On 17th July, 1918,
Bolshevik troops murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his entirely family.
This harrowing murder would go down in the river of history, it played a vital role in the formation of the Soviet Union. Decades have passed, countless speculations
and rumors have emerged regarding the possible survivors of the tragic
execution. While we may never know if any of Nicolas II's children
survived, but one man, Grigori Rasputin, arguably the most
controversial and enigmatic character from the last century, painted
further mystery to this already horrific murder. Apparently, two
months before Rasputin was assassinated in 1916, he allegedly
prophesied the execution of Nicholas II and his family.
Did Rasputin really prophesied the
murder of the imperial family? We may never know the truth behind
these supernatural allegations. But the sheer weight of this tragic
incident, compounded with its mysterious nature, certainly makes
excellent materials for a conspiracy thriller. One author performed
extensive research into this dark history, and exercised his colorful
imagination to weave a conspiracy thriller that will keep Dan Brown's
fans up and reading the whole night. The author's name is Steve
Berry, and this novel is called The Romanov Prophecy.
Synopsis:
Grigori Rasputin, a saint, a madman, or a
charlatan? In 1916, this mythical faith healer made a prophecy;
should he be murdered in the hands of a relative to the imperial
family, then everyone in Nicholas II's family would die within 2
years.
On a July's night, 1918, the White Army
approached the town where the Tsar and his family were being held
captives. A squad of Bolsheviks, supposedly under the order of Lenin,
and led by Yakov Yrovsky, executed the entire imperial family, wiping
out Nicholas II's line of direct descendants from history
Almost a century later, Miles Lord, an
African American lawyer from Atlanta, is partaking in Russia's
historic moment – after the fall of communism and a succession of
weak governments, the Russian people have voted to resurrect the
monarchy. The new heir, chosen by a special commission, and favored
by a group of western business tycoons, is a distant relative of
Nicholas II. Miles' job, is to perform the background check on this
successor.
Miles' exciting new job pushed him into
a storm of political conspiracies and assassinations. It all began,
when an assassin tried to gun down Miles on a city plaza. Soon, Miles
found himself pursued by a group of dreadful henchmen across the
Russian continent. As Miles searched for the identity of the one who
ordered his death warrant, he encountered a mysterious order, its
leader pointed him to the cryptic writings of Rasputin. From here,
Miles realized the answer to his salvation lies in solving a
historical puzzle – what really happened to Russia's last Tsar?
My thoughts on this book:
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| Lilies of the Valley Egg - used in the plot in this book |
Steve Berry is most well known by his
Cotton Malone series. Cotton Malone, a retired Justice
Department Operative, possesses the intellectual prowess that can
only be matched by Robert Langdon. In comparison to Malone and
Langdon, Miles Lord, the protagonist in this book, comes across as a
fairly average person with no superhuman powers of any sort.
i.e. unlike Malone and Langdon, Miles does not possess eidetic
memory, nor is he a trained military operative with weaponry skills.
In this book, Miles is just a lawyer, who, by accident, entangled
himself in a political conspiracy and he is fighting for his life.
This also means, from the actions to the puzzle-solving, The
Romanov Prophecy narrates a very realistic story. There is no
over the top action in this book, and Miles Lord behaved very human
like. He is no genius, under the stressful conditions, he made a bagful of mistakes and paid for them with consequences. This is why I like
Miles Lord, here is a believable story about an average Joe trying to
survive an extra-ordinary event, his tale emanates a real sense of
danger and a reader (such as I) rooted for him until the end of the
story.
When it comes to storytelling, The
Romanov Prophecy tells a gripping story. Not only did Steve Berry
weaved layers of mystery into the story, but he also successfully
maintained a high level of suspense throughout the book. He kept the
story's big twist, the ace, face down until reaching the very end of
the story. However, The Romanov Prophecy is not without flaws.
In fact, this book suffers from an uneven pace and it is preventing
it from being a master piece in the thriller genre.
Allow me to explain. The Romanov
Prophecy counts to 380 pages. It is by no means a long book, but
the story took its first 170 pages to build the momentum. The first
half of the book felt cluttered and slow because it spent too much
space building Miles' background story, and it took long to establish
the worldbuilding. The meat of the story, the mystery and the
suspense, were only served on the plate after passing the books'
halfway mark. Once the story got going, however, it moved at a
lightning fast pace. That was when the nail-biting adventure, promised on the book's cover, truly began (although it came a bit
late). Perhaps the author had to pace the story in this fashion because
there is too much content in the story? I don't know, but I would
describe The Romanov Prophecy as a heavily loaded train
climbing a hill. It carries too heavy a cargo and it struggled on its way up. Once it is over the hill, gravity does the
work and eventually the train rages down the hill at a dam-bursting
momentum.
In other words, while The Romanov
Prophecy suffers from a pacing issue, but I still think it is a
fun and exciting thriller. I believe most readers will appreciate the
realistic portrayal for Miles Lord's character, and then find intrigues in the historical facts mentioned in this book, facts that
may prompt its readers to do further readings on the enigmatic Rasputin, Russian history, and the tragic story of its last Tsar.
Lovers of conspiracy thrillers, don't
miss out on this book!
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| The Romanov family |
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