eBook The 34th Degree: A Thriller download

When Mr. Greanias went to school to learn how to be a novelist he obviously never took the course: How to & Why Maintain Continuity! Instead he must have attended, repeatedly, the course: How to Give Your Readers Aneurisms. Because though this novel takes bits and pieces from The Atlantis Revelation, it completely disregards everything from that novel, even though this novel is a bit of a prequel to that novel. Kind of like how Clive Cussler completely ignores his novel Raise the Titanic (which features our hero Dirk Pitt bringing the Titanic to the surface & sailing it into New York harbor where it becomes a museum) and discusses in later novels of his that the Titanic rests at the bottom of the ocean. Reality, yes, but he's writing FICTION.

This novel is 95% the adventures of Christos Andros (whose grandson features in Atlantis Revelation) during World War II, and his attempt to rescue the woman he loves and an ancient parchment from the clutches of the evil Nazi Ludwig von Berg (who is featured as well in Atlantis Revelation), and not to give too much away, but this story ends with von Berg on a submarine with a weapon of mass destruction (also in Atlantis Revelation). Other tie-ins to the Atlantis Revelation novel are talk of globes, greek fire, and Antarctica. This main story, by itself, is very well done and enjoyable. It is the other 5% of the novel that gives me a headache and the incontinuity between this novel and The Atlantis Revelation that causes my aneurism to start thumping. The other 5% features a character called Sam Decker (also from Atlantis Revelation) who can connect to people in the past through their brain tissue (ow, ow - the thumping's starting up again) and thus we are introduced to Christos Andros & his adventure. We meet this Decker character a few more times throughout the novel, none of which - like his introduction - are relevent to anything within the main story, except maybe a future novel.

So my suggestion is that if you must have all of Mr. Greanias novels in your collection, then you should rip out all of the pages that pertain to Sam Decker directly and if you want, save them for any later novels that feature this character. Then take a couple of deep breathes and imagine that a new universe has just been created, and that this story takes place in that new universe, which is totally unique from the universe that features the Atlantis novels. Kind of like how in order to watch anything Highlander related, whether it be Lambert's movies, Paul's TV series, the Lambert-Paul TV Pilot, the animated movie, etc, you have to watch each thing as its own universe, or you'll rupture an aneurism.

So in order to enjoy this novel without blowing out your aneurism, please adhere to the following rules:

1) There is no Atlantis culture.
2) The Alignment doesn't exist, instead Baron Ludwig von Berg is just your typical mentally unstable Nazi with visions of grandeur.
3) Von Berg considers Greek Fire to be a waste of time, and rather than create this destructive weapon he focuses instead on building Germany's first atomic bomb.
4) During World War II wireless listening devices not only existed, but they were so small that they could be hidden inside of ring boxes (ow, ow - it hurts so much Mr. Greanias - x_x).

If you like historical fiction, this is a nice read about Greece and WWII. It is only loosely 'science fiction'. The background and support is pretty loosy goosey. The plot is sluggish in spots but interesting enough so you want to find out what happens.

I had read others by Greanias that I think were better. I loved the Atlantis series. He has a new one due out this coming month. I'll probably read it and hope it is better than this one.

The first book "A Promised War" was much better and action packed. This book was slow to take off and kind of boring when compared to the first book. A lot of twists and turns. The ending was different and unexpected.

other is a bit different from the contempary style so plot is a bit to follow if you are just starying the series. reads good and ties in with other works.

Still reading but it's not great and I expected more from this writer

WOW WHAT A BOOK COULD NOT PUT THIS ONE DOWN STAYED UP LATE AT NIGHT SO I WOULD NOT MISS ANY THING

Looks O.K.

Exciting story----good adventure---Unusual & exciting plot--I liked this story