Book: The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly

After a wait of around 7 years Matthew Reilly returns to the Jack West Jr. series and the adventurer finds himself in a whole lot of trouble from the get go.

West awakens with a shaven head and shoeless in a prison cell and is quickly attacked by a Minotaur! How’s that for an opening?

From there its all familiar Matthew Reilly territory as we are treated to a series of challenges (complete with descriptive maps and graphs) that West must complete in order to save the planet from impending destruction. There are hazards and lethal opponents galore but Jack finds an ally amongst all the dangers in the form of a character that fans of Matthew Reilly will be very familiar with. It’s a guest appearance that contributes greatly without ever stealing the show.

Reilly acknowledges the time gap since the last novel as the characters have all aged accordingly. Jack’s daughter Lily, a little girl in the previous books, is now 20 years of age. Thankfully Horus the Falcon, a hero in the first book of the series Seven Ancient Wonders, is still around even if not quite so heroic.

Fans of adventure stories and conspiracy theories will have a blast but I wouldn't recommend jumping in without having read the previous novels.

The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly is available now in Hardback and e-book.

Ric’s Rating: Highly Recommended.      

Book: The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly

Third book in the Jack West Jr series continues the story left on a literal cliffhanger at the end of The Six Sacred Stones.

Jack's team must beat their rivals, including Jack West Snr, in the race to obtain the remaining sacred pillars and lay them at various spots around the globe to avoid the end of life on Earth.

No point in even attempting this one if you haven't read Seven Ancient Wonders and The Six Sacred Stones because the story is very advanced right from the beginning of the book.

These are Indiana Jones style adventures and West Jr is a terrific leading man supported by a fantastic cast of characters, some of which make their first appearance here. It's huge scale stuff, with raids on the tombs of Ghengis Khan and Jesus just two of the many hazardous locations that play important parts here.

This volume is superior to Sacred Stones but still not a patch on Seven Ancient Wonders and I urge everyone to read that, it is one of my all time favourite adventures, so that being said I highly recommend starting at the beginning and then deciding if you want to continue in the adventures of Jack, Lily, Zoe, Pooh, Stretch, Wizard and Horus (who disappointingly doesn't feature much in Warriors) to name but a few.

Ric's Rating: 76%