Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly

Happy Valentine’s Day all! I’ve absolutely loved seeing everyone’s V-day related posts and stacks, and was really tempted to jump on the bandwagon. Although this review and book are not at all romantic or related to Valentine’s, I’m going to create the tenuous link in that this is my boyfriend’s favourite book!

Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly is not a book I would ordinarily reach for, but oftentimes when I do pick something up which is out of my comfort zone I end up loving it. That’s exactly what happened with this! For the first few chapters I was a little uncertain (the book begins in media res so I was pretty confused about what was happening but then it does go back to explain the context later), but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down.

It follows the protagonist Jack West Jr, an archaeologist and soldier, and his group of eight other brave people who are attempting to locate the modern day locations of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Throughout their quest, there are other teams from around the world also in hot pursuit of the artefacts, and it’s a tough battle to collect the pieces of each wonder which ultimately fit together.

4500 years ago, a golden capstone was the topmost piece of the Great Pyramid of Giza. This capstone reportedly bestows a source of immense power upon its holder, but was allegedly split into seven pieces and hidden within each wonder. A rare solar event which is about to occur in the present day (2006) means that the pieces must be collected in time and restored to their rightful place. The team must battle booby-trapped ancient caverns, crocodile infested waters and terrifying quicksand in order to beat the other groups seeking to take the capstone’s power.

I thoroughly enjoyed this action-packed and thrill-filled novel, and it was extremely clever in its use of history and mythology. I’m not usually an action reader and at times found it a little over the top but what good action isn’t full of drama?!

My only slight reservation was Reilly's use of italic lettering to emphasis certain words and phrases, which I found a little corny, but apparently as the series goes on this is phased out. This is the first book of seven so it looks like I've got more reading to do!

If you aren't sure that this sort of thing is for you, but are an open-minded reader who likes to try new things, I'd highly recommend this book - it certainly kept me on the edge of my seat!