on the edge of my seat the entire book. Berry threw curve balls left and right that kept me second guessing who was a good guy and who was just plain up to no good. I actually cried at the end and even though the book is 528 pages I wished it would have gone on for 500 more. Having read all three of the previous Cotton Malone books I can honestly say that this book is the best one yet but if you've haven't read the previous three this one does stand alone. I HIGHLY recommend this book to all thriller and suspense lovers.
last two books excellent December 9, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've read all his books in the last two months. Each gets better, but Venetian Betrayal and Charlemagne Pursuit are a step above the rest. I can't wait for the next books.
Another Berry History Mystery December 20, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Another Berry History Mystery
The Charlemagne Pursuit is one of Mr. Steve Berry's better efforts. Mixing New Age mysticism with historical revisionism, Mr. Berry explores the possibilities of ancient civilizations that could have once roamed the earth. Expanding on this theme he postulates through his characters that ancient knowledge was passed to great leaders like Charlemagne. Further mixing current political intrigue with plot character familial mysteries, Mr. Berry develops both an entertaining story and an educational experience in New Age history. All in all a good effort and generally a fun read if a little turgid in places.
Basically, the story revolves around a lost American classified submarine while on a secret missions to search for an ancient civilization of "Enlightened Ones" know as the "Watchers". The submarine, captained by Cotton Malone's father, disappears under strange circumstances and for over 35 the mystery linger carefully hidden by the Navy. Enter a whole host of characters who are in some way tied to the lost submarine mystery and voila you have got your typical Steve Berry pot boiler.
I liked this Berry novel over his previous efforts because there was more story development and less over-the-top action. He does do his homework and it shows. All in all it was a fun read that just could excite one's curiosity to do a little more investigation on our ancient past.
No gratuitous violence, sex or language: A+ in that department.
Character development was a continuation of previous Cotton Malone novels, Newly introduced characters developed haphazardly and tended to be superficial.
Recommended as a library hardback. Wait to buy the paperback. Good read for that long wait in the airport terminal for your delayed flight. It will be very interesting to see what History Mystery Steve Berry tackles next.
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