Brilliant!!!!!!!!

Capt. Jack West, a true Aussie hero, comes through again and saves the day. Four books down, three to go.

Great escapism. ( )

I guess this is what happens when you are a mood reader - you buy a book in a favorite series by your favorite author and leave it on your bookshelf for two years without even trying to read. And then finally when you start it, you finish it in a single sitting and wonder, what the hell you were doing not reading it till now... That’s exactly what happened here my friends. This book is as amazing as the previous installments of Jack West Jr’s adventures and I’m so sad that I waited this long to indulge in the fun.

It’s been so long that I had actually forgotten how brave and resourceful Jack has always been, but when we meet him here in the beginning, he is clearly not at his best. It takes quite some time in the book for him to gain his footing and figure out what the hell is going on, and I thought it was a great way to show us that Jack can be vulnerable too. But he is also extremely knowledgeable and once he understands the myth behind the Great Games, he not only uses his strength but also his brains to overcome the challenges. But the best part - even the circumstances of fighting to the death can’t change his inherent compassionate nature and that plays such a major role in turning the tide in the story.

I have been a huge fan of Reilly’s work since I read Ice Station and I have never looked back. This series particularly has always enthralled me because of the deft way he incorporates fast paced nonstop action with age old myths and legends from across the world and the hero’s quests we all love in our adventure novels. This book plays on the myth of the Twelve Labors of Hercules and the Legend of the Minotaur and intertwines it with the concept of shadow kingdoms that rule our modern world and all of the story occurs in a matter of days, which makes for some breathtaking action sequences among deadly mazes and booby traps with Jack fighting for his survival and that of the entire universe. The stakes are very high and I was literally on my toes every page, wondering what was gonna happen next.

If you already know who Jack West Jr is, I don’t need to tell you that this book is a lot of fun to read. Also, for fans of “all” Matthew Reilly novels, you have a delightful surprise awaiting in this installment - so don’t make the mistake I did and read this one immediately. If you don’t know about Jack but you love a lot of adventure in your books with a hefty dose of mythology, then I highly recommend this series. Be prepared to be enthralled !!! And now I’m off to read The Three Secret Cities because I can’t wait 😃😃😃 ( )

Well, I wanted to like this as much as the other ones, but it kinda devolved into a Buck Rogers scenario full of Lensman tropes and Galaxy-colliding proportions. Not that this kind of thing can't be fun if done right, and I was perfectly prepared to roll with it, but Jack West Jr. gets kidnapped ten years after the previous books to perform for insane royals who style themselves Hades? For the SAKE of being the grand hero that saves the universe?

Um.

Trials of Hercules? With a 30's SF bent? With... you guessed it... pit fighting AND traps? TRAPS? Do these ever feature strongly in these books? NO WAY!

I don't mind it if I go into a book series that stretches credulity. I didn't mind sun spots boiling the earth and being saved by the missing capstone of the Giza pyramid. No problem. I didn't mind the G.I. Joe plot of racing toward getting the mystical stones to rule the world in the second and third novels.

But self-styled gods sacrificing legendary heroes throughout history for... oh gosh... pick your conspiracy reason? Credulity officially broken. :) I like being pulled along for delicious rides and the previous ones were delicious, but this one felt old and spread too thin like too little butter over a piece of toast.

Not to say that the pacing wasn't good, because it was. And there was enough action for any Die Hard fan. Plenty of pathos, too. But it requires a major suspension of belief, and I *THOUGHT* I had that in spades! Don't I enjoy all the UF? All the Fantasy? All the SF? Well of course there's exceptions to everything, but for the most part, I'm fully on board... but this one wasn't even *really* SF and yet it was flying way out beyond the far reaches of cuckoo land. :)

Yeah, you see that galaxy shaped like the original swastika, not the one the nazis used? The galaxy traveling ten times faster than light on a gravity wave? Yeah. You see Jack West Jr, ten years older and a bit flabbier? Okay, Huntsman, Save Us.

*ducks and runs from his friends who swear by the series*
( )

Pretty decent. Evenly paced action scenes and somewhat believable dialogue. Not sure how to feel that he combined both his series'main characters. ( )

Pretty decent. Evenly paced action scenes and somewhat believable dialogue. Not sure how to feel that he combined both his series'main characters. ( )