Map of Bones

Map of Bones by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OOOh!! If I can finish reading this book, I can finish almost about any book!! When I started, I least believed I would get this far. Now, this is what is called a feat :)

Thought of abandoning it at 5%, then convinced myself that I had liked Sandstorm (which I read at least 9 years back), so,

in one last effort, I continued reading the book. I am finally through after several unsuccessful attempts to abandon it.

Well, I am not sure if there was anything interesting or original about the plot of the book.Everything I read made me feel, "Oh, I've definitely read a similar plot in some Dan Brown". The plot was not a thriller - but towards the end it was barbaric and brutal. It certainly did not send my blood racing. In most of the places, I did not even understand what they were searching for, or what was going on. The Dragon Court / The Guild wants to kill them, but almost never kills them.They are able to kill an entire church packed with people, but unable to handle five humans! Pathetic.

There is too much emphasis laid on Rachel's safety (as if she were a toddler), simply because she is Vigor's niece. I would have liked it better if she had been treated as a member of the team.

Every time Rachel with-holds information, Raoul knows it! How convenient. If he knows she was lying, why can't he deduce things himself?? And he always keeps someone handy to torture so that she will tell the truth!

Rachel's character starts off as a very confident one, but once its intermingled with Gray's, it becomes the most insecure of all characters, always wanting to cling onto him for nothing at all..

The topping to the pizza include Superconductivity, Meissner Field, levitation, magnetism and powdered Gold, Alchemy and Light.

However, some interesting take aways from the book are here:

1. Saint Thomas, was killed in Madras (Chennai, India), and is buried in St. Thomas Church here in Santhome, Chennai

I am from Chennai. I know that the name of the locality Santhome - comes from Saint Thomas in Portugese. There is also a locality called St. Thomas Mount - quite in the heart of the city. But only now did I know that this is where he died

2. Well, I didn't know that Jews existed in India even before Thomas came.

On further research I found that the Jews in India (Kerala), were mostly Portuguese Traders, who had either settled or intermingled with the Indian locals.
That brings up an interesting question: In what language did Thomas preach? Did he learn Malayalam or Tamil? or did he preach in Portuguese or Hebrew, and use an interpreter/ translator? Or Did he come to India at all or is this just a build-up? We, in India, have lived with Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Parsis and Jains, and many more (violence happening only in the case of extreme fanticism). I don't understand why someone would want to kill Thomas, unless he did something fanatic or forceful.

Assuming that Thomas did come to India, and founded the Syrian Christianity / Thomas Christianity, it is noteworthy to mention, that the religion has survived in India, unlike its persecution in Europe and Mediterranean.


3. The word Thomas means 'Twins'

4. The Catholic Papacy was not always in Vatican City. It had been in Avignon (France) for over a century.

5. Cleopatra's palace had been lost in an earthquake/ tsunami, and it was excavated recently off the coast of Alexandria.

6. Cleopatra was the last ruler of Egypt following the line of Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, which took over ruling Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great. He who died at the age of 33.

7. The mortal remains of Alexander the Great have not been located, and is a matter of immense speculation even today among archaeologists.

8.'Bucephalus' was Alexander's favorite horse.

8. st. Peter is interred in Vatican City

The plot started off in search of the lost bones of the Magi, and ended up in searching for the lost Templar Treasure. After all this reading, I don't exactly recollect if they retrieved the bones.

On the whole, an interesting read, and I am glad I was able to hit 100%


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