bennet_7

So yesterday I got Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly. I finished it very early this morning. I interrupted my reading of it to watch 'Clueless' and 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. I read really quickly.

Matthew Reilly is an Australian author whom I discovered when I was about 15 (not sure). He writes action-adventure stories, where lots of stuff blows up and with many twists and turns. He's go the fast paced style of Dan Brown, which makes it awfully hard to put his books down (yes I put the book down but I was hungry and then I got distracted). He incorporates adventures revolving around historical mysteries like Clive Cussler. And he has the hand-to-hand techno military combat of...can't find anyone decent to compare him to.

Characterization is not his strong point, but generally his characters are quite enjoyable. They serve their purpose and they serve it well. In particular I like the characters of Shane 'Scarecrow' Schofield, Libby 'Fox' Gant and Gena 'Mother' Newman (named not because she's a maternal figure but because she's one tough motherf#&%$r). He's also unafraid to kill off the good guys; I'm still upset about him killing off a particular character in Scarecrow, but I respect him more for doing so.

I enjoy how he mixes it up with the bad guys. There are generally human bad guys and animal bad guys. There are often several different human bad guys, so that the good guys are being attacked from many sides. The animal bad guys can be killer whales, crocodiles and sharks. Unlike the human bad guys, these ones will take no prisoners and are often, but not always, harder to defeat.

His books are generally well researched; he has a great knowledge of military combat and the technical aspects of warfare. Even the things he invents (such as the Maghook, a magnetic grappling device) seem grounded in reality. However unlike Tom Clancy he doesn't spend a page describing the unnecessary technical aspects in incomprehensible technical language.

I was a bit disappointed with Seven Ancient Wonders. Definitely his weakest work so far, though it is still enjoyable. The characterisation was fairly bad. The hero, a new one, Captain Jack West Jr, is nowhere near as interesting as Schofield, his hero of three novels and a novella. Plus his name is really stupid. Any person called Captain Jack is going to immediately remind me of a) Johnny Depp or b) 'Doctor Who.'

West's nemesis is Judah, and he's supposed to be the best of the best in the American military. However Judah doesn't come across as very intelligent and we are never told of his interest in Ancient Egypt, though he apparently has enough knowledge to do something spoilery. And Judah's belief in the power of the pyramid seems out of character for a tough Army guy.

The magical/fantasy element also lets the story down. What I have previously appreciated about Reilly is that he could have gone to fantasy to explain some of the things in his books. For instance, in Ice Station, a 'space ship' is discovered beneath an ice shelf in Antarctica. Reilly could have gone all sci-fi but he didn't; he grounded it in reality and the story was believable because of it.

The action sequences were as strong as always. Reilly has a way of writing them so you can visualise them in your mind; they make your heart race. His discriptions of  the traps used to protect the seven ancient wonders are exciting; you feel like you are reading an Indianna Jones movie (yes I mean it that way). The book contains several homages to Indianna Jones and this is characteristic of Reilly; he loves those movies.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I have his others. Too often I could see the twists coming. However it was still quite good and if you see it in your local library I suggest you get it if you like this sort of thing. However I would seriously recommend looking into Reilly's other work, in particular Ice Station (the first Schofield book), Temple, Area 7 (the second Schofield book), Scarecrow (the third Schofield book) and Hover Car Racer.