Reviews

Two years ago Matthew Reilly warned that his next novel would be ‘lean, mean and totally out of control’. Now he delivers, and how. The prologue of Scarecrow introduces a group of seriously rich folk conspiring to get even richer by rekindling the Cold War. They also set loose a nasty bunch of bounty hunters to eliminate military experts standing in their way. Three pages later the mayhem begins. Shane Schofield (aka Scarecrow), hero of Ice Station and Area 7, barely escapes an ambush in Siberia, and during scant pauses between shooting down helicopters and sinking an aircraft carrier, he uncovers the plot and why he’s on the hit list. One by one the others are eliminated. He must stay alive and defuse rogue missiles before the inevitable deadline. As usual, Reilly strings together a spectacular series of action set pieces à la James Bond. Baddies are bloodily dispatched—shot, blown up, shredded, stabbed, strangled and decapitated—on almost every page. Goodies have miraculous escapes. Criticism that the frenetic, non-stop action is improbable, and that the characters are celluloid rather than flesh and blood, misses the point. Reilly’s books are deliberately aimed at a generation brought up on action films and video games. Ice Station’s popularity proves the formula works. Graeme Moore is fiction manager and buyer at Dymocks Melbourne. C. 2003 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors

Reilly's third novel in his "Shane Schofield" series will not disappoint listeners who have come to relish the author's violent, action-packed books. From the very first page, where Shane leads his team to Siberia in an effort to keep Islamic terrorists from detonating rusting Soviet missiles, the story hits the ground running, wasting little time on character development or plot nuance. Shane and his team, including the fascinating Gena "Mother" Newman, find themselves targeted by an international group of bounty hunters chasing after an $18.6 million prize. Their goal is to bring the heads of 15 individuals (intelligence officers, military personnel, and terrorists) to a French-headquartered group known as the Majestic-12, the world's most powerful businessmen. Reader Sean Mangan, a veteran of Reilly novels, knows when to emphasize the tension and suspense, but his overall delivery is a bit on the bland side. No worries; Reilly captures listeners from the beginning and hurtles them toward a shocking and unexpected conclusion. Recommended for public and military library collections.-Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Lompoc, CA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Area 7; Temple; Contest; Ice Station-fans of Reilly's novels know that no one writes faster-moving adventure fiction, so it's a shock to read, in an interview with Reilly included at the back of this novel, that he aimed to "create a new level of speed and pace" here. He has succeeded-the text is all fury, akin to taking a James Bond film, cutting out everything but the action and running that at double speed. The plot is preposterous and secondary, a frame on which to hang one extraordinary fighting/escape scene after another. The world's greatest bounty hunters are offered, by a cabal of the world's richest humans, $18.6 million per head to bring to the cabal's headquarters in France the heads of 15 men. One of the heads belongs to U.S. Marine captain Shane Schofield, aka Scarecrow, hero of Ice Station and Area 7. It turns out that he and the other targets have the world's fastest reflexes, allowing them to disarm nuclear missiles about to strike-an ability that can defuse the cabal's plan to launch nuclear attacks on major world cities, instilling chaos and creating a new international arms race for profit. Character, too, is secondary here, though Reilly does take the unusual step of killing off one major series hero. And even the traditional novel form is secondary in this entertainment entity; this is as much video game as novel, complete with meticulous diagrams of most of the many locales (a penal installation in Siberia; an office tower in London, etc.) and literary sound effects ("An ominous deep-seated thromming emanated...."). What's foremost, along with the action, is quick-cut entertainment: up to 20 paragraphs per pages, with some paragraphs running only one word, sweep readers from beginning to end. Reilly's admirers will love this one, and anyone interested in the outer limit of action writing should check it out; that the villains are headquartered in France should add to its populist appeal. (Mar. 24) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.