Excalibur

Area 51 #6

by Bob Mayer

In his time at Area 51, Mike Turcotte has learned one thing: we are not alone. As part of an elite Special Forces team, the former Green Beret has encountered things that are well beyond human understanding. Now, two ancient rivals from another world are vying to dominate Earth, and Mike and his team must choose which army to side with. The key to averting the crisis lies in a single weapon: Excalibur. The mythical, legendary sword of King Arthur is real and can unlock a galactic power beyond what anyone—human or alien—has ever seen. And Mike must keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

The race to recover Excalibur will lead the players all across the globe—from the ancient pyramids to the Great Wall of China, from a fortress on Easter Island to the heights of Mount Everest—in a high-stakes game in which the fate of humanity is the ultimate prize.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Aliens, Paranormal, Military Fiction, Thriller

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 26, 2002

About the author

Besides my own interests, I read whatever my wife tells me to read-- she's a voracious reader and has wide-ranging tastes as my reviews show (she also always has the TV remote and she's always right about what to watch). I read a lot of nonfiction, mostly for research. Some of my favorite books are Lonesome Dove, Mystic River, LOTR, and an array of science fiction classics including the Foundation series. Our house is covered with books, although I finally broke down and started reading eBooks, strangely enough on my iPhone. Since I carry it pretty much everywhere, it means I always have an entire library of books with me.

I'm a West Point graduate, former Green Beret and a New York Times Bestselling Author. I've sold over five million books. My newest series begins with New York Minute, a thriller set in New York City in 1977.

I love using history and science in my books. My Area 51 series pretty much had me rewriting our entire history of civilization.

Reviews

[Maria Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Number 6 book in this series, does have the usual summation about the progress of the former books, a procedure the author could have eliminated to a much smaller coverage in the book. There are several different lines to the story, three of the plots have to do with acquiring an item referred to Excalibur. It is a needed item by all parties to control the master guardian. We learn the story on how the Shadow Artad in the disguise of Arthur, from the Camelot story, used Excalibur to defeat the Shadow Aspasia in a mutual mortal defeat of both of them. Merlin, a rogue Watcher, took Excalibur from the Watcher site and hid it at the top of the known world (a ridge on top of Mount Everest), hoping that it would be impossible for someone to both find it and come down from the mountain. Even in present-day 2019, only the hardiest can make the climb up and down and survive. There are bodies left on the route sometimes for years. Even so, three different parties are attempting to reach Excalibur at the same time. Asparsia's Shadow sends a pair of nanovirus infected Navy Seals to climb up the mountain after flying in with a helicopter to the highest point possible and climbing the rest of the wait. Artad sends 3 of those who Watch to get Excalibur by hiring an experienced climb team. Turcotte gets to Everest using a bouncer but he still has to climb past a certain point, so he has an experienced medic mountain climber with him who prepared him with a transfusion of Oxygen-rich blood to acclimate him for the climbing area, plus Mualama is coming with him. It becomes a race to the finish, with the Navy Seals arriving at the top of the ridge first, because they put a claymore mine in Turcotte's group's path which kills the medic but not Turcotte or Mualama and sniper shooting all the members of the other team from Artad one by one. But Turcotte manages to kill one Navy Seal and attack the other who in a moment of clarity kills himself by jumping off the ridge, leaving Turcotte and Mualama as the only ones left. Turcotte uses his ice ax to free Excalibur from the ice cavern it was inside. As he reaches for it, he gets attacked by Mualama who is holding some form of blue stone which Turcotte realizes should not touch Excalibur. In the struggle to get Mualama away, Turcotte falls over the ridge and has to cut Mualama's arm to release his grasp of Turcotte. To his dismay, out of Mualama's mouth comes a three-fingered tentacle that tries to attach itself to Turcotte but he manages to reach hold of Excalibur and cuts and destroys the tentacle. Still holding Excalibur, Turcotte slumps to a sitting position on the ridge surrounded by dead bodies. While he was doing this Yakov had gained possession of the Master Guardian which was inside the other Mothership. As soon as Turcotte had gained possession of Excalibur, the Master Guardian turned off all other guardians, effectively eliminating the warring Aralias vantage advantage over humans. Quinn who had been monitoring events over the globe contacted Turcotte via his Satphone and told him they were sending in a rescue party to him.
While this was going on, Duncan had been kidnapped by a group who claimed to be the backup Majestic-12, set up 50 years ago, in case of problems. They tell her, that they need her to access her blocked memories, without telling her the reason. They are under the influence of the Swarm, the aliens the Airlia claim to be defending Earth from. Fortunate for all parties, this group of Swarm, has no means of space travel or space communication available to call in re-enforcements, yet. Duncan is the Key to all of this along with Turcotte.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, this book starts off where “The Grail” leaves off. Lisa Duncan has been shot and the aliens are starting to get organized to fight each other with humans in between. Mike Turcotte and his small collection of very different people are trying to find a way to stop the coming war and prevent the annihilation of humanity. He knows that neither side in the alien conflict give a rats a** about the humans that will be slaughtered or turned into nano virus driven zombies.

He must find two things: 1. Excaliber and 2. The second mother ship which has the Master Guardian Computer. It’s believed that getting those to items together or working will prevent either Airlia side from controlling Earth.

Of course finding these two items isn’t going to be easy. They are hidden in almost completely inaccessible places on Earth and several previous attempts to recover them have ended in the death of all involved. Yet Turcotte cannot fail. He also struggles with the idea that something has happened to Lisa Duncan which might change their relationship forever.

Additionally, we get a hint that nobody in this book is really who we think they are; not Mike, not Mualama, not Lisa Duncan. So who are they?

[Larissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really worried about what's going to happen with certain characters. I'm also wondering now that Excalibur has been found if something else will end up happening.

[Jacques Hollands · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favourite book in the series so far. I have been critical of the series in the past as the storyline at times felt disjointed. This was not the case with Excalibur. All in all, the story was edited tighter, and the story flowed much better. The story is building up rather nicely, and I can't wait to read the next book.

I listened to the audiobook on Scribd, and the narration was excellent.

[Shaft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a dumb over the top adventure series. I stopped reading this for awhile because it was getting a bit too crazy to track but I've come back because somehow I've gotten used to how crazy it is and the series is a lot of fun. I always wondered how these really big series (10+ instalments) could work I guess I am starting to see how.

[Teo · Rating 3 out of 5]

To my disappointment, he sixth book in the Area 51 series turned out to be mediocre at best. The narrative trudged along in a very slow pace and I often found myself bored. It picked up at the end but it wasn't enough to save the book from the title of worst in the series (for now). Three stars just because I'm a fan of Mr. Mayer's and on to the next one.

[Elizabeth Adkisson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best so far.

So far, this is the best in the series. After six books in the series, I am more amped to read more than I was after the first book. The story has never had any predictable parts. Not in six books. On to the next book.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pleasure to read. Multiple plots multiple aliens multiple people all stating they are right. Excalibur plays a major part as often the case with these books turning a myth on its head. Joyous. But overall an easy read. So one star less.

[Gary Wilmot · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is such a relief . . .

. . . to be assured, after 6 full entries in this series, that every main character is STILL dutifully “racking the bolt to make sure there’s a round in the chamber” each and every time they pick up their weapon.

EACH. AND. EVERY. TIME.

[Richard W. McCuistian · Rating 5 out of 5]

It couldn't be better!!

Some of the best of its kind I've ever read. Very rich and well written. Good job, Bob! I highly recommend this series.

[William Hutchcraft · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent read author does a great job continuing this series this entire series has been one that i didnt want to put down

[Noodle The Naughty Night Owl · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10: Excellent read, well written, fell right into the fictional world created.

[J.S. Nelson]

DNF

[Pruitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excalibur is the sixth book in the Area 51 series, and things are really starting to build up again in the storyline. This was another sub-plot book, that saw a major plot come to a conclusion at the end of the book. There is certainly much more to be discovered about this story in the remaining few books, but I think this book was a turning point of sorts, which should lead to even better stories in the concluding volumes.

Overall I have really enjoyed reading this series up to this point. It's been a fun ride, even if much of the story is somewhat predictable. But the author does throw a number of curve balls at you that were difficult to predict, which really adds to the enjoyment of the series. I know I've said this in my other reviews, but if you like these kinds of modern day, flying saucer, alien, area 51 style SciFi stories, then you will certainly enjoy this one. I definitely recommend it. :)

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fun series keeps rolling along as we approach the "final" book #7 The Truth. (There are more books in the series, technically, but they are more stand-alone additions rather than part of the 7 main novels).

The action continues on multiple fronts as each major character must take an active role in the effort to stop the alien rivalry. The pace has definitely picked up as well with the final 50 pages literally transitioning from one character's perspective to another after just a few paragraphs. Everything is happening at once and yet the author is able to keep juggling all of the plots in a well coordinated structure. It's definitely a page turner and also enjoyable to see events shaping up for the final novel. There are any number of ways for this to turn out and I'm excited to see how it goes.

[Nai Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books just get better as we progress. I don't know if the author had the entire road map laid out but the way he has woven all of our history and mythology into this one premise is quite impressive. From what I gather it seemed like when he wrote the first book he just took popular alien conspiracies and wrote a story around it. Once he realized that the book was successful he had to come up with other angles which could have horribly backfired but by the time he wrote this book you can certain see a master plan emerge as he wraps all our myths and legends into one type of origin. Impressive.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a bit uneven, and felt more like a connector book than a complete book. The first half felt like a lot of recap and very little story. The second half felt a bit rushed and as though the author was thinning the herd, as we ended with less characters than we started with. Overall, it felt like he was tying up one story arc and setting up a whole new arc - hence, a connector book. Granted, I'm pretty intrigued to see where it goes next, so I guess it sorta worked in the end. The parts on Everest were quite interesting, though more of that and less recap would have been better.

[Carlos Trevino · Rating 5 out of 5]

The series keeps getting better. I felt a good portion of this book was just build up to the last chapter or two but it was definitely worth it. Whereas the last couple of books ended on a pretty low note for the human race, things finally going in their favor brought me much satisfaction. Knowing Artad and Aspasia (and maybe even the Swarm) are sure to strike back hard makes the anticipation for the next book that much stronger.

[Patty Mora · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated it! Got through maybe half of the book before I gave up. Too many changes in place, time, and characters within the each chapter. Gave me a headache. I'm not sure what genre this would fit in because it had a little bit of everything: aliens, soldiers, kings, computers, land, water, air, biblical references, etc.

Not my cup of tea.

[Donald]

In this book of the series, we are forced to question the true identities of several characters that have played important roles in the plots of the earlier books. Also, we go to Mount Ararat to find Noah's ark and to the "top of the world," Mount Everest, to retrieve Excalibur ...

Next, perhaps we'll stay at a Holiday Inn Exprerss ... :-)

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike the previous entry in the series this one is pretty good. A return to the fast paced action, a complete lack of endless readings from the big book of secret history, tense scenes, and the start of the third world war. A great story.

[Thomas Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times I was very confused about who the good guys were. Powerful ending and now on to the next one!

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally getting some answers. Looking forward to what comes next.

[Spot Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, as expected.

[Tim Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing. Thought provoking.

This was one of the most thought provoking books, in the Area 51 series.
Every that you think that you are will be questioned.

[David Quist · Rating 3 out of 5]

overall I like the book, but it is not as good as the rest of the series that I have read so far. The story continues to be fun, and am curious to see how the many side stories turn out.

[thomas j nobles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

Good notGreat but just enough to keep you wanting to read the next in the series of books which is what I'm getting ready to do

[Tom McCaffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The grand finale was a little disappointing and Mayer has no qualms about killing off main characters.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good!!

[Stuart Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great read with twists you may not expect.