The story goes from the sunny hill in Greece to the deadly desert and an ancient subterranean tower where Hannah´s belief, her strength and her will to survive are tested beyond anything. With this book came a change in the cover design of the entire series, and, though it is for the first three books a real change for the better, I am not really satisfied with the look of this one. But I wanted to see how things were going with Hannah and her family, what had happened after the last book, that I didn´t care about that much.
Babylon*
by Thomas Thiemeyer Hannah Peters #4
Publisher Knaur on March 1, 2016
Genre Thriller
Pages 523
Format Softcover
Source Publisher
✶✶✶
THE PLACE: Mesopotamia, Cradle of Civilization. Today one of the most dangerous crisis region on earth. THE ORDER: the investigation of the baffling construction of human history. THE PLAYER: Archeologist Hannah Peters and her team. A billionaire art collector who wants to experience his last adventure. And a four year old child. Together they have to face the biggest challenge of their life.
Story
Hannah and her family are working now in Greece. Since the birth of her daughter, her life has changed. Not only by becoming a mother, but also by the fact, that her daughter is different from others. So Hannah is not very much amused when her husband decides to fulfill the last wish of their dying friend and travel his entire family to a place right in the middle of the most dangerous crisis region of the world. And there, she has to face things and go beyond everything she ever believed in or thought she´d have to.
Style
The thriller is told by an invisible narrator and is set about five years after the last book Valhalla. But unlike the previous books, Babylon is almost boring and without any surprises. And it goes even further. During the last third of the book, the story is absolutely implausible, almost absurd and over the entire book is less to nothing to see from the actual protagonist Hannah Peters. I don’t know the author like that. Usual his books are full of great scenes, logic, fascinating places, and characters who take the reader in with their personality. Not this time. Thomas Thiemeyer writes clear, brings historical and technical facts and details in a very entertaining way into the story and the plot is diversified. But with Babylon, he is far away from the great stories and energy he brought to the reader with the first few books of this series.
Characters
Hannah Peters is in the first three books of this series a woman who is sometimes a bit clumsy, who lives for her passion and who can´t travel far and often enough to find old ancient artifacts or places of special history. She is driven by what she does, how she does it and her expertise is famous and to some the only thing that counts. It seems that, after she became a mother and went through a drama that killed all of her team-mates, she has changed. Now being an archeologist seems to be a job she does to earn her living and to have a place where she can raise her daughter out of the public eye. But the passion that once drew her into a new mission seems gone; entirely.
Yes, becoming a mother means a lot of changes for a woman, but does that mean she has to become boring, and in denial of everything that goes on around her? Yes, her daughter is not like any other child, but given the special circumstances of Hannah´s early pregnancy and the fact that her mother had to get that special cure to keep her alive, I would say her daughter can´t be like any other child – in a good way. However, I couldn´t get warm with her. She seemed too exaggerated, way too quiet, way too smart, and not acting like a four year at all.
Conclusion
I am actually a huge fan of Hannah Peters. But this part was nothing but average. At some point, it became so weird, so strange and close to being absurd and implausible, that I was sometimes wondering if this was really a Thomas Thiemeyer thriller. Sad to say it, but I am a bit disappointed by it.
Happy reading
*This book was at the time of review only available in the German language.
Thomas Thiemeyer
Thomas Thiemeyer, born 1963, studied geology and geography before he became self-reliant and turned into a career as author and illustrator. With his science thrillers and young adult cycles, which won many prizes, sold over half a million times and being translated into thirteen languages, he is a well-established magnitude in the German light fiction. The author lives with his family in Stuttgart/Germany.
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