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13th out of 22 books
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18 voters
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Temple
Four centuries ago, a precious idol was hidden in the jungles of Peru. To the Incan people, it is still the ultimate symbol of their spirit. To William race, an American linguist enlisted by the U.S. Army to decipher the clues to its location, it's the ultimate symbol of the apocalypse...
Carved from a rare stone not found on Earth, the idol possesses elements more destruct...more
Carved from a rare stone not found on Earth, the idol possesses elements more destruct...more
Mass Market Paperback, 508 pages
Published
February 18th 2002
by St. Martin's Paperbacks
(first published December 31st 1999)
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I’ve been having problems working on my review of this one… I had in mind to write one of those reviews where I explain what actually goes down in this book without saying “fuck” “shit” “OMG” and “WTF” and not talking about the weird shit that happened around me while I was trying to read this book… but instead I was going to talk about the non-stopping action, plot twist that left me completely surprised… I was planning on talking about the Nazis!!! I mean Nazis!!!! You have any idea of how har...more
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Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress"
rated it
From page one, I found the urge to keep reading impossible to resist. Reilly has a very in your face style when it comes to violence, so a reader should be prepared. And good men do die in this book. One that characters I was so crushing on died and my heart was broken. The way he did was so abrupt and not pretty. But the sheer adrenaline kick of reading this book will keep you going. I liked William Race as a hero. He's almost the opposite of Shane Schofield. He's physically awkward, more o...more
It is hard to call this science fiction, even though Reilly is really big on technology. The only problem is... his technology has far too much "magic" in it, and really pushes his stories -- all four of those I've read -- into a really weird fantasy genre where pseudo-technology fills the role of magic.
In order to avoid spoilers -- and thus losing the chance to warn folks about how they might be disappointed by this book -- it will have to be sufficient to say that Reilly ...more
In order to avoid spoilers -- and thus losing the chance to warn folks about how they might be disappointed by this book -- it will have to be sufficient to say that Reilly ...more
First half of the book gone by so quickly, non-stop action. Loads of maneater 'cats' and god-eater spaniards. And in some part, star wars weapons 'G-11'. The tricky part of it and i dunno how I can visualize Race got away with taking out the helicopter by a rope swing... well dare to understand thats how MR write his stuff and I must say is still something we learn to take from an author of this kind of action-story-pages. I will dig in on the 2nd half of the book. More blood in this one though....more
I wouldn't normally have picked up a book like Temple on my own, but it was recommended to me by a student and he even lent me his own copy of the book. The result? I am considering pressing charges against the student for submitting me to cruel and unusual punishment. Let me point out that I am not beyond dumb thrillers. If it is handled well enough, I can't get enough of them. But I do have a problem with thrillers that make me laugh (not intentionally), then wince, then groan, and then finall...more
This had me dreaming of an overseas holiday, because this is quintessentially an "Airport Novel" -- it has all the elements: a search for lost treasure, exotic locations (Peru), lots of carefully enumerated military hardware, conspiracies, Nazis, not to mention continuous, breathtaking and incredible (i.e. impossible to believe) action. Somewhat endearingly, Reilly often uses italics when describing some moment of particularly hard to believe action, as though he can hardly believe it ...more
I LOVE Matt Reilly! This is his second book that I've read and once again, I just couldn't put it down. What an action packed book, that just keeps you turning the pages.
I also love the way I become so attached to the main character, I felt as if we've been friends for ages and I can't help caring about what happens to him. He's just such a great guy!
And yes, I'll admit, sometimes the action sequences are a little long, maybe even a little over-the-top, but I still love 'em!
...more
I also love the way I become so attached to the main character, I felt as if we've been friends for ages and I can't help caring about what happens to him. He's just such a great guy!
And yes, I'll admit, sometimes the action sequences are a little long, maybe even a little over-the-top, but I still love 'em!
...more
I feel bad not giving this more stars, because I really did enjoy it, and it did what it was supposed to do - it entertained me for a train ride. Reilly says that he likes to write non-stop action fiction, and that's what this is. To the point of being unbelievable. Oh, the Average Joe professor jumped into a moving plane, did he? But whatever, it's action porn, and I liked it. Besides that, a fair amount of research must have gone into this, because Reilly seems to incorporate a lot of sci...more
This is my favourte Reilly book so far. It's a big fat blockbuster of a book but I ploughed through it in a couple of days. It's very edge-of-your-seat stuff, written in a cinematic style so it feels more like watching a fast paced action movie than reading a book.
The story has two timelines, one set in the time of the Spanish conquest of the Incas and the other in Peru of 1999. The unlikely hero is William Race, a mild mannered, likable linguisitcs expert who, during this story, fin...more
The story has two timelines, one set in the time of the Spanish conquest of the Incas and the other in Peru of 1999. The unlikely hero is William Race, a mild mannered, likable linguisitcs expert who, during this story, fin...more
Ian
added it
This was superb!! So over the top, implausible, ridiculous -- and the more ridiculous it became, the more I enjoyed it. At last, an action-novelist who doesn't take himself or his story too seriously.
I could have done without the sound effects he insisted on putting in whenever anyone got shot - (wham...thwump...splat!) - and lots of people did get shot. And the bit when his kevlar body armour actually turned out to be a rocket pack that automatically fired up to save him - perhaps just a littl...more
I could have done without the sound effects he insisted on putting in whenever anyone got shot - (wham...thwump...splat!) - and lots of people did get shot. And the bit when his kevlar body armour actually turned out to be a rocket pack that automatically fired up to save him - perhaps just a littl...more
Let me keep the thing concise:
1. No, the events portrayed in this novel just can't be real, not now, not ten years back, not ever.
2. No, you can't have such linguists who can read the language of a forgotten Spanish priest of 15th Century (who had described an idol, made from alien elements that can act as the source of a MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS), and who can also take on neo-Nazi groups, different factions of American Military, agents from Germany(?!), betrayers from all possible sou...more
1. No, the events portrayed in this novel just can't be real, not now, not ten years back, not ever.
2. No, you can't have such linguists who can read the language of a forgotten Spanish priest of 15th Century (who had described an idol, made from alien elements that can act as the source of a MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS), and who can also take on neo-Nazi groups, different factions of American Military, agents from Germany(?!), betrayers from all possible sou...more
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Ok, I do enjoy action/adventure stories, and I give them a lot of leeway when characters seem a little contrived or forced, for example, simply because the action *is* the whole real focus of books like this. It's just supposed to be complete fun.
But "Temple" disappointed me. For one thing, single action scenes that go on for pages and pages and pages kind of lose their excited-momentum after awhile, you know? And adding exclamation points to every third or fourth sentence j...more
But "Temple" disappointed me. For one thing, single action scenes that go on for pages and pages and pages kind of lose their excited-momentum after awhile, you know? And adding exclamation points to every third or fourth sentence j...more
Ruka
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Clive Cussler fans, people who think Dan Brown uses too many big words, Tomb Raider fanboys
Shelves:
fiction
So silly. So stupid. So slam-bang, so summer-blockbuster, so style-over-substance.
So good.
No, not really. Not that terribly good at all. The meat of the book is a hastily slapped-together hodgepodge of action movie cliches, good and evil character archetypes, over-the-top fight sequences that just beg to be filmed in bullet time, laughingly unlikely escapes, and paper-thin character development. The story, not that it matters, involves competing military teams, both ...more
So good.
No, not really. Not that terribly good at all. The meat of the book is a hastily slapped-together hodgepodge of action movie cliches, good and evil character archetypes, over-the-top fight sequences that just beg to be filmed in bullet time, laughingly unlikely escapes, and paper-thin character development. The story, not that it matters, involves competing military teams, both ...more
Temple had me from page one. It is a real page turner in general, but was a bit of a let down in the second half.
It was a good story line, and had the makings of a decent movie even.
But, it seemed like there was much build up in the 1st half of the story, then a rush to the end. Almost as if Matthew Reilly had to finish this book under a deadline.
He created the characters well, then did not show their progression of growth through the second half of the book. The...more
It was a good story line, and had the makings of a decent movie even.
But, it seemed like there was much build up in the 1st half of the story, then a rush to the end. Almost as if Matthew Reilly had to finish this book under a deadline.
He created the characters well, then did not show their progression of growth through the second half of the book. The...more
This book hurt. "At that exact same moment" I lost count of the number of times I would have thrown a physical book away. It is a mess. The bad guys are worse than cardboard. Their motivations are either non-existent or just plain ludicrous. The central premise of the Thyrium and the Super Nova were handled so badly, it was clear Reilly doesn't know much about nuclear physics. Although from the action scenes he is well versed in Hollywood Physics.
There were some intere...more
There were some intere...more
I absolutley love this book, I read it a couple of years ago now whilst travelling back from holiday and it took me about one and a half days!
It is full of twists and turns and I love the way it shows you from the point of view of Race and the Incans. I feel aswell as being thrown into a world of adventure I learnt different facts from reading it too, it is an amazing book!
It left me on the edge of my airplane seat and I would pick it up and read it again in a heartbeat, I couldn't p...more
It is full of twists and turns and I love the way it shows you from the point of view of Race and the Incans. I feel aswell as being thrown into a world of adventure I learnt different facts from reading it too, it is an amazing book!
It left me on the edge of my airplane seat and I would pick it up and read it again in a heartbeat, I couldn't p...more
Possibly my favorite of all his books. This was an amazing 2-in-1 book with a story line set in the past and another in the present, both in the Amazon searching for a relic that will bring ultimate power.
If you like adventure in the manner of Indiana Jones this is the book i recommend. Great plot and action scenes. The characters may not be that defined but all-in-all it was pretty good.
Matthew Reilly’s Temple is a highly readable spoof. The plot is exceedingly convoluted and keeps the reader constantly of his/her visual toes. Saving the world from destruction is always a good goal but William Race has to perform it twice. My only real criticism about the book is that sometimes it goes over the edge of believable, landing in the realm of ludicrous. Surviving the fall of an Abrams tank out of an airplane is an insult to the reader’s intelligence. I suppose one could argue creati...more
There is an ancient Incan idol made from a meteorite. Several military groups are in a race to find it, so complete a planet destroying weapon. William Race is just a language professor, nothing exciting. He leads a relatively quiet life until the knock on his door that got him involved in the search. In the next 48 hours his life takes an abrupt change. He will have to decipher an ancient manuscript, trudge through rain forest, be fired upon, and need to save the world.
Matthew ...more
Matthew ...more
I really tried to finish this book but after 60% in I just couldn't read it anymore. I'm not sure what age group it's meant to be for because at times I felt like it was written for teenagers, while other times it was the standard adult ficton thriller I'm use to. The main problem I find is how it's written. The flow is all over the place, the direction is predictable, and the whole fight with the cats felt like it was going on for 100 pages... wait, I think it did! He has this way of sucking me...more
Matthew Reilly novels. The crazy action movies of the book world. They don't need a plausible plot line, just plenty of action, gunfire and special effects. I listened to the audiobook whilst driving and Sean Mangan who narrates, has the perfect voice and style for it. So many plot twists. So many "What the?" moments. So many "And then suddenly..." or "At that exact same moment..." moments. I'm not sure how serious Matthew Reilly is when he writes his books, but I h...more
Bree T
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
australian,
crime,
historical-fiction,
contemporary,
military-thriller,
mystery,
thriller,
supernatural,
suspense
William Race is an average kind of guy. He’s a linguist, working at a New York university when he turns up to work one day and finds his office overrun with Green Beret’s and important official-looking people. They need his superior language skills to read and translate a found hundred year old Latin American manuscript. Hidden within the manuscript are the directions to a very important tribal artifact – an artifact that has become a hotly contested prize for various powerful factions given tha...more
This book came highly recommended by friends and I realize why. It's a rollercoaster! And therein lies my problem - I think I'm too old for this kind of plot now. If I had read this book when it was published (2002, I guess), I would've loved it! But the reader now is someone who's had thriller plots as her staple food for the past few years (not to mention, reading better accounts of unlikely heroes like Robert Langdon et al). This whole Indiana Jones-y thing just doesn't do it for me anymore....more
I FINALLY finished this book! In theory I think it sounds ok... It's basically two parallel stories set in different times, supposedly filled with action. But it was soooo slow to get going, I had already made up my mind that I didn't like it before anything really happened. Admittedly, the later parts of the book were suspenseful. But the main character found himself in about 10 near-death situations, and it became too predictable that 'at the last second' or 'at that exact moment' something wo...more
Please note as I have reviewed the "regular" version of this book, this review applies only to the Kindle edition. I would give the novel itself 5 stars, but I would only give the Kindle edition 2 or 3 for the simple reason that it is absolutely riddled with typos. It reads like it was scanned using primitive OCR technology, and there is at least a typo on every page. Very disappointing, and if I didn't know the book and get used to the problems, it would be near unreadable. Shame on t...more
Storyline: Deep in the jungles of Peru, the race of the century is underway to locate a legendary Incan idol that was carved out of a strange stone which in the late 20th century could be used as the basis for a terrifying new weapon. The only clue to the idol's final resting place lies in a 400-year old manuscript, and a brilliant young linguist is unwittingly recruited to translate the manuscript and to lead the US Army to a mysterious temple where the idol is hidden. But it is only when they ...more
This book is non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop action, non-stop ac...more
A thrilling and engrossing fast-paced read. This book follows a linguist, Professor Will Race, as he is taken from New York to the mountains of Peru in search of an ancient idol and stolen weapon, called the Supernova. This weapon has the capability to destroy the world once a certain substance, thyrium, has been added and typically America has felt the need to develop and make such a weapon and then have it stolen. This substance can not be found on Earth but from meteors, which the aforemen...more
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Matthew Reilly is a New York Times best-selling author of eight novels that have been published in eighteen languages in twenty countries. He has sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.
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