Book Review-The-Three-Secret-Cities

~~~~~~~

The Three Secret Cities

(Jack West Jr, #5)
by

Matthew Reilly

 

Prior to the release of Matthew Reilly’s new book, The Two Lost Mountains (Jack West #6), on Tuesday October 13th, to refresh my memory I decided to listen to previous books Three Secret Cities and The Four  Legendary Kingdoms again after finding both in our library’s audio collection.

The Three Secret Cities is set immediately after The Four Legendary Kingdoms and Jack West is still trying to save the world while the underworld kings and villains are trying to eliminate, or help Jack because of his achievements in the underworld games.  This is why I recommend reading The Four Legendary Kingdoms again simply because there are several characters, both villain and heroes, included in The Three Secret Cities, who were introduced in Legendary Kingdoms.  Fortunately Reilly mentions the fact that characters have been part of Legendary Kingdoms and does not dwell on their part in that story.

Again The Three Secret Cities sees Matthew Reilly putting Jack West (Junior) through all sorts of trials in another action packed adventure which contains enough characters, mythical or otherwise, to make his story almost believable.  It’s nearly two years since I read The Three Secret Cities and rated it as a five star read.  I think it still worthy of another five star rating in 2020.

Matthew Reilly fans will again fall in love with Jack West’s adventure.

After my second read of

 

The Three Secret Cities

I have again rated it

 a fast paced action packed

five star read.

At the time of completing

this review (October 2020)

other Goodreads readers had awarded

The Three Secret Cities

an average of 4.32 stars

from 4,866 ratings

and 504 reviews.

******

The Three Secret Cities

can be purchased on-line at

Booktopia, and Fishpond and Amazon‎, 

Book Review-The-Four-Legendary-Kingdoms-2020

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

by

Matthew Reilly

2020

Recently I noticed two things of interest.  First Matthew Reilly’s new book, The Two Lost Mountains (Jack West #6), is due to hit the shelves on October 13.

Second, my local library had audio versions of The Four Legendary Kingdoms and The Three Secret Cities on their digital shelves.  To refresh my memory I decided to listen to previous books Three Secret Cities and The Four  Legendary Kingdoms again after finding both in our library’s audio collection.

The Four Legendary Kingdoms was as good the third time as it was the first.  As usual, Mr Reilly’s action hero was full of action, overcoming the odds to win where he should not.

The Four Legendary Kingdoms is set around games of a mythical origin with competitors ‘selected’ to compete from all around the world.  So what better way to work Scarecrow into an adventure which is primarily a Jack West (Huntsmen) book?  And that is the only part of the story I will reveal here.  Fans of all things Matthew Reilly will love the plot/storyline, as I did.

After my third read of

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

I have again rated it

 a fast paced action packed

five

read.

At the time of completing this review (September 2020)

other Goodreads readers had awarded

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

an average of 4.30 stars

from 7,152 ratings

and 692 reviews.

************

2019

It was recommended to read The Four Legendary Kingdoms again prior to reading Three Secret Cities, Matthew Reilly’s latest work.   This was good advice as it has been a year or two since The Four Legendary Kingdoms was published and Three Secret Cities is a sequel which continues on from the end of The Four Legendary Kingdoms.

I do not normally re-read a book however; in this case it was well worth reading again.  More to the point it was as enjoyable in 2018-2019 as it was in 2016.

 

October 28, 2016

Back writing in his best style another action packed adventure from Matthew Reilly.  A definite FIVE star book and to say anymore would give away story and plot.  Except…I am sure there will be a sequel.

***

I have rated

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

as a

read.

It is a fast paced,  action packed

read and worthy of a place on

My Favourites

shelf.

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

can be purchased on-line at

Booktopia, and Fishpond and Amazon‎, 

Book Review-The-Tournament

The Tournament

by

Matthew Reilly

It’s not often that I struggle to find a positive in a Matthew Reilly book. However, this is the exception.  It was written by Matthew Reilly, and the plot/setting was at an international chess tournament and there endth the good stuff.

The main characters are a young and Princess (Queen) Elizabeth 1 and her extremely virile maid.  The Tournament is a chess tournament set in the Ottoman Empire where Princess Elizabeth is representing England.  It as been a few year since I read The Tournament and I do seem to remember that there was a murder and a character whose job it was to solve the murder and coach the English participant in the tournament.

If made into a movie, a kept faithful to the book it would be a very R/X Rated movie as most of the maid’s sexual exploits are described in graphic detail and from memory she then similarly describes these interludes to the young Princess.

One star for the story, one for the author and one for a game of chess.

A

read at best.

Three stars simply because I love all other Matthew Reilly books

and this is the only one not in the 4+ category.

The Tournament can be purchased on-line at Amazon‎, Booktopia, and Fishpond