Book Review: The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly





Book: The Great Zoo of China

Author: Matthew Reilly

No. of Pages: 500

Genre: Fiction, Action Thriller, Suspense

Publisher:  Pan Macmillan Australia



Matthew Reilly (MR) is back in his elements with a bigger-than-before and stranger-than-before action thriller.

MR does it again ... In style - At a grander scale - With dizzying visuals and absolutely high-octane fast-paced unbelievable-but-believable action-suspense – and as an MR fan; I loved every minute of the fun-tastic roller-coaster ride that MR creates in the Zoo.

There are sentences which would never make sense in any other author's novel but in MR's high-octane mind-numbing action thrillers; they seem perfectly OK. How else do you explain a reader being OK with a line like "Oh My God! The dragons are throwing cars at me" and that is just about the 'tip of the iceberg' since there are MUCH LARGER things getting thrown by MUCH LARGER dragons in the story which only gets bigger by the moment.

MR has introduced a new set of characters in this story … which I hope will appear again in future. CJ is a hard nut to crack and a multi-layered character (just like Scarecrow or Jack West Jr) and it will be good to see her again along with her brother.

The Great Zoo of China is actually a wrong title … as is said in the story itself, it is a temporary branding for the 'The Great Dragon Zoo of China". MR has taken a mythical creature and brought them back to life (just as the Dino's were brought to life in Jurassic Park). He does a swell job of it and continues to amaze the reader at every step of the story. The scale of this novel is simply HUGE as compared to anything MR has written before and at times, you take a pause and wish you were watching a Hollywood rendition of the book (and I really do hope this one gets converted) 

The story builds the suspense for the readers since they not only suspect that the story will only get bigger and bigger (and wondering how could it get any bigger); MR keeps throwing in suggestions of an impending suspense.

MR has gone larger than life and if a movie gets made out of this movie (and i would love to see it) ; it would be a combination of India Jones meets Jurassic Park meets Godzilla meets Jason Bourne (and you can add your own action thriller here) ....

An absolute un-put-down-able!!

The book actually has different cover designs for different regions and all of them are pretty interesting. All 3 of them follow completely different themes and even schemes and it's a delight to see how the publishers perceive their audience (country/region wise) and interpret their preferences.



I have been an MR fan ever since my best friend Shraddha made me buy his first novel CONTEST. After that, I have read all his works (except Troll Mountain). I am now eagerly waiting for his next Jack West Jr. novel … It has been quite some time since the last one.

Note to MR: At the end of the Dragon Zoo story, CJ moved to Australian outbacks … which is where Jack West Jr also resides. My best friend and I feel that CJ and Jack coming together will be a formidable team … as formidable as Scarecrow and Mother. And yeah, that will only help you take your novels to the next level of Big Bad Adventure!!!

I would readily recommend this book to anyone with even a mild sense of adventure (it will be like an espresso shot to their adventurous streak). The book is available on Amazon.in and the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) introduced by Google is also around the corner (10th to 12th December) with some amazing GOSF deals. . In addition, you will find some really good offers on books (and other things too) at cuponation

Ratings on Book Review Parameters:

Cover Design: 3.5 / 5

Writing Style: 4.5 / 5

Characters:     4.0 / 5

Story / Plot:     4.0 / 5

Climax:            4.5 / 5

Overall:           4.0 / 5   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mumbai Local - First Class v/s Second Class

Image
    It is an old joke that the difference in the first class and second class of the Mumbai local trains is that people in first class use deodorants and hence you are exempted from the smelly underarms while travelling. The mute point being; both class of travel experience a passenger overload during the peak hours and you are almost equally squeezed and pushed around in both. Of course, the seats in First Class are cushioned (unlike the hard seats of second class) but then that would make a difference only if you get to sit (which would be a likely probability only if you get into the train from the station it originates). My father holds a first class pass from Churchgate to Andheri (since past 7 years, ever since we moved to Andheri). He often travels by Second class in the evening. Strange, isn't it? This is why he does it … In the First class, there is an unwritten rule that on the seat, only the designated number of people (which is 3) will sit. No sq...
Read more

Tongue Twister - V for Vendetta

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." - V for Vendetta
Read more