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Saturday, January 11, 2014

In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D'amato

by:  Brian D'amato
published by:  Penguin Group
publish date:  March 26, 2009

The year is 2012. Math prodigy Jed DeLanda is enlisted to decipher an ancient Mayan codex containing the secrets of the Sacrifice Game. It foretells the end of civilization, and only Jed can prevent the coming apocalypse. He must play the Game himself-in a mind-bending journey that stretches from thousands of years in the past to the very brink of the end of time... 

Jed is descendant of the Maya and he's now living in the US and is a math genius.  He's not just a math genius, but he's amazing with calendars and figuring out where things are throughout time and space.  Crazy things the average person can't do.  He's using his talents along with a prediction game his mother taught him that was passed down through the ancient Maya culture to make a fortune in the stock market.  However, it's the year 2012 and the world is about to come to an end.  He need to figure out how to play an even more complicated version of the Sacrifice Game to save the world, but will he be able to do it in time?

In the Courts of the Sun is an incredibly complicated book.  However, I think the average person can sort of skim over the parts that are too complex for normal people and settle in for the entertainment aspect.  There were a lot of mathematical details and details about time travel and it got overwhelming and hard to understand.  It was also unbelievably long.  It's listed at nearly 700 pages, but it felt a lot longer than that.  I kept finding myself wanting to skip ahead, but then I'd get really drawn into the story.  There was a lot of minutiae in this book that could have been edited out.  

I did really like this book in the end.  I liked how the time travel aspect was handled in this book.  It made for a lot more interesting story.  Now that 2012 is over, I guess some of the Maya hype is over, but it was still a good read.  I would recommend it if that's something you're into.

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