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Aug 29, 2011

Allan rated it:

You either love it or hate it...
Reilly's writing style is reminiscent of the fight scenes in the TV Batman series of the sixties...

Bam-
He leapt onto the helicopter from the tree
-Zoom

Relentless, totally implausible high octane scene followed by well, ditto... and then once more and just when you need a breather you are plunged headlong into a crocodile infested pit on your way to saving the world from mysterious shadow organisations operating within gover More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Tracy rated it:

This book was so completely terrible, so absolutely lacking in anything resembling worth, that I simply had to talk about it. It is so bad that I couldn't believe it, and kept reading with the sole purpose to find out how bad it could really get, and so I could tell everybody I knew how totally, completely, wholly bad it was. The only other books I have ever even started to read that were this bad were a few cheesy romance novels, and I wondered how even those could get published.

Whe More...

6 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Carolyn rated it:

What do you suppose would happen if an adventure novel got viciously mugged by a big fish tale? Probably something a lot like this. Now listen, if you want paeans to technology, stick to Clancy. Odes to science? Crichton's your man (Miss you already, Michael). But for sheer exuberance, not to mention all the momentum of a monster avalanche, Matthew Reilly is definitely your go-to guy. He's not afraid to use mutant walruses, mutant jaguars, hell, mutant children.
But there are rules here: t More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Nicola rated it:

I really enjoyed this book - so much so that I finished it in about a day and a half. I haven't read a book that was so fast paced in a while, the characters were engaging and the storyline was really interesting. I also thought that the illustrations were a good idea, helping to imagine the places described and adding to the story.

The only problem I had with the book was the author's extensive use of italics for emphasis. It fitted well in some instances, but for me it was over-used, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Kristina rated it:

Ok, there are going to be some spoilers here, but I can't help it. I'm listening to this book on tape, which is why I'm not going to comment on the grammatical stuff that everyone else has except to say that if I were reading it I likely would not have finished. That stuff REALLY bugs me.

Over all, it's been good for my commute, though as we get closer to the end I find myself rolling my eyes and muttering "come ON" more often than I'd like. Seriously, count how many times More...

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Dec 22, 2011

Barbara rated it:

The best way to describe Reilly's thriller is that it's like Indiana Jones on meth. Seriously.

I loved this book. It would be an excellent video game or, alternatively, a movie (but the cost of filming would be high given the settings). Reilly writes for the short-attention span crowd, and there's little to get in the way of the action. However, this is also the novel's problem: there's little character development. We read about characters getting killed but we don't really feel that More...

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Nov 07, 2011

Superpotburger rated it:

Don't kid yourself, it's fluff. BUT it's not necessarily a bad thing. Much like you can't eat pizza forever (really you can't), you can't always confine yourself to overly "intellectual" reads all the time - sometimes the noggin can use a little easy loving. The book requires next to squat brain power to keep up, has really little in the way of producing ideas that make you think, makes Die Hard look slow and truthfully, bloody enjoyable. The slew of statement sentences, excessive use More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Andrew rated it:

I really wanted to like this book. I read a few James Rollins novels and was looking for similar authors when I picked this up. What really got me interested was the concept of racing around to the seven wonders, and hopefully learning a little bit of history. Unfortunately, James Rollins' work is far more interesting and his characters are better developed. For a book that is 550 pages, much of Seven Deadly Wonders feels like a bunch of outlines stitche together. If you loved the beginnin More...

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Dec 08, 2010

Sherin rated it:

I concur to Lee here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/131...

Matt Reilley is a favourite with some of my friends. So I picked up a few of his titles. He fails to impress me even at the end of the second one. Thriller stuff usually makes me forget food & sleep; especially the ancient myth type. But not this one.

In the first place, the story is not in the least convincing, particularly towards the end. It defies most laws of Physics-gravity included. The story wasn’t g More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 18, 2010

Lee rated it:

A few weeks ago someone in my apartment building left a bunch of old magazines and recipe books in the lobby on a shelf that acts as a kind of internal charity shop. Amongst the 2008 editions of Marie Claire magazines was this book. Judging the book by its cover I assumed it would be god-awful pop fiction riding the Dan Brown bandwagon, so I of course picked it up and read it today on a return trip to Oxford.

I confess, the book isn't terrible. I'm used to suspending my sense of di More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2010

Chibineko rated it:

OK. First off, I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book as a guilty pleasure. As one reviewer put it, reading this was akin to watching an episode of MST3K- many of the situations in the book were so implausible that they were laughable. I'm not talking about the fantastical sites as much as I'm referring to the way the characters constantly cheat death and always have the right answers. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this was a self insert fan fiction.

The plot line More...

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Jun 16, 2010

Sally rated it:

The phrase "I couldn't put this book down" is the exact opposite of how I felt reading Reilly's "thriller." It was more like I couldn't remember to pick it up. I kept noticing it on my desk and reminding myself I was reading it and that I needed to finish it. I extended my lending period from my local library THREE TIMES. I never do that.

It was like this author was trying to combine India Jones, the Da Vinci Code, and "The Mummy" all in one book. The se More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kelly rated it:

Some time ago, I gave this book to a friend as a gift. Said friend is a big fan of the archaeological-mystery genre, and this looked to be right up her alley. Then, last weekend, I visited her home and found myself with a few hours to kill. I picked this up and started reading.

I owe my friend an apology.

Wow, what dreck. Or should I say, Wow! What dreck! The author's ridiculously breathless writing style, obviously intended to tell us that This! Story! Is supposed to be! Exc More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2009

Mya rated it:

Hey...It had to happen at some point right? Me finding a Reilly book just shy of unbearable. Having read at least five of his books and loved them, this book was a bit much. It stars a new hero for me, Jack West Jr. who has a mechanical arm and is Indiana Jones on crack. This book is archeologically heavy, and is basically about the search for a pyramid capstone which could mean either devastation for the world or the empowerment of a nation. It has the crack team of commandos, whose badass qual More...

1 comment like

May 10, 2009

Patrick rated it:

If you took all the action scenes from the Indiana Jones movies and edited them together, skipping all those pesky talkie parts, you would have something akin to this Matthew Reilly book: a thrilling thriller thrilled by its own exuberance. It’s a book that literally flies along—kind of the way it flew off the used book table at the church flea market and into my hands, which in turn forced me to part with fifty cents.

I tend to judge books in the Cussler/Rollins/Preston genre by the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 08, 2010

Tracy rated it:

Seven Deadly Wonders
Genre: Action / Adventure

A group of nation selected soldiers race to acquire pieces from the Seven Ancient Wonders of the world before their opposing enemies do, two super-powers United States and Europe. The book is full of non-stop missions each related to the wonders of the world.

What I Liked:
First thing to mention what I liked about this book that Canada was one of the nations “good guys” whom was struggling to seize one of the pi More...

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Dec 08, 2009

Lee rated it:

This is basically pulp adventure and I admittedly found it hard to get through as I got bored with the formula, which was rather repetitive. It's rollicking action all the way through as the team of heroes make their way through various ancient catacombs and hidden buildings negotiating traps and looking for the pieces of the capstone for the Great Pyramid before the bad guys do and mutter the incantation which will give them power over all the earth for thousands of years blah blah blah.
More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Thk rated it:

The more you read, the more common the themes and words start to arise throughout all of Reilly's works - which can be both a good and bad thing. Somehow Scarecrow and West start to sound alike and use the same weapons/tools. I am guessing this work came out partially out of the boom of the Da Vinci code, with its own internal jokes inside. Strangely absent from the sequel (I sort of read them in reverse order), there were a lot of "controversial" views of Christianity and Egyptian myt More...

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Oct 24, 2010

Froglily rated it:

An intrepid international team races through booby-trapped caverns to recover seven pieces of the golden capstone that will determine the future of the world.

Once every 4,500 years the Tartarus Sunspot aligns with Earth and causes world-wide flooding and sun-scorching, unless this is prevented by the placement of the Golden Capstone on the Great Pyramid at Giza. According to the legend explaining this function of the capstone, those who put the capstone in place will gain power over E More...

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Jul 26, 2011

Shannon rated it:

I have mixed reactions about this book. As my first Matthew Reilly, I'm unsure whether I would read another. At first I was completely distracted by Reilly's arrogant writing style overusing exclamation marks, italicised words, ellipses and broken paragraphs, not to mention I found the frequent diagrams very annoying. At times the action scenes were too ridiculous, often causing me to scoff at the lack of believability. In saying this, once I decided to ignore these as much as I could, the story More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 04, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

OH - GOOD - GRIEF.

That's all I can say here. I started out with an open mind, I was looking forward to this book, I like action adventure and I'll forgive a lot if the book has a good action feel. Also, I'm a fantasy fan so I'm practiced at "suspending disbelief", I'll swallow a lot with a shrug and an "oh well" if it makes a good story.

This time...it didn't.

I've never read anything by Mr. Reilly before. Here he seems to have taken a page More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 21, 2011

Mical rated it:

Matthew Reilly's work is fast-paced, creative and engaging. I have to admit; I didn't pick up this book on my own. A friend of mine shoved it (more or less) into my hands and told me I needed to read through it, so I obliged them. I'm certainly glad I did so!
The story kicks off at an incredible pace which it maintains throughout, while offering a goodly amount of character growth, exploration and intrigue. The backgrounds and descriptions were wonderfully innovative (to my thinking) and ke More...

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Nov 08, 2011

Ahdom rated it:

I came across this book somehow through Wikipedia. I was doing some kind of Indiana Jones related
search, and this book was referenced as being influenced from Indiana Jones. Jack West Jr., the
protagonist in this book was modeled after Indy. When I first started reading it, I was thrown into action and was put through an Indiana Jones type maze of ancient traps. I loved the action, but on my first opinion it was a bit clichéd and pretty cheesy, yet forgivable because I love relic huntin More...

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Oct 02, 2011

Richard rated it:

I finished it, but I can't recommend it. Had an interesting premise (parts of capstone of Great Pyramid hidden within the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and these must be collected to prevent a world catastrophe.) Sort of a Indiana Jones knock-off. But overall the book had too much violence, graphically described in parts, some bad language (certainly I would not recommend for early teens, but then I'm picky about that), and very preposterous action. For fantasy to work well you need th More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Sam rated it:

I don't think that I should have read this book when i was 11 because if your as young I suggest that you wait off this book because there are many times where I didn't understand some of it and the historical landmarks that it mentioned. But other than that, I believe that this is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. I had trouble with it at first, but thanks to my mom who recommended it to me herself, she helped my understand some of the words and phrases. The action in this book wa More...

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Aug 04, 2010

Cherry rated it:

This is a fast-paced, action-packed, modern psuedo-military adventure which engages your imagination and takes you to another world that is convincingly possible. The story-telling quality is quite good, I'd give it a 4 out of 5. The story itself is a 4.5 out of 5. What I really like is the way the author weaved fiction and psuedo-military adventure with known facts of the actual Seven Wonders of the World. Reilly tells a tale so expertly that he convinces his readers that it could happen that w More...

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Nov 30, 2010

Ravie rated it:

The plot involves a capstone which was placed atop the Giza Pyramid thousands of years ago, which absorbed the energy released by the Tartarus Rotation, a sunspot.
This capstone was later removed and divided into 7 horizontal pieces and were hidden in each of the 7 ancient wonders. The capstone if reunited and placed atop the pyramid during the next Tartarus (March 20, 2006), can bring univeral peace or 1000 years of power to the nation that possesses them. And hence there is a deadly race More...

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Jun 25, 2010

Sairesh rated it:

Seven Deadly wonders,a first in a series of books by esteemed author Matthew Reily, is an amazing read.With a deep plot and well developed characters,it has the right amount of action and adventure to make a thriller.It narrates the adventures of Jack West Jr and his team as they attempt to find all 7 pieces of the Golden Capstone,a powerful object which gives its beholder absolute power,and their clashes with Europe and the United States who are also in pursuit of the Capstone.However,a dash of More...

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Oct 20, 2010

Holly rated it:

This book was one Jason bought me when I had just had Jonas, and he knew I would be up in the middle of the night breastfeeding. The point was that it was a mindless but entertaining read, and that pretty much classifies it. The writing style is cheesy and pretty terrible (though not as bad as Dan Brown), but the story is like watching an Indiana Jones movie but with more action, if you can believe it. It's totally unbelievable unless it's the middle of the night and you are in a state of sus More...

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Jan 11, 2012

Jen rated it:

This was my first Matthew Reilly book that I have read. I have to admit I'm a fan! He keeps a very fast pace thru the entire book, giving you a few breathers and takes you on yet wild ride after another! He does his homework and gives great detail thru the entire book. There are a few inconsistencies and areas where the bird just 'appears out of nowhere". But over all he is very consistent with the story line and back filling needed history to understand the present. If you like History, Th More...

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