2008-03-08 True Escapism

Matthew Reilly was born in Sydney in 1974. He studied Law at the University of New South Wales. He has written both screenplays and magazine articles. His second and third novels, Ice Station and Temple, became No. 1 bestsellers in his native Australia, and went on to enjoy huge success internationally. The author lives in Sydney.

The tale is told to entertain and excite the listener and it certainly did that for me. If the author bends the rules a little and does not stick rigidly to ancient history as it has been written down by the scholars, then so what. For those who have an interest in Ancient History, myself included it may offend a little. But speaking personally I don't see why it should. After all this is a work of fiction and does not purport to be anything else.

This story follows the Seven Ancient Wonders and continues in the same vein. A team of adventurers led by Jack West junior face a number of challenges in an attempt to save the world from imminent disaster. These tales are pure escapism and you either like them or you don't. I am not ashamed to admit that I do like this kind of adventure story if it is reasonably well written and this author is among a small group which includes James Rollins and Dan Brown, among others, who usually make a pretty good stab at it.

In this story Jack and his team have to rebuild an ancient device, that will of course save the world. The trouble is before they can start they need to find the long lost Six Sacred Stones. Of course they are not the only ones looking for the stones . . . The Hunt for the stones takes the team from Stonehenge in England, to the sands of Egypt and on to China.

Yes I know, it's so tried and tested that you almost know what is going to come next but this just seems to make the book more readable, don't ask me why. I certainly would not want to read this type of book all the time but the odd one now and again is a light relief from the every day chores of life.