Matthew Reilly, an Australian author, is well known for his fast paced action thrillers. His earlier novels - Ice Station, Area 7 and Temple - have been instant hits and are notable for twisting plots and long action sequences. He draws his inspiration from a lot of Hollywood action/Sci-fi blockbusters like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Back to the Future series.
Matthew’s latest installment – The Great Zoo of China – goes into a territory that he has never ventured. The setting is rural China, the primary protagonist is a female character and the antagonists are creatures that the world believe exist only in mythologies.
Dr. Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron, a writer for National Geographic and an expert on crocodiles is invited to preview an extra-ordinary and secret Chinese project. It is a zoo which has been in the making for 40 years. Along with her are a group of high profile VIPs and journalists which include US Ambassador to China and his assistant, who is actually an ex-CIA field agent. Chinese believe that they have created a place which is unparalleled in human history and something that will soon become an icon of Chinese culture. The zoo houses one of the greatest creatures that we thought existed only in mythology – The Dragons. The Chinese have taken elaborate measures to protect the zoo and its patrons from these predators. It also includes a drastic last resort option – A self-destruct mechanism. If you are in an action movie/book this is a perfect recipe for disaster. What can go wrong will go wrong – and wrong it goes, horribly!
It turns out that the one of the species of the dragons are super-intelligent animals who have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to seize the control of the zoo (and the world). They start executing their grand plan with schemes that go beyond the zoo boundaries, and soon metal and flesh are shredded with equal disdain. Equally treacherous are the Chinese officials who will stop at nothing to keep this failure a secret from rest of the world. So it falls upon CJ and a handful of characters to get out of the crossfire and stop the mayhem and save humanity from disaster.
The writer takes some time for exposition and it has been done in great detail with ample space given to explain the dragon mythos as well as the specifics of the zoo, done through a guided tour of the characters by the Chinese officials. Characters are introduced (to be killed later in some gruesome way). One of the USPs of Matthew Reilly’s books have been the usage of maps and 3D views of the environments in which all the action takes place, and he leaves no stone unturned in his latest story as well. Once he is done with the exposition, all the action starts and it ends only on the last page. In between there are ample high adrenaline action pieces, twists and scares and majority of the characters are killed. Recently though, Matthew Reilly has taken the artistic license too far and as such some of the sequences venture into the realm of “impossible” or “outrageous” or like in this case - “fantasy”. Sadly, this time it is too much to digest and even though the action is very good the end result is somewhat a mish-mash of ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘How to Train Your Dragon’.
This book is a onetime read, especially if you have never delved into action thrillers before.
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