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The Charlemagne Pursuit: A Novel | 
| Author: Steve Berry
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $10.00
You Save: $16.00 (62%)
New (42) Used (17) Collectible (3) from $9.89
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 869
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0345485793
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345485793
ASIN: 0345485793
Publication Date: December 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
As a child, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone was told his father died in a submarine disaster in the North Atlantic, but now he wants the full story and asks his ex-boss, Stephanie Nelle, to secure the military files. What he learns stuns him: His father’s sub was a secret nuclear vessel lost on a highly classified mission beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.
But Malone isn’t the only one after the truth.
Twin sisters Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk are fighting for the fortune their mother has promised to whichever of them discovers what really became of their father–who died on the same submarine that Malone’s father captained.
The sisters know something Malone doesn’t: Inspired by strange clues discovered in Charlemagne’s tomb, the Nazis explored Antarctica before the Americans, as long ago as 1938. Now Malone discovers that cryptic journals penned in “the language of heaven,” inscrutable conundrums posed by an ancient historian, and the ill-fated voyage of his father are all tied to a revelation of immense consequence for humankind.
In an effort to ensure that this explosive information never rises to the surface, Langford Ramsey, an ambitious navy admiral, has begun a brutal game of treachery, blackmail, and assassination. As Malone embarks on a dangerous quest with the sisters–one that leads them from an ancient German cathedral to a snowy French citadel to the unforgiving ice of Antarctica–he will finally confront the shocking truth of his father’s death and the distinct possibility of his own.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 purchased as a christmas gift..... January 6, 2009
B. Catron (dc, usa)
....for someone in my office. she always asks for steve berry's books, so he must be a terrific writer :)
Intriguing premise.... January 5, 2009
Luanne Ollivier
I read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code when it came out and enjoyed it. But then I discovered Steve Berry and haven't looked back. As far as I'm concerned he's the master of this genre, combining historical fact with suspense, intrigue and non stop action.
Berry's recurring character is Cotton Malone, a 'retired' government agent. His father Forrest died in a submarine accident in 1971. For years he has tried to find out details, but has been stymied by the Navy. He pulls in a favour and gains access to highly classified documents - his father's sub was on a secret mission to the Antarctic. When he is contacted by the German family members of another of the doomed submariners, he agrees to embark on a search for the truth. And that truth is a shocker. The other family holds documents that show the submarine was out to prove the existance of a 'First Civilization' - a culture that evolved long before history as we know it. There seems to be evidence that Charlemagne had knowledge gained from this advanced culture. The Nazis looked for it in 1938 and the Americans went back in 1971.
The Charlemagne Pursuit is a thrilling read. The plot is intricate and involved, with many seemingly disparate stories converging at the end in a gripping climax. Berry's research is intriguing. I found myself stopping and actually looking up some of the events and history he refers to. One example is the Piri Reis Map. Much of it is true and thought provoking. There is a writer's note at the end indicating what is fact and what he has taken fictional liberty with.
Cotton Malone is an engaging character, one I've enjoyed following the previous six novels. The supporting characters are also well written, but I did find the German sisters a bit over the top at times.
Any of his books can be read alone. Read one and I guarantee you'll be looking for others in the series!
 The Bodies Pile up like Cord Wood January 1, 2009
Dave Schwinghammer (Little Falls, Minnesota USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've read a few other Berry thrillers (THE AMBER ROOM, THE ROMANOV PROPHECY), mainly to satisfy my Romanov jones. Berry usually does a pretty good job making the historical distortions palatable. That's not the case with THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT. I wanted to know more about Charlemagne, but this is more about some crazy Nazi scheme to prove their Aryan ancestry.
The book is in trouble right off the bat in that there are too many characters, and each of them is given his/her own viewpoint. There's a villainous admiral who wants to be vice president who will stop at nothing to get there, including murdering people. There are three or four secret agents, some of whom work for the admiral. There are two crazy German sisters who hate each other and their mother who is even crazier. There is a professional hit man with more lives than a cat. The list goes on and on. Suffice it to say the bodies pile up like cord wood.
The Charlemagne reference has to do with a couple of books that the two German sisters own, one supposedly found in Charlemagne's grave. One of the books is in Latin, the other in some unintelligible language that the sisters and Cotton Malone, the main character, try to translate. It supposedly has to do with an advanced civilization that existed well before the Egyptians. And get this, it was supposed to be located beneath the ice cap in Antarctica.
Berry must have had a problem with some of this stuff himself because he includes a "writer's note" at the end, trying to fill some of the holes. For instance, there really is a NR-1 submarine; there really were two covert operations called Highjump and Windmill. There really is a Piri Reis map with advanced navigational references that existed before longitude and latitude and the prime meridian were agreed upon. He also takes a mild swing at science which denied the existence of continental drift; this is supposed to prove that there could have been an advanced civilization before the Egyptians.
What finally got me was the complete lack of motivation for the hatred of the two sisters. Was it supposed to have something to do with impressing their mother, or were they just crazy? The most likely explanation is that Berry needed them to behave that way, and that's author intrusion, a big no no.
 A Complete Disappointment December 30, 2008
James L. Markman (Fullerton, Ca., USA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
While Berry's prior Cotton Malone books were worth reading as limited successes in emulating the "Da Vinci Code" formula, the characters were always a bit two dimensional and the clues and plot a bit implausible. But this effort goes so far over the top, particularly with the "development" of the plot concerning the old woman and her two daughters that I was tempted several times to abandon the read. The only interesting subplot occurred in Washington where some semblance of potential reality was maintained. This one was bad enough to dissuade me from picking up another Berry book.
 wait...wait...darn December 29, 2008
Quixote010 (columbus, ohio)
Steve Berry has the formula for interesting books.
1- His main character, Cotton Mather, is complex and interesting with the plausable background of having once worked for the governement but has decided to retire to the life of a bookseller in Europe (good so far);
2- Mather has as a reoccuring circle of friends who seem to have endless connections and unimaginable wealth, all of which he seems to have access to at his beck and call (well, it is fiction);
3- Berry's books are historically-based and often revealing, giving credence to his stories and making the storyline more interesting (it's amazing what you can discover from his books);
4- He makes his stories even more interesting by situating them in fascinating, actual surroundings with great detail and explanation (at least most of the time);
So what the problem?
Although I look forward to reading each of his books based upon the features above, I know I'm going to be disappointed at the end. Berry seems to take one step too many. His leaps from the realm of possibility into the circle of obsurdity...not much, but just enough to deflate me.
His character, his supporting cast, his locations, even the situations and premises are all outstanding, but he takes a well-created human character with human skills and human frailites and moves the plot into
abnormal, absurd situations. I, for one, would be far more interested in having Mather seek a long-lost copy of Shakespeare's plays (a plausable notion) rather than a long-lost civilization (okay, if we must).
Steve Berry's books are always fun, enjoyable reads, if for nothing more than the interesting, historical facts that surrounds the situation. But the final chapters are flawed. Are the endings satisfactory? Well, kinda. They would be far more interesting to me if they were far less grand.
The shelves are full of wonderful, interesting characters... Cotton Mather is certainly one. For my sake, I would like Berry to keep him human, and away from far-reaching premises.
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