Let's try a little Jeopardy: this action hero, much admired by his female students, teaches archaeology and often travels to exotic locales to dig out mysterious artifacts with supernatural characteristics. If your question was 'who is Indiana Jones?' you should be entitled to your $50 but if you said 'who is Austin Tripp?' and the host refused to credit you for the correct question you'd have grounds for an appeal. Well... it wouldn't hurt to try. 🙂
Toltanica is partly the story of Austin Tripp from the 'boy meets girl' (under unexpected circumstances) moment all the way through the 'and they lived happily ever after' with a lot in-between. And the in-between part has everything from action-packed adventure and exploration, time travel, office intrigue, clash of civilizations, yuppie-style socializing, a little history and archaeology, mystical powers, all glued together by an impossible love story that... I already mentioned that 'happily ever after part' already.
Even with the few lose ends left hanging and the often but not always predictable plot, Toltanica turns out to be a highly entertaining read. Certainly not the kind of literary celebrated masterpiece that children will study in school 100 years from now - my kids are struggling with 'Catch-22' and 'Moby Dick' as I'm writing this - but certainly an entertaining and easy read, perfect at the beach, by the pool or under whatever other relaxing circumstances one can think of. This is not W.C. Hatounian's first book and it shows. He likes to write, he writes a lot and he's good at it. His prose flows effortlessly, the tempo is just right most of the time, he knows when and how to switch locales and twist the plot to keep us readers interested and, in the end, he delivers the kind of satisfying happy-ending that we should expect from an 'action love story' type of book.
There are some bad guys and gals to keep the action flowing but if you are looking for a well-written story that's an easy read and turns out to be cruelty, violence, blood/gore, explicit sex and terror/horror free, then Toltanica should be it.