One thing we know about Matthew Reilly: The man can count backward. After 7 DEADLY WONDERS and THE 6 SACRED STONES, he returns with THE 5 GREATEST WARRIORS, the third book in the series of globe-hopping hero Jack West Jr. and his multicultural pals.
STONES had the gall to end in a cliffhanger, which WARRIORS concludes in its opening pages, although it continues the overall plot of West and company having to place a pillar at six different points within the Earth, in order to build a machine that will stop Earth’s imminent destruction on March 20, 2008. (Yes, the novel outdated itself.)
West and his friends — each known by G.I. JOE-esque monikers like Sky Monster, Wizard, Stretch and, um, Pooh Bear — decode an ancient poem to determine the locations of the remaining pillars. Doing so leads them to underground, treasure-laden traps that double as the tombs of such historical bigwigs as Genghis Khan and Jesus Christ.
By land, by air and by sea, our heroes — who seemingly can jump continents within minutes — are pursued by bands of bad guys determined not to let them succeed. Giving themselves such colorful labels as Wolf, Rapier and Vulture, they may as well be twirling their mustaches. And that goes double for a new baddie, codenamed Carnivore.
Reilly’s gonzo set pieces involve a human being collection in formaldehyde, a nuclear bomb being detonated, a petrified dinosaur egg, a lava maze and even — yes! — ninjas. New to this adventure is the introduction of weather events so cataclysmic, they seem designed to give Roland Emmerich a hard-on.
What was once novel, however, has lost a considerable amount of novelty. Reilly’s sequences still come illustrated with maps — look closely in the first one for the two stick figures plummeting through the air — but West’s tasks have grown so complex that visualization is cloudy, even with the aid of drawings and charts and other whiz-bang graphics.
WARRIORS strives to revive the pulp antics of yesterday, but it’s tiresome and overloaded; there’s a reason serials are 10 minutes apiece. I know the series has been hokey from the start, but WONDERS was a blast; WARRIORS is a whimper — a party that has gone on far too long.
Fans of the series will likely want to read it, and that’s understandable. I did, too, but disappointment set in early, as I felt like I’d already read it before — maybe even twice. If you haven’t hung out with West prior to this, don’t start here; doing so would be like coming in on a play in Act III, even though Reilly wisely — thankfully, even — recaps the first two novels in a helpful prologue. I wish other authors would follow his cue there.
I’m not writing off further West-ward derring-do, but I’m pleased to see Reilly pretty much wrap up the arc so we’re not left hanging again. Because if we were, I’d probably just leave it dangling forever. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE 6 SACRED STONES by Matthew Reilly
• 7 DEADLY WONDERS by Matthew Reilly
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- 7 Deadly Wonders
- BOOK WHORE >> 12.27.05
- The 6 Sacred Stones
- The 9 Greatest and Most Important Books I Have No Intention of Ever Reading
- Hulk: Greatest Battles
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
“Because if we were, I’d probably just leave it dangling forever. ”
Ah, a metaphor. I get it. You’re saying Roland Emmerich is impotent.