This was very exciting, with two incredibly riveting arcs. I am really looking forward to more. ( )

One-dimensional characters, a shallow story, and glaring inconsistencies all combine to ruin what was a potentially interesting premise. ( )

This is our read for Book Club in April, and at halfway, I still just can't get into it. It's a sci-fi thriller about an archaeology dig what turns up a man-made artifact in a layer millions of years before man was around. The main character has a psychic ability to "read" objects, actually experiencing the last event that occurred when a previous owner was in contact with an object. I was intrigued by the premise, but the writing lands with a clink half of the time (not quite so bad as to make a clang, but just not quite right either), none of the characters interest me much, and I found myself desperately wanting to skim the bits that take place in the distant past, the ones attached to the mysterious object. Meh. I hope the other members of the club enjoyed it more. ( )

Starts off with an interesting concept, but that concept never progresses and the story bogs down into a fairly linear exposition without any satisfying developments.
I did note an interesting reation within myself in that I was willing to go with the main characters abilities without questions, yet the visions of the ancient people proved harder to accept. The story really didn't reach the heights of intrigue that I was expecting. ( )

I actually found this in my archive on my kindle as I was loading books to my new paperwhite, and realized I had neglected to finish it. I finished the remaining 20% tonight. Although I really liked the concept behind the story and the inventiveness of the culture created through Matt's visions while touching the excavated items, if I can put the book down at 80% and not be compelled to finish it for a few months, then there is something missing.

The characters are a bit flat, and I didn't get a real connection to any of them, from modern day or the past culture. I-Rin and his culture that Michael creates are very crreative, and do seem to be well thought out from an anthropological stand point, but I think the concept of when they existed and their technologies (not going to elaborate, its a spoiler) may have put me off a bit. Both of the parallel story lines unfolding were interesting, but I found it a struggle at some points to carry on. It may be why I did not finish reading it the first time. ( )