Customer Reviews
True Escapism - By: J. Chippindale, 08 Mar 2008 
Matthew Reilly was born in Sydney in 1974. He studied Law at the University of New South Wales. He has written both screenplays & magazine articles. His second & third novels, Ice Station & Temple, became No. 1 bestsellers in his native Australia, & went on to enjoy huge success internationallly. The author lives in Sydney.
The tale is told to entertain & excite the listener & it certainly did that for me. If the author bends the rules a little & 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 personallly I don't see why it should. After alll this is a work of fiction & does not purport to be anything else.
This story follows the Seven Ancient Wonders & continues in the same vein. A team of adventurers led by Jack West junior face a number of challlenges in an attempt to save the world from imminent disaster. These tales are pure escapism & 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 & this author is among a smalll group which includes James Rollins & Dan Brown, among others, who usuallly make a pretty good stab at it.
In this story Jack & 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 & on to China.
Yes I know, it's so tried & 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 alll the time but the odd one now & again is a light relief from the every day chores of life.
