It’s an old book that I read about a year back, and I was tracking it down again just now (to check whether a German translation is out that I could recommend to a friend) and realised I had never written anything about it.
It’s a very-near-future SF romp that in an age-old fashion ties archological finds with extraterrestrial influences. It is (or seems which in most cases is good enough) well researched and its sense of “style” reminded me strongly of Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash”. I hope there’ll be more books from Stel Pavlou…

I finished watching the “Firefly” box-set, and it is so good it is hard to describe. I bought it (UK import) on recommendations and don’t regret a bit. It is too unfortunate that the show was cancelled (butchered) by Fox after 14 episodes. I think, I’d much prefer this to continue than the new “Battlestar Galactica” (which is not bad at all). Incidentally, the CGI is done by the same studio. 😉
It an odd mixture of Western and Science Fiction, but somehow the distinct characters make it all work. It is also amazingly funny, but can be very serious and sad as well.
Anyway, there’s looking forward to the “Serenity” feature film and hopefully, they can continue from there.