Review: Seven Ancient Wonders
So in prep for the release of The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly, I decided to re-read his Jack West novels (starting with Seven Ancient Wonders) and refresh my memory. Holy jesus was it refreshed. Back when I was in year 8 (about five years ago) I had my first taste of Matthew Reilly and Jack West – and fuck me I was hooked so bad. I practically inhaled those three books and as soon as I finished the last one, I would begin again. I’m pretty sure I ended up reading the series about 15 times in a row. I kid you not, my mum banning me from reading those books was the worst punishment and therefore ended my streak.
Reading them now reminded me why I was so obsessed with them in the first place. I absolutely love the way in which Reilly incorporated history and action together. I’ve read reviews in which people think that the action and adventure within Reilly’s books is too over the top and unrealistic, but I honestly just loved it. I loved not knowing what was going to happen and I loved the ways in which Jack West and his team got out of sticky situations.
Okay, so I just want to commend Reilly on the amount of time and effort he had to put in, in order to have enough research to complete this novel. I love history, and I love action, and I love this combination. In year 9 I actually did a presentation on the resting place of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and I pretty much used his book as my sole reference. (I got a C but never mind that). I think he did a pretty good job on his world-building, considering the amount of locations and aspects within this novel.
Never mind that Jack West is a thirty something year old man and I’m just eighteen, but 10/10 would bang. I literally was in love with him and I was obsessed with him for so long and yeah, jesus.
As for the story, I really enjoyed it. I loved the adventure and the history and how it all connects together, and the missions and I guess I just loved it all (can you tell? haha).
