Artifact

In a world where we are constantly told to lower our expectations and accept the "vanilla" that our world is trying to become, it is an absolutely OUTSTANDING moment when well crafted, brilliantly executed adventure returns to our lives. ARTIFACT is that rare book, written by WRITERS (as opposed to creative typists) that engages, challenges, and entertains us at the maximum level possible. Consistently interesting, it is a novel you want to keep reading, and will become your constant companion at lunch, on trains, planes, and in every spare moment! REALLY FIRST RATE!!!

After reading some of the reviews here, I think we must not be reading the same book. I agree with the quote from Clive Cussler on the book's jacket, "A page-turner with enough spellbinding intrigue to last until the authors' next tale." The story was fast; the characters and settings werefascinating. The authors hooked me and didn't let me go until the end. I don't know what more someone could look for in a thriller.

There are certain things I demand of my summer reading. I want it to take me places I haven't been before, introduce me to characters whose adventures I want to hear more of, and, last but not least, blow stuff up real good.Artifact does all this, and then some. Written by four excellent authors, it has the distinct feel of something that they all enjoyed writing. It's that kind of fast-paced fun, complete with a tough heroine, exotic locales, and an impromptu course in what to do if you get too close to a shark while scuba diving for pieces of an alien gizmo. (Hey, you never know)Artifact doesn't have a traditional slam-bang ending, which might confuse folks who are looking for something a little more Spielbergian, but the ending it does have satisfies and makes more character sense than any special effects extravaganza would have. That being said, there's still plenty of room for a sequel, and I definitely wouldn't mind learning what the Daredevil's Club does next.

Off the Venezuelan coast, local workers of Oilstar Drilling bore through an underwater ceiling leading to a cavern. They bring up four stones that seem not of this earth. CEO Frik Van Alman understands the ramifications of the finding once his lab concludes that the connecting of the stones along with a fifth one generates energy that will end oil dependency.Lab chief Paul Trujold worries that the avaricious Frik will do something harmful so he sends the stones to people he trusts like his daughter Selene, the leader of an ecological group protesting Oilstar's drilling that is destroying the ecosystem of Dragon's Mouth Channel. Frik is badly burned and Paul dies in a lab fire before the CEO learns what happened to the stones. Frantic to regain the missing stones and to find the fifth one, Frik secures the help of his thrill-seeking comrades of the Daredevils Club. Off of Venezuela, the risk-takers begin the adventure of a lifetime.ARTIFACT is a fast-paced, action thriller that never slows down as the story line moves faster than the speed of light. Frik is an interesting character with flaws that endanger the members of the Daredevils Club, who overall are heroic, but if readers want a deep character study they need to look elsewhere. Instead the writing quartet of Kevin J. Anderson, Janet Berliner, F. Paul Wilson, and Matthew Costello provides a one sitting, on the edge of your seat tale with critical alien elements but more a fabulous action thriller than a science fiction story.Harriet Klausner

This book is a lot of fun. Great characters involved in exciting adventures, with lots of twists and turns.The book opens with an introduction to the first adventure that leads to the creation of the Daredevils Club, as two of the three founding members, Fredrick "Frikkie" Van Alman and Ray Arno, and a young woman named Peta Whyte rescue the third member, Peta's mentor Arthur Marryshow, from a prison on Communist-controlled Grenada. Skipping forward seventeen years, the story picks up as oilman Frikkie's exploratory rig pulls up four strange objects from beneath the sea floor in the Dragon's Mouth, the narrow waterway between Venezuela and Trinidad. Those four stones, along with a fifth piece left underwater, may provide unlimited energy, a prospect that scares Frikkie who makes his millions selling fossil fuels.What follows is part treasure hunt and part mystery as the characters try to put together the artifact, without getting killed themselves.I can hardly wait until these four write another Daredevils Club book.