Review by JD: Seven Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly

• 7 Deadly Wonders
• by Matthew Reilly
• ISBN: 978-0-7432-7053-3
• Pages: 392, hardback
• Simon & Schuster, 2006
• Genre: Sci Fi “ish”, Action

John’s Thoughts:

It’s personal challenge time – I have to try and review this book without mentioning a certain best-selling author whose initials are D.B. Here goes.

4,500 years ago those clever ancient Egyptians placed a golden capstone on top of the Great Pyramid at Giza, which mystically helped avert a disaster caused by a rare solar event. The trouble is that the superhot sunspot aligns itself with Earth on a regular cycle and it’s about to happen again. Catastrophic flooding and scorching will ensue unless someone can find the lost capstone and replace it on the pyramid. The legend also says that the country whose people successfully carry out that feat will be all powerful for a thousand years. Consequently, various factions are trying to locate the golden capstone.

It turns out that the capstone is actually made up of seven pieces, and they disappeared over two thousand years ago. Each piece is somehow associated with one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and in order to collect the pieces someone has to locate those seven wonders, or the resting place of their remnants. But the people who hid them did not intend for them to be found. Seekers have to first unlock a series of devilishly difficult clues in order to find the locations, and then navigate loads of fiendish and deadly traps intended to kill anyone trying to find or remove the pieces. So begins a quest, and we follow a team made up from a handful of small countries, as they compete against superpowers and dark forces that are pitted against them.

As you now imagine that small team racing against the clock to decipher ancient clues, perhaps you can see why I have to try really hard not to mention that other author’s name. 

There were many things about this book that I did like. It is fast paced and pulls you along, and it’s an easy read. There are a lot of little maps and illustrations to help portray the locations, layouts and traps for each scene, which is pretty neat. The story is, of course, fantastic, but I was expecting that. It is well-constructed and well-written. What I had a hard time with was the action scenes - they are just so over the top and so unbelievable that I found them a bit silly. They make an Indianan Jones movie seem like a stroll in the park. And there are a lot of action scenes.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fast-paced action stories and mysterious quests. It didn’t quite hit the mark for me; I’d rate the book two and a half stars.

*********************************************************************************

This books was borrowed from the local library.

For more information about the book, author, the other two books in the series, and purchasing links, please see the giveaway/preview post for the trilogy.

As always comments are encouraged and welcome and will be addressed by JD.

Thanks for reading Layers of Thought.