Indy Timeline: 1926
Seven Veils picks up shortly after the events of "Dance of the Giants" and is the next novel in the Rob MacGregor Indy series. The book opens promisingly enough, with very Raiders-esque jungle ruins and Indy dodging booby-traps in search of some ancient Mayan artifacts. Bits of Mayan history and lore are well integrated into the fictional bits of the story. As was also the case with the previous books in the series, MacGregor does a good job of striking a balance between facts and serial-style Indiana Jones pulp.
He also has a knack for dialogue that rings true to the "Indy" universe. Following the opening temple sequence in Brazil, Indy returns to New York and has an extended discussion with Marcus Brody. This talk sets up the premise of the book - Indy tracking down Marcus' friend (Colonel Percy Fawcett) who has disappeared in the jungles of South America. This formula is again very much out of Raiders, but I liked it. It works!
The novel continues the story of Indy's relationship with Deirdre Campbell, Indy's star-student from the previous book. Unfortunately, her portrayal in Seven Veils is quite different than it was in Dance of the Giants. Rather than a sparkling, assertive intellectual with a drive to pursue archeology, she instead comes off as passive and frightened. The book opens with the two fighting and shortly thereafter Deirdre leaves Indy. He talks her into coming back to him and - in a shocking twist - they get married at sea on their way south to track down Fawcett.
There are more villains in "Seven Veils", including a rival academic (Barnard) and a few of his hired goons. For overly convoluted reasons (something about gambling debts?), Barnard wants Indy and Deirdre to fail and sends his henchmen to kill them in Rio. Things get very "Moonraker" here as there is a ridiculous action sequence on a cable car and Indy has to outsmart these oversized goons.
As Indy and Deirdre progress further in their quest to the Amazon, the story gets weirder and weirder. There is a voodoo fortune teller woman who communicates through trances and convulsions. There is a tribe of natives who can turn invisible. In fact, there is an entire invisible city that exists deep in the jungle in which the inhabitants can take over your dreams. All of this is somehow linked to the idea of "seven veils", but I found it difficult to follow. MacGregor makes an effort to link all of these events to the druids in "Dance of the Giants" (which links to the Omphalos Indy discovered at Delphi in the first novel). I appreciate the effort at continuity, but things get a bit twisted and convoluted here.
There is more action - all well written - involving jumping off cliffs, capture by cannibals, waterfalls, and good old-fashioned fisticuffs. Unfortunately, these sequences held less weight for me because I found the main "quest" so muddled. It all culminates (SPOILER ALERT) with a plane crash in which everyone dies - including Indy. Fortunately, he is brought back to life by Merlin, who he met in last novel. Both Deirdre and Colonel Fawcett are killed in the wreckage. In the process of being "resurrected", Indy has his memory of the adventure in the jungle wiped.
The book closes with the line "some things simply weren't meant to be fully understood", which strikes me as the worst kind of Deus ex machina. The novel started out promising enough, but quickly came off the rails and ended with a big crash and disaster. The final pages come close to saying "it was all just a terrible dream".
I suspect that MacGregor included the marriage to and subsequent death of Deirdre in an effort to add background to the character we see in the films. Perhaps his aversion to ever getting married to Marion stemmed from this earlier trauma? I liked where MacGregor wanted to go with this idea and the book as a whole - and once again, the "Indy feel" is here. However, the book is simply not as tightly wound as the first two books and the overwrought ending felt like a bit of a cop-out.
Indy Rating: 7/10
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