Customer Reviews

Seven Deadly Wonders: A Novel

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(66)

 

 

In Matthew Reilly's new adventure novel, "7 Deadly Wonders," teams from various countries are racing against time to find the Golden Capstone that once stood atop the Great Pyramid at Giza. Alexander the Great broke the Capstone into seven pieces and hid each piece in one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In 2006, a rare solar event called the Tartarus Rotation is scheduled to occur. Whoever assembles all seven pieces of the Capstone at this particular time and under certain specific conditions will gain absolute power for the next thousand years. The American faction, led by a ruthless soldier named Marshall Judah, has a strong army with unlimited firepower. Francisco de Piero, a fanatical Jesuit priest, guides the formidable European contingent. Trying to stop the Americans and Europeans is a small group known as the Nine, representing such countries as Australia, Ireland, and Israel. Seven are soldiers, one is an elderly professor, and the final member is a ten-year old girl named Lily. The leader of the Nine is an Aussie named Jack West, also known as Huntsman. He is Lily's guardian and, over the years, she has come to love and admire him.

"7 Deadly Wonders" is all plot, with scarcely any character development. The book is filled with evil spells, complex codes, numerous chase scenes, bloody confrontations, and a great deal of sophisticated hardware. As the various contenders vie to uncover pieces of the Capstone, they are beset by numerous obstacles, mostly in the form of traps that are reminiscent of the Indiana Jones movies. Spiked boulders rolling down inclines, molten lava, hungry crocodiles, quicksand, and descending ceilings are a few of the many impediments that stand between the seekers and their prize. Reilly includes drawings to clarify the elements of the search, but most readers will be confused by the multitude and complexity of the clues. At one time or another, a character in the book mentions "The Da Vinci Code." This is an apt reference, since "7 Deadly Wonders" may be an attempt to capitalize on the success of Dan Brown's huge bestseller.

Reilly's writing style is adrenaline-fueled. He overuses exclamation points, capital letters, and italics to indicate that something exciting is happening. The villains are one-dimensional and the good guys constantly escape from the most impossible situations with seconds to spare. I liked Reilly's nifty gizmos, including a specially outfitted 747 that enables the Nine to elude capture, and there are a few moments of sweet sentiment between Lily and her protectors. Overall, however, "7 Deadly Wonders" is a derivative and poorly written thriller that will disappoint all but the most hard-core action junkies.

The easiest way to describe 7 Deadly Wonders is to say that it is a book written for the music-video generation. With two-page chapters, multiple short sections and headings per chapter, and lots of illustrations and diagrams, this book is perfect for readers who have short attention spans and need constant action rather than any literary nuance or character development to get them through a nearly 400-page novel.

Matthew Reilly's success comes from his ability to write page-turning action suspense. This book is certainly exciting--almost overly so at times. In some ways the book reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Without question it will be made into a movie, and the screenwriters who adapt the script will have a very easy job. For that matter, even the set designers will have had most of their work done for them, since Reilly has peppered his book with so many visual cues rather than relying on the more traditional use of words to convey images.

7 Deadly Wonders is without question a good, fast read. It's fast-paced, not overly lengthy, has a decent plot, and keeps the reader's attention. The characters are shallower than a kiddy wading pool, so there's not much complexity to bog the reader down. Imagery and description are used sparingly, again because of the presence of so many illustrations and diagrams. The action is intense--which is generally a good thing, though by the end the unrelenting danger the characters face becomes a bit wearisome.

The book is about a small group of militant archeologists trying to save the world from destruction. Every five thousand years, a period of intense heat and drought is brought about when the rotation of the sun brings the earth directly in line with the Tartarus Sunspot. When this happens, most of the world's population will die. Fortunately, the ancient Egyptians were aware of this problem, and they devised a means of preventing it. They fashioned a gold and crystal capstone to sit atop the Great Pyramid at Giza that could absorb most of the excess energy coming from the sun. Curiously, this capstone also endowed its user with absolute power over the entire earth for a thousand years.

The problem is, the Tartarus Sunspot is only days away from wreaking its havoc on the earth, and no one knows where the capstone is. Delegations from America and Europe are frantically searching for it, using ancient texts and clues buried at the sites of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But a number of smaller nations aren't sure they trust America or Europe to use their absolute power properly if they should find the capstone in time. So they compile their own delegation to locate the ancient relic. And the race is on.

The book's action and cursory examination of all seven of the ancient wonders of the world almost make up for its lack of depth. There's no sexual content at all, and profanity is kept to a minimum. Even so, there is some objectionable content deriving from the author's proclivity toward meeting modern readers' demand for conspiracies involving the Catholic Church. The church, according to the book, is nothing more than the modern equivalent of the ancient Egyptian cult of Amun-Ra and is put on the same level as the American "cult" of Freemasons.

The book has other problems as well. It contains more loose ends than a frayed sweater and has more dangling plot threads than metaphors. Few of the fantastic story elements (fantastic meaning "fantasy-like," not "great") are supported by explanation (such as a ten-year-old girl's ability to read ancient dead languages simply because she is the child of an "oracle"). The amazingly intricate (and lethal) booby-traps the team discovers during their archeological quests are right out of the Indiana Jones movies, but with one exception, no means is supplied for the reader to imagine how they might actually work three thousand years after their creation. And American readers might raise eyebrows at the author's portrayal of the Americans in the story as greedy criminals who want nothing more than to mistreat the Australian hero (Reilly is Australian).

But for all its problems, it book is still highly enjoyable. The conspiracy theory it presents isn't as compelling as the one Dan Brown presented in The Da Vinci Code, but the chase scenes and archeology are fun to read and make the book difficult to put down. The ending is satisfying, if far-fetched. The characters are likeable, though shallow. The villains are very evil (and American), and the heros are very heroic. It's not for readers who prefer "serious" literary works, but like I said, it's perfect for the music-video generation.

I'm all for suspending disbelief and I enjoy a good little mindless adventure. It was a lot of fun reading through a book with non stop, albeit slightly silly adventures, sort of allows ones brain take a little holiday. That being said, though, I spent the larger portion of this book wondering where the heck the editor went. I mean wow! This book makes a bigger use of exclamation points than I've ever seen! It's sort of like having a conversation with an excited 11 year old girl! Lets not forget the liberal use of italics! Just in case the exclamation points didn't get the point across well enough! Let's hear it for enthusiastic writers! It was similar to reading a story written by my eleven year old daughter! Actually, I was a little disappointed in the book! I usually really enjoy Reilly's books, but the editing of this one drove me...well..crazy!! Okay, I'll stop with the punctuation now...! (Sorry had to do just one more..)

When I bought the book, I was surprised by all the tepid reviews, but having read it, I now understand completely.

I'm a fan of Reilly's books, but like some of the other reviewers before me, I was struck by the poor character development, the extreme bias against America, and the unrealistic plot points. It seems as though Reilly was trying hard to creat the next 'Davinci Code' (also illustrated by numerous reference to Dan Brown and his book), but falls short.

The use of exclamation points, dashes, and oddly italicized words served to bring the reader out of the story time and time again to disastrous effect - reading this book quickly became a chore. As an example, I took a random page (page 166) and counted no less than 17 exclamation points on the page. It's sad when the reader is so removed from the story that they start counting the exclamation points. To be fair to Reilly, his editor really should have caught this and other flaws long before this book ever saw print.

In addition, Reilly uses numerous diagrams and drawing throughout the book. At first interesting, they soon become tedious as they serve only to illustrate exactly what Reilly has just described the paragraph before. If you tell a reader that a plane is bearing down on our hero, you don't need to follow that up with a picture showing the same scene. It's distracting and slightly insulting.

All in all, this was a disappointment and I regret spending my money on this one. I rarely say such a thing about a book and I fear I'll wait for the paperback version of Mr. Reilly's next novel.

I am absolutely dumbfounded by the folks who have given this novel poor reviews, and yet enjoyed Matthew Reilly's previous novels. What were they expecting? I mean C'MON!! Matthew Reilly has repeatedly admitted that his novels placed character development way behind plot and action. Anyone who made it through Ice Station in one piece knows what I am talking about. You either LOVE or HATE these books. This guy writes for the sheer pleasure of seeing an impossible situation MADE possible by adrenaline-filled cartoon-like action sequences that could NEVER be taken seriously by virtually anybody who reads them. Its brain candy pure and simple. A large dose of action followed by an even larger and bigger dose of adventure laced with yet more action on top of a speed-driven storyline. Yes, character development in situations like this will have to take a backseat in order for the story to move forward. Many feel this is an unforgiveable act on the part of the author...I just enjoy it for the fun that it truly IS.

Someone already likened the Seven Deadly Wonders to The Da Vinci Code meets Indiana Jones and I definitely agree -- IF Indiana Jones drank about two dozen Red Bulls and topped it off with a Tomahawk Missle. Yes, there are but a VERY FEW novels which can be favarably compared with The Da Vinci Code...The Map of Bones is one, and I think to a lesser extent would be the Seven Deadly Wonders. Now why would I make such an outlandish comparison? Because its TRUE. I doubt very much that Matthew Reilly did nearly as much research as Dan Brown. He certainly didn't do as much character development, but that's okay with me -- it allows for MORE ACTION. I'm sorry, but once you suspend your belief as you begin one of Reilly's novels, you can sit back and get washed up in a tale that is in many cases, literally out of this world.

In this novel we have a small group of mercenaries who are charged with stopping a couple of better equipped and certainly better funded military groups bent on collecting the Golden Capstone to the Great Pyramid of Giza in order to stop them from gaining supreme authority for a thousand years. Sure, a bit of the near-supernatural is thrown in just for fun. The Capstone was dismantled and spirited away in pieces to be buried with the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The problem is big and almost insurmountable: Almost nobody knows where ALL the Seven Wonders actually are, and only ONE still exists to this day, and even one is in doubt to have ever existed at ALL.

Along the way, the leader of the tiny group against all odds is faced with his old adversary, who says some pretty harsh things and makes it all worse by killing a few people near and dear to his heart. Now as this is happening I knew, I mean I really KNEW that eventually his end was 100% assured and it was going to be rather spectacular and above all: entertaining. Was I wrong? Check it out for yourself and find out. Once again, as I have mentioned in previous reviews of novels by Matthew Reilly, BEFORE YOU BEGIN: be prepared to suspend your belief and keep in mind that the story, no matter how IMPOSSIBLE it is to believe, was written specifically for you to have some FUN. Matthew Reilly isn't TRYING to be considered a writer of Literature or anything like it. What he wants is for us, the readers, to simply have FUN with his stories. And that is EXACTLY what I have had with every single one of his novels to date. I am a die-hard Reilly fan and will continue to do so for as long as he continues to pump out these tales of pure action. Call me crazy or stupid, I DON'T care. I like his books and if you have found yourself lacking with a book to read that will cause you to stop now and again simply to take a breather from the pure energy-filled storyline, this is exactly what you ought to be looking for.

Reilly fans will probably find his latest novel to be quite a disappointment. For some reason, Reilly forsakes all the things that made his earlier books great. Instead, this novel is a thinly disguised political statement which reveals Reilly's prejudices against various governments and religions. The plot is obviously borrowed from "The Da Vinci Code" and the characters are one-dimensional pawns whose main purpose is to verbalize Reilly's personal ideology. For the first time in a Reilly book, I managed to finish the book out of sheer determination rather than out of any interest in the plot or characters.

At the risk of sounding like a literary snob, I must say I found myself embarrassed to be reading this book. I also must admit I had to quit it half way through, but it also forced me to write my first review. I have eclectic reading taste, and once in awhile I like to read a "turn off your brain" novel, ala Crichton, James Rollins and the like. This book however, is so over the top comic book bad that it had me laughing! You can only have so many hairs breadth escapes and non-stop action. Nothing in this book is based in reality. If you are looking for a little bit of character development, and some kind of realistic plot don't look here. My son gave me this book for Christmas along with "Map of Bones." If you are looking for an action packed thriller that still has some plausibility I recommend you try BONES!

I really enjoyed the historical parts of this novel, BUT rest of the plot was just ridiculous. For people who have certain expectations of this book, forget about it. Though I rate it as a 3-star out of my fondness of the historical plots, this one is not recommended.

I hate throwing books away, even the awful ones. This one has stayed deliberately hidden on my shelves for months. I didn't want anyone else to know that I'd bought and read it. I tried to forget about it, honestly I did. But then I found it again [or it found me], tucked away in the angle. It had no dust on it. The cover was still shiny. It had a kind of aura. It all came flooding back.
I'd arrived at the check-out and they said I'd missed a three for two opportunity. My hand was guided by unknown forces and so began an experience I can only liken to compulsive sado-masochism; a guilt trip of empty pleasure, loathing and self inflicted pain.
It was brain achingly bad; jaw-droppingly, teeth itchingly bad. Two word statements, one word statements, italics here, italics there, forced emphasis, lazy onomatopoeia; 'Boom-boom-boom! go the drums....Boom go the drums'...'BOOOOOOOOM' [That was a 'colossal' noise, apparently]. Whump... shlat!...Crack...thwack...Bam. Lazy description; eyes 'boggled', entrances 'yawned'. Comic book characters, lists of adjectives instead of prose.

But... but... but... there is a strange compulsion about reading something this dreadful; it expands your horizons, it allows the grade curve to be reset. Dan Brown's prose takes on a mellow glow, Archer becomes a literary giant.

Surely he must have written better thrillers and everyone deserves a second chance but I can't trust myself to choose another and I'm out of therapy now.

I came downstairs yesterday and the book had moved, by no hand of mine, to the centre shelf, eye-level and I've a sudden desire to go large on Big Mac and fries. I feel so ...

This book must be read! But it's one star

I'll say upfront that I have not made it to the end of this book. In fact, I only managed to get past the first Deadly Wonder before throwing it away in disgust. It's hard to criticize this book, because I simply don't know where to start. Story? It has more plotholes than pages. The pace is high, true, but when you are carried from one unlikely action scene to the next physically impossible one, it gets very tiresome very quickly. Characters? The main character is introduced as 'His name is West. Jack West Jr.'... One the supporting characters is a professor of Ancient History (a ridiculous discipline no university in the world has ever heard of) and also and expert on, wait for it, 'electromagnetic applications'. He has created a bullet deflecting device, presumably while teaching a course on the Middle Kingdom and inventing the floppy disk. The book is also full of maps. The drawings are nice af first (I love maps in books) but after a while they get simply annoying because Reilly describes everything on them in the text in his 13-year old 'let's sum it up' style anyway.

I see some positieve reviewers asking questions like 'What where you expecting'? I think half-decent English is not too much to ask for. Italicizing every other word and using 'BOOM' and 'POW' a lot is not a laudable aspect of someone's writing style. I also enjoy at least a certain measure of coherence in the story, and characters I can empathize with. The folks in this book make Lloyd Christmas look like Hamlet. I'm not looking for Hemingway or Kipling here. I was hoping to find something like 'Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown'. That would not be a believable story either, but at least it would be well-paced, it would have interesting characters and it would mostly work within the laws of physics as they are known to us.

Bad book. Bad, bad book.