Product Description

THE END OF THE WORLD IS HERE

Unlocking the secret of the Seven Ancient Wonders was only the beginning...

After their thrilling exploits in Matthew Reilly's rampaging New York Times bestseller, 7 Deadly Wonders, supersoldier Jack West Jr. and his loyal team of adventurers are back, and now they face an all-but-impossible challenge.

A mysterious ceremony in an unknown location has unraveled their work and triggered a catastrophic countdown that will climax in no less than the end of all life on Earth.

But there is one last hope.

If Jack and his team can find and rebuild a legendary ancient device known only as the "Machine," they might be able to ward off the coming armageddon. The only clues to locating this Machine, however, are held within the fabled Six Sacred Stones, long lost in the fog of history.

And so the hunt begins for the Six Sacred Stones and the all-important knowledge they possess, but in the course of this wild adventure Jack and his team will discover that they are not the only ones seeking the Stones and that there might just be other players out there who don't want to see the world saved at all.

From Stonehenge in England to the deserts of Egypt to the spectacular Three Gorges region of China, The 6 Sacred Stones will take you on a nonstop roller-coaster ride through ancient history, modern military hardware, and some of the fastest and most mind-blowing action you will ever read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11624 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The wildly imaginative Reilly has taken inspiration from comics, video games, movies, thrillers and Code-style puzzle novels to create this rocket-fueled sequel to his 7 Deadly Wonders. After completing a 10-year mission to acquire the Golden Capstone of the Great Pyramid from what's left of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Jack West Jr. has retired to the Australian outback to raise his adopted daughter, Lily. Jack's pal, Professor Max T. Epper, known as Wizard, has discovered that the Dark Sun, a mysterious heavenly body, is due to emerge in nine days, triggering the Apocalypse. Ultimate disaster can only be averted if someone can locate the six legendary Pillars, cleanse them with the Philosopher's Stone and insert them in the 6 Vertices, thereby causing the Great Machine to power on and negate the fatal blast from the Dark Sun. If anyone can perform these Herculean labors, it's Reilly's resourceful hero. A pervasive tongue-in-cheek quality (one that extends to the low tech–looking maps and illustrations) will help readers find this outlandish adventure thrilling. (Jan.)
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Review
"Nobody writes action like Matthew Reilly."

--Vince Flynn, bestselling author of Consent to Kill

Review
"The wildly imaginative Reilly has taken inspiration from comics, video games, thrillers and Code-style puzzle novels to create this rocket-fueled sequel to his 7 Deadly Wonders...A tongue-in-cheek quality (one that extends to the low-tech looking maps and illustrations) will help readers find this outlandish adventure thrilling." -- Publishers Weekly

"[T]his fast-paced, international adventure will keep you turning pages...just sit back and enjoy the ride." -- Elizabeth Willse, The Star-Ledger

"The 6 Sacred Stones is a pedal-to-the-metal literary ride, so hold on tight." -- Larry Cox, Tucson Citizen

"Matthew Reilly novels should come with health warnings on the cover. [T]he non-stop life-threatening action from enemies using guns, missiles, poisons, machetes and martial arts against Reilly's heroes is not for the faint-hearted. It's a wild ride." -- Ray Chesterton, The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

"The age-, sex- and race-balanced team from Reilly's 2006 thrill-a-second novel 7 Deadly Wonders returns, still under the management of handily bionic and super resourceful Australian Commando Jack West...[A] video game in print." -- Kirkus Reviews

"In this sequel to Seven Deadly Wonders, Reilly increases the tension and the threat to produce another winner. The interwoven combination of action and mythology in the narrative makes for the perfect winter beach read." -- Library Journal

"Whisking you through wave after wave of nonstop action on a cloud of exuberant improbabilities, Reilly really makes you feel like a kid again; it's a blast." -- Booklist

Customer Reviews

Fun, but...
Reilly writes an action-packed thriller but at the cost of shallow characters. It is an enjoyable read although the abrupt ending was disappointing.

TOO MUCH DETAIL
I wish I could read his books. His ideas are super and I love his imagination.. But, I just can't read them - there is soooooooooo much detail, too many diagrams that I get lost in it - and I am a post grad. If only they weren't so detailed. I just don't have time to wade through all the salad for the meat!

Entertaining but ultimately flawed
I enjoy Matthew Reilly's books... they generally read like movie adaptations and are fun and exciting. I agree with many of the critical complaints about this book. Reilly's writing style leaves a lot to be desired. I've hated his overuse of italics and exclamation points ever since the first time I read one of his books.

In the Author's Interview at the end of the book, Reilly commented that he envisions this book to be part of an epic. Why not then boldly advertised that on the front cover? "Part 2 of the Dark Sun Saga" would have gone a long long way in making me not feel cheated. Reilly likens himself to Tolkien, but when I read "The Fellowship of the Ring" I knew full well that the story would continue and thus I didn't feel so irritated when there was no conclusive ending.

When I got to about page 350, I finally realized that the story wasn't going to be concluded in this book. It's just pure laziness. He said he realized that the story was too big for one book, so it seems like he just abruptly cut it off. As a result, some characters completely disappear from the canvas. What happened to Lily's twin? Iolanthe? Stretch?

I'm also tired of the fact that apparently every country in the world (U.S., England, China, Japan) is an evil power monger, and only saintly Australia is left as the force of good.

I'll continue to read Reilly's books but I do wish he would improve his literary style.