Customer Reviews

The Five Greatest Warriors: A Novel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

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.

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?

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.

I have read and enjoyed all of Reilly's books. I saved this one for a beach read and it was entertaining. But, I have yet to read a recent fiction trilogy where the final book was anything other than a disappointment. Reilly's conclusion novel is as if he had so many loose ends to wrap up, he had to rush to do it. He added new characters, had too many vertices to visit, and everything became more superficial than his previous novels. A few pages then rush to the next loose end. This is all fantasy so everything is possible, but this one seems more like a comic book than a novel. I guess I have outgrown his writings and I am 61. I will think hard before buying his next "4 something something".
Larry Brodsky

What a disappointment. This novel might make a B-version of an Indianna Jones Movie, but literature it is not! A whole new generation of writers (Jeremy Duns, Tom Rob Smith, and Charels Cumming) somehow believe that action is the same thing as literature. It would have been better if this novel was labeled for Young Adults and Children only.

I bought this book because I had read the previous novels concerning this storyline. I wish I had waited for the paperback. This book is a mess and you really do have to set aside your disbelief that any of this could happen. My biggest knock on these books is that there are too many characters for starters. Each of them goes by a nickname, and poor names at that. Luckily Reilly has provided diagrams of each location where the action takes place. Otherwise his books would be unreadable. Suffice to say, Jack West Jr. is your basic do-good hero. He and his team are up against teams from various nations and even his own evil father and step-brother in a race to secure certain artifacts that will save the planet. I really had to force myself to finish this book. Of course Reilly left the end of the book open so there could be a continuation of West Jr. and his adventures. I hope Reilly might move on to something else and bone up on his writing skills before he continues.

I was very excited to get this new novel from Reilly. After a disappointing start (7 Deadly Wonders) the Jack West Jr. adventures improved (6 Sacred Stones) before falling flat again.

Wrapping up the plot of planetary destruction by the "Dark Star" Anti-Sun, this novel is packed with battles which don't seem terribly involving or interesting.

Perhaps I didn't enjoy the series because I couldn't ever connect with the characters the way I did with Reilly's other protagonists. Maybe the action scenes are turning formulaic and too predictable.

For whatever reason, I wasn't worried about their peril, and even when bad things happen to protagonists, I didn't feel the anxiety or sorrow of the characters.

For whatever reason, the flaws I overlooked earlier bothered me here. Relatively unfunded multinational forces of the protagonists who have only 6 members but unfettered access to a privately owned 747 with super-technology, a submarine, and fantastic tech developments which give them unreasonably good chances of success..... these are the elements which strain the credibility of the story telling.

On the positive note, the punctuation was vastly better. Gone were the unnecessary italics and exclamation points.

Sadly, I find my faith in Reilly shaken. If there is another Jack West Jr. novel, I will wait for paperback. Regardless, I will be waiting to read the reviews of others before I spend money on Mr. Reilly again.

Dan Brown should stand in awe of Matthew Reilly's ability to write a load of complete nonsense and turn it into a best seller. He has the ability to write the the most utter tosh and still have it be a good read.

This is the sort of book that one is ashamed of reading, and should be supplied in plain brown covers so no-one catches you at it.

There is clearly scope for yet more sequels, God help us. The next one will obviously be called "The Four Improbable Plots".

Usually people tell you to suspend belief and that the writing isn't that bad. I disagree. I think we deserve action thrills in a well written manner. When an author needs more than 50 diagrams and pictures to describe things he is unable to describe in writing, face it people he is a bad writer and he is not even trying anymore.

The character are formulaic like the protagonist. He is smarter than everybody, faster, stronger and never misses!!! After a while it becomes boring. Just in the nick of time they discover the next location, another diagram, they go over there and bam a trap is activated and they have to leave running (everybody dies in the traps) but not Jack and Lilly who outsmart the trap with only seconds to spare. While that appears to be fun at the beginning with about 21 locations (in all the triology)it becomes boring. You are not alone. Even the author feels bored. He uses the same way to escape, and you know what, I for one did not care at the end anymore.

I like some of his first books (Temple, Ice Station and even 7 Deadly Wonders)but he should know when to leave good enough alone. While Ice Station was good, Scarcrow was really bad. The same here. After a nice start with 7 Deadly Wonders, he should have leave it at that.

PS. If you didn't know who the 5th Warrior was after reading the poem the first time, I guess you loved the ending. If you like me knew who he was right from the start, then you will be highly dissapointed.

Well, I'm a fan of Matt Reilly's novels - especially the Shane Scholfield ones (Scarecrow, Area 7, etc.). So I decided to go along on the adventures of Jack West Jr, and truth be told . . . I'm a bit let down.

Now, I'm not looking for realism in my escapist novels, but the situations, circumstances and utter absurdity of so much of the adventures of Jack West . . . well, it just leaves me flat. I'm pretty much done with this series (and maybe with this author, but I do hold hope for a return of Scarecrow, Mother and the gang).