Lost Goddess

By: Tom Knox

Narrated by: Christopher Evan Welch

From acclaimed author Tom Knox, the international best-selling author of The Genesis Secret, comes this gripping tale - an exciting blend of adventure, horror, mystery, and suspense. In France, archaeologist Julia Kerrigan makes a chilling discovery - an ancient skull with a hole bored through the forehead. Soon after, her mentor is killed. In Southeast Asia, a similar find draws photographer Jake Thurby to Laos. Julia and Jake want answers, but powerful forces are stalking their every move, willing to do anything to keep these discoveries a secret.

©2011 Tom Knox TK (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

I was pleasantly surprised!!!

I was geared towards this book when I finished another book and though it sounded interesting. I was very surprised at how much I actually loved it. This is not a book I would generally pick, so this was a nice change for me. Although a book of fiction, there are "pieces" of history in the book. The book was fast paced and kept me guessing all the way to the end. The narrator is AMAZING! OMGosh Narrator of the year my gosh!!! What amazing voices you did! From an english accent (very well done) to Mong, AMAZING!!!!!

Disappointing Story Despite Good Narration

This looked like it would be an intriguing story with some scientific and thriller elements, but it was mostly a disappointment. The story unevenly moves back and forth between events in France and Southeast Asia -- usually just as the story is getting interesting in one place or the other. But over time, it seems harder and harder to care about the main characters, and the narrative moves so s-l-o-w-l-y for what is supposed to be a thriller that it eventually becomes more boring than anything else. It became harder and harder to care about the characters, and the "startling revelations" at the end are practically telegraphed almost from page one . . . kind of a thrill-less thriller, really.

The story also used some contrived means of getting the characters to go from place to place, usually because it appeared that the author needed to move them around in service of the plot -- the "deus ex machina" quotient was fairly high. The author likewise had an unfortunate tendency to repeat certain passages and references over and over and over . . . if I'd heard the term "smoke baby" one more time, I was ready to scream. The novel also has a fairly high "ick" factor, with several characters having to consume disgusting food from time to time, which, along with some gruesome passages, don't exactly make you want to keep listening.

The one bright spot was narrator Christopher Evan Welch -- despite apparently being an American himself (at least, that was the accent used for most of the book), he moved effortlessly between American and British accents and made the latter (the nationality of one of the main characters) sound authentic. He was also able to make each character sound different from one another, including the females, so that it was easy to tell them apart. It's a shame that these efforts were in service of a story that wasn't particularly worth the journey.

Pointless violence (including gratuitous rapes)

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

Remove most of the gore and flesh out the story more.

Has Lost Goddess turned you off from other books in this genre?

YES!

What didn’t you like about Christopher Evan Welch’s performance?

His accents are intermittent. The English character had an accent some of the time, but even when it was there, it wasn't authentic)

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The "history or guilt" story line could have been good, but it was left half explained.

Any additional comments?

This book is a violent downer. Skip it.