Dan Hogan
Nov 3, 2026
Fun Read in the Spirit of Weir, Corey, Lewis, and Crichton
I am a fan of David Falk's scholarship, but I was admittedly quite skeptical of him as a fiction author. But I decided to give Reliquary of the Dead a chance. By the halfway point, I had trouble putting it down. Things I liked - - As a fan of fiction James S.A. Corey's expanse series, I enjoyed Falk's worldbuilding of humanity in an interstellar context, particularly the way that bureaucracy is a constant force facing humankind. It plagued ancient Egypt. It plagues the 21st century west. And it even plagues interstellar colonies. - I loved how Falk used science to solve the central puzzle of the plot. Once Pierre locked in to the central problem, needing to use all his skills to "science the [expletive]" out of the situation to discover the mysteries of the colonies, I kept being reminded of why I love the writing of Andy Weir, particularly also because Falk seamlessly blends real world archeology with the sci-fi content. I loved how he found in-universe reasons for Pierre and his crew to go back to the fundamentals of low-tech archeology. - I loved the lived-in contempt for the world of professional academia. Not since C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength have I read a book from someone who knows the academy, and knows it well enough to truly loathe its worst excesses. - A fan of ancient-near-eastern mythology and spirituality, I'm always here for books featuring some good "spirit critters." Things that didn't work for me - - Some of the exposition was indeed a little data-dumpy, especially in the first half of the book. Some of this goes with the genre because authors must tell audiences the rules of the world. But some aspects of the exposition were buried better than others. - I had some trouble with some character motivations being unclear, and some truly erratic behavior, particularly from the villains, being hard to understand. There were some in-universe explanations, but I still was puzzled by some of the decisions characters made. Granted, this is also an issue in other books, too, like some of Michael Crichton's work. - Sometimes characters would solve the puzzles a little too quickly for me. For instance, without spoiling anything, the central mystery surrounding the titular Reliquary of the Dead, seemed like they got resolved in Pierre's head a little quickly, and I would have liked more of a chance to sort of participate in his reasoning a bit more, following him as he put together the clues. Overall, it was a fun read, and I am interested in reading book 2!
