Surprisingly good. I wasn't expecting much after picking up this book and False Horizon from the last Borders' closeout sale in Chicago. False Horizon was just awful. It had a bad plot, bad characterization, and nil archaeology. It was with some trepidation that I began reading Tear of the Gods and I truly expected that I would quit in disdain after reading only a few chapters. But I was happy to find it a true archaeology-based adventure story that kept me actively engaged. As a newcomer to the Rogue Angel series, it also helped fill in the blanks from previous stories and also managed to further the overall arching plot of the series. Was it something I'd likely reread at a later date? No, not really. But I would possibly borrow more of these books from the library for an easy beach read. I'm just relieved that the entire series isn't as badly written as False Horizon would seem to indicate and that at least one of the writers writing under the pseudonym Alex Archer can actually write well.