Seven Ancient Wonders

This was the written equivalent of a non-stop action movie. Similar to the best part of Raiders of the Lost Ark, at the beginning where Indy is figuring out and evading ancient traps meant to foil tomb raiders, this book was a race from beginning to end.
The hero is Jack West Jr. with a crack commando squad at his side, each from a different nation, an old arcaeologist/mentor to help decipher the puzzles and a 10 year old girl born to fulfill this destiny. They race from one of the seven wonders of the ancient world to another with the Catholic led Europeans chasing them from one side and the evil American Military machine closing in on the other.
It is the standard race to save the world from evil power-hungry bad-guys with dozens of last minute escapes and wildly improbable (neigh impossible) feats of daring-do. But it was alot of fun.
If you like the kind of action/ adventure that prevails throughout Indiana Jones, Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), and Benjamin Franklin Gates (National Treasure)then you'll love Jack West Jr. and the 7 Deadly Wonders. ( )

Pretty good action suspense thriller. Exciting if a little unbelievable. Kind of the writing equivalent of some of todays action special effects heavy movies. ( )

The book is very fast paced and the action is on the unbelievable side, however it is a good book. The story is very confusion unless you have read the first book. I picked up this book and started reading. This was a big mistake. I was lost for the first half and found that I had to start with the first book to understand what I had read. This book also leaves you at a cliffhanger, so if by the the first hundred pages if you are still reading, you will want to go buy the next book. Over all a good book, and I would recommend it to anyone. ( )

this was an awesome book! I love this type of story and I cannot wait to read the newest one! ( )

An intrepid international team races through booby-trapped caverns to recover seven pieces of the golden capstone that will determine the future of the world.

Once every 4,500 years the Tartarus Sunspot aligns with Earth and causes world-wide flooding and sun-scorching, unless this is prevented by the placement of the Golden Capstone on the Great Pyramid at Giza. According to the legend explaining this function of the capstone, those who put the capstone in place will gain power over Earth for the next 1,000 years. The Tartarus Rotation will bring the sunspot into alignment in 2006, and naturally, the search is on for the missing capstone. Rival teams from the U.S. and a coalition of European countries are opposed by the underdog team of agents from seven small countries working together. The pieces of the capstone are carefully hidden and guarded by inventive booby traps. It will take all the cleverness, strength, and skill of our team to prevent one of their rivals from capturing the prize and ruling the world.

Reilly’s books have been described as “outlandish adventure”, and this description is certainly appropriate for 7 deadly wonders. The action is nearly non-stop, with occasional flashbacks to explain background stories. The tone is breathless—at one point, no fewer than eight one-sentence paragraphs follow one upon another. The squeamish should be advised that the action includes both designer deaths and wholesale slaughter, but detailed description of these is kept to a minimum, perhaps because our heroes are too busy fending off yet another attack or seeking another escape route at the time. Maps and diagrams punctuate the text with visual representations of the cavern routes and the traps that lie along them. ( )