Relic question

Pendergast is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. Outstanding series. The last couple haven't been quite as strong but you have many great ones to read before you get to those!

I agree with Jerry. The last few have not been as strong, but they are all very good reads. I would recommend reading them in order as they build on each other.

It's been years since I read Relic but I still remember it. I loved it! In my opinion, this was the best of Child & Douglas.

Relic and its sequel Reliquary are my two favourite books of all time. Normally sequels are iffy, but in this case Reliquary was outstanding if not better than Relic. As for the entire series, they are all very different from one another, but overall enjoyable enough. Relic and Reliqaury are still by far the best. Other books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child which aren't part of the series are great as well, I really loved Riptide. Basically the short answers to your questions is yes.

I'd recommend trying a few more. Relic and Reliquary I didn't enjoy as much. Still Life with Crows was one that was majorly creepy, I think more so than some of the others. It has a tighter focus on Pendergast than the others. But I love Pendergast's way of putting someone down and they don't realize it till the final biting comment. Two Graves, the last one I thought was one of the weakest. A good yarn, but not their best.

The first several are excellent. The ones from the past few years are pretty terrible. I loved Relic, Reliquary, and then 2 or 3 of the other older ones like Cabinet of Curiosities. I forger the titles of some of the other decent ones.

While I liked Relic, the series didn't really kick into gear for me until Cabinet of Curiosities. I've loved all of them up until Cold Vengeance. I really liked Fever Dream, but Cold Vengeance was such a let down, I haven't even had the urge to pick-up Two Graves.

the series is very good but I agree the last few were not the strongest. Overall I really like the series and I like the other books they have wrote together.

Read on till the Diogenes trilogy that is the 7th book in the series "The Book Of The Dead". After that you start feeling the authors have up run out of interesting ideas & are happy to rehash their older ones. Of the first 7 books reliquary is the weakest & Brimstone is very good.

The latest books have been pretty awful since the focus of the series shifted from mystery to action but the better Pendergast novels have to be among the best books the genre has to offer.

Pendergast reminds me of Sherlock Holmes. Although Holmes didn't have to fight a psychopathic brother. This book is definitely a good read detective mystery.

I have really enjoyed the Pendergast novels. Cabinet of Curiosities and Still Life with Crows are my favorite novels so far. I was very disappointed with some of the later novels including "The Wheel of Darkness." I haven't given up yet though.

The books get better until Brimstone. After that, they hit a plateau before dropping in quality. This reminds me of the Michael Slade RMP series.

I loved Relic, but picked up the Cabinets of Curiosities and didn't like it at all.

Pendergast's books are always a nice & relaxing read. Th FBI agent has so much a strong / superb defined personality that you cannot go wrong against.

Lindy wrote: "I read Relic last year. I realize that many see this as the first of a series featuring Agent Pendergast. Are the other Pendergast books worth a read? I really enjoyed Relic, but probably more so f..."

I enjoyed the horror aspects of the book although it was not very well written. The next books get better and Pendergast becomes a very interesting character. By all means, go ahead and get the next one. Enjoy!

Yes, they are worth a read. I particularly enjoyed "Brimstone," "Cabinet of Curiosities" and "Still Life with Crows." Also, to get the full story, might also want to read "Thunderhead" and "Mount Dragon." He isn't in that, but, they tie into the later stories.

I think all of the Pendergast novels are worth reading, as are any of Preston and Childs stuff. I would have to say I enjoyed their standalone novels more. Thunderhead was one of my favorites. Also the one where they try to pull the thing out of the ocean...can't remember the name.

Yes, yes, yes. All of the Pendergast books are worth the read!!

I'm on Pendergast No. 10 and 11.

I read a lot of fiction, and I have won a considerable number of books here on goodreads in the giveaway program. Many of these books are excellent, superb, but I cannot be reading a Preston/Child book at the same time. Because I want to read the Preston/Child over almost anything else. I love the weird settings - the museums and dungeons and old houses. The descriptions are just perfect - sometimes a bit overthetop - but still perfect. I love the settings, the stories, the characters, the everything about these books.

So when I think I should be reading some literary classic or literary Nobel-prize winner - okay I will - but I love the Preston/Child books. Just love them. They are just about the only books that I can sit and read and read and read and forget about eating, my grandkids, my husband, time to cook supper - all of that just disappears.

Yes, they are worth the read! Love the Pendergast series!

Lindy wrote: "I read Relic last year. I realize that many see this as the first of a series featuring Agent Pendergast. Are the other Pendergast books worth a read? I really enjoyed Relic, but probably more so f..."

Yes the rest of the Penderghast collection is definitely worth reading.

There all great! My favorite thriller authors next to James Rollins!

1)"The Cabinet of Curiosity."
2)"Riptide."
3)"Relic"

One Saturday morning while eating my cereal, alone at the table,and I had already finished reading the cereal box, I picked up the book my son Matthew had recently finished. It was "The Cabinet of Curiosities". Thinking I would peruse it until I finished my cup of tea, I began reading. Well, from Saturday at 9:00 am till Sunday about 6:30 or so, I was totally absorbed. I read the entire book. Fortunately, I had no pressing things to accomplish. I absolutely loved the book! I was so intrigued by this Pendergast character that the authors made so real, (well,to me,anyway)I could not put it down. I sat in a chair outside wrapped in a blanket because it was a chilly, but sunny day in the fall- and read. All day, and the next.
I am also a serious fan of the audio version, my very favorite being Rene Auberjonois as the Narrator for "Still Life With Crows". Matthew gave me the audio version for Christmas. Barnes and Noble Bargain Rack- hence, cassette...And I have a cassette in my car.
I would drive around an extra block to get to a stopping point! Mr Auberjonois has Narrated ten of the Lincoln Childs & Douglas Preston Novels. Some are also on CD, ha-ha, not just cassette.
When it got to the trilogy with the deviant insane genius brother, Diogenes, I did become a bit weary of the evil and the chase. Those books began to drag.

All in all, I absolutely love the books.I love the Agent Pendergast character. He is a combination of James Bond's 007 and every good hero that I could imagine. Simply amazing. My hero.....

Random Question:
What is the recommended reading order for the series? I had read that they are stand alones, but "should" be read in order...so I'm a little confused. Any thoughts?

I read relic years ago. I really liked it back then. Never did read any of the others.

I loved all of these books, but I am fascinated with Pendergast. I started with Cabinet of Curiosities and went back and read all of them.

If you enjoyed Relic then you'll probably enjoy the rest of the books with Pendergast. I have to agree with the others that the more recent ones haven't been as strong. I just finished 2 graves and was not impressed at all as it was by far their worst book to date. Saying that I'll find myself reading the next one that comes out hoping it can't be any worse.....

Best of the series after the beginning are Brimstone and Cold Vengeance, while weakest - barely could finish it - Reliquary. The rest is somewhere in between.

Each one is unique apon its own. I find myself with a wonderful smile when I come across the latest one.

IMHO, You can never go wrong with a Pendergast novel; especially where they have started taking the series!

Yes they are worth a read.

My favorite is of course, Relic, but my second favorite of the series was 'The Cabinet of Curiosities.' I do agree the later ones have not been as good, but I still love Pendergast. Haven't read Two Graves yet, but looking forward to it.

Although Relic was fun because of the connection with the Museum of Natural History, I have to say my favorite was Cemetery Dance. I haven't read them all, and have gone out of order, so I can't say with authority that the most recent are weaker, but the zombies plot of this one was a turn off at first, but the rest of the plot kept me intrigued. I liked two things about this one, first the further exploration of Pendergast and his off kilter New Orleans roots and second the wonderful prose describing the tree lined palisades of northern parts of NYC really impressed me. I say Read On!

I enjoy the entire series though have so far found the post-trilogy series novels the weakest. They are better IMO than either authors solo work which I have also read with mixed feelings.

M take is they are okay and interesting for the genre. If the bookpile by your bed is depleted, they deserve to be on the stack. But are they worth the hours to get through them all? Hmmm...

Absolutely! Once you get into the character, you will be hooked! His latest, Two Graves, was wonderful! Happy reading!

The Pendergast books are great. In fact I've recently been thinking about starting the series over again, before I start reading some of the newer titles. Of course, I also love everything else that these guys write, including their solo books.

Anything prior to the Diogenes trilogy (starting with Brimstone) is worth a read. Preston and Child are at the top of the game with the first few Pendergast books.

The ones after that are good too, but the earlier ones are definitely better.

I completely enjoyed Relic and Reliquary, but the others didn't work for me. The Cabinet of Curiosities I just found too disturbing to even finish.

I really enjoyed Relic, and I've liked all the rest of the Pendergast novels (Cabinet of Curiosities is still my favorite), but if you liked Relic more for the story than the characters, I would think you may not be crazy about the rest. Most of the "monster stuff" that makes up Relic is missing from subsequent novels, in a sort of Scooby-Doo sense ("It's not a GHOST! It's Mr Jenkins, the groundskeeper!"). I like them, and I continue to stay current with the novels, but mostly, as Gary said above, it's mindless escapist fiction, the book version of Prime Time TV.

Yes they are. To be fair, Relic is a darn good book and a tough one to top. The book was WAY better than the movie. But I suspect you will get hooked if continue to read these books.

I've read every book in this series from Relic to Brimstone. Reliquary was the worst of these, very forgettable. I think you wouldn't miss anything if you skipped it. But The Cabinet of Curiosity and Still Life With Crows are great, the best of the series I've read so far. I couldn't put them down and read them in less than a week.

I read these books. I admit it. They are trite, predictable, escapist fiction that beats zoning out in front of the TV, and that relaxes my mind enough to go to sleep. I remember them not at all--which in this case is a plus, not a minus.

Good fiction (as opposed to mass-market pulp fiction) is about people. Most readers who read novels want to read about people. Characters come first. Story fits the characters. And these two elements form a symbiosis--they feed off each other. If it is a symbiosis that reflects the real world, then it vaults the book from fun-to-read to memorable. If the prose is also good, then the book jumps another level, from memorable to it's-a-keeper. Sorry if that sounds a bit pompous. But there it is.

This series has characters and stories, it's true, but they are cartoon characters and stories. Book Lite. If that's what you want to read, then they are great.