Matthew Reilly: The Six Sacred Stones

This is the second book in the Jack West Jr. series (James Bond go hide somewhere and never come back). :)

Intelligence, physique, morals, and a lot of luck - Jack West has it all (ok, he's missing a part of his arm, but he's got an artificial one that works better for him than a real one would).

Anyway, in this book we are again following the characters we got to know so well in the previous Jack West book, where they saved the world. Now they have to do it again because that was just the beginning (and you cannot start reading from here, you have to start at the beginning).

The pace of the book is typical Matthew Reilly, fast and furious and unstoppable. I forgot to say this in my last review but the pictures of the places they visit really come in handy (and not just that, they are actually necessary for better understanding who is going where and doing what).

I still wish though that at the end of the book there would be some information on what in the book are actual facts. Because I am sure there are many that would surprise the reader. But ok.

I know people who are absolutely unable to read fiction. I know, what is wrong with them?! :)

I was reading today a really good post from Desert Book Chick on How to write a killer book review and she talked about characters and characterisation so that got me thinking (and hence the fiction non-afficionados). I don't have a problem with characters in Mr. Reilly's work but I'm sure some people might. Especially since in this book we meet Jack's father and some other family members of other characters. Most of which all are not just bad but evil in the manner that they think their way of thinking and doing things is the best and only way. Which combined with non-existing morals leads to evil things. And some very troubled thoughts on my part as to what kind of people are leading this world (some good quotes on that appear in the book).

And I'm going to end on a note regarding my favourite books of all time (which might be Mr. Reilly's as well).

The main (good) group of characters uses code (of course) to contact each other when apart. And what books and characters they use? Those from The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Just that would be enough to make Matthew Reilly one of my favourite writers. The action plot helps too.