Ararat
By Christopher Golden
What a good suspense story of evil and natural elements. An earthquake opens up part of the mountain and climbers are eager to explore it before anyone else. What they find is exciting and the young couple gets to be head of the exploration team, including Turkish guards, and an science team that included Ben Walker. Ben is really with DARPA.
They battle weather, each other, and the feeling of dread that fills the cavern. What they find should have been let alone.
Good and slightly spooky. Had me guessing. ( )

I was really bummed when I was not once, but twice declined for this book on NetGalley. So, when the book was released did I actually buy it, despite the fact that I seldom buy new books. But, just luck at the cover, it's fabulous and the blurb really intrigued me. I couldn't wait to read the book.

Perhaps I did have too high expectations because the book didn't really rock my boat. Sure, it was interesting to read, but it was never intense or terrifying, not even a bit chilling to read. It was ... OK. I just thought the story would be better. But, looking back can I see one big problem with the book and that's that the characters never came to life for me. They weren't fleshed out enough to make me care for them. I wanted to care for Meryam and Adam and the rest, but even when things started to go out of hand on Ararat, and people started to get killed off did I not really find the story intense because they were just names and let's face it, of course, the less important people would get killed off first before the more important ones were at risk. As usual. Yeah, I'm a grumpy horror fan. But, I like my horror books to be surprising and terrifying, not following a formula. Even then ending felt predictable.

The book was not all bad, I liked the beginning best when everything was still unknown and the ship hadn't been found and the things that happened after that. And I was curious to see how it all would end. But, for being a very short book did I feel like it took me ages to get through it.

So Ararat, didn't turn out to be as fantastic as I had hoped it would be. I liked the idea more than the result and I wished the characters had been more fleshed out. ( )

I enjoyed most of this book.

The concept grabbed the hell out of me. Noah's Ark is finally uncovered, not on Mount Ararat, but in it. And there's something else the came along for the ride.

So far, so good. For the most part, the characters were fun and engaging, if all very serious, and a couple of them interchangeable (despite their obvious differences, I couldn't keep Walker and Adam separated in my mind).

But where it lost the plot for me was when it turned into a generic slasher story toward the end. I don't know, it just seemed dumb to me that a being of unspeakable evil just inhabits bodies to either kill or be killed. Meh. At least give us a reason for all the hack and slash. Especially considering its main goal is to get off the mountain. Why try and kill all the vessels that could accomplish that aim for you?

And I know a couple of you have said, "That ending!" But honestly, as soon as a specific plot point was brought up with a specific character, I knew that ending was coming. I was almost disappointed when it played out precisely as I expected.

So, five stars for the first three-quarters of the book, and two for the last bit. ( )

Not nearly as good as I had hoped, but not as bad as I thought it would be as I struggled to get to the halfway point of the book.
The premise is fine and the subject matter interesting, it's just that the characters are not especially likable or memorable. In addition, the plot and protagonist are both too fantastic to make me want to rate this more than 3 stars or give it anything beyond a lukewarm recommendation.
I'll probably not be continuing with the series. ( )

An earthquake and subsequent avalanche reveals an age-old secret on Mount Ararat. The timbers and hulking remains of a ship encased in ice. Scientists, historians and others rush immediately to Turkey. They all want to be the first to explore and document what might be Noah's Ark. Adam Holzer and his fiance Meryam pull strings to get exclusive access to the discovery. They climb the mountain with a group including guides, a priest, turkish officials, a UN rep, scientists and historians. As they investigate the timbers of the ancient ship, they discover a coffin that encloses horrific misshapen remains. The terror that ensues will be of Biblical proportions.

The tension and horror of this story builds at a steady pace. There is enough action, suspense and surprises to keep a reader's attention from start to finish. I was engrossed in the story right from the beginning. It's easy to understand why Adam and Meryam are so excited to jump right on this discovery. I don't know of any explorer or scientist who wouldn't want to explore the remains of Noah's Ark. And, through this story, it was so intense to experience their slow realization of just what horror they had uncovered. Not to mention the fact that they are all trapped at the top of Mount Ararat during an intense storm. The ending of the story caught me by surprise. A perfect ending for a horror-filled tale.

Christopher Golden is the author of many books including Snowblind, and The Gatekeeper Trilogy. For more information on the author and his books check out his website http://www.christophergolden.com/ ( )