The thing with having a bad memory is you get to relive as if the happenings are new and start afresh. It is especially helpful in cases of book that gives you additional joy of re-reading it as if for the first time, enjoying the same thrill that you might've felt when you read them prior. But the sad part is, if you'ven't remembered reading the book, chances are there that it might be one to forget as well and you might've not finished it for it could've been boring. With "Excavation" i am not sure in which category it falls under!!! Either way, having finished the book, i felt it was worth posting about.
It all begins in typical Rollins fashion of a monk in run from natives, trying to protect or hide something that would cause the end of world, but would leave enough clues for future generations to find it out eventually!!! He commits suicide atop a sacred shrine of the native Mayans/Incas/Aztecs?? Edho oru tribe of that time. Right from there begins the contradiction and how much the European or western historians conveniently cover up the crimes of the inquistidators or the missionaries in their effort to convert native tribes. Despite knowing that the place where he was about to die is a sacred place, he choses to defile it. The reason is revealed in the end as to why he chose that place, which makes it even more confusing for the purpose actually contradicts what he wanted to achieve - to hide the destructive substance, as anyone who sheds blood at that site would be embalmed and buried like a mummy, preserving everything about that person. Cutting to the present, when the archeologists discover the site, again there is a stereotype characterization that, the workers, who are basically natives, and their leader is show in as negative light as possible and the leader in fact turns out to be a robber as well, who wants to steal any valuable artefact from the dig and sell it black market. The other villain group being the descendants of the original inquistidators themselves, who, again, despite being men of church, ends up doing more killings and misdeeds or as much as any other villain. Coming to the core plot as to the "thing" that was meant to be kept away from outside world, happens to be an indescribable substance /element/metal/technology that happens to take shape based on human thoughts and is quite combustible as well. The gold like substance is capable of even bringing back dead from life and gives them ability to pick languages at will and even if one is decapitated, that person comes back to seemingly immortal life, only to get killed by a group of mutated beings, who somehow have become like that having grown fully in the environment that hosts that "thing". Onnum purilaiaya..enakkum apdi thaaan iruku. How is a life saving thing be a weapon? en nna..it molds based on human thoughts. If you want to get cured, it cures you. If you slightly heat it up, it explodes. If you want it to turn into a weapon it becomes one. If you think of it as a key for any lock, it does becomes one. nano technology adhu ithu nu kozhappi adichi, finala like all hollywood movies, it all goes up in smoke in a grand explosion. Idhuku edhuku anga poi excavate panuvaanen, irukara nativesellariyum kolvanen!!! Ennathaanda unga design!!
I feel, Rollins would've stumbled on this idea of "healing" and "shape shifting" concept while writing this book and possibly not being satisfied has repurposed it in a similar fashion in "Amazonia". Adhulayum ending puriyathu and it will be described as a tree i guess. But story would be super fast and engaging. Andha book nyabagam iruku aana idhu illaina..appo intha book first time padichapo ...????
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