The Six Sacred Stones: A Novel

I am big fan of this entire series. I do not think anything else will ever top it for me.Whatever Matthew Reilly does, it is grand. Six Sacred Stones is the first part of a 2 book series that sees Jack and his team enable the machine to save the earth.The action takes you from China to Australia to Dubai to Stonehenge to ......, it is too many to count.West kicks ass, and this book sees more of Zoe become a badass as well.The one thing that disappointed me, was the fact that Matthew got something very important wrong. He says Vishnu is the God of destruction or death, and that is wrong. In Hinduism, Brahma is the creator, VISHNU is the PRESERVER and SHIVA is the DESTROYER.However, I still loved the book, and can read it again and again.

The commando team and very special little girl from The Seven Deadly Wonders are back to save the world from certain destruction yet again, and their enemies are just as bad as ever. Australian superman Jack West, Jr. leads the pack, this time to recover six sacred stones that need to be found in exotic locales around the world, cleansed by the Philosopher's Stone they also must find, and then put in their special places inside a tight timeframe to prevent the utter destruction of the world. Of course, not only are these six sacred stones hidden in booby-trapped, dangerous places, the other men who want them and the power they will gain by them are hot on the heels of Jack's team, and they aren't afraid to kill whoever gets in their way. Plus, they are led by Jack's arch enemy, his father.As usual, Jack's team zips around the world in their 747, the Halicarnassus, getting shot at, captured, escaping, and committing dozens of other feats of derring-do while trying to save the world from certain destruction in the nick of time. His writing tends to be a bit juvenile and he scribbles outside the lines of realism quite a bit, but that's Reilly's way. Think of an excitable guy with an Australian accent who enacts embellished stories with lots of expansive arm gestures and a continually rising voice. It's not for everyone, but I must say that Reilly's books are a whole lot more entertaining than a great number of adventure thrillers on the shelves these days, and this book was an improvement over his last two. The action is still coming hot and fast, but this time out, Reilly chose to develop his characters a little bit, and the book really benefited from this effort.Matt Reilly is not the author for anyone looking for a "realistic" historical thriller, but if you like lots of action coupled with impossible stunts, you like your characters slightly overblown and obsessed with nicknames, and you're a fan of last-minute rescues when everything seems lost, this book delivers. My biggest complaint is that I felt cheated at its abrupt ending, which was really no ending at all. I had a feeling that there would be a sequel when I was about 7/8 through the book and they hadn't even recovered the second stone yet, but I felt that readers should have been warned about this ahead of time. I was a bit disgusted when the book quite literally left us hanging, but not so much that I won't go out and buy the next one, even though I already know how it will end.

Matthew Reilly took, in my opinion, a critical misstep with the 7 Deadly Wonders. He filled it with action which was rather dull. If you think this is a contradiction, it is. And yet, he has all these actions sequences, devoid of tension or much surprise.With the Six Sacred Stones, Reilly rights his literary ship. The action scenes are fraught with danger, even if you know (or think you know) how it will turn out. You connect with some of the characters here in a way which was lacking in Deadly Wonders.Critics point to three primary complaints in this book: 1) the cliffhanger ending, 2) crazy grammar, and 3) completely made up history to support his storyline.As for the first, I sympathize, but I'd rather have a novel to read now and wait for the resolution than wait another couple of years for this novel, but bigger. It's an ending that you get at the end of TV seasons, or in Pirates of the Carribbean 2, or the Matrix Reloaded. I'll be patient and pray it was worth the wait. Just like I am with Lost.Crazy grammar. OK, guilty. But then I'm not reading a Matthew Reilly book for English lessons. If you are, perhaps you should reassess a few things in life.The creative history and plot - Folks, I've not done any research on any of the subjects, so I can't speak for the accuracy of Reilly's theories. What I do know is this: the great mysteries of the world are just that.... great mysteries. At worst, Reilly has come up with a *fictional* theory and incorporated it in his novel. If you don't like this kind of creative plotting, you should never read any novel which deals with history, because they are by their very nature fictional. Get over it, buckle up and enjoy the ride on this one.

I have ti say fro the outset of this review that I am a bit of a fan. I read the first on the series and was hooked. the second book is just as exciting and rollicking great fun and adventure as the first, am about to buy book three and so on and so on. Just think, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Mission Impossible, James Bond, The Mummy (1&2), Harry Potter and every other off the wall adventure you've sen in film TV or read in a book". Suspend your disbelief, actually ; suspend everything and just go with the flow , its non stop over the top adventure with improbable settings and impossible escapes , You will think "how the hell will Jack get out of this" and whilst he does, you wont actually care about the improbability of it all. Simply enjoy and go along for the ride. I loved it, and look forward to reading lots more of the same. ..... just in case you miss my point (shouty capitol letters time....) ITS A GREAT FUN READ AND WILL KEEP YOU ENGAGED FROM BEGINNING TO END.......

Read quite a lot of Matthew Reillys books and usually enjoyed them even if a bit far fetched at times, but this book. I have to say I found it boring it seemed to waffle on and on and on and to be honest I felt I'd lost the will to live with it as by the end I couldn't see the point of what I'd just read only that I'd seemed to have wasted a couple of hours reading this book when I could have read something a lot better Come on Matthew I know you can write better than this

Have been looking forward to reading this for a while now and a brilliant read.

I quite enjoyed the book not the best story but easy enough to read on holiday but was annoyed I had to buy two more books to get the full story this book comes to an abrupt end so had to quickly purchase next book to carry on as I hate half finished things, this was annoying as It was only a middle of the road read some of the characters were fun but storyline far fetched

this is the 2nd book in an amazing rollercoster ride of adventure and history. where a group of small nations join together to take on the heavy weights of the world and win. well worth a read but buy the other two books first then sit back put everything on hold for a few days of non stop actionSeven Ancient Wonders (Jack West Junior 1)The Six Sacred StonesThe Five Greatest Warriors (Jack West Junior 3)