Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe a bit TOO much, July 18, 2002
I was thrilled to find Area 7 was available. I picked Ice Station up in Australia and was about a third of the way into it when I bought Reilly's other books, it was so good. Now I don't want to sound like I have no ability to suspend my disbelief, as Ice Station was a flash-bang ride which would realitically kill even a superhuman, but Area 7 was a little too much to be believed. The hero is inhumanly fast, strong and tough, with the endurance of the Terminator. I have no problem with this, I know it's not a non-fiction book. At the same time, a few of the feats Scarecrow does are SO impossible that they defied even my ability to suspend my own disbelief. That said, it was a fun read, just not what I'd hoped in the follow-up to the magnificent Ice Station. I understand Reilly is working on a third Scarecrow book. Can't imagine where he'll get sent next, or what he'll have to survive, but I'll get it regardless.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
not even a good action story, January 3, 2005
Area-7 - an underground fortress in SW America - is one of the most secure military installations on Earth. Using tons of high-tech, most of it involving bio-warfare tested on condemned criminals, Area-7 scientists develop cures for diseases engineered by America's enemies. Unfortunately, "Caesar" Russel, a disgraced and supposedly executed former USAF general, seizes Area-7 and locks everybody - including the President and his loyal marine contingent - inside. Russel has implanted a microscopic transmitter on the president's heart connecting the unwitting chief to nuclear warheads placed in every major northern city. All will explode should Caesar's troopers locate and kill the president. Also, the "football" - the president's nuclear-war trigger - will signal the bombs unless the president keys in his palm print every 90 minutes. With his special shock troops, Caesar can easily kill the President, but he needs the Chief to suffer the humiliation deserved by all politicians. Unbeknownst to Russell, Area-7's South African chief bio-chemist has his own plans now that he's developed a cure for a Chinese bio-engineered disease. Unknown to him, some of Ceasar's own men have gone into business themselves - with the Chinese. Unexpected by them is the role to be played by Area-7's residents - the vilest criminals in America. And a nasty shock to them all is "Scarecrow" Schofield - the world's toughest Marine and the novel's hero.
I wasn't looking for literature - deep characters, a complex plot, irony - yet "Area 7" still left me hungry. Reilly not only tosses character development, he practically junks the idea characters - each is a walking mannequin who knows his dossier and never deviates. (The book starts off with Schofield's nominal superior being described as a cowardly careerist; a civilian presidential aide is from page 1 one of those politically connected, vapid and craven morons who populate failed sitcoms. By the climactic end of "Area 7", Schofield's boss is still a martinet, while the civilian faces Russell's plan with a desperate call his stockbroker - sell dollars!!!).
"Area-7" isn't literature, but it's no fun either - it's far too unoriginal. Reilly fans like to compare Schofield to Indiana Jones, but he's more like one of those forgotten Indy-clones who romped countless botched "Raiders" rip-offs. The story is largely a string of clumsily choreographed action scenes, none of which will surprise to anybody who's watched late-night cable or straight-to-video movies or played computer games like "Half-Life". (Underground fortress; hide around corners, watch-out for the special troops, kill, steal their ammo, rinse and repeat.) Reilly's idea of using a heart as a fail-safe isn't new either (read Nance's "Medusa's Child"; see the movie "Spawn") while Caesar looks like any of the disgruntled post-Cold War hawks of early 1990's novels and movies. Reilly crams so much action in so small a space, it's almost laughable - as if his books were oversized screenplays in search of a producer, but I can't even imagine Steven Segal giving "Area 7" a serious look. In the space of a few pages, Schofield hijacks a space shuttle, blasts into orbit, downs a Chinese shuttle, lands intact and escapes the spaceship before Caesar's men destroy it. "Area-7" is less of a story for a book than some high-powered 3D computer game - which would be okay if it came with the gorgeous graphics and sound and characters empowered with AI. (Reading "Area" probably approximates watching somebody else play a video game with every possible cheat enabled.) Instead, the narrative falls back on Reilly's prose which are both action-packed and an action-suckage loaded down with over-blown verbiage and irrelevant technical detail. Nobody just carries a semiautomatic pistol or assault rifle - we get the make and model of every gun in the book, (even though the way they're used seems to make each as good as the other), its nationality and, where applicable, whether the weapon is nickel-plated or whether the magazine is curved or straight. Unfortunately, Reilly needs specifics like that because without them he wouldn't have enough to fill up his action scenes; nor would "Area 7" have enough technical data for its author to write sentences like "what many people don't realize is that...." and win praise for exhaustive research and "chilling plausibility". The enemy characters have less AI than you'd get in "Half-Life" - especially in there choice of weapons, rooted in a love of high-tech rather than common sense (having trapped our heroes inside of a hangared AWACS jet, Caesar's commandos assault it with a guided-missiles, even though missiles can't be trusted against the plane's electronics; simply shooting the tires and its engines doesn't occur to anybody). Our heroes seem to be expert at just about anything they come across (with the marines capable of flying helicopters and navigating the electronics and cockpits of the Air Force E-3) and always seem to come out on top (shooting down a Sidewinder missile with a machine gun?). If you want non-stop action that's actually fun, pick up a Dirk Pitt Novel (I recommend "Cyclops").
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More than just action, action, action, April 19, 2004
"Area 7" is a thriller containing an incredible amount of high-octane action. This huge amount of action, and the lack of realism in many of the things that happen, requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief on your part if you want to enjoy the book. But there's more to "Area 7" than just page after page of action. True, most of the book consists of action scenes with bullets flying everywhere and things exploding and a fantastic line-up of various groups of really nasty bad guys who are all out kill the good guys (and each other) in the most violent and horrifying way possible. It's also true that the story is not particularly believable, nor are the characters very well developed. The bad guys in particular are nothing more than cardboard figures, and the good guys aren't much better when it comes to resembling real people. But Matthew Reilly keeps you reading despite these weaknesses because he has a couple of tricks up his sleeve. The plot is actually pretty interesting (despite being unrealistic), and there are a large number of imaginative plot elements and very creative twists and turns. Several times after you thought you'd worked out what's going on you discover that things are more complicated and the bad guys are more devious than you realized. I especially liked the start of the book, where the leading bad guy, U.S. Air Force General Charles "Caesar" Russell, is executed in Leavenworth prison for treason and murder. But the execution doesn't "take" - as soon as his dead body is delivered to his Air Force cohorts they revive him! And at the same time we're informed that the newly inaugurated President of the USA has some kind of super-miniature electronic device implanted on his heart! From there on the book goes somewhat downhill until around the middle, where the plot becomes better fleshed out and we realize that things aren't as simple-minded as we originally thought. It's because of these clever developments in the story line that I'm giving "Area 7" four stars instead of the three that I'd been planning for most of the book. I'm also giving plus points for the many drawings and maps that make it more interesting to follow the action. And I like the fact that several of the good "guys" are actually good gals, and that they're just as tough and ingenious as their male comrades. At the end of the book there's a seven-page interview with Matthew Reilly, and I must admit that I like this sort of thing because I like reading about how authors go about creating the books they write. In conclusion, if you like imaginative (albeit unrealistic) thrillers with lots of action, action, action, and are willing to almost totally suspend your disbelief, then "Area 7" should entertain you. Rennie Petersen
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
