This is the last of the post-Last Crusade original Indiana Jones novels, Max McCoy’s fourth.
I’m a little sad about that too.
Rob MacGregor, Martin Caidin, and Max McCoy each did a great job of expanding the franchise, capturing the best of what it had to offer.
Buckle up, cause I’m sure this topic is gonna come up again in just a bit too.
But how will things shake out for McCoy’s swan song?
Grab your hat and whip, gang, it’s time to dig up an answer.
This is your official ***SPOILER ALERT***, gang, 24 years in the making.
Beginning in China, 1934, heading through Iraq, and culminating in Egypt, Indy and new friends Faye and Mystery Maskelyne, a mother-daughter duo of stage magicans, go on a trek looking for a book that contains the entirety of every soul that will ever live, called the Omega Book.
Along the way, the stumble across the Staff Of Aaron, a manufacturer of fake mummies, Japanese agents, an Indian magican/alchemist, and the stunning truth about Faye’s husband/Mystery’s dad.
There have been moments during his tenure as Captain of the good ship Jones that didn’t feel so much like high adventure serials or archeological journeys, but more like low adventure mysteries.
This book seems to take all that McCoy has learned and blended it together to give us a good rollercoaster ride that feels like all of the above.
Juggling planes shooting ships to the watery depths with trudging through deserts to small tribal villages, it feels like McCoy is writing an Indy adventure that feels more historical than fiction.
One of my favorite things about both the Martin Caidin & Max McCoy novels is the afterword that breaks down various objects and themes present in the books, giving historical context and cites some books and further reading they used to do their research for each novel.
This one features 15 pages that looks at the long history of magic and those for and against it, the Staff Of Aaron and the mythology surrounding it, the Omega book and all that inspired him to create it, and finally the history of Sphinxes in Greek and Egyptian mythology.
It’s fascinating to see how he takes these disparate themes and concepts and rolls them into one coherent story that flows together naturally.
McCoy has a damn good grasp on the character of Indy, he understands this world just as well as Lucas, Spielberg, and MacGregor do.
He writes the character well and utilizes his education and profession to the height of his intelligence, though he’s not obnoxiously smarter than everybody.
McCoy let’s Indy learn some shit along the way, making the professor a career student.
The only problem I have is a slight continuity issue.
This novel takes place in 1934, Temple Of Doom takes place in 1935.
I would have liked to have seen some hint of Short Round.
As odd as that relationship was, it seems even odder to me that, seemingly, they meet, have one adventure in less than a year, and then Shorty is never seen or heard from again.
This felt like the perfect opportunity to set all of that up.
To wrap up, I am sad to be at the end of the Indy novel line.
McCoy’s sign-off at the end of his afterword was hopeful that he wouldn’t be the final steward of the hat and whip, that more Indy novels would follow, and sadly he was.
Yes, Steve Perry did one more original novel a decade later, but this was the end for this series.
I have said this many times on this site and on the pod, it’s a goddamn shame that 1. the state of publishing is so piss poor that more seem unlikely and 2. that Disney, seemingly, has absolutely no interest in expanding Indy beyond Dial Of Destiny.
I have believed, and always will, that, good, bad, or indifferent, the character and franchise of Indiana Jones is perfectly ripe for the picking in quick, pulpy, action/adventure novels and comics.
Don’t believe me?
Find a copy of this or any of the previous 11 and prepare to be gleefully proven wrong time and again.
See ya around, Jonesy.
Let us know what you think of this review in the comments below or share this post on Twitter with the Hashtag #TNBBookReview, or tweet with us @NerdBlitzPod.
Check out our first foray into publishing with our original short story collection, The Camping Trip And Other Stories!
Hungry for more of that great Nerd Blitz content, head over to Patreon.com/NerdBlitzPod and join at the $5 level to get instant access to numerous Podcasts, Reviews, Audio Dramas, and so much more!
And finally, given the state of the world, do what you can to leave it a little bit better than you found it.
As difficult as that may be currently, it can have an impact far greater than you know.
Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.
