Seven Deadly Wonders

Well, here's another book in RAGAMUFFIN's place. Once again I inadvertantly left it behind (this time in my car) and SEVEN DEADLY WONDERS was sitting on my desk, ready to go for that train ride home.

Matthew Reilly is the ice cream and cotton candy of the literary world. His books are devoured quickly, provide a lot of energy and are ultimately not filling. No one writes an action thriller quite like he does. His Scarecrow series is Tom Clancy on meth - the best military men and women running through action and intrigue at mach 12. This book (and now series with the printing of THE SIX SACRED STONES) is Indiana Jones on steroids. The traps are bigger and more deadly, the treasures are fabulous and necessary to prevent the end of the world and the Nazi menace is ever present.

I think I liked this book better than the Scarecrow series because I couldn't see the obvious errors in facts concerning the military. Some of the assertions about the U.S. military and the USMC are quite ludicrous and almost distracting in their complete wrongness. However, I can push the suspension of disbelief button and continue to enjoy the story. This book is even easier to do so because it relies more on the characters than the unit.

Matt Reilly's books are a great escape from reality and truly fun to read. Check your brain at the front cover and you will be in for a great thrill ride.

Orphan's Journey

Wow, it sure is taking me a long time to get through RAGAMUFFIN. I'm really digging it, but the depth is slowing me down. Combining that with school work, I am moving through it at a snail's pace. In the meantime, I saw Robert Buettner's latest ORPHAN book at the book shop and picked it up on a whim. I liked his previous two books - even though they are heavy on the STARSHIP TROOPERS-analogues. And one day I left RAGAMUFFIN at home by accident and ORPHAN'S JOURNEY was in my bag, so I whipped through it in a couple of days.

Buettner stories all follow the same format - an intro that sets up the big battle, Jason Wander screwing up and getting reassigned, the serendipitous accident, the recovery, the big battle and the epilogue in the future. Nothing wrong with formula, but it does make for some redundancy.

In Buettner's credit, he does a good job at getting the exposition out of the way reintroducing the characters and situations. It makes reading the previous novels less necessary for a new fan, but not boring the continuing reader.

I do think I liked this book better than the previous installment ORPHAN'S DESTINY, but still not as much as the first ORPHANAGE. In this one, the Slugs (the bad guys) are more vulnerable and less unstoppable than before. Also Jason finally grows up. The first books had him bumbling through and whinging about his situation. Now he is older and has to act it. I like this evolution and look forward to the next book ORPHAN'S ALLIANCE (and I see another is planned beyond that).

My only complaint would be that the ending seems rushed. One moment we are preparing for battle and thirty pages later it is over and we are in the epilogue. But at least he finishes the story unlike so many other series books now. This is a refereshing change in this serialized world.

Buettner's books are not heavy reading, but they sure are entertaining. And that is what really matters in the long run.

Now back to our regularly scheduled reading...