The Five Greatest Warriors: A Novel [Hardcover]

Matthew Reilly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 2010

IT BEGAN WITH SIX STONES . . .

From the deserts of Israel to the tsunami-lashed coasts of Japan, from the steppes of Mongolia to the most mysterious island on Earth—this is what we have come to expect from Matthew Reilly: stupendous action, white-knuckle suspense, heroes to cheer for, and an adventure beyond imagination. Strap yourself in and hold on tight as he unleashes his biggest and fastest adventure yet, The 5 Greatest Warriors.

When we last left Jack West Jr., he was plummeting into a fathomless abyss and his quest to save the world from impending Armageddon appeared doomed.

But all hope is not lost.

After an astonishing escape, Jack regroups with his trusty team. Racing to rebuild the final pieces of the fabled “Machine,” they discover an ancient inscription containing a rhyme about five mysterious unnamed warriors—great historical figures whose knowledge will be vital to unlocking the secrets of the Machine and its long-lost “pillars.” But the ancients have hidden their secrets well, and with each pillar bestowing an incredible power upon its holder, their pursuit has attracted the attention of other forces from around the world—some who want to rule it and others who want to see it destroyed.

With enemies coming at him from every side and the countdown to doomsday rapidly approaching, Jack and his team had better move fast. Because they are about to find out what the end of the world looks like . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the thrilling third installment in bestseller Reilly's series to feature Jack West Jr. (after Seven Ancient Wonders and The Six Sacred Stones), the adventurer from the Australian outback and his band of merry men, women and children race against several nefarious groups to defuse a disastrous celestial event. The planetary entity known as the Dark Star, the evil twin to our sun, is set to return to our solar system, igniting a massive negative energy source that will destroy all life on earth. It's a tough challenge, but if anyone can save the world, it's Jack. There are riddles to solve, bad guys to kill and derring-do to be done, all of which flashes by as one action scene piles onto the next. Readers should leave their thinking caps behind, hang onto the panic bar and be prepared to be flung hither and yon.Plenty of maps and diagrams add to the fun. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When we last saw Jack West Jr., our hero was in quite a pickle, having not yet found all six of the sacred diamond pillars that, when ritually cleansed and placed in far-flung secret vertices, might avert apocalypse. West; his peregrine falcon, Horus; his adopted daughter, Lily; and the rest of his colorful band take off in their trusty 747, Halicarnassus, in a perpetually last-minute race to the finish against such baddies as Colonel Mao, Vulture, Scimitar, the iron-jawed Carnivore, and West’s own dark father, Wolf. Reilly leaves no cliff unhung, no tomb unraided, no moustache untwirled, and almost no bit of arcane hokum unused, including the Templars, the Romanovs, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, and Jesus Christ himself. Reilly outstrips, outpaces, and outlandishes such adventure-smiths as Dan Brown, Steve Berry, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler, writing with the inexhaustible invention of a hyperactive 10-year-old with a fresh box of crayons, drawing exotic battle scenes accompanied by real-time narration and sound effects. (Oddly, gratuitous profanity mars the book’s potential as a whistle-clean pulp novel for boys.) Many readers will find this book and its two predecessors hopelessly campy, but for those ready to play along, they’re a giddy delight. --David Wright

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416577572
• ISBN-13: 978-1416577577
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew Reilly is the international bestselling author of eight novels: The 6 Sacred Stones, 7 Deadly Wonders, Ice Station, Temple, Contest, Area 7, Scarecrow, and the children's book Hover Car Racer, and one novella, Hell Island. His books are published in more than eighteen languages in twenty countries, and he has sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy the ride, January 4, 2010

By 

mummazappa (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Five Greatest Warriors: A Novel (Hardcover)

Synopsis: The story picks up exactly where 'Six Sacred Stones' finished and continues the story of the hero, Jack West, and his band of side kicks racing against time and teams of nations who seek ultimate power, searching the world for the remaining sacred Pillars and Vertexes. The aim? To save the planet from anhilation by the Dark Star and from the dictatorship of one single nation or person. This time, the teams decipher a 5000 year old enscription found on the Sphinx at Giza about five warriors (Moses, Ghengis Khan, Jesus Christ, Napoleon and Unknown) and use this information on their quest.

Ahhh, Matthew Rielly. So many uses for a maghook, it makes a girl wonder if she should carry one in her handbag. Every time i pick up a Matthew Reilly book I first think how terrible the writing is, and then somehow after a chapter or two I'm hooked and can't put the book down. This was almost the case this time, I couldn't put the book down, but it lacked some of the real excitement and heart stopping moments of the previous books in this series, and his other books (my favourite is Ice Station).

This book has all the usual Rielly-isms he gets criticism for: unbelievable characters (even if she is some kind of ancient-text-reading wunderkind, Lily really says and does things only an adult would/could do) sounds written in italics (i especially loved the 'fizz-ping' of bullets whizzing past and hitting metal), pictures of places to assist the reader to understand the scenes, and last minute revelations of previous planning by the heroes that just save them from death in the nick of time.

While I totally understand why critics slam his writing, I love these stories. This is an excellent old fashioned adventure story, the good guys are really good and the bad guys are really bad. I say totally suspend your disbelief, and put your literary snobbery on the shelf for a day or two, and just enjoy the ride.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Every time I read a Reilly book, I remember how good Ice Station was, June 3, 2010

By 

Kyle Kuroki "Samurai87" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Five Greatest Warriors: A Novel (Hardcover)

Sarcastic, spoiler-filled synopsis:

Jack West is falling to his death. But wait! The guy falling right next to him has a Shane Schofield maghook. Saved! Now, here's this list of the five greatest warriors. We already know who the first four are, because readers hate it when characters solve mysteries. We don't know who the fifth warrior is, except the description is obviously Jack West, but we're all too obtuse to realize it. Now, we need to solve this ancient mystery that no one has ever solved. Grab the laptop. Click, click, beep! Solved it! Oh no! The bad guys got there first! Let's attack them with our inferior numbers. Darn! We failed and somebody got killed! Jack West will save us by single-handedly fighting the superior forces using centuries old trebuchets that somehow avoided dry rot. Go Jack!

Okay, let's solve another ancient mystery that has stumped the greatest minds in history... click, click... solved that one too! Oops. Bad guys beat us to it again. Let's fly in using the stealth glider we keep in a zip-loc bag in the cockpit(seriously), yet can bear the weight of two people and two sidewinder missiles. We'll also use the pocket-size gadgets that bend bullets. We had these two books ago and stopped using them for no particular reason. If only we'd remembered these at the last pillar, our friend wouldn't be dead. Wow! That sniper's bullet just sliced the chin strap of the fire helmet Jack wears into battle instead of a high-tech military helmet (seriously), but he didn't get a scratch! (Seriously.) Darn! The bad guys beat us again.

Let's solve three more mysteries in a few pages. Crap! They still got here ahead of us! This is getting redundant. Oh no! Our friend got killed.. no he didn't. But that friend got killed... no he didn't. And that guy just emptied his gun into Jack West. Oh, no he didn't! Jack remembered the bullet-bending thing again. But you really thought he was dead, didn't you? No? Seriously? You didn't? Bummer.

Now let's solve the last mystery. Hey! We had the solution written on this paper from the very start. Silly us. Let's go! Uh oh. You guessed it. Bad guys beat us here AGAIN! The book's almost over, let's do something awesome! I know! We'll kill an enemy who's surrendering to us. That's awesome! Now, who can be trusted with the ultimate power provided by the pillar? I know! Let's give it to this little girl. Little girls are harmless. Ummm... Jack, have you ever read Firestarter? Oh crap! Stop killing people little girl! Hey! Jack was the fifth greatest warrior all along. Who knew?

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars maybe my tastes are just changing?, January 29, 2010

By 

Matthew Schiariti (new jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Five Greatest Warriors: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've been reading Matt Reilly for quite some time, starting off with Ice Station. I've read all of his novels.

I know what to expect from him. Frenetic action, shadow organizations, etc, etc. I thought the 7 Deadly Wonders was an ok book, although it was definitely over the top, even for Reilly. Six sacred stones was similar, obviously, but I thought it was better told with the emphasis less placed on implausible action scenes.

Now we have the Five Greatest Warriors, the last chapter in the dark star trilogy.

I liked the historical and scientific aspects of the book. Very Indiana Jones type feel. Also similar to authors like James Rollins and what he's done in his Sigma Series novels. Ancient wonders, hunting for lost artifacts. All of those aspects of the book are very good, even if Reilly has taken some liberties with what is historical fact and what is fiction. It makes for some interesting and thought provoking reading.

I just had a hard time with the action in this one. I know it's an action book and Reilly always tends to be over the top, but suspension of belief in this book's action scenes is VERY difficult.

The second thing I had issues with in Five Greatest Warriors were all the turn coats. I won't mention who or how many, but how many traitors can there be? It was almost as if Reilly felt that at certain points, Jack Jr's team had to have their progress stopped. What better way to do it? HAH! There's a traitor!!! The first few times this happens in a book (or a series for that matter), it's shocking if handled correctly. Matt Reilly's done it before to great effect. But when one seems to crop up every few chapters it looses its luster.

I think the overall premise of the series was an interesting one with some very cool aspects. Am I turned off by it? No. Will I keep reading Matt Reilly novels? Yes. I enjoyed many of the characters in these three books and I'd be interested to see what happens to them later on down the line if he decides to continue their adventures.

In the end, nobody quite writes action novels like Matt Reilly. That can be a very good thing, but sometimes it's just a bit too much.