Over the holiday period I finally got around to reading Matthew Reilly’s Seven Ancient Wonders. Taking a break from books based on Shane “Scarecrow” Schofield and his wondrous maghook, Reilly introduces us to a new and equally mean protagonist, Jack West Jnr. SAS man turned archaeologist, Jack West Jnr. is a cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones.
The story revolves around the international race for the golden capstone, an artifact that once sat atop the great pyramid of Giza, and rumoured to be the source of great power. As a natural phenomenon that only occurs every 5,000 years approaches, powerful nations mobilise to gain the seven pieces of the capstone and assemble them on the pyramid at a time that, according to legend, will afford that country great power for 1,000 years. Representing the minor nations, Jack West and his team are tasked with obtaining a piece of the capstone to give them bargaining power, which means capturing one of the pieces hidden within or near the seven ancient wonders of the world, such as the Lighthouse at Alexandria, the Museum at Halicarnassus, and even the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
The resultant storyline is typically kinetic for a Reilly novel. Little attention is given to painting the scene, rather this is left to imagination, with text devoted to describing the action and moving the story along. So despite being a fairly lengthy book, it is a quick read. Where illustration is necessary, this is done graphically, so layouts of buildings or areas are presented in figures within the text, and of all Reilly’s books this would appear to be the most graphically illustrated. There is plenty of humour in the book too, almost parody of his previous books, I love the way that West Jnr’s team of tough nuts have children’s call signs, so whereas the previous Reilly novels give their characters cool, tough call signs, here we have big ears and noddy as our tough nuts.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book although it is very fantastical and more scifi than I expected from a book about the ancient wonders. It does bother me slightly that the scifi technology may have been used here as quick plot devices to bypass difficult logical challenges during the plot design process. Examples include the warblers that deflect bullets, and having a VTOL facility on a jumbo jet which both conveniently enable our hero to sidestep quite significant challenges, both of which are just a little too much in a book that for the most part takes us back to ancient times in terms of trap ingenuity and sun-worship. Maybe I’m being picky - after all his previous work always includes something that laughs at physics (Maghook, anyone?), but it was just a little too much for me here. I did enjoy the Da Vinci code-type conspiracy theories and also the humour with relation to areas where this subplot cross with Dan Brown’s thriller - it’s nice to see someone referencing a text that clearly influenced him in some way.
In the end although I enjoyed the book, I wonder if it would have been best served as a graphic novel - illustrations of layouts would be incorporated and I would accept the fantastical elements of the story more readily in this format. Whatever my gripes, however, Reilly’s enthusiasm for action and entertaining characters makes the book highly readable and lots of fun.
