The Five Greatest Warrors

by Matthew Reilly
400 pgs.

Jack West Jr.'s adventure began in Seven Ancient Wonders, it continued in The Six Sacred Stones, and it concludes in The Five Greatest Warriors. In true Matthew Reilly fashion he ended the last book with a cliff-hanger and Jack had not yet found all six of the sacred diamond pillars needed to save the world from cosmic annihilation. This last book picks up right where it left off.

In order to find the remaining pillars, Jack and his team must decipher an inscription found on the Sphinx at Giza. It tells of five great warriors: Moses, Genghis Khan, Jesus Christ (just go with it), Napoleon, and an unnamed final one. To tell more about the plot will make me sound like more of an idiot for having read the book(s). So instead I'll try to justify myself and salvage my credibility as an intelligent and discerning reader. They're A LOT of fun. That's all I've got.

Reilly has never been a darling of the critics. His characters are usually over-the-top caricatures of human beings. The dialogue he writes would often lead you to believe he's 14 years old. And the action scenes and plot lines would probably be disregarded by George Lucas for another Indiana Jones movie because they're so outlandish.

But again, they're fun and require no mental effort. In fact, they're best read without expending any. For what Reilly set out to do with this series, mission accomplished.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆