The mystery of Rascar Capac and the Sanders-Hardiman expedition | The Seven Crystal Balls (The Adventures...

The Seven Crystal Balls | The Seven Crystal Balls (The Adventures of Tintin) | Herge

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	• The Seven Crystal Balls (The Adventures of Tintin) Herge Little, Brown Young Readers, 1975 - 62 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It's setup, but it's good setup.

Herge, The Seven Crystal Balls (Methuen, 1948)

Another of the series' setup volumes (this one for Prisoners of the Sun), but as usual, that doesn't stop Herge from having all sorts of wild and wonderful things go on. An expedition comes back from South America, having discovered the tomb of Rascar Capac and brought the mummy back for study. Soon, one by one, the members of the expedition lapse into a coma. Needless to say, One of them is a friend of Calculus' (and one thing I found a minor annoyance throughout the rest of the series-- the hearing aid Calculus procured during Explorers on the Moon was never seen again. It was a good joke for the first few volumes, but it got old pretty quick.), of course, and so Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock find themselves involved, however unwittingly, after Calculus is kidnapped. This is the only one of the setup volumes that actually feels like a setup volume, but it's still better than average, and also features the return (in a minor role) of Tintin's old friend General Alcazar, who would play an increasingly important role as the series went on. *** ½

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The mystery of Rascar Capac and the Sanders-Hardiman expedition

On a train to Marlinspike, Tintin is reading an article about the Sanders-Hardiman expedition which has spent two years excavating Inca tombs.
A gentleman on the train warns that a nasty end will await those "busybodies violating the Inca's burial chamber", comparing their predicted fate to that of the archaeologists, involved in the Tut-Ankh-Kamen affair.
On his visit to Marlinspike, Tintin is re-united with Captain Haddock, who is playing the role of the country lord of the manor in his newly inherited mansion of Marlinspike.
Tintin and the Captain go see a show at the Hippodrome, of magic and mystery, where the psychic Madame Yamilah has a vision of the serious illness of the husband of one of the audience, who hapens to be the photographer of the Sanders-Hardiman expedition.
The psychic revelation proves to be correct.
One after the other each of the men involved with the Sanders-Hardiman expedition falls into a coma, with fragmented crystal shards next to them, in each case.
Tintint and the Captain then accompany Professor Calaculus to his friend Professor Tarragon, and in a strange occurance the Rascar Capac mumy on Tarragon's posession mysteriously disappears, and each of the guests is visited by a frightening dream of Rascar Capac entering their guest rooms and smashing down a crystal ball on the ground.
Professor Tarragon soon also falls into the mysterious coma, and then Professor Calculus disappears, leadin Tintin and Haddock's investigations to lead them to plan a trip to Peru, which sets the stage for the sequel to this comic, Prisoners of the Sun (The Adventures of Tintin).
The Tintin adventures are amazingly detailed and intricate for a graphic novel, and this one is filled with much intrigue, suspense and action failing to disappoint, and reminding us why Tintin remains popular after nearly 8 decades.

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The Seven Crystal Balls

The Seven Crystal Balls begins where its predecessor, Red Rackham's Treasure, left off, with Captain Haddock settling into his family estate, Marlinspike Hall, and enjoying his newfound lord-of-the-manor role perhaps just a tad too much. The mystery begins at a variety show which Tintin and the Captain attend that evening. One of the performers, a clairvoyante, is suddenly seized with a vision that an audience member's husband is in great danger. Shortly afterwards, it is announced that the woman's husband has indeed been taken seriously ill.

The woman's husband, as it happens, was one of seven explorers recently returned from a voyage to South America to study the Incan mummy, Rascar Capac. As the story unfolds, the six other explorers - including Professor Calculus' ebullient friend, Professor Tarragon - are also rendered comatose by what appears to be the curse of the mummy. ("This will lead to trouble," a stranger prophetically warns Tintin at the beginning of the book, as they are travelling on a train and Tintin is reading about the explorers' expedition. "You see if it doesn't!")

The plot thickens even further, however, when Calculus, taking a stroll around Professor Tarragon's house, discovers a striking gold bracelet, puts it on (remarking on how nicely it goes with his coat), and then mysteriously disappears. It is up to Tintin and the Captain to find him -- but the mystery is left up in the air until the next Tintin volume, Prisoners of the Sun.

One final note: Also vitally important to this story is the return of Tintin's old friend General Alcazar, now performing as a music-hall knife thrower under the pseudonym Ramon Zarate. His knife-throwing partner, Chiquito, proves to be a prominent character in this mystery.

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Great start of a two parts adventure

This was, I think, the first Tintin book published after World War II (Herge was briefly imprisoned after the liberation of Belgium, since he has contributed as an artist to a pro-axis newspaper). It's the first of a two volume adventure (the second part being Prisoners of the Sun) but the book is good on its own. It starts amusingly, as Tintin arrives in Marlinspike (he still does not live there) and sees Haddock turned into a country lord (with the fortune of the Unicorn treasure, I suppose). The action unfolds slowly: the seven members of a scientific expedition to Peru start to get mysteriously attacked one by one, falling into a coma, with fragments of a shattered crystal ball next to them. As Calculus is a friend of the last remaining scientist, they paid him a visit to his house. During the night, unfortunately, they cannot prevent an attack on him. Worse for them, Calculus unwittingly takes a gold bracelet, and he is kidnapped by the attackers (which as it turns out, turns to be, some Peruvians connected with the Inca empire, who see the scientists as looters of sacred artifacts). Tintin and Haddock has no choice but to go to Peru to rescue Calculus (this is further developed in Sun, an even better album). Overall, a great album, which has stand the test of time after almost 60 years.

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A mysterious Incan curse (part 1 of 2)

Tintin and Captain Haddock go to a psychic show. There an Indian fakir puts his assistant into a trance. She forsees a mysterious illness striking a photographer on a recent expedition to recover Incan artifacts. One by one the researchers on the expedition fall into mysterious comas. Near each lies a shattered crystal ball...

For some comic relief here Captain Haddock tries hard to be oh so proper (he has recently aquired his ancestral estate and title). He is fixated on wearing a monocle at all times. This is an involved mystery with many clever bits of detective work and technology used by the characters. This particular book is definitely the first of two parts and doesn't stand alone. At the end of this one Tintin and the Captain are off in pursuit of a potential villain. But we still don't know what was in the crystal balls or how it connects to the Incan curse, and a major character has been kidnapped and not reunited with the heros. So you will have to read Prisoners of the Sun to not be left hanging after this one.

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The Seven Crystal Balls begins on a light note, as Captain Haddock tries to adjust to his new life as a gentleman following the events of Red Rackham's Treasure. He wears a monocle and frequents the music hall, where in a not-unusual coincidence he and Tintin happen to find General Alcazar (The Broken Ear) and the dreaded diva Bianca Castafiore. However, it's the act of fakir Ragdalam with Madame Yamilah, the amazing clairvoyante, that reveals the central adventure: the scientists excavating the tomb of Racar Capac have incurred the curse of the Inca. Despite the efforts of bungling detectives Thompson ("With a P, as in Philadelphia") and Thomson ("Without a P, as in Venezuela"), the explorers are stricken, and one of Tintin's closest friends disappears mysteriously, leading to a trip to Peru in the second part, Prisoners of the Sun. --David Horiuchi

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