Been Reading

Matthew Reilly.

I had been reading the 7 Ancient Wonders and 6 Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly lately. 7 Ancient Wonders I read about a couple of weeks back and 6 Sacred Stones while recovering at the hospital.

So I am combining both reviews into one post, still separate but no need to repeat points already highlighted. Also both books have the same set of characters. Not gonna take long in reviewing these 2 books as I have some daun-daunan I needed to 'jerang'. Huhu.

Anyway


7 Ancient Wonders. Excerpt from Amazon.com Review

The breakneck action stems from an Egyptian sun cult which has hidden pieces of the capstone to the great pyramid in the husks of the seven wonders of ancient world, leaving clues that would flummox Indiana Jones. Here's the deal: whichever nation can locate and assemble the capstone in time for a cosmic event designed to end life on Earth will rule the world. Enter a ragtag team of commandos representing non-superpowers (read, in a Da Vinci Code context, not the European Union, the United States or the Vatican) who stand to lose in this eventuality. The team pits itself in a race against the formidable forces of the western world, cosmic calendar, and traps set by ancient-wonder-hider, Imhotep V.

Hmmm. In the site the excerpt looked kinda less long.

• Introduce us to the team of Captain Jack West Jr.
• Fast paced. Like really. If Indy Jones was a novel (well maybe it was I never check), it is kinda like this.
  
• Lovely complete imaginings of 7 Ancient Wonders tho some are reallly far fetched.
• Treat it as truly fiction rather than historical fiction.
• The writing is direct and no nonsense. Short concise words, more actions than thoughts most of the time. Can get mind boggling if you are used to slower books (moi! moi!)
• Comes with drawings, which is a plus. Because describing complex buildings may be hard, but readers reading it considered it just as boring.
  
• Effi, pick this up and read it. Should be right up in your alley. Though you may scoffs on the some of the very wildly inaccurate facts or legends.

6 Sacred Stones. The review excerpt I took from Amazon.com as below.

After completing a 10-year mission to acquire the Golden Capstone of the Great Pyramid from what's left of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Jack West Jr. has retired to the Australian outback to raise his adopted daughter, Lily. Jack's pal, Professor Max T. Epper, known as Wizard, has discovered that the Dark Sun, a mysterious heavenly body, is due to emerge in nine days, triggering the Apocalypse. Ultimate disaster can only be averted if someone can locate the six legendary Pillars, cleanse them with the Philosopher's Stone and insert them in the 6 Vertices, thereby causing the Great Machine to power on and negate the fatal blast from the Dark Sun. If anyone can perform these Herculean labors, it's Reilly's resourceful hero.

• The story picked up about a year after the 7 Ancient Wonders end.
• More actions but, slower pace than the previous. But it gave the readers more breathing time to get familiar with the story and place.
• Captain Jack West Jr is getting a bit predictable.
• The legends are a bit complicated this time and I lose track on which is which, and that is annoying.
• Cliffhanger ending for a book. WTF!

So I can't wait for book 3 which are the 5 Greatest Warriors coming in October!

Summary: Great reading. Hard to put down. Get some getting used to.