Official Review: The Holder of the Key and The Alpha Init...

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claire mckay
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Official Review: The Holder of the Key and The Alpha Init...

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Holder of the Key and The Alpha Initiative REDUX" by Richard Dive.]
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The Holder of the Key and the Alpha Initiative REDUX by Richard Dive are parts I and II of the Holder of the Key Series. It is an interesting story about Adam Thorne who is a young researcher in the history department of a college who enjoys hanging out with his friends, the twins Alice and Ben, and his adoptive brother and father, Teagues and Professor Hadley-Baldwin. However, when a mysterious key is sent to his grandfather Adam accidentally opens it and it seems to choose him as its owner and he becomes involved in the search for the historical artefacts known as the Elysian gifts. The mysterious billionaire Lucius Hart has been leading the search for these legendary items and is desperately seeking clues to Elysian gifts all around the world. These gifts seem to have come from some sort of ancient gods and have enormous powers but also bear a strong warning that these gifts should never come together.

Lucius Hart seems to understand that the Elysian key has selected Adam for its purposes and so he recruits Adam and his friends to join expeditions to investigate sightings of Elysian symbols where they meet some of the Hart staff, including Dr Liz Pace, who Adam is very drawn to. As the story unravels through the two books there are various expeditions each one filled with new mysteries especially for Adam who is encountering strange visions and new capabilities that he can't explain. As the second book starts we also learn that there is an elite and dangerous group called the Alpha Initiative who are just as desperate to locate these Elysian gifts and their powers for their own purposes.

These books were originally published separately but the author was unhappy with the final outcomes so has reedited them and published them again as two books in one so this runs to 500 pages in total. There is a bit of summarising at the start of the second book which is a little strange when you're reading them together but not enough to be annoying. There are also quite a few editing mistakes such as missing words and wrong words that were probably a result of spell checking which meant I had to reread sentences to try and figure out what it had meant to say. However, overall I really enjoyed these books and found them to be interesting and entertaining and these small discrepancies didn't detract too much from my enjoyment.

The book is full of well written characters who are very diverse in nature but all very believable and the author has put a lot of detail into them and taken the time to really bring them to life. There is the quirky old professor, the funny joker Ben, the mysterious and quiet Dr Pace and my favourite,Teagues. He is Adam's adoptive brother and has a top secret research facility on the site of the college and appears to be a genius, a pilot, a ladies man and a bit of an ex military hero all rolled into one. He is a bit of a background character in the first book but becomes more involved in the second one and hopefully we'll see more of him as the series continues. The author takes a nice low key approach to him which just made him seem even cooler and more kick ass!

The main character Adam is also a good character as he is an ordinary, easy to relate to kind of guy which is something I always appreciate as it makes it easier to believe and be caught up in the mysteries unfolding around him. The interactions between Adam and the others are good and keep the story moving along nicely although we don't know much yet about Lucius Hart or the members of the Alpha Initiative. There are quite a few mysteries left unsolved about the characters and I have the feeling there are a lot of twists to come in the future.

The authors style is very detailed with lots of extra information about the characters, the college and their surroundings that isn't really essential to the plot. This is something I usually find a bit dull but in this book I didn't as it gave everything such a depth and authenticity to it that I ended up going online to see if places were real and was surprised to find they weren't! He does need to be careful to keep the pace fast enough to keep the reader engrossed but I was certainly engaged through the whole book. The story is extremely well thought out and gives the impression that the author really knows where this is all going even though the reader is left guessing over so many things. I am really hoping that subsequent books will prove me right! So far the story is developing nicely with the introduction of more Elysian gifts, their impact on Adam and the increasing element of danger from the Alpha Initiative. I hope the author keeps the surprises coming though as if it gets too draw out then the reader could get bored reading about lots of different expeditions even if each one is like an Indiana Jones film!

I give this book a very strong 3 out of 4 stars as I really enjoyed it. It has lots of great characters, interesting fast paced action, a ton of mysteries to be solved and is written in a very professional detailed way. It is tricky to mark a series of books as there is so much left to be resolved and obviously the ending is unknown but these book have massive potential. If the author can keep the pace of the story up and the secrets that are revealed are believable and exciting then I will be reading the future books. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys a well written mystery and has ever enjoyed an Indiana Jones film (not counting the last one obviously!).

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Post by kio »

Great review. Can't wait to read them.
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