Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Audiobook – 7 June 2022)
Series: Standalone/Book One
Length: 13 hours and 38 minutes
My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Prepare to dive into another intense conspiracy straight out of history from legendary thriller writer Steve Berry, The Omega Factor.
A major thing I have noticed about my reading habits in recent years is that I have been getting more attached to the thriller genre due to several amazing series, many of which have long become essential reading for me each year. One of these main series is the compelling and intriguing Cotton Malone books from veteran author Steve Berry, which I was lucky enough to discover a few years ago. Following the titular intelligence agent as he uncovers historical conspiracy after historical conspiracy across America and Europe, the Cotton Malone novels are very cool and I love the elaborate scenarios that Berry comes up with, especially as they combine deep historical detail with cool modern-day espionage missions. I have had a pretty epic time with Berry’s more recent Cotton Malone books, including The Malta Exchange, The Warsaw Protocol and The Kaiser’s Web, each of which were great and captivating additions to this long running series.
Berry also released an intriguing standalone novel last year, The Omega Factor. Following a new protagonist, The Omega Factor contained another intriguing historical conspiracy, this time around the legendary Ghent Altarpiece, which sounded very cool. I did manage to listen to it close to its release date last year, however, I didn’t publish a review for it, and I have been meaning to fix that for a while. As I literally just started listening to Berry’s latest novel, The Last Kingdom, I figured it was about time that I gave a shout-out to the great and enjoyable The Omega Factor.
Plot Synopsis:
The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized, dismantled, or stolen.
Why? What secrets does it hold?
Enter UNESCO investigator, Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations’ Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick’s job is to protect the world’s cultural artifacts—from countless lesser-known objects to national treasures.
When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of the twelfth panel for the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of Saint-Michael, les Vautours, Vultures, a secret order of nuns and the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican, which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed, their secret placed in dire jeopardy—a vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop, both with agendas of their own.
From the tranquil canals of Ghent, to the towering bastions of Carcassonne, and finally into an ancient abbey high in the French Pyrenees, Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a shocking truth from humanity’s past. Success or failure—life and death—all turn on the Omega Factor.
The Omega Factor was another great book from Berry that blends intriguing elements from history with a modern-day thriller storyline. Starting off with a bang as the new characters, Nicholas Lee and Kelsey, become involved in a crazy plot when part of the Ghent Altarpiece is destroyed. Berry does a good job of quickly introducing all the players in this new narrative, and the reader is soon wrapped up in the awesome storyline that sees ninja nuns, corrupt members of the Catholic Church, and a secret organisation of Cathars facing off against each other with Nick caught right in the middle. Like most of Berry’s novels, The Omega Factor features multiple character perspectives during the entire intriguing run, as well a series of flashbacks to historical events which give the main storyline a lot more context. This results in a very compelling read, and you soon get wrapped up in seeing the elaborate conspiracy that Berry carefully hints at come to fruition. I had a lot of fun seeing how this entire story came together, and Berry produces a complex overall read that proves very hard to put down in places.
While I had fun with this book, I did think that the storyline behind it was a bit weaker than Berry’s typical work. The twists are pretty obvious going in, and the stakes of the plot never seem particularly serious. There are some good characters featured within, and I liked the elaborate motivations behind several of the antagonists. However, I’m not really sure the use of a new protagonist was really necessary, especially as this reads like a typical Cotton Malone book. It might have been a bit better with some of Berry’s established characters, especially as I didn’t connect too much with the new protagonist of Nick, nor his failed romance with Kelsey and her personal journey. Still, the rest of the book is pretty strong, especially with the intrigue and secrecy, and The Omega Factor also works quite well as a great standalone read and new readers can easily jump in and experience Berry’s style and story ideas for themselves.
As with all of Berry’s books, the real highlight of The Omega Factor is the elaborate and captivating historical detail that the author dives into as part of the plot. Having the reader understand all the relevant historical events and artefacts is vital to the plot of the book and Berry meticulously relays everything through several of the characters in an interesting way that always keeps the reader’s attention. For example, so many intriguing features about the Ghent Altarpiece are raked over again and again so that the reader can get a full understanding about why this piece of art is so important and how it has been stolen or defaced multiple times. The author honestly needs the reader to understand every detail of this artwork’s history, and he manages that perfectly every time. The same goes for so many other relevant bits of history that are relevant to the main story, such as the crusades against the Cathars and other relevant wars and political events. Berry does such as outstanding job of giving concise and targeted history lessons to the readers, and he backs them up by expertly building several intriguing thriller storylines around them. The resulting plots that see the characters attempting to fully excavate the secrets from the past are always so damn interesting, and it is a ton of fun to simultaneously uncover modern threats and ancient twists at the same time. Berry always has the right blend of hard historical fact and inventive inclusions, and you soon get embroiled in the very elaborate historical details. Throw in some beautifully portrayed locations throughout Europe, many of which are very historically significant and this proves to be another great example of Berry bringing history to life in a very modern story.
Like most of the Berry books I have been able to enjoy, I ended up checking out The Omega Factor on audiobook rather than a physical copy. This proved to be an excellent way to enjoy this amazing book as the audio format really allows the reader to enjoy all the cool historical detail. Having the characters narrate all the key elements to you again and again is quite effective at building up a listener’s understanding, and you really appreciate how well this format performs in this way. It helps that the narrator, Scott Brick, has such a great voice for historical fiction and modern thrillers. Brick, who in addition to voicing most of Berry’s audiobook also narrates the cool Orphan X audiobooks by Gregg Hurwitz (for example, Into the Fire, Prodigal Son and Dark Horse), is an awesome narrator who always adds some gravitas to his productions. He does another amazing job in The Omega Factor, and you swiftly become engaged with how he makes all of Berry’s intense detail really stand out. Coming in at over 13 and a half hours, The Omega Factor is a decent sized audiobook, but it is well worth listening to for this awesome story.
Overall, The Omega Factor was a great standalone novel from Steve Berry that his fans will have a fantastic time reading. Bringing together another exciting and compelling historical conspiracy with a cool modern thriller storyline, The Omega Factor was very entertaining and I had an awesome time getting through it. As I mentioned above, I am currently in the middle of Berry’s latest novel, The Last Kingdom, which I will hopefully finish off and review later this week.
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