Dedicated to Warped Space, the guys who have been there from the very beginning... and still help me look my best
The Bone Labyrinth
© 2015 by James Czajkowski
© Saksin S.M., translation into Russian, 2015
© Edition in Russian, designed by Publishing House “E” LLC, 2016
Words of gratitude
So many people have left their mark on this book! I am grateful to them for their help, criticism and support. First of all, I want to thank my first readers, first editors and my best friends Sally Anna Barnes, Chris Crow, Lee Garrett, Jay O'Reeve, Denny Grayson, Leonard Little, Scott Smith, Judy Pray, Caroline Williams, Christian Riley, Todd Todd , Chris Smith and Amy Rogers. And as always, special thanks to Steve Pray for the wonderful maps... and Cherey McCarter for all the cool stuff that keeps coming to my email! Thank you to David Sylvian for doing anything and everything that was asked of him, helping to keep me moving forward in the digital world! Thank you to everyone at Harper Collins for always supporting me, especially Michael Morrison, Layet Stehlik, Danielle Bartlett, Caitlin Kennedy, Josh Marvell, Lynne Grady, Richard Aquan, Tom Egner, Sean Nichols and Anna Marie Allessi. Finally, special thanks to those who provided invaluable assistance throughout the process: my editor Lissa Keisch and her colleague Rebecca Lukash, my agents Russ Galen and Danny Baror (and his daughter Heather Baror). And, as always, I must emphasize that every last error of fact and detail, of which I hope there are not too many, is entirely my fault.
Historical Notes
Two real historical figures play an important role in this book: two priests, one of whom lived several centuries before the other, but their fates were connected.
In the 17th century, Father Athanasius Kircher was called the Leonardo da Vinci of the Jesuit order. Like the great Florentine, this priest excelled in many fields of science and technology. He studied medicine, geology and Egyptology, and also built complex automata, including magnetic clocks (a working model of which can be seen in the Green Library at Stanford University). The influence of this Renaissance man has been felt for many centuries. Descartes and Newton, Jules Verne and Edgar Poe were familiar with his works.
The life of another priest is no less interesting.
Father Carlos Crespi was born several centuries later, in 1891. Inspired by the works of Kircher, Crespi himself became a well-rounded person. He was interested in botany, anthropology, history and music. Crespi founded a mission in a small town in Ecuador, where he worked for fifty years. It was there that a large collection of ancient gold objects came into his hands, brought by an Indian from the Shuar tribe living in those places. The treasure was rumored to be located in a cave system beneath South America that supposedly contained a lost library of ancient metal plates and crystal books. The golden objects were covered with strange images and incomprehensible hieroglyphs.
Some archaeologists considered these objects to be fakes, while others believed the priest's story about their origin. One way or another, in 1962, a fire that broke out for unknown reasons destroyed the museum in which most of these items were stored, and everything that remained was placed in the Ecuadorian state repository, and access there is currently closed.
So what is true in the story of Father Crespi, and what is pure fiction? Nobody knows this. And yet no one doubts that the honest monk believed in what he said, as well as in the fact that a huge cache really existed.
Moreover, in 1976, a group of British military and scientists attempted to find this lost underground library, but ended up in another cave system. Oddly enough, the expedition was led by an American - none other than Neil Armstrong, the man who first set foot on the surface of the Moon.
What motivated this reclusive American hero who rarely gave interviews? The answer lies in an even greater mystery that threatens the very foundations of our place in this world.
Scientific Notes
The fundamental mystery of our origin - meaning what makes us people- can be expressed with one single question: why are we so smart?
The evolution of the human mind still baffles scientists and philosophers. Yes, it is possible to trace the increase in the size of the cerebral hemispheres from the first hominids to the appearance of the Homo sapiens species approximately two hundred thousand years ago. But remains unknown Why Fifty thousand years ago, our species suddenly and unexpectedly experienced a rapid increase in intelligence.
Anthropologists call this historical moment the “Great Leap Forward.” Fossils reveal a sudden explosion of art and music and even the improvement of weapons. From an anatomical point of view, the size of the human brain has changed slightly, which in no way explains such a jump. However, something fundamental undoubtedly happened to cause such a rapid growth of mind and consciousness. There are plenty of hypotheses to explain this: from climate change to genetic mutations and even changes in diet.
Even more depressing is the fact that over the past ten thousand years our brain decreases in size - by today it has shrunk by a good fifteen percent. What does this new change mean? What kind of future does it bring to us? The answer lies in solving the mystery of the Great Leap Forward. But science still does not have any hypotheses that convincingly explain this turning point in human history.
Not yet.
And the revelations that can be found in the pages of this book raise an even more troubling question: are we on the verge of a second “Great Leap Forward”? Or are we doomed to go backwards again?
Reason appeared as a result of evolution, and it cannot be argued that this was a good thing.
Isaac Asimov
Intelligence is measured by the ability to change.
Albert Einstein
Autumn 38,000 BC e.
Southern Alps
- Run, baby!
The forest behind was illuminated by the glow of fires. For the whole day now, the fire had been driving K’ruk and his daughter Onka higher and higher into the snow-capped mountains. However, what K’ruk feared most was not the choking smoke or the searing heat. Turning around, he peered into the distance, trying to catch a glimpse of the hunters - those who had set the forest on fire while pursuing the two fugitives. However, there were no enemies in sight.
And yet in the distance the howl of wolves could be heard - huge predators obeying the will of these hunters. Judging by the sounds, the flock was now closer, in the next valley.
The fugitive looked anxiously at the sun, which was bending towards the very horizon. The orange glow in the sky reminded of the warmth that awaited in that direction, of native caves hidden under green mountains and black rocks, where the water still flowed without becoming solid, where deer and bison roamed in abundance in the forests at the foot of the mountains...
K'ruk clearly imagined the bright flames of the fires, the frying pieces of meat, hissing drops of fat dropping into the fire, and the people of the tribe gathered together before settling down for the night. He yearned for his old life, but understood that from now on this road was closed to him - and especially to his daughter.
The fugitive's attention was attracted by a pain-filled, piercing scream that came from ahead. Onka slipped on a mossy boulder and fell. In fact, the girl confidently moved through the mountains, but now father and daughter had to walk continuously for three days now.
Alarmed, the father helped the girl to her feet. Onka's young face, filled with fear, was glistening with sweat. K'ruk patted his daughter's cheek. In the graceful features of her face, he saw her mother, the healer of the tribe, who died shortly after the birth of her daughter. K'ruk ran his fingers through Onka's fiery red hair.
"She looks so much like her mother..."
However, he saw something else in his daughter’s face – something that branded the girl as a stranger. Onka's nose was thinner than anyone else's in the tribe, even taking into account the fact that the girl had only seen nine winters in her life. Her forehead was straighter and not as massive as the others. K'ruk looked into her blue eyes, clear as the summer sky. All this indicated that mixed blood flowed in Onki’s veins: the blood of the K’ruk tribe and the blood of those people who had recently come from the south, with more fragile limbs and faster tongues.
Such special children were considered a sign, evidence that two peoples, ancient and young, could live together in peace, even if not in the same caves. At least they will be able to share hunting grounds. As the two tribes grew closer, more and more children like Onka were born. They were treated with reverent respect. They looked at the world with different eyes and, growing up, became great shamans, healers, hunters...
But two days ago, a warrior of the K’ruk tribe returned from a neighboring valley. Mortally wounded, he nevertheless gathered the remnants of his strength and warned of powerful enemies, like locusts crawling through the surrounding forests. This mysterious, large tribe hunted such unusual children as Onka, and those who dared to disobey were dealt with mercilessly by the strangers.
Hearing about this, K'ruk realized that he could not endanger his tribe. But at the same time, he could not allow the girl to be taken away from him. Therefore, she and her daughter fled - but, apparently, someone warned the enemies about their flight.
Warned about Onka.
“I won’t give you up for anything in the world!”
Taking the girl by the hand, K’ruk quickened his pace, but very little time passed, and Onka was no longer walking so much as hobbling with difficulty, every now and then stumbling and limping heavily on her twisted leg. Then the father took the girl in his arms. They climbed the ridge and began to descend the wooded slope. A stream flowed along the bottom of the gorge. There you can quench your thirst.
“We can rest there,” K’ruk said, pointing down. - But only for a very short time...
Very close to the left, a branch snapped. Having lowered the girl to the ground, the fugitive crouched down warily, holding out a spear with a stone tip in front of him. A slender figure appeared from behind a dry tree, dressed and shod in deer skins. Looking into the stranger’s face, K’ruk understood without words that he, like Onka, had mixed blood flowing in his veins. However, judging by his clothes and thick hair tied with a leather cord, the stranger was not from the K’ruk tribe, but belonged to the people who had recently appeared in the local mountains.
The wolf howl was heard from behind again, and this time it was even closer.
The man wrapped in skins listened, and then raised his hand and made a sign. He uttered some words, but K’ruk did not understand them. Then the stranger simply waved his hand, pointing to the stream, and began to go down the overgrown slope.
For a moment, K’ruk hesitated, not knowing whether to follow them, but, hearing again the howl of wolves belonging to the enemy, he decisively moved after the stranger. In order to keep up with the agile young warrior quickly making his way through the thicket, he again had to take Onka in his arms. Going down to the stream, K’ruk saw that a group of ten or twelve people was waiting for them there, among whom were children even younger than Onka, and hunched old men. Judging by their clothing and jewelry, these people belonged to different tribes.
And yet they had something in common.
Everyone had mixed blood flowing in their veins.
The stranger who had brought K'ruk and his daughter stepped towards Onka and knelt before her. He ran his finger across her forehead and further along her cheekbone, showing that he saw his fellow tribesman in the girl.
In turn, K'ruk's daughter raised her hand and touched the mark on the stranger's forehead - a scattering of tiny scars forming a strange, sharp-angled shape.
She ran her fingertip over these irregularities on the skin, as if reading some hidden meaning in them. The warrior smiled, showing that he understood her feelings.
Straightening up, he put his hand on his chest and said:
K’ruk realized that this was his name, but then the stranger quickly said something incomprehensible, beckoning with a gesture to one of the old men, leaning heavily on a thick, gnarled stick.
Approaching, the old man spoke in the language of the K’ruk tribe:
– Theron says the girl can stay with us. We are heading towards a high pass that he knows. This pass is still free of snow, but this will only be the case for a few days. If we manage to reach it before our enemies, we will break away from our pursuers.
“Until the snow melts again,” K’ruk clarified anxiously.
“It will happen in many more moons.” By then we will have disappeared without a trace, and our trail will have long since cooled.
A wolf howl was heard again in the distance, reminding us that the trail was still far from cold at the moment.
The old man also understood this perfectly.
“We need to leave as quickly as possible before the wolves overtake us,” he said anxiously.
- And you will take my daughter? – K’ruk pushed the girl towards Theron.
He squeezed his shoulder tightly.
“We are glad to see her,” the old man assured K’ruk. - We will protect her. But on the long and dangerous path we will need your strong back and your sharp spear.
Stepping aside, K'ruk tightened his grip on the shaft of his weapon.
– The enemies are approaching too quickly. I will use my last breath to delay them and give you the opportunity to reach the pass.
He looked into Onka’s eyes, already filled with tears.
“Father…” she sobbed.
– From now on, this is your tribe, Onka. “Speaking these words, K’ruk felt his chest tighten. “These people will take you to distant lands, where you will be safe, where you will grow up and become the strong woman you should be.”
Breaking free from Theron's arms, Onka jumped on her father, wrapping her thin arms around his neck.
Choking with grief and from the tight embrace of his daughter, K’ruk tore her away from him and handed her over to Theron, who picked her up from behind. Leaning towards his daughter, he touched his forehead to hers, saying goodbye to her and realizing that he would never see her again.
Straightening up, he turned around and moved with a decisive step away from the stream, up the slope, towards the wolf's howl - but he heard not a howl, but Onka's pitiful sobbing sounding behind him.
“May everything be fine with you, my daughter!”
K'ruk quickened his pace, intending to save Onka at all costs. Climbing onto the ridge, he hurried towards the howl of ferocious predators leading their pursuers. The wolves had already crossed the neighboring valley, and their voices were getting louder.
The man started running, moving in big leaps.
He reached the next ridge when the sun had already disappeared below the horizon, covering the valley below in deep shadow. Slowing his pace, K'ruk began to walk down the slope, moving with extreme caution as the wolves were now silent. Crouching low, he slid from shadow to shadow, keeping downwind from the flock, carefully choosing where to take his next step so that a branch would not snap under his foot.
Finally, K'ruk was able to make out the bottom of the gorge ahead, along which black shadows were moving. Wolves. One of the predators came out into the open, and the man saw that it was not a wolf at all. The beast had matted, thick fur, a hefty muzzle, streaked with scars, and a grinning mouth, revealing long yellowish fangs.
Ignoring the heart that jumped to his very throat, K’ruk remained in place, waiting for the owners of these monsters.
Eventually, tall silhouettes appeared among the trees. The tallest of them stepped out into the clearing, allowing K'ruk to see the enemy's true face for the first time.
At the sight of him, the fugitive froze with horror.
"No, this can't be..."
Nevertheless, he clutched his spear tighter, looking back one last time.
“Run, Onka! Run and don't stop!"
Spring 1669
Rome, Papal States
Nicholas Steno led the young envoy into the bowels of the Vatican College Museum. The stranger was wrapped in a cloak and his boots were covered in mud, indicating both the urgency and secrecy of his mission.
The envoy came from the north, from Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. The package he delivered was addressed to Nicholas's closest friend, Father Athanasius Kircher, curator of the museum.
With his mouth open in amazement, the envoy looked at the wonders of nature collected here, Egyptian obelisks and all sorts of wonderful mechanisms that ticked and buzzed. All this was crowned by soaring domes decorated with astronomical maps. The young German's gaze settled on an amber block, illuminated from behind by a candle flame, inside which was the perfectly preserved body of a lizard.
“Don’t linger,” Stheno warned him, and he moved on.
Nicholas was familiar with all the corners and all the bound volumes - this was mainly the work of the head of the museum. On behalf of his patron, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he spent almost a whole year here, studying the museum's storage, in order to then create his own cabinet of curiosities in the ducal palace in Florence.
Finally the two men stopped in front of a massive oak door and Stheno knocked on it with his fist.
Throwing it open, Nicholas led the messenger into a small office, lit by dying coals in the fireplace.
“I apologize for disturbing you, Reverend Father,” he turned to the man sitting in the room.
The German envoy immediately knelt before the wide desk and bowed his head respectfully.
The man, seated at the table surrounded by mountains of books, sighed heavily. In his hand he held a quill quill, the end of which hovered over a large sheet of parchment.
“Have you come to rummage through my collection again, dear Nicholas?” – he asked Stheno. – I must warn you that I prudently numbered all the books on the shelves.
Nicholas smiled guiltily:
“I promise that I will return” Mundus Subterraneus", as soon as I prove the inconsistency of all your statements given in this book.
- Is that so? “I heard that you are already adding the finishing touches to your own work dedicated to the mysteries of underground stones and crystals,” the owner of the room responded.
Stheno bowed respectfully, acknowledging the truth of these words.
- Absolutely right. But before introducing it, I humbly ask that you subject it to the same ruthless scrutiny.
Over the past year, Nicholas and Father Athanasius Kircher have spent many long evenings discussing all sorts of issues of science, theology and philosophy. Despite the fact that Kircher was thirty-seven years older than Steno and that Steno treated him with great respect, the priest was happy to be challenged. Moreover, at their first acquaintance, he and Nicholas had a heated argument over one of his works, published two years ago, in which Steno argued that the so-called stone tongues, or glossopetrae - inclusions found in rocks - actually represent are the teeth of ancient sharks. Father Kircher also had an interest in bones and other ancient remains buried in the layers of rock. He and Nicholas argued long and heatedly about the origin of such riddles. And so, in the crucible of scientific research, two scientists developed respect for each other, became like-minded people and, most importantly, friends.
Father Atanasy turned his gaze to the envoy, still kneeling in front of the table littered with books.
- Who is your companion?
– He arrived with a package from Leopold the First. It seems to me that the emperor finally remembered his education received from the Jesuits and sent you something important. Leopold turned to the Grand Duke, who ordered me to bring this man to you without delay, in the strictest secrecy.
Kircher put down his pen.
- Curious…
Both scholars were well aware that the current emperor had an interest in natural sciences, instilled in him by the Jesuit mentors who taught him in childhood. Leopold was going to devote himself to the Church - but the death of his older brother from the plague elevated the pious scientist to the cold northern throne.
“Enough of these stupid ceremonies, my young friend!” – Father Kircher waved to the envoy. - Get up and convey what you came such a long way for.
Rising from his knees, his guest threw back his hood, revealing his face - he turned out to be a young man of about twenty, no more - took out a thick envelope from a canvas bag, sealed with the emperor's seal, and, stepping forward, put it on the table, after which he immediately stepped back.
Atanasy looked back at Nicholas, but he only silently shrugged, also remaining in complete ignorance.
Taking a knife, Kircher cut off the seal and opened the envelope. A small object rolled out of it. It was a bone encased in a transparent crystal that looked like a piece of ice. Frowning, the priest took the parchment from the envelope and unfolded it. Even from a few steps away, Steno could see that it was a detailed map of Eastern Europe. For a moment Father Kircher studied her carefully.
“I don’t understand the point of all this,” he said finally. – The map and this fragment of an old bone... There was no letter of explanation attached to them.
“The Emperor appointed me to deliver the second half of the message to you.” And the first - his words - I vowed to memorize and reveal them only to you, Reverend Father.
- And what are these words? – the priest raised his eyebrows.
“The Emperor knows that you are interested in the distant past, the secrets buried in the depths of the earth, and he asks for your help in studying what was found at the place indicated on the map.
- What did they find there? – asked Nicholas. – More bones like this one?
Coming closer, he examined the petrified piece interspersed with white rock. There was no doubt that the object lying on the table was very ancient.
“Bones and much more,” the messenger confirmed.
– And who do these bones belong to? – asked Kircher. -Whose grave is this?
His young guest answered in a trembling voice. And then, before Stheno and Kircher could utter a word, he pulled out a dagger and, in one swift movement, cut his own throat from ear to ear. Blood gushed out. Wheezing and coughing, the messenger fell to his knees and then sprawled on the floor.
Nicholas hastened to help the young man, cursing his cruel fate. It seems that the last words of the messenger were intended only for Father Kircher and him, and, having been delivered to their destination, they were never to be heard again.
Walking around the desk, Father Atanasy squatted down and took the young man’s hand, but the question he asked after that was intended for Nicholas:
- Is that really true?
Stheno swallowed the lump in his throat, shocked by the last words that fell from the bloody lips of the messenger lying before him.
“These bones... they belong to Adam and Eve...”
James Rollins
Bone Maze
Dedicated to Warped Space, the guys who have been there from the very beginning... and still help me look my best
The Bone Labyrinth
© 2015 by James Czajkowski
© Saksin S.M., translation into Russian, 2015
© Edition in Russian, designed by Publishing House “E” LLC, 2016
Words of gratitude
So many people have left their mark on this book! I am grateful to them for their help, criticism and support. First of all, I want to thank my first readers, first editors and my best friends Sally Anna Barnes, Chris Crow, Lee Garrett, Jay O'Reeve, Denny Grayson, Leonard Little, Scott Smith, Judy Pray, Caroline Williams, Christian Riley, Todd Todd , Chris Smith and Amy Rogers. And as always, special thanks to Steve Pray for the wonderful maps... and Cherey McCarter for all the cool stuff that keeps coming to my email! Thank you to David Sylvian for doing anything and everything that was asked of him, helping to keep me moving forward in the digital world! Thank you to everyone at Harper Collins for always supporting me, especially Michael Morrison, Layet Stehlik, Danielle Bartlett, Caitlin Kennedy, Josh Marvell, Lynne Grady, Richard Aquan, Tom Egner, Sean Nichols and Anna Marie Allessi. Finally, special thanks to those who provided invaluable assistance throughout the process: my editor Lissa Keisch and her colleague Rebecca Lukash, my agents Russ Galen and Danny Baror (and his daughter Heather Baror). And, as always, I must emphasize that every last error of fact and detail, of which I hope there are not too many, is entirely my fault.
Historical Notes
Two real historical figures play an important role in this book: two priests, one of whom lived several centuries before the other, but their fates were connected.
In the 17th century, Father Athanasius Kircher was called the Leonardo da Vinci of the Jesuit order. Like the great Florentine, this priest excelled in many fields of science and technology. He studied medicine, geology and Egyptology, and also built complex automata, including magnetic clocks (a working model of which can be seen in the Green Library at Stanford University). The influence of this Renaissance man has been felt for many centuries. Descartes and Newton, Jules Verne and Edgar Poe were familiar with his works.
The life of another priest is no less interesting.
Father Carlos Crespi was born several centuries later, in 1891. Inspired by the works of Kircher, Crespi himself became a well-rounded person. He was interested in botany, anthropology, history and music. Crespi founded a mission in a small town in Ecuador, where he worked for fifty years. It was there that a large collection of ancient gold objects came into his hands, brought by an Indian from the Shuar tribe living in those places. The treasure was rumored to be located in a cave system beneath South America that supposedly contained a lost library of ancient metal plates and crystal books. The golden objects were covered with strange images and incomprehensible hieroglyphs.
Some archaeologists considered these objects to be fakes, while others believed the priest's story about their origin. One way or another, in 1962, a fire that broke out for unknown reasons destroyed the museum in which most of these items were stored, and everything that remained was placed in the Ecuadorian state repository, and access there is currently closed.
So what is true in the story of Father Crespi, and what is pure fiction? Nobody knows this. And yet no one doubts that the honest monk believed in what he said, as well as in the fact that a huge cache really existed.
Moreover, in 1976, a group of British military and scientists attempted to find this lost underground library, but ended up in another cave system. Oddly enough, the expedition was led by an American - none other than Neil Armstrong, the man who first set foot on the surface of the Moon.
What motivated this reclusive American hero who rarely gave interviews? The answer lies in an even greater mystery that threatens the very foundations of our place in this world.
Scientific Notes
The fundamental mystery of our origin - meaning what makes us people- can be expressed with one single question: why are we so smart?
The evolution of the human mind still baffles scientists and philosophers. Yes, it is possible to trace the increase in the size of the cerebral hemispheres from the first hominids to the appearance of the Homo sapiens species approximately two hundred thousand years ago. But remains unknown Why Fifty thousand years ago, our species suddenly and unexpectedly experienced a rapid increase in intelligence.
Anthropologists call this historical moment the “Great Leap Forward.” Fossils reveal a sudden explosion of art and music and even the improvement of weapons. From an anatomical point of view, the size of the human brain has changed slightly, which in no way explains such a jump. However, something fundamental undoubtedly happened to cause such a rapid growth of mind and consciousness. There are plenty of hypotheses to explain this: from climate change to genetic mutations and even changes in diet.
Even more depressing is the fact that over the past ten thousand years our brain decreases in size - by today it has shrunk by a good fifteen percent. What does this new change mean? What kind of future does it bring to us? The answer lies in solving the mystery of the Great Leap Forward. But science still does not have any hypotheses that convincingly explain this turning point in human history.
Not yet.
And the revelations that can be found in the pages of this book raise an even more troubling question: are we on the verge of a second “Great Leap Forward”? Or are we doomed to go backwards again?
Reason appeared as a result of evolution, and it cannot be argued that this was a good thing.
Isaac Asimov
Intelligence is measured by the ability to change.
Albert Einstein
Autumn 38,000 BC e.Southern AlpsJames Rollins' book "The Bone Labyrinth" is part of the Sigma Force series of books. In it, the author touches on the topics of the origin of man, his DNA, scientific developments and some not yet revealed secrets. In addition, the writer focuses on the characteristics of a person’s character. People can be brutally cruel, while animals can truly love even those people who keep them in cages.
For hundreds of years, people have been asking questions about what happened many centuries before their lives, whether Atlantis existed, whether man descended from a monkey or from Adam and Eve. Scientists from different fields: biology, genetics, history, philosophy - ask these questions and try to get to the bottom of the truth.
The Crandall sisters want to unlock the mysteries of human genetics. Elena travels to Croatia to explore the remains of ancient people found there. They will be able to provide answers to some of the mysteries of evolution. At the same time, Elena's sister Maria is conducting experiments in a laboratory in the USA. She explores the behavior of monkeys, as the creatures closest to the human species.
A group of researchers in the mountains of Croatia is attacked, Elena miraculously manages to escape. Then Maria is kidnapped from the laboratory. The commander of the Sigma squad, Painter Crowe, thinks that the sisters were able to discover something very important, which became known to influential structures. He must solve this case, find the kidnapped girl and gain access to the information they managed to find out. But he could hardly imagine what exactly this could be and what consequences it could have.
The book is an incredibly fascinating interweaving of events and scientific facts. There is genetics, religion, adventure, and travel to the past. Of course, the topic of relationships between people, universal human values and responsibility also occupies an important place. However, first of all, this is a bright fantasy world that seems to appear before your eyes, the author described it so thoroughly and clearly. It is so exciting that you don’t want to return to reality from an unforgettable adventure.
On our website you can download the book “The Bone Labyrinth” by James Rollins for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book in the online store.
GeorgijBarbashov
Rated the book
Hello everyone, friends, the Bone Labyrinth by James Tchaikovsky is on the agenda!
I'll split the review into two parts. The first will contain general impressions, so to speak, my opinion about the plot, as an ordinary reader, the second will be full of various kinds of criticism, if any at all, as from a hardened Rollinsman, or -man, depending on how you look at it.
Go!
1. Why might one be wary of James's books? Because on the new pages of fresh books it becomes less and less recognizable to the reader. Well, judge for yourself, what was his first book related to Sigma about? Sand devil? Action, adventure, mystery, right? A desert, some unknown “guild”. A detailed plot is connected between various, so to speak, companies in the course of history, which ultimately leads to a logical conclusion - good has defeated evil, ancient artifacts are attached to secret symbols, stone doors buried somewhere in the depths of the mountains are closed, riddles have been solved. And with such smooth steps, the author moved from book to book, adding along the way, as in my personal opinion, at that moment, for the average reader, the main intrigue, who is this “Guild”? Why are my latest reviews aimed specifically at this organization? Because in "Bloodline," Rollins sows surreal intrigue with his wildly unfolding ending. Here you can see the pores through which you absorb the whole essence of the cycle about the detachment, and then suddenly a bucket of ice water falls on your head. For what? For the last three books, not a word has been said about the guild. Those who do not read Rollins, having learned from reviews about the guild, think that this is some kind of ordinary secret order with its dark sides, and you almost guessed it! But! What it really is, I will not describe as wonderfully as the author did in the blood line mentioned above, so you would understand me why I am so upset all the time when in the next new product I do not meet this organization that is always competing with Sigma, which, like how she is always ahead of our friendly special squad, at least the author makes this clear, and then it turns out that she is not just ahead, but in general, wow.
Therefore, when reading “The Bone Labyrinth,” I really expected that at least by the very end a mysterious guild would appear, but no, I wasn’t even an inch closer to the answers.
And of course, now I will puff out my cheeks and stubbornly repeat with my hands folded on top of each other that this is a commercial move, so to speak, to stretch the essence over many books. What if James completely forgot that he had this evil organization in earlier books? Oh, that's it! I don't even want to think about it!
But on the other hand, Tchaikovsky writes in such a way that for an ordinary reader who has just picked up this author, the plot may seem very, very cool. That's right, because they raise topics that are always based on scientific discoveries. And if earlier the emphasis was on fiction in books about Sigma, now, of course, the emphasis is more on non-fiction science. And for this I cannot blame the author.
2. As promised, the second part, which we slowly approached. Let's continue. Now, based on the last lines about the scientific background of the books, let's talk about how this harms me personally, or does it not harm?
My personal emotions from reading this book remained as follows.... you know, when you try something new for yourself for the first time, and then move your lips to the sides as if on the more distant part of the lower lip the taste of what you are trying will change. Isn't it stupid? Considering that the taste buds are on the tongue... But you still do this, supposedly tasting it. Because you are a human being and who the hell knows why you were even molded for this life, but more on that later.
So my emotions were not clear even to me. Until page 200, I wanted to give it a solid, fatty two, simply because for some reason I suddenly found reading about riddles and hieroglyphs, genetics and monkeys completely uninteresting! Why is this so? Here on Livelib, I see that one review has already been left and the book is praised. And you know, I wouldn't praise her because, On the one side you can feel the author’s love for what he does, oh no, no, I don’t mean the book itself, but the work that he does when traveling to places that later become the main location of his works. He studies all this, gets to know it, reads related literature. He loves it and the reader feels it, especially the one to whom the author himself has already become family. That this is exactly his. And writing a book for Rollins is already the tenth thing. But then the question arises, why am I accusing him of being commercial? And it’s simple, because the plot became looser and looser from book to book. But just like that on the other side For something more important, one feels that the author has written himself out. Why? Here are a couple of examples:
Initially, before the Sigma series, James wrote separate novels sending the reader to Antarctica, the Amazon basin, and the North, right? And now we take books about the Sigma special squad, in the “bone labyrinth” they go to South America, in the “sixth extinction” they went to Antarctica. If we compare the books, then the “sixth extinction” is identical to “the cave”. One to one. that is, in essence, the author is doing nothing more than rewriting early novels by adding new characters, that’s all, and for those who did not notice this, an ax is in your shoulder. I promised a couple of examples, okay, here's the second one! Who has already read "The Bone Labyrinth"? Why aren't the final episodes connected in any way? What do I mean, and here’s what, let’s take for example “the black order”, the third book about the detachment, the plot there develops in two parallels, in fact, as in every book by Rollins: action films and riddles, some guess them while crawling somewhere in caves , filling their faces with sand, searching for artifacts in the desert, others shoot, then a group of shooting enthusiasts joins with fans of the club of experts and here is the finale, a thoughtful finale! What did I see in this book? This is definitely not the case. One group, by itself, discovered one cool thing in the cave (I won’t disclose it, so as not to spoil it), others shot and that was it. Dot. Oh, why so? And tie it together. No, I’m not stupid, I saw that the author was trying to connect this, but you know, having read the previous parts, I have something to compare with and I see that Rollins gave the heroes two tasks, no, they actually created them for themselves, and solved them themselves , but the author seems to have nothing to do with it at all. In the author’s latest books, such nonsense happens. Am I offended as a reader? Of course it’s a shame, what a bastard and damn stupid question. If earlier books left impressions like “WOW!”, go LOOKING!!! Now there is no such thing. Ordinary reading. Heroes have no goals. That’s why I’m yelling here to the whole world and at the same time to no one, to return the guild, then the author and the heroes will have a goal again. It's simple. And the final parts will again begin to form into a single whole and events that, if they happen, will be for something further, definitely giving impetus and meaning to a new story. This is already the second book in the series (in a row!) Before purchasing it I really doubt whether it’s worth it at all? Let me remind you that the author is one of my favorites. Yes, for such things I even removed him half a year ago from the “favorite writers” column here on livelib (Not livelib, as some imbeciles call it).
That's all. Therefore, until page 200 I actually sat and spat. Why didn't you spit then? Because at work I was transferred to a place where artificial intelligence does the work for you, and you just have to go and start and turn off the program, but during breaks, so as not to sit and enjoy the ceiling, the cobwebs that hang from it, floating under the influence draft due to an open window, read, read and read. My hands were covered in oil, but I wiped them with a cloth and turned the page. Thus, I read from page 180 to 540 in two days, by the way, my new personal record is 243 pages in a day! Yuhu... I don’t care that you read 300 or more pages a day, I’m talking about a personal record. Moreover, he did it at work, and even considering that he fulfilled the plan for the shift 100%. Like this. Therefore, the book will not seem interesting. That's how it seemed to me. Hence the positive assessment. And, you know, I don’t care what anyone’s opinion of me is, so let me admit that this is the second book that made me shed a tear. I really didn’t think that Rollins would succeed in this matter, it’s even funny: D after all, the forerunner was Hugo’s book: D - you feel the difference, right? And I cried because this guy dared to hint that he would kill one of my two favorite heroes in the series.... *crying smiley*. Well... how come, James, I thought you loved your characters just like us. Although, the author can also be understood, because I once also tried to write my own book and according to the plot, one of the main characters and not only had to die. I made this decision only because I wanted to play the violin of the reader’s emotions (what kind of readers my book could have - me, you, yes, you and me, but still). Therefore, yes, the author can be understood. But he’s not in one of your books and he’s really a cool hero, well, how can that be, I repeat... What are you doing to us then ahhh? - *roars in the voice of Nina Doroshina, as in the movie “Love and Doves”*.
Well, at the end, my favorite section is “BLOOPS”.
There is a moment in the book when the boat got a hole and began to sink into the water with five adult bodies on board. So, later, a scooter, a water motorbike, came to the aid of the fins (drowning people in a boat), which pulled out a boat taking in water + drawn into a whirlpool + with 5 adult bodies. But at the same time, it was previously described how the motorcycle was not fast enough to get out of the funnel with two passengers. How's it going? Well, it’s unclear!
One of the heroes killed the villain in cold blood, and after a certain time he was amazed how the same thing was done to another villain. If above the question was “how?”, then now “why?”
p.s. So what essentially, because I have a very cool and intriguing title for this review! Why artificially created? Because the book raises serious and interesting questions about many things that we don’t think about. For many, it is much more important to understand what color Porsche or Mercedes to give to your daughter, and at what age should you make her an employee of your bank? For others, how much more Botox do they need on their lips to understand how disgusting I have become for not caring about the nature that created me. Third, it is more important to know why, and most importantly, WHAT can neighbors drill every weekend for ten years if there are only four walls in the apartment?
There are reviewers who write that the book taught them something or made them think. But after these words, everyone forgets the next day after they were written. Well, what do you want? I will remember when the problem raised in the book comes up in real life. Well, yes, it’s logical, but then don’t you dare write that the book makes you think, because what Tchaikovsky writes about in this book really makes you think non-stop. Well, this, of course, also depends on the level of brain, thinking, and so on, if a person doesn’t want to get hung up on it, then he won’t, and I’m one of those who are interested in this kind of thing every day, so the facts that James shared with me It really got into my head. I was especially struck by the episodes about the moon and the number 37 that repeats itself in our DNA! Too many coincidences. Maybe, no matter how desperately we want to believe, we really are children who have simply been hatched like chicks in an incubator and are observing their creation? Could the Earth's satellite really be an artificial toy? Or maybe our universe is actually an ordinary hologram that can be expanded or collapsed by spreading the hands, like a computer projection with calculations in the movie “Iron Man”?
Well, are you intrigued? Yes? Then run quickly and get a book! No? Then the ax is on your shoulder ;)
Rated the book
Even though my favorite series about “Sigma” is inside, I began to be prejudiced towards the author. It moved from favorites to “I’ll read it someday.” But:)
The beginning of the novel caught my attention with the theme of genetics and a mysterious past. Rollins almost always includes the past in his books; this is a very advantageous position. And after 540 pages, I can say that in this work the author corrects himself a little and he managed to interest me with his thoughts and conclusions. This is his greatest strength.
For some reason, I was pleased that the Sigma squad itself was smaller here than usual and the author allowed the secondary characters to develop themselves. The storyline was worked out very well, although there were some oddities, but I tried not to worry about them and believe what James was trying to convey to me.
And then I received a deafening charge of the interweaving of ancient secrets, scientific terminology in its most varied manifestations, facts and speculation, the intersection of times and a journey into the very distant past. And the most important thing is the understanding that we are responsible for those whom we have tamed no matter what, even if it is an experimental monkey who considers you its mother. In general, a lot of touching and important moments in the book were associated with Baako - after all, although he is a huge ape, he can do things that people are sometimes not capable of - love and protect, and also forgive.
James Rollins raises many topics in his books - science and religion often go hand in hand, anthropology, astrology, physics and metaphysics, biology and zoology, genetics, human relationships, interesting facts and immersion in the past, and much, much more everything for which I read his novels. The author thinks through each book in detail, chewing everything so that there are as many questions as possible, regardless of the complexity of the topic he presents.
The essence of Rollins' books is always the same - saving the world from an impending threat in such a way as not to raise panic among the population. And he succeeds in this; surprisingly, the book was read quickly and with interest, despite the abundance of abstruseness. After all, the action is also present here, as is the fact that the Sigma squad and other heroes are thrown around the world - from the USA to Argentina and Italy. I recommend it to those who want to take a break from everyday life and read a truly interesting book!
The rest of the story, concerning today, is not so interesting to me. It's too global, too hasty. After reading a third of the book, I wanted not to finish reading, but just flip through the pages and read the last chapter and epilogue. About halfway through the book, I was still captivated by the content, but I was haunted by the thought that everything was going too smoothly: the Chinese were calmly starting an experiment on the gorilla Baako, the Americans were constantly managing to escape, and their pursuers were still nearby... Father Novak forgot his tablet, why he doesn't remember him??? They brought books, didn’t forget their phones, and the tablet flew out of their heads? There is a lot of necessary information there... But the Chinese woman cannot get enough of her find, only thanks to the tablet she knows where to look for them... They never remembered about the tablet... There are too many accidents that were avoided at the last moment, you read an exciting scene and you know approximately how it will end. We also expect the ending: those “good” heroes who ran the most are alive; the secret is not revealed, and the thought slips through - it’s good that it is not revealed...
For some reason, this book ultimately caused a feeling of sadness, but not when you are nostalgic for what you read, but when you realize that the book did not give anything new... I have already heard/read about a lot of what was said here... that scientists are developing various terrible things in secret from everyone is also understandable... And the truth, like the heroes of the book, is unlikely to be known to us, too much time has passed...
James Rollins
Bone Maze
Dedicated to Warped Space, the guys who have been there from the very beginning... and still help me look my best
The Bone Labyrinth
© 2015 by James Czajkowski
© Saksin S.M., translation into Russian, 2015
© Edition in Russian, designed by Publishing House “E” LLC, 2016
Words of gratitude
So many people have left their mark on this book! I am grateful to them for their help, criticism and support. First of all, I want to thank my first readers, first editors and my best friends Sally Anna Barnes, Chris Crow, Lee Garrett, Jay O'Reeve, Denny Grayson, Leonard Little, Scott Smith, Judy Pray, Caroline Williams, Christian Riley, Todd Todd , Chris Smith and Amy Rogers. And as always, special thanks to Steve Pray for the wonderful maps... and Cherey McCarter for all the cool stuff that keeps coming to my email! Thank you to David Sylvian for doing anything and everything that was asked of him, helping to keep me moving forward in the digital world! Thank you to everyone at Harper Collins for always supporting me, especially Michael Morrison, Layet Stehlik, Danielle Bartlett, Caitlin Kennedy, Josh Marvell, Lynne Grady, Richard Aquan, Tom Egner, Sean Nichols and Anna Marie Allessi. Finally, special thanks to those who provided invaluable assistance throughout the process: my editor Lissa Keisch and her colleague Rebecca Lukash, my agents Russ Galen and Danny Baror (and his daughter Heather Baror). And, as always, I must emphasize that every last error of fact and detail, of which I hope there are not too many, is entirely my fault.
Historical Notes
Two real historical figures play an important role in this book: two priests, one of whom lived several centuries before the other, but their fates were connected.
In the 17th century, Father Athanasius Kircher was called the Leonardo da Vinci of the Jesuit order. Like the great Florentine, this priest excelled in many fields of science and technology. He studied medicine, geology and Egyptology, and also built complex automata, including magnetic clocks (a working model of which can be seen in the Green Library at Stanford University). The influence of this Renaissance man has been felt for many centuries. Descartes and Newton, Jules Verne and Edgar Poe were familiar with his works.
The life of another priest is no less interesting.
Father Carlos Crespi was born several centuries later, in 1891. Inspired by the works of Kircher, Crespi himself became a well-rounded person. He was interested in botany, anthropology, history and music. Crespi founded a mission in a small town in Ecuador, where he worked for fifty years. It was there that a large collection of ancient gold objects came into his hands, brought by an Indian from the Shuar tribe living in those places. The treasure was rumored to be located in a cave system beneath South America that supposedly contained a lost library of ancient metal plates and crystal books. The golden objects were covered with strange images and incomprehensible hieroglyphs.
Some archaeologists considered these objects to be fakes, while others believed the priest's story about their origin. One way or another, in 1962, a fire that broke out for unknown reasons destroyed the museum in which most of these items were stored, and everything that remained was placed in the Ecuadorian state repository, and access there is currently closed.
So what is true in the story of Father Crespi, and what is pure fiction? Nobody knows this. And yet no one doubts that the honest monk believed in what he said, as well as in the fact that a huge cache really existed.
Moreover, in 1976, a group of British military and scientists attempted to find this lost underground library, but ended up in another cave system. Oddly enough, the expedition was led by an American - none other than Neil Armstrong, the man who first set foot on the surface of the Moon.
What motivated this reclusive American hero who rarely gave interviews? The answer lies in an even greater mystery that threatens the very foundations of our place in this world.
Scientific Notes
The fundamental mystery of our origin - meaning what makes us people- can be expressed with one single question: why are we so smart?
The evolution of the human mind still baffles scientists and philosophers. Yes, it is possible to trace the increase in the size of the cerebral hemispheres from the first hominids to the appearance of the Homo sapiens species approximately two hundred thousand years ago. But remains unknown Why Fifty thousand years ago, our species suddenly and unexpectedly experienced a rapid increase in intelligence.
Anthropologists call this historical moment the “Great Leap Forward.” Fossils reveal a sudden explosion of art and music and even the improvement of weapons. From an anatomical point of view, the size of the human brain has changed slightly, which in no way explains such a jump. However, something fundamental undoubtedly happened to cause such a rapid growth of mind and consciousness. There are plenty of hypotheses to explain this: from climate change to genetic mutations and even changes in diet.
Even more depressing is the fact that over the past ten thousand years our brain decreases in size - by today it has shrunk by a good fifteen percent. What does this new change mean? What kind of future does it bring to us? The answer lies in solving the mystery of the Great Leap Forward. But science still does not have any hypotheses that convincingly explain this turning point in human history.
Not yet.
And the revelations that can be found in the pages of this book raise an even more troubling question: are we on the verge of a second “Great Leap Forward”? Or are we doomed to go backwards again?
Reason appeared as a result of evolution, and it cannot be argued that this was a good thing.
Isaac Asimov
Intelligence is measured by the ability to change.
Albert Einstein
Autumn 38,000 BC e.Southern Alps
