I think my rating is less than 3 stars but not 2 either. When I read the summary, I expected so much more. What I got isn't even half as much as I expected. I've read Tom Fox's first novel Dominus and it was so good, I really liked it. It was a genuine thriller written in an exceptionally good way. The Seventh Commandment seemed as if he was writing for the first time. It was like a backward process - first, a very good book, then such a bad one. And I'm definitely disappointed since I received the book for an honest review from the publishers in my native language.
Overall the book is lame. Hells, even before reaching the hundredth page I already knew more than half of the so-called "conspiracy" because I was told everything. When I read a thriller I expect it to be excitement, action, suspense, anticipation... Here I felt like reading a report or a student book learning a lesson. Everything was stated, as a matter of fact, no excitement or anything at all. A bit of action not to be too lame and it was it.
I also got annoyed at the writing and switching of view. Not as literal points of views but describing what's going on with the different characters. It was annoying because he did it
all the time
and due to this the chapters were so short and switching between characters all along. I don't like too long chapters either but why make a hundred tiny chapters or twenty enormous instead of fifty normal for example?
Another thing I did not like in the book was the main characters. Ben Verdyx is so antisocial, he works in the Vatican archives and hardly ever has contacts with people. I imagined him as a skinny bookworm who is more than awkward around people. Hells, in the beginning, the social contact made him almost sick so suddenly he became so calm in public and everything? I don't even know how old he's supposed to be. I always thought he's middle-aged but he's supposed to be young? And the sudden description of a well-kept body hidden beneath conservative clothes? So what, the highly antisocial archivist goes fitness? You really got to be kidding me. Not to mention his name and the comparison I couldn't help but make. Ben, short of Benedict, what a coincidence the main character in another thriller series I love is called the same. Unlikely this one, Ben Hope is a whole different story - he's badass, he's one-man army and where he's there's always something interesting happening. Now, that's the thriller I was talking about. And Angelina Calla... I simply couldn't place here. It was supposed to be a mystery both of them to unsolve but... kind of lost the point somewhere in the report.
So, where was the whole point of the book? A report? A stupid theft? What?! This is one of the worst thrillers I've ever read! This seven predictions or prophecies, whatever you decided to call them, are a bluff. At least, the part with the volcano reminds me of a movie I've watched before, Volcano and it's pretty interesting. Maybe I'll rewatch it again, so I'll have something more entertaining to do. So now, I'll make a correction and I'm giving this book two stars. It doesn't deserve the third one which I usually give to books that I don't mind but I don't very much like either. So honestly, I wouldn't recommend the book, it's simply a waste of time. Instead of intrigued and excited, I was so bored. As I say in such cases, reading my History book would be much more pleasant activity and more intriguing and exciting one too!