A beautiful psychologist must help the son of an infamous archaeologist escape a mental asylum in order to resolve the 2,000 year old Mayan Calendar's prophesy of Doom and save humanity. For those who never leave home without a copy of the prophecies of Nostradamus tucked in their hip pocket, Steve Alten's new thriller is just the ticket. Domain focuses its doomsday scenario on an ancient Mayan myth and sets up an intriguing pair of saviors in Dominique Vasquez, a psych grad student who's an intern at a Florida psychiatric facility, and Mick Gabriel, her first patient. Mick, the son of two famous archaeologists, has languished in the Miami asylum for over a decade after attacking the man who publicly humiliated his father and who now happens to be the American secretary of state. The elder Gabriel believed he had unearthed the riddle surrounding the origins of Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the desert glyphs of the Nazca desert, the temples of Angkor Wat, and the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan peninsula--and that the answer pointed inexorably to the doom of humanity. As the winter solstice of 2012 approaches (the day of reckoning prophesied by the myths of the Kukulcan Pyramid at Chichen Itza), Mick enlists Dominique in his effort to save mankind from the apocalypse. Engineering his escape from the hospital, she accompanies him on a desperate search to find his way into the pyramid before the radio message from space, which has already activated a deadly alien weapon buried deep in the Gulf of Mexico, can open a galactic gateway to a world where evil will reign for all eternity. Alten's talent for pacing far outstrips his other writerly gifts. The political subplot is ludicrous, the special effects way over the top, and the villain-in-chief, who happens to be named Borgia, is merely a cartoon. But the story is original enough to pass muster and the past success of similar apocalyptic thrillers bodes well for this one. --Jane Adams It's September 2012, and the end of the world is only three months away. At least that's the prediction in the ancient Mayan calendar, and archaeologist Mick Gabriel is the only person in the world who has the secret knowledge necessary to stop this apocalypse. Unfortunately, Mick is currently a patient in an insane asylum, locked up in part because of his violent efforts to warn others of his doomsday beliefs. Young intern Dominique Vazquez has just been assigned to his case. Can Mick convince her that he isn't insane in time to save the world? What follows is an entertaining (if somewhat predictable) race to save humankind, featuring plenty of action, romance, and suspense. Alten has matured as an author since his more cartoonish Meg (LJ 5/1/97) and The Trench (LJ 6/1/99), and this well-researched thriller will appeal to fans of Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston. Watch for the sequel, Resurrection.DRebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ., Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. "This well-researched thriller will appeal to fans of Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston."- Library Journal "Characters are worthy of the best role-playing games; sorcery aces technology every time; and Alten draws clever parallels with Mayan myths in this ripping space-age yarn equipped with a credible love story and strong Earth-bound side plots."-- Publishers Weekly  "Alten aligns galactically with his audience."-- Kirkus Reviews To My Readers: DOMAIN is a thriller which centers on the Mayan Calendar, a 2,000 year old instrument of Time & Space MORE ACCURATE than all but our most modern calendars, which predicts humanity will PERISH on December 21st, 2012. The story begins 65 million years ago, with the asteroid impact off the Yucatan Peninsula that destroyed the dinosaurs. Only the object wasn't an asteroid... Before his death, archaeologist Julius Gabriel discovered that the Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge, the Drawings of Nazca, and the Kukulcan Pyramid in Chichen Itza are all pieces of an ancient puzzle left to us by another culture, WARNING us about the 2012 winter solstice. Now it is up to Julius's son, Michael, to save humanity. Slight problem: Mick is locked up in a mental asylum in Miami. Miami: 2012 As it has done for 1,000 years, a serpent's shadow appears on the northern balustrade of the Kukulcan Pyramid in Chichen Itza. It is man's FINAL warning, The Beginning of the End.For you MEGALODON fans, surf the site and you'll find exclusive photos of a "real" 70-foot, 60,000 pound Great White Shark rumored to have been caught years ago. (WARNING: Not for the faint of heart.)