The Mask of Troy
Written by David Gibbins
Narrated by James Langton
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Germany, 1945. The liberation of a concentration camp reveals clues to the lost antiquities stolen by the Nazis. But the operation is covered up after a horrific secret surfaces.
Northern Aegean, present day. Jack Howard, head of the International Maritime University, and his team discover the wreckage of the legendary Greek fleet from the Trojan War, sending shock waves around the world. But the biggest surprise is yet to come, for Jack is on the trail not only of Agamemnon but of Schliemann's true discovery-and a mystery so explosive that it leads to the kidnapping of Jack's daughter and a confrontation with a new and evil foe.
David Gibbins
David Gibbins is the author of seven previous historical adventure novels that have sold over two million copies and are published in twenty-nine languages. He taught archaeology, ancient history and art history as a university lecturer, before turning to writing fiction full-time. He is a passionate diver and has led numerous expeditions, some that led to extraordinary discoveries of ten-thousand-year-old artefacts. David divides his time between England and a farm and wilderness tract in Canada where he does most of his writing. www.davidgibbins.com
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Reviews for The Mask of Troy
39 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Holt's How Children Fail is one of those books that seems like something of a cultural artifact of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The book's premise is that schools are places that essentially set kids up to fail and drain their enthusiasm for learning. The kids find ways to manipulate the system and are driven by fear to obey but not learn in any meaningful ways. Holt's treatise reads like a clarion call for the rebellion of the 1960s and all of the excesses of that era. And yet there's a lot more here than cultural critics might believe. How Children Fail, for me at least, reveals some truths that have existed in American education for decades, if not centuries. His assessment of the system seems pretty reasonable to me. My experience backs up his observations of kids who come to hate learning as a direct result of their experiences in school. Now this might be seen as a defense of the overly permissive excesses of the 1960s, but I don't think so. There were certainly excesses, but was the basic premise of educational reformers really all that far off the mark? Holt's book calls for kids to be more engaged in what they do; for educators to link education to the world we live in without creating an artificial and ultimately sterile "academic environment". As a piece of writing, How Children Fail isn't great literature and much of the text seem pretty disjointed. But there is a lot of wisdom contained in these pages. As we move into the age of connectivity, the singularity, web 2.0, and all that kind of stuff, I think Holt's ideas are going to become a lot more feasible than they were 40 years ago. I remember reading Rousseau's Emile in graduate school and thinking that the ideas were good, but no society could ever produce the 1 on 1 teacher/student relationship outlined in the book. Technology doesn't quite get us there, but it gets us awfully close. Likewise, Holt's call for homeschooling seemed far-fetched at the time, but hasn't technological change made it too far more likely?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On a visit to the Indianapolis Children's Museum in Jan. 2008, I saw a quote attributed to William Hull (Educator). "If we taught children to talk they would never learn." An internet search of the quote found this book. The author and Mr. Hull shared a 5th grade classroom. The book is a series of observational memos from Mr. Holt to Mr. Hull. The author intricately describes the communication gap between the school system and the child. Children want and need to learn. School systems want to teach. But the lessons often never meet in the middle.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5So far, one of the great quotations I've found is:"It used to puzzle me that the students who made the most mistakes and got the worst marks were so often the first ones to hand in their papers. I used to say, 'If you finish early, take time to check your work, do some problems again.' Typical teacher's advice; I might as well have told them to flap their arms and fly. When the paper was in, the tension was ended. Their fate was in the lap of the gods. They might still worry about flunking the paper, but it was a fatalistic kind of worry.... Worrying about whether you did the right thing, while painful enough, is less painful than worrying about the right thing to do." (74-75) This about sums up (1) the whole reason I was so bad at math when I was in grammar school and (2) why I am much better at revising work that I make up for myself than at revising work where it actually matters. My psychology is still that of a schoolchild.All this said, it feels a little dated: people are trying different things in their classrooms now, although (to be fair) change hasn't come terribly quickly.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5John Holt summarizes perfectly the problem with contemporary education: it emphasizes right answers rather than learning, production rather than thinking. Read this book to understand this problem and its results, as seen through his experience as a collaborative teacher and thoughtful observer. The rewards for "right answers" over thinking even persists at higher education levels. "What would happen at Harvard or Yale if a prof gave a surprise test in March on work covered in October? Everyone knows what would happen; that's why they don't do it." (p. 232)He advocates for schooling at home (and in the world) as the best method of education. "People teaching their children at home consistently do a good job because they have the time - and the desire - to know their children, their interest, the signs by which they show and express their feelings." (p. 36) Four key principles: 1. Children do not need to be "taught" in order to learn, and they often learn best when not taught, 2. Children are very interested in the adult world, 3. Children learn best when the subject is "embedded in the context of real life," 4. "Children learn best when their learning is connected with an immediate and serious purpose."Holt blames the current system, pointing out that if a system consistently fails, the problem is with it, not its inputs or participants. In the summary section, he forcefully points out the negative effects of the current system - low self-esteem, ignorance about how to learn, and a mind trained not to want to do so.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jack Howard Series fascinate me in that they detail a great deal of action underwater, and as a non-swimmer, I become enthralled with his mainly under sea, or in this case down an abandoned mine, exploits. Mr. Gibbins has done a tremendous amount of research and allied a number of events to produce a very readable instalment in the series. The only problem I had was that there was almost too much factual information involving Heinrich Schliemann and his exploits regarding the discovery of Troy, plus the involvement of William Gladstone and Otto Von Bismarck, along with Nazi concentration camps. It was almost overload, but it did lead to an exciting series of episodes, culminating in a very satisfactory conclusion – although I think that the next book in the series may link back to parts of this one.Howard and his full time companion Costas have an almost telepathic understanding with each other, enabling them to succeed when others might have failed. The only failing in the book is making the Russian thugs who are involved in the diving as thick as they appear to be in the story – experienced divers would not take that risk! That apart the involvement of Jack Howard’s young daughter, Rebecca, herself training as an archaeologist, and the threat to her well-being, make this a very good read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While i did enjoy this book, the last third was a bit to predictable. Far too much of what happened in the last third of the book was sign posted. You knew that Rebecca would get kidnapped, that the swastika would not be in the salt mine, that all the russian thugs would die and that the girl from the concentration camp would be found alive.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mask of Troy by David Gibbins is an excellent thriller set in Troy. The story revolves around marine archaeologist who is leading a dig at Troy and in the ocean off of Troy in Turkish waters. The book alternates between the late 1800's during the initial discovery of Troy, World War II in Nazi Germany, and present day Europe. The story revolves around finding the treasure initially discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in the initial digs at Troy and other Bronze Age sites around the northern Aegean Sea. The Nazi's had hidden various parts of the treasure at the end of the war. At the end of the novel, the author explains what parts of the novel are historically accurate and what are pure fiction. This is a good in that it allows you to pick up some historical facts you may not have known.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book has 2 story lines. The unearthing of treasures at the site of Troy & the search for a secret weapon that may have been developed by the Nazis. The 2 story lines are intertwinned throughout the book but, do get bogged down at times with the dialogue between historical characters. And, whatever was hidden in the bunker at Belsen was never revealed! Maybe in the next book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There were sections of the book I found well written and truly interesting. The book is well researched, which was to be expected given the author's academic background. This wealth of knowledge, however, often worked against the book. There were sections where I felt the author wanted to share everything he knew about Troy and the field of archaeology rather than craft a story. Readers with a background in archaeology and the history of Troy and Schliemann will find the book an interesting read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll never think of Troy in the same way. Homer's writing about the war of Troy reads differently know that David G's torn away and what might have really happened. Great read.