The Compostela Cube: Part One - The Book by Paul Cavilla

Description:  When they come into possession of a mysterious prehistoric cube, relic hunter Gabriel Parker, and the alluring artifact historian Natasha Rossi, find themselves inexplicably bound to a dark mythology dating back to the roots of civilization.

The 2012 doomsday prophecies have come and gone, but now, without warning, the feared revelations are coming true. Under the apocalyptic shadow of global war and rampant natural disasters, Gabriel and Natasha race to prevent an unspeakable horror from being unleashed onto the planet.

With nothing but a tattered journal to guide them, they travel from Italy to North Africa, and then set course for the mountains of Spain, where they must locate a lost labyrinth spoken of by the ancients. Within is said to reside the answer to the mystery of mysteries:The Meaning Of Life.

Hunting them is Christian Antov, heir to a secret organization poised to draw the world into a global fascist regime. He will stop at nothing to destroy Gabriel and Natasha, and the one artifact that stands in his way: The Compostela Cube.

Review 3 of 5 Stars

I received a request to review this book and some parts of it were really interesting though it took quite a while to really get into the part that I found interesting. Almost longer than I could take and about midpoint I had almost determined to give up on it for hopping around everywhere, but I persevered. I will also add for the sake of being fair that I most likely wouldn't have chosen this book to read on my own as it's really not my type of book, but there is a market for its like and that group might enjoy it more than I did. The writing wasn't bad, but there were spelling, formatting and grammatical errors throughout. I didn't keep a full list, but where instead of were more than once, random 1's at beginning of a few quotations and other word usage and typo stuff. It could use another read through and some corrections to fix it up.

As for the story, I was completely interested in the Compostela Cube's history and the trail of clues to get to it, use it, etc. I love tunnels and traps and I found that part pretty interesting. In fact it was the highlight of the book for me. Some of the other characters and their activities were a little over the top for me and I couldn't manage to get to the suspension of disbelief that I feel is required to truly enjoy a story for those portions of the book. For me, there were just too many things thrown together between the paranormal, conspiracy theories, weird medical experiments that I won't disclose more of due to it being a spoiler, portions that were pretty preachy and drawn out regarding politics, various religious beliefs and the like.

So given my enjoyment of the worked up archaeology of the cube and its history alongside of my inability to get into some of the more paranormal side as it was put forth, the romance that seemed kind of like high school and out-of-place at points, and finally how it ended with no answers (grumble, grumble) on a cliffhanger like a TV series I'm giving it 3. I found that I liked some of the of the supporting characters more than our hero and heroine, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that they were interesting characters. I won't dissuade you if this is your type of book. There were some interesting parts to it and you may enjoy it, but I don't think I'll be exploring this story further in the next installment that's promised at the end of the book.