Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I disagree with all the nay-sayers below, January 2, 2007
The below 8 pages of reviews are mostly low rated entries who knock on the fiction of military abilities and weaponry, the so called lack of a plot, and more. Let me tell you a few things that will contradict those reviews.
First off, let me start out by saying that I just got Ice Station, Area 7 and Scarecrow about 5 days ago and have since finished all of them. This is because the pace of the books are frantic. I rarely put the books down and hated to do so. They will keep you pulled into the story and waiting for the next unbelievable thing to happen.
Secondly, these books read like an action movie. I have seen people below comment on the "Hit, hit, hit - Miss" parts of the book but the way Reilly writes is he uses onomatopoeias to put you into the vision he has of each scene, sound and all. Because these books are structured around that action format you will see, or rather read, amazing scenes that would never happen in real life, like the disarmament of a missile mid-flight while flying next to it. These are no different from James Bond driving a car with his cell phone in the back seat while being shot at.
Third, you MUST love action to enjoy this book. Bottom-line. There are parts in Scarecrow that will make you cheer for the hero and laugh at insane action sequences in amazement, one of those "Holy s***....did that just happen??" You are supposed to read to escape reality and Reilly does an excellent job of painting a picture of insane action to do just that.
Fourth (and final) point. People have complained over the lack of character development and say that the plot in the book is too complex to keep up with...Wrong. Character development occurs throughout the series and if you haven't read the series there will be pieces missing as the 3 books put the stories of the Marines together. Lack of a plot?? No way, each book is masterful in integrating so many side-stories that run together and meet in the middle in usually bloody, action-packed scenes. If you read fast and want to keep up with the plot you are almost forced to keep reading and you will take in all that is going on and remember each piece and later when you come to the last piece of a "mini-plot" everything falls together.
Scarecrow is amazingly well done, I finished in in about 5 hours because I read so intently. I can't wait to see more from this author. The stories are military based but are a far cry from the Tom Clancy library. Rather than go into hundreds of pages of slow plots and boring military speak you are thrust into a novel that a casual reader can pick up and won't put down. Now I can't wait for the movies and see if they match up to the pace of the books.
5/5 - Must read. However it would behove you to read them in chronological order or you may missing pieces to the puzzle.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outrageous and entertaining to the end, March 15, 2004
Matthew Reilly admits that he set out to make this book a faster book that was more densely packed with plot than his previous books. Unbelievably, considering how action-packed his earlier books were, not only has he done it, but this book has stepped the action-thriller up a couple of notches. It's action on steroids. Shane `Scarecrow' Schofield is one of 15 targets of a worldwide bounty hunt. The bounty on each target's head is over $18 million, enough to lure the best bounty hunters in the world and setting up a series of showdowns of monumental proportions. Scarecrow pretty quickly finds himself with 2 primary objectives. The first and most obvious is to try to stay alive. The second is to try to save the world. After all, what self-respecting super-thriller hasn't got a hero-saves-the-world scenario? As has been proven in the 2 earlier Schofield romps, he's a hard man to kill and can get out of every hopeless situation, usually with fractions of seconds to spare and this book is certainly no different. What is different is the introduction of a new ally for Schofield. One could almost term him his alter ego the Black Knight is the perfect complement to Schofield coming with an almost endless supply of weapons and nifty gadgets. His inclusion, acting as Scarecrow's guardian angel throughout the bounty hunt doubles the outrageous antics and death defying escapes. Know this before you start the book. The premise is so totally outrageous the book could probably be listed in the fantasy section. But that's not the point. The point is, it's meant to be 100 per cent action and non-stop entertainment and that's what it delivers. If you're not prepared to totally suspend belief for around 450 pages for the sake of a rollicking good adventure then you shouldn't even start this book.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Completely ridiculous, yet entertaining, July 18, 2006
This review is from: Scarecrow (Mass Market Paperback)
If you want an entertaining airport book, pick up Matthew Reilly's latest pure action thriller, Scarecrow. Short on character development/descriptive writing, this video-game style novel offers action to the highest degree, because there isn't a part of this book that is not action. If you care about good, fluid writing then you will loathe this book, but if you just want some entertainment you will enjoy it. As with his other books, Reilly kills off a main character, but this time bigger than the ones in several of his other novels. If you have read any of Reilly's other high-octane thrillers, than you have become used to the relentless action that marks a Matthew Reilly novel. But this book is completely different than those other books, making them look like snooze-fests compared to the action/adventure/gunfire that constantly keeps happening in Scarecrow. There are heroic good guys, vile bad guys, car chases, explosions galore, countdowns to doom, executions a la guilitine, man-eating sharks, and countless impossible escapes, to name a few elements of the action. There isn't much respect for the laws of physics, as characters zoom to Mach 7 in planes, escape countless exploding/collapsing (take your pick)... things, are always saved from falling from airplanes, cliffs (again take your pick, and make up a few more, because they are probably in there), and miraculouly avoid incredible amounts of machine gun fire. As with Reilly's other novels, there is a multi-faceted plot, and a veritable army of bad guys from various groups or countries, who are usually all trying to kill each other at one point or another. There is also a bit of humor involved with reading Scarecrow. The writing is so bad, and the phrases so juvenile that you have to lean back and chuckle once in a while. There are some real beauties in here, such as "Blam-Blam-Blam-Blam-Blam", "Chunk", "Miss-Miss-Miss- Hit!" and "Ka-Whump". Reilly also sometimes chops sentences in half or leaves out words for the sake of the action. All in all it's fast-paced, entertaining, and low-brow fun designed not to be taken seriously.
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