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A Gideon Crew Collection: Gideon's Sword, Gideon's Corpse, and The Lost Island Omnibus
Now, available for the first time together in a single a digital-only, value-priced bundle edition of the first three books in the Gideon Crew "Gideon's Sword," "Gideon's Corpse," and "The Lost Island," by #1 "New York Times" bestselling authors Preston & Child.
GIDEON'S At twelve, Gideon Crew witnessed his father, a world-class mathematician, accused of treason and gunned down. At twenty-four, summoned to his dying mother's bedside, Gideon learned the His father was framed and deliberately slaughtered. With her last breath, she begged her son to avenge him. Now, with a new purpose in his life, Gideon crafts a one-time mission of vengeance, aimed at the perpetrator of his father's destruction. His plan is meticulous, spectacular, and successful. But from the shadows, someone is watching. A very powerful someone, who is impressed by Gideon's special skills. Someone who has need of just such a renegade. For Gideon, this operation may be only the beginning...
GIDEON'S A top nuclear scientist goes mad and takes an innocent family hostage at gunpoint, killing one and causing a massive standoff. A plume of radiation above New York City leads to a warehouse where, it seems, a powerful nuclear bomb was assembled just hours before. Sifting through the evidence, authorities determine that the unthinkable is about to in ten days, a major American city will be vaporized by a terrorist attack. Ten days. And Gideon Crew, tracking the mysterious terrorist cell from the suburbs of New York to the mountains of New Mexico, learns the end may be something worse--far worse--than mere Armageddon.
THE LOST Brilliant scientist and master thief Gideon Crew is living on borrowed time when he is tasked by his mysterious employer, Eli Glinn, to steal a page from the priceless Book of Kells, now on display in New York City and protected by unbreakable security. Gideon gets the parchment-only to learn that hidden beneath the illuminated image is a treasure map dating back to the ancient Greeks. As they ponder the strange map, they realize that the treasure it leads to is no ordinary fortune. It is something far more an amazing discovery that could perhaps even save Gideon's life. Together with his new partner, Amy, Gideon follows a trail of cryptic clues to an unknown island in a remote corner of the Caribbean Sea. There, off the hostile and desolate Mosquito Coast, the pair discover the extraordinary treasure they are hunting conceals an even greater shock-a revelation so profound that it may benefit the entire human race . . . if Gideon and Amy can survive.
GIDEON'S At twelve, Gideon Crew witnessed his father, a world-class mathematician, accused of treason and gunned down. At twenty-four, summoned to his dying mother's bedside, Gideon learned the His father was framed and deliberately slaughtered. With her last breath, she begged her son to avenge him. Now, with a new purpose in his life, Gideon crafts a one-time mission of vengeance, aimed at the perpetrator of his father's destruction. His plan is meticulous, spectacular, and successful. But from the shadows, someone is watching. A very powerful someone, who is impressed by Gideon's special skills. Someone who has need of just such a renegade. For Gideon, this operation may be only the beginning...
GIDEON'S A top nuclear scientist goes mad and takes an innocent family hostage at gunpoint, killing one and causing a massive standoff. A plume of radiation above New York City leads to a warehouse where, it seems, a powerful nuclear bomb was assembled just hours before. Sifting through the evidence, authorities determine that the unthinkable is about to in ten days, a major American city will be vaporized by a terrorist attack. Ten days. And Gideon Crew, tracking the mysterious terrorist cell from the suburbs of New York to the mountains of New Mexico, learns the end may be something worse--far worse--than mere Armageddon.
THE LOST Brilliant scientist and master thief Gideon Crew is living on borrowed time when he is tasked by his mysterious employer, Eli Glinn, to steal a page from the priceless Book of Kells, now on display in New York City and protected by unbreakable security. Gideon gets the parchment-only to learn that hidden beneath the illuminated image is a treasure map dating back to the ancient Greeks. As they ponder the strange map, they realize that the treasure it leads to is no ordinary fortune. It is something far more an amazing discovery that could perhaps even save Gideon's life. Together with his new partner, Amy, Gideon follows a trail of cryptic clues to an unknown island in a remote corner of the Caribbean Sea. There, off the hostile and desolate Mosquito Coast, the pair discover the extraordinary treasure they are hunting conceals an even greater shock-a revelation so profound that it may benefit the entire human race . . . if Gideon and Amy can survive.
- GenresThriller
937 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 5, 2016
About the author
Douglas Preston
210 books13.9k followersDouglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 2, 2021
Few spoilers about the character ahead: This series is entertaining but nothing more. The main character Gideon is, for lack of a better word "obsolete." He is portrayed as flirtatious but comes off as misogynistic to an extent. And, even though he is extremely intelligent he always falls for the femme fatale which is very...80s. Finally, I'm glad we have intelligent, deep female characters but can we make them normal women and not adventure barbie?
This is a summer reading book for the plane trip or to read by the pool. Note that I love the Pendergast Series but this is not close to as good as that one.
This is a summer reading book for the plane trip or to read by the pool. Note that I love the Pendergast Series but this is not close to as good as that one.
April 20, 2022
An entertaining read and the premise was great, but I found the main character Gideon a bit of a wimp and was consistently out shined by other stronger characters. I was waiting for him to have a strong breakout at the end, but alas it never came. The ending was disappointing and set up a future book on characters that seemed morally challenged and with whom I don't really want to be associated with anymore. Too bad.
November 23, 2021
It's Preston & Child. Enough Said!
Another riveting series by the astounding writing team of Preston & Child. These guys have imaginations that just never stop! Every time I think they can't possibly top themselves, I read yet another of their stories and just say WOW. If you haven't treated yourself to their work, do it!
Another riveting series by the astounding writing team of Preston & Child. These guys have imaginations that just never stop! Every time I think they can't possibly top themselves, I read yet another of their stories and just say WOW. If you haven't treated yourself to their work, do it!
March 24, 2021
Great books! I enjoyed all three and couldn’t put any of them down I would highly recommend these books I read ice limit and beyond the ice limit first and then went back and started from the beginning and read all of the Gideon crew books they are great!
April 19, 2020
Just good fun! Real page turners!!
April 22, 2022
Jack Preacher meets Matt Bomer from White collar. Intriguing, full of action, conspiracy theories, a touch of inexplicable things... Very entertaining reading.
June 3, 2016
Think Indiana Jones, think 1930s and 1940s two-reel action/adventure Serial Films -- only updated for a 21st-Century audience.
This omnibus collects the first three books in Preston & Child's new Gideon Crew series, the collected trio leading up to the May 2016 release of the fourth, separate book Beyond the Ice Limit (which is *not* part of the omnibus), and each represented book in the trio grows stronger than the previous in plotting and characterization.
Gideon's Sword is arguably the weakest in the series but, hey, P&C are trying to forge a new action hero to rival their wildly successful Pendergast series. But the real value of G's S is its introduction of Gideon Crew, a flawed (thank the stars!) protagonist who operates on gut instinct and native intelligence -- and who often gets those around him in trouble, sometimes fatally so. He's an ex-art thief, ex-Los Alamos nuclear scientist with a fatal disease and only a year or two to live (not much of a spoiler since we get this early on). This book is mostly action and has little character development -- but a high body count. I'd give it little more than three stars, even if it is a page-turner.
Gideon's Corpse finally provides much-needed backstory for the protagonist, plus inventive plot twists and an even higher body count. This one falls more into the thriller category with its high-stakes terrorism plot. You could really, IMHO, start the series with this one and not feel cheated. I'd give this tale three-and-a-half stars.
But the clincher is volume three, The Lost Island, which possesses the most well-developed plotting of all four books in the series so far, and the best characterization as well. The book probably best fits travel-adventure as a genre, with a novel-- but organic -- twist of the paranormal (a la Pendergast) turning the story on its head in the final quarter of the book. It's a solid four-star adventure read.
Remember my reference to 30s/40s Serial Films? Although each book is a satisfying stand-alone story, the authors set up the book to follow with a bit of a cliffhanger tease -- just like the Serials did. The stories also give slow-burn series arcs for the protagonist (something they do for the Pendergast series as well), accumulating and developing surviving characters through multiple books.
Make no mistake: The whole series is intended as pure beach-read escapism. But P&C excel at this thriller-adventure genre in both their co-authored and individual novels. Given that parameter, the build-up and progression of the first three books in this series deserves an overall rating of four stars.
This omnibus collects the first three books in Preston & Child's new Gideon Crew series, the collected trio leading up to the May 2016 release of the fourth, separate book Beyond the Ice Limit (which is *not* part of the omnibus), and each represented book in the trio grows stronger than the previous in plotting and characterization.
Gideon's Sword is arguably the weakest in the series but, hey, P&C are trying to forge a new action hero to rival their wildly successful Pendergast series. But the real value of G's S is its introduction of Gideon Crew, a flawed (thank the stars!) protagonist who operates on gut instinct and native intelligence -- and who often gets those around him in trouble, sometimes fatally so. He's an ex-art thief, ex-Los Alamos nuclear scientist with a fatal disease and only a year or two to live (not much of a spoiler since we get this early on). This book is mostly action and has little character development -- but a high body count. I'd give it little more than three stars, even if it is a page-turner.
Gideon's Corpse finally provides much-needed backstory for the protagonist, plus inventive plot twists and an even higher body count. This one falls more into the thriller category with its high-stakes terrorism plot. You could really, IMHO, start the series with this one and not feel cheated. I'd give this tale three-and-a-half stars.
But the clincher is volume three, The Lost Island, which possesses the most well-developed plotting of all four books in the series so far, and the best characterization as well. The book probably best fits travel-adventure as a genre, with a novel-- but organic -- twist of the paranormal (a la Pendergast) turning the story on its head in the final quarter of the book. It's a solid four-star adventure read.
Remember my reference to 30s/40s Serial Films? Although each book is a satisfying stand-alone story, the authors set up the book to follow with a bit of a cliffhanger tease -- just like the Serials did. The stories also give slow-burn series arcs for the protagonist (something they do for the Pendergast series as well), accumulating and developing surviving characters through multiple books.
Make no mistake: The whole series is intended as pure beach-read escapism. But P&C excel at this thriller-adventure genre in both their co-authored and individual novels. Given that parameter, the build-up and progression of the first three books in this series deserves an overall rating of four stars.
October 22, 2016
These are the three additional books in the Gideon Crew series. As expected, Gideon continues to work for Eli Glinn, the head of an engineering company known to pursue the impossible and succeed. Each tale contains an adventure beyond belief as Gideon must decide whether to go with the initial plan or use his instincts when the unplanned arises. Each book becomes stranger and stranger which should be no surprise to readers of the Preston and Child tales. Exotic settings, clever and devious opponents and obstacles stranger than fiction...although that is what this is, right? The final book is the sequel to The Ice Limit so be sure to read that book first!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews