Camorr - News and Views from Scott Lynch's Locke Lamora books

I finished In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D'Amato, basically a story about the Maya prediction of the end of the world, 12/21/12, which is getting a lot of play recently in documentaries and specials on cable channels.

Anyway, the protagonist is a full-blood Maya descendant, an expert on Mayan culture and their complex Sacrifice Game, who travels back in time to try to learn more about and then prevent the upcoming cataclysm in order to save humanity.

The novel's time-travel elements are typical pseudo-science, but the historical research and portrayal of the Maya civilization is top-notch. However, the book is almost seven hundred pages of small print, and eventually the detail overwhelms the plot.

The first-person protagonist has a very entertaining style of speaking and telling the tale, which is probably the author's greatest strength, but ultimately the story gets bogged down and repetitive. I had hoped it was going to be a great novel, but I can only honestly call it good. D'Amato reminds me of Neal Stephenson in his approach, but I think fans of Stephenson will probably say he ain't Neal Stephenson.

Also, the book turns out to be the first part of a trilogy, designed to be published in annual installments as 2012 gets nearer, so readers wanting a quick resolution will be out of luck. In fact, the novel ends on a shocking revelation which I will have to chew on for a year. :o