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Seven Deadly Wonders: A Novel
: 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.
 I'm not sure if I should be offended by this book or just flat-out disappointed I wasted $20 bucks and two days of my life on it.
The "action" the dust cover promised was unbelievable, and not in a good way. Seriously, a Boeing 747 with VTOL capability that pretty much stays airborne for a week and only needs refueling twice? A pocket sized electromagnet capable of deflecting the path of lead bullets in flight? I'm no NASA rocket scientist, but if you could make a VTOL jet that size, wouldn't some nation or airline already have a fleet of them? And since when did copper-jacketed lead bullets become magnetic?
The whole thing reads like the author is trying to pitch a movie. Stereotypical adventure characters from a half-dozen different movies equipped with Batman's utility belt and James Bond's personal arsenal battle ruthlessly evil stereotypical bad guys who expend millions of rounds of ammunition, but rarely hit anything but the landscape. Like everyone else, I was also put off by all the exclamation points. It was as if he couldn't believe what he was writing either.
The author does do something rather unusual for an "adventure" novel. He manages to be anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Israel all at once. Again, I don't know whether to be offended or disappointed. I realize we aren't always popular, but we aren't all evil either. Is a little character depth too much to ask for? Does every American policy have to be of evil intent, bent on world domination?
I think the biggest disappointment was the premise of the story was right up my alley. I love adventures based on actual historical events and mysteries, even if they might require a little willing suspension of disbelief. But Reilly handled this so cartoonishly and with so many holes in the plot, it was a struggle just to want to finish. I can only imagine what this book could have been like if it had been written by a skilled author who could paint the scenery in your mind's eye rather than having to resort to illustrations to do so.
This was my first Matthew Reilly book, and it will be my last. I don't usually waste any more time on a bad book by reviewing it for someone else, but if this saves anyone from wasting their time and money on it, then it was worth it.
 I picked up SDW and read it on a recent trip. A quick scan revealed that everyone's favorite hero is no where to be found. That's right... no Scarecrow.
The book goes through it's action-packed paces stopping from time to time to allow the story to catch up. The characters are never given the opportunity to develop as the author seemed to have a deadline to meet, both for his story and his publisher. Unlike Area 7 and Scarecrow, SDW's plot is evident from the start and leaves little to be learned. Reilly throws in a bit of the "Christianity is darker than you think" rhetoric and even has his characters note The Da Vinci Code... almost as if saying, "Ya, I read it, but this is not the same thing... I'm Matthew Reilly and I'm Australian damn it!"
The excessive need for drawings either highlights the complexity of his imagination or his inability to paint worlds with words. A drawing to describe a 747 hovering next to the Great Pyramid? C'mon. I can see it if you can describe it.
Overall it was a quick read in about 5 hours and not worth the hard-back bound price. I hope his next book is a bit beefier as in my opinion he's starting to lag behind James Rollins and Jeff Long as my new favorites. Pick it up at a used bookstore if only to complete your Matthew Reilly collection.
** out of *****
 You really shouldn't be able to buy a copy of 7 DEADLY WONDERS without a note from your doctor indicating that you are physically able to stand the strain. While comparisons to THE DA VINCI CODE are inevitable, they are also, I would submit, inaccurate. Matthew Reilly's latest novel is a homage to a thriller --- or, to be more precise, a series of thrillers --- that was published a lifetime ago. But more on that in a minute.
The premise of 7 DEADLY WONDERS is a cataclysmic one, to say the least. In what we smugly regard from our vantage point as "ancient times," a Golden Capstone was placed atop the Great Pyramid of Giza during The Tartarus Rotation, a solar event that occurs once every 4,500 years and is due to occur again...almost right now. If the capstone is in place, then everything is fine; otherwise, temperatures rise and worldwide flooding occurs. Oh, and whoever places the capstone on the pyramid gains absolute power over the earth for the next 1,000 years. The problem is that the capstone is separated into pieces and hidden all over the world. This, of course, sets off quite a race among the Americans, Europeans, Israelis, and miscellaneous, otherwise known as the good guys.
Here is where Reilly borrows a page or two from Kenneth Robeson's (a pseudonym used by a group of writers) Doc Savage tales. There is a coalition of small countries who don't believe that the power the capstone confers can be trusted to any one large country or group of large countries. So members of these nations each send a representative. And here's where the Doc Savage comparison really kicks in. You have the weapons expert, the air ace, two members of the team constantly bickering with each other, and the team leader who is always thinking ahead. His name in this case is not Doc but rather Jack West, Jr., an Australian. West is a super soldier and natural leader, and readers of thrillers will recognize him immediately.
What separates 7 DEADLY WONDERS from the present slate of grand concept thrillers, however, is that the ostensible good guys and team leader West are almost consistently behind the eight-ball throughout the book. They're almost always getting their heads handed to them, figuratively as well as literally. Anything can happen --- don't get too attached to any particular team member --- and the team is constantly fighting against odds that seem more insurmountable every time they stand up to be counted.
But they keep plugging ahead, somehow managing to overcome every cliff that Reilly leaves them hanging off of. A great deal of this novel's fun is wondering how our intrepid heroes are going to survive, or, given the body count, which one(s) will make it. An additional hurrah must be given to Reilly for his inclusion of a great number of diagrams, maps and illustrations to assist the reader in conceptualizing some of the settings in which the story takes place.
What makes 7 DEADLY WONDERS ultimately worthwhile, however, is that it is a thrilling and fun read from beginning to end, thanks in part to Reilly's cinematic writing ability. The movie, no matter how good it might be, won't be as intriguing as the book. Read now, but don't tell your friends the ending!
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
I think Matthew Reilly might have wanted to model his work after Tom Clancy's success in turning books into video games, which is not a bad idea, but I think he jumped the gun and wanted to shoten timeframe by writing a video game screenplay and try to package into a book format. I loved all of Reilly's earlier books, although unbelievable adventures, they were rooted in reality, this book however tries to present video game type sequences where the gamers have to brave all odds to get to the prize, which doesnt work as a book. Totally disappointed in the book except for few scenes in Paris.
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