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What are readers saying about Seven Deadly Wonders: A Novel?
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-14 03:23:19.
(Language: English)
  
The thing Matthew Reilly is criticised most for is his greatest strength. His books read like an Indiana Jones/James Bond action film, at times to the detriment of character development and a believable plot, but thats what is great about them. Pure escapism where you can cheer for the good guy and count the rising death toll of the bad guys without guilt. A change of scenery from the (equally enjoyable) Scarecrow series, Jack West Jr is as equally deserving of a series of books as Scarecrow. If you dont think too much about this book and are prepared to suspend belief whilst reading, you will enjoy this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-02 02:48:13.
(Language: English)
A good fun read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-10-03 05:22:50.
(Language: English)
Cannot wait till the 3rd book is finished!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-12 05:07:15.
(Language: English)
Superb!!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-21 05:46:59.
(Language: English)
An action adventure that pits a team of 9 that include an old man, a woman and a little girl against two world powers in a race to find the 7 pieces that assemble to be the capstone for The Great Pyramid. If they don't find the pieces in time..., the world will be destroyed. Really liked the action, a little like DaVinci Code in that there is some liberal interpretation of who really controls the power in the world, but it is fiction and makes the story feasible.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-25 03:28:46.
(Language: English)
Liked this one, LOVED the follow up...good fun tomb raiders with a real fun 'family' team of goodies. UK/Oz version is the Seven Ancient Wonders...half way through, and its as good as the 6 Sacred Stones. I am reading them in the wrong order...nevermind - its still good and I know they who survive so its less scary.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-08 09:43:04.
(Language: English)
Fun, fast paced read, mixing adventure and history. Way too implausible to be in the same class with other similar writers like James Rollins.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-29 06:21:35.
(Language: English)
It's "Seven ancient wonders" in Australia. It's a really fast-paced book in the style of Matthew Reilly, more suitable for a movie script but entertaining nonetheless. Of course you have to ignore all the historical mistakes and imagine that the story is set on an imaginary world similar to ours but not quite the same. Personally, I think that those books where Scarecrow appears as main character are the best (Area 7, Scarecrow and Ice Station).
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-11 04:22:08.
(Language: English)
Totally barking but great fun. Can't wait for the third of the series later this year.
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Heather posted a review at 2010-03-22 08:50:21.
(Language: English)
Another great adventure series.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-26 03:12:39.
(Language: English)
Tartarus……the sunspot that lines up with the earth roughly once every 4500 years is about to appear again. According to legend it will bring catastrophic destruction upon the Earth unless a golden capstone, lost to antiquity, is placed back where it belongs on top the Great Pyramid at Giza. It is said that whoever has the capstone on the day of Tartarus will make his country invincible. According to legend, Alexander the Great broke apart the capstone and hid it within the seven wonders of the ancient world. A document known as the Callimachus Text details the locations and how to beat the traps. Now, three groups of nations are competing with one another to find the pieces and assemble the capstone on the day that the Tartarus Rotation takes place. The Americans form one team, the European Union the second and supersoldier Jack West, Jr., in possession of the Callimachus text, leads the third. West must beat the odds and lead his team across the ancient world to find the pieces and prevent the possible annihilation of the Earth. Seven Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly is without a doubt one of the best action novels of recent years-think Indiana Jones on steroids. The novel is one heck of a roller coaster ride from beginning to end, starting with a daring rescue and ending with a last-second, Hail-Mary save. Reilly has done an amazing job with the details of each mission, intricately describing each location in detail. The book appears to be historically accurate with regard to the identity and location of each of the ancient wonders. Reilly has sprinkled in the odd trivia throughout the novel, such as the Washington Monument and the Great Pyramid at Giza being at the same height above sea level. All in all, I learned a lot from this novel and could hardly put it down once I started to read it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-22 07:55:53.
(Language: English)
This is hard to explain, but this book is almost not really . . . like a book. It's actually feels like a cross between a comic book and a video game. It has so many diagrams. And the description of the action becomes almost like a news feed. I wanted him to develop more of the story of the girl - there's even less character work than usual. And the story is repetitive. Go into "deadly wonder." Evade traps. Try to get valuable item. Escape deadly wonder. Go into next deadly wonder. Like others say - "Temple" is his best - worth looking at. Or "Contest" if you want a good B - movie science fiction story. Ice station is okay, but the sequels, (Area 7, etc) become too similar to me in their plots . . .
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-02 10:14:35.
(Language: English)
Tepid is a good description for this unexciting work, considering there can be so much more. Perhaps Reilly was attempting to cramp too much into one volume. While it is definitely a knock-off of Indiana Jones in the search of a pyramid capstone scatters around the world by Alexander the Great, the work is less than thrilling and unpredictable. The plot revolves more on the events than characters, failing to appeal to the readers on the villains and heroes. The ending was also rather unexciting and predictable, with no additional twist put in to bring it to a climax.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-03 10:35:44.
(Language: English)
I love this series I cannot wait for the next book in the series.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-07 08:12:33.
(Language: English)
Mat Reilly is today's James Bond's action/thriller. He write with a passion and intenity that is unmatced. Pure adreniline rush. One of the greatest story teller of this generation and of all time.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-06 08:41:33.
(Language: English)
A very well written book that takes the reader around the world in search of the lost wonders of the ancient world
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-31 04:40:44.
(Language: English)
This was a refreshing change, the main character was a completely new person with his own team of unique individuals and for once he wasn't American, Reilly chose to model his lead role from someone of his own nationality. Essentially this book is Reilly getting into the Indiana Jones / Lara Croft territory of tomb raiding and archaeology and it is a very good read, the action it almost goes without saying is fast and the characters are mostly all very pleasant and as I mentioned very different to what has gone before. I look forward to more novels based around this team as opposed to it all being Scarecrow's Marine Force Recon Team.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-09 07:00:36.
(Language: English)
This book is called 'Seven Ancient Wonders'
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-05 01:08:58.
(Language: English)
this series the best ever...
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-23 07:55:11.
(Language: English)
simply superb
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-13 07:44:18.
(Language: English)
Matthew Reilly Comes up with a wonderfully intricate new Hero in Jack West Jr.... Providing him with a prosthetic limb was a pure stroke of genius....
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-17 10:10:04.
(Language: English)
Wonderous,amazing!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-10-13 03:33:36.
(Language: English)
this is a keeper
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-27 05:59:29.
(Language: English)
Once again I have encountered a book I can re-read over and over again. Reilly is able to present fiction that you can just sit back and melt into. It isn't about having to think (although I always find myself trying to work out all the answers beforehand anyway). I do think that this is almost a movie, or a comic book, the books that you can put down for a second, come back and wander to the t.v and look for the show you were just watching are the best. You're they, watching it all happen. That's what good fiction is. Another fantastic job, the sequal is looking the same so far ^.^
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Carolyn Joy posted a review at 2010-04-18 02:19:33.
(Language: English)
I was pulled by the title when I first saw this at the bookstore, and when I read the back cover summary, I was intrigued. Seeing the other books beside it (The Six Sacred Stones), I noticed this book belongs in a series and I love reading those types of books. This novel seemed promising because I pegged to be something similar to "National Treasure" or "The Mummy". It smacked of action, adventure, historical figures, military involvement, covert ops, the nations working with and against each other all clamoring for the ultimate power. In the end, good wins against evil, but Reilly wrote a convincing plot which placed all the odds against West's team. On the outset, I really didn't know the author's nationality, and I noticed he has this animosity towards Americans and Europeans. Once in a while, he not only implies, but downright states that Americans are barbarians who have no respect for history, while Europeans are also cunning people who would stop at nothing to get what they want. After reading the first few chapters, I tried to read some reviews to get a grasp what the novel is all about. There was a plethora of introductions, the author's voice is really strong in his writing style, and it seemed like he's storytelling to a kids with a lot of actions and gestures. There was an excessive use of onomatopoeia, exclamation marks, and italics that at one point I just stop and chuckle. I'm not familiar with military weapons, whether fictional or real, and when he describes a gadget it's like "THIS IS SUPER COOL!", like you should be awed. Going back to my initial observation, although they are of different nations, the story is similar to National Treasure where the enemies only use the good guys for their end goal, because they're not as smart; they only have the funds and weaponry. This is exactly what's happening in this story. The action never stops, the protagonists have only a few moments to breathe normally, then they launch themselves to the next mission. The history really helped, it provided the breathing room for the reader, there's only so much action one can take. Relationships developed, some lived while the others died, or were killed, and what I liked about this is "the circle of life". Not all the characters are invincible, and good always triumphs over evil, no matter what.
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