The Mayan Codex

Antichrist Trilogy #2

by Mario Reading

Six months ago, Adam Sabir risked his life to find the legendary lost prophecies of Nostradamus. Now he's racing against time to unlock their secrets as the events foretold begin to come true. But he's not the only one looking for answers. Hot on his heels is the Corpus Maleficus, an ancient cabal devoted to placating the Devil. Disfigured since birth, orphaned, and groomed to cruelty and violence by their adoptive mother, the twelve remaining members of the Corpus are deadly competition. Except for one. Lamia has escaped the clutches of her twisted siblings and is on the run with Sabir, following the prophecy to the Yucatan, deep in the heart of Central America. Meanwhile, a volcano erupts in Mexico. A simple man gathers up his precious cargo, and begins his journey to the hallowed Mayan site of the Palace of the Masks.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Mario Reading was born in Dorset, and brought up in England, Germany, and the South of France. He was educated at Gorse Cliff Preparatory School, followed by Rugby School, and then went on to study Comparative Literature under Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson at the University of East Anglia, where he specialized in French and German Literature and translation before absconding, after two years, on a cargo boat to Africa.

During a nomadic youth he sold rare books, taught riding in Cape Town, studied dressage in Vienna, played polo in India, France, Spain, and Dubai, ran a seventy horse polo stables in Gloucestershire, and helped manage his Mexican wife’s coffee plantation.

Reading is the author of four novels. The Music-Makers [House of Stratus 2001], The Nostradamus Prophecies [Atlantic 2009], The Mayan Codex [Corvus 2010], and The Third Antichrist [Corvus 2011]. Reading’s Antichrist Trilogy [TNP, TMC & TTA] has been published in 38 countries to date, with a combined sale of over 1,000,000 copies.

Mario Reading was the recipient of an Arts Council Writing Award for his novel-in-progress After Barbarossa.

He is also the author of eight non-fiction titles, including the Dictionary Of Cinema, the Movie Companion, the Watkins Dictionary Of Dreams, Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies For The Future and Nostradamus: The Good News. His groundbreaking The Complete Prophecies Of Nostradamus was published in 2009 by Watkins Books, and 2010 saw the publication of an illustrated book, Nostradamus: The Top 100 Prophecies [available in 9 countries], and a revised edition of NTCPFTF. His most recent non-fiction book, Nostradamus & The Third Antichrist was published in March 2011. Reading’s non-fiction books have been published in 20 countries, and have sold more than 500,000 copies.

Reading also writes occasional magazine features, including, in February 2000, a controversial major Sunday Times Magazine exposé of the CIA, entitled An American Hero, and has also made a number of national and international appearances on radio and television, most notably in Discovery Channel’s 2006 documentary, Nostradamus: The Truth, and three further documentaries for Discovery Channel, History Channel, and National Geographic Channel. For four years he was the Chairman and chief coordinator of the Fonthill Writing Awards. He is also a member of Mensa and the ultra high IQ society, the ISPE [The International Society for Philosophical Inquiry].

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book better than a five star rating. It was better than the Nostradamus Prophecies.
Sabir and Calque are back on the trail of the Corpus Maleficus. There are many twists and turns in the story and plenty of subterfuge. Both sides deceive each other for their own reasons.
Sabir and Calque arrive in Mexico and are taken in by some of the indigenous people. A ceremony takes place, in which information is inadvertently shared with the wrong people whilst several members of the group are under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.
Eventually, we return to the outskirts of Paris and to Yola and Alexi. Sabir, Calque, the gypsies and the Corpus Maleficus chase one another until they eventually meet near some old mine workings.
There are the inevitable deaths and deceits along the way, which all lead to a fast moving and exciting read. This book is difficult to put down, even when the reader is tired. Looking forward to the third book ot the trilogy===The Third Antichrist.

[Liliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gostei deste livro, torna-se bastante viciante e queremos sempre saber mais.
A história é novamente bastante interessante e tudo se passa a um ritmo alucinante, numa viagem ao México que nos leva a imaginar todo aquele cenário do povo Maia!
Este livro é a segunda parte da trilogia e, se no primeiro não se notou assim tanto que existia continuação pois ficamos a achar que há mais mas também nos contentamos com o final, deste já não posso dizer o mesmo!
Quando acaba queremos mesmo ter o volume seguinte para saber o que vai acontecer a seguir!
Agora resta que publiquem o último volume para saber definitivamente como tudo vai acabar e ficar a conhecer finalmente a identidade do terceiro anticristo!

[Hemant Jain · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book with its cast of characters had some very good potential. The 13 brothers and sisters with different / unique qualities could have been woven into a fantastic story (a la X-men) but somehow they were reduced to a crowd ... a team.

The story has moved forward from the first part - Nostradamus Prophecies - and the climax paves the way for the final part of the trilogy - The Third Anti-Christ.

Will be picking up the last part next month and closing the series. The overall series has been an OK read. Nothing too great but nothing bad either.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was clearly a well thought through novel with some interesting Maya history too. I did think in the middle it was perhaps drawn out a little bit but the threads came together, linked in with book 1 nicely and overall was a good easy read.
Certainly did toy with giving it 3 or 4, but decided it just made it.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s 3 years since I read ‘The Nostradamus Prophecies’ the first part of this trilogy. This second book of the trilogy is just as exciting with several interesting characters to follow in a story which unfolds gradually to an unexpected climax.
Although it had some elements of humour I missed the dry background humour of the first volume. However in saying that it still is an excellent read.

[Katrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realise it was the second in a trilogy, but it gave enough info for me to understand what was happening.
The start was slow, it took me a little to get into it. It got more interesting as it went on.
Overall, not bad.

[Siddhesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The start was quite good. Good setup of storyline and characters. But few plots seemed to be to quick to happen.
But interest is maintened well throughout.

[Cas Heirstrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prequel was a lot better

[Coen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was just bad

[Shiva Shakthi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing plot twist.

[Robert Widmark · Rating 2 out of 5]

En fristående fortsättning till ”Nostradamus försvunna profetior”. Tyvärr är boken väl rå och blodig - rentav osmaklig bitvis.

[Rach · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely enthralling, so captivating in its language, context and vision xx

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book at NYC's The Strand Bookstore, after being dared to by my dear friend Elizabeth. I'm glad I didn't bother picking it up until this summer, because this is the ideal summer potboiler. You know how you couldn't get through any of Dan Simmons' books, due to their dreadfulness and the massive publicity around them? Well, The Mayan Codex is written better than anything by Dan (as far as I know; I could only get through four or so chapters of his work, with every chapter ending with either a literal or an implied exclamation point. Terrible!)

This has it all. French intrigue. A secret society up to No Good. An embattled retired policeman and his sidekick, an author well-versed in Nostradamus prophecies. How can you go wrong? Apparently, there is the second book in a trilogy, but don't worry about not reading the first book - you can figure out what happened without reading it.

[_edwin_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the second part of the trilogy Mario puts the main characters of the first part in the U.S. There another ordeal starts as the American author and the French police inspector search for a location in Mexico that is mentioned in Nostradamus prophecies. With them an apostate of the Corpus Maleficus travels along. To make things worse the twelve other members of the Corpus are right behind them and ready kill them and take whatever the three may find in Mexico for their own benefit. Trying to shake off the evil family members of the Corpus the three arrive in the Yucatan for an extraordinary encounter with the Mayan people.

Again Mario Reading produced a book that contains a good story with Indiana Jones-like situations. It is pleasant to read and it had me turning to the third part of the series right away just to read how it all ends.

[Katrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine recht gute Geschichte mit viel Humor und sehr interessanten Charaktern. Das war auch die starke Seite des Buches. Ich musste doch immer wieder lachen, außerdem überrascht einen der Umschwung am Ende des Buches doch ganz schön. Was mich doch ein wenig gestört hat war, dass das Mysterium also die Vorhersagen und der Umstand, dass sowohl Jesus als auch Satans Sohn wiedergeboren werden, von allen so einfach hingenommen werden. Leute sterben dafür und setzen ihr Leben auf's spiel.. Für etwas, was kaum einer glauben würde. Und was passiert eigentlich mit satans Sohn? Vielleicht war ja ein nachfolgendes Buch geplant.. Irgendwo gut, aber irgendwo ließ das Buch auch einen wtf Geschmack zurück. Haha.

[Jaakko · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of liked the first book of this series, so I thought maybe Reading has found something interesting about the Mayan thing. But most of the book is just boring driving and the "pseudo-factual/historical" content is very light and quite inaccurate, even if compared to DaVinci and stuff. If you don't remember the first book very well, you will be confused. And the end is maybe the worst ending I've ever seen.

[Katja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely good written, it's a big pleasure to read this book. It's intoxicatingly thrilling and page-turning till 3 pages to the end. Then (or a bit earlier) you begin to ask questions - why all this, why such suspense?
Not to spoil the pleasure, I won't go into further details here, but my remark will be: this is a book written by a scientist who really did his homework and cared to deliver a very good read to his reader, but I somehow feel it's not the book written by a writer...

[Mukundan Srinivasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know where to place this one. Just a flat novel... Feeble story line and weak characterizations, save Abigar de Bale's, and there is no rush of blood whatsoever with the exception of some pages towards the end and it finished abruptly like someone has pulled the plug off while watching a movie. One thing I found useful was author's vocabulary.

As the saying goes "never judge a book by its cover"

[Jonathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

So how do I summarize? Someone trying to write like Dan Brown, and failing. Now, any ten year old with a sense of style could fail at that, but Reading manages to write even worse than Brown, and that takes some serious talent.

Poor characterization, downright stupid plot, and the language of an inbred hillbilly with somewhat lacking education...

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vond het tweede deel, de wederkomst, iets minder spannend dan het eerste deel. Waarschijnlijk om dat het verhaal voor mij niet echt soepel in elkaar overvloeid. Het verhaal gaat verder met Adam Sabir en de inspecteur. Eerst in Frankrijk, later in America en Mexico. Geschiedenis gegevens worden weer mooi vervlochten in het verhaal. Ook worden er meerdere hoofdpersonen wat meer uitgelicht.

[Aparajitabasu · Rating 5 out of 5]

vry gud descriptions of the old mayan ways...........a thriller.......i really need the first book to make sense of a lot of points in this installment

[Aparna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been so much better. The book did not leave me wanting to read the previous one, nor make me curious enough to think of picking up the sequel.

[Kirja-fani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todella erikoinen kirja, juoni hyvä ja piti otteessaan. Mukavasti historiaa mukana, ei liian raskas. Jännitystä kirjassa riitti ja loppuratkaisussa monta käännettä. Suosittelen!

[Afsheen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect combination of History and Mystery

[Monica Romano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly enjoyed the book. Excellent bed time read.

[Nuno Mendes Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Intelligent thrillers and this certainly is one. Reading this book you an also learn something new about Mayan civilization and again this doesn't disappoint.

[Phil Tall · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have tried and tried to read this book! It's just not happening for me! In fairness I feel the same about a lot of books, so it's no great criticism of the author.

[Cathy Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the first one before this! It probably would have been more enjoyable if I had! Interesting though but struggled to like the characters and therefore failed to get 100% engrossed in the story!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mario Reading writes well. Here we are exposed to the Mayan culture, both ancient and present-day.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent