Australian, self-consciously and explicitly setting itself up as opposed to bigger, bullying powers like America

I was very critical of the previous book in the series, The Two Lost Mountains. It had many instances of people (read heroes) dying, only for them to magically reappear later on. There was also the issue of the storyline becoming more juvenile as the series progressed, but foul language and blasphemy were prevalent throughout. I was left confused as to who the target audience was. I just want to see the regular people of the world—mums and dads, kids and grandparents—be able to live their lives, love their families and chase their dreams without some entitled king or emperor or whatever ruling over them. (p. 278)

The author smartly avoids bashing Jesus/Christianity and the Church in this one without his own opinions coming through for a change. Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. He will never be the worlds greatest author. He won't have the prose of someone like Rothfuss or King, but when you're writing..... I feel like his writing has gotten worse as the series goes on. It feels like he's aiming for the lowest common denominator. Now he faces one last race – against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself – a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth.

The deaths in the book are earnt given the length of the series, however Reilly almost revels in the torture porn at odds with the general humour and light action in the rest of the story. Oh look. Your favourite character is in danger. Oh look. They're dead. BUT NO. They're alive again thanks to some miraculous stroke of genius that this character concocts to foil the bad guys plot once again. It's lazy writing. He can do better. Most of all, he HAS done better. The last time that a characters death meant something to me was when Wizard died. The twins deaths went by without a blink because they didn't feel relevent enough to me to be kept alive for the future.Distances itself from the claim of birth family (his Mom is alright, but his father is a psycho and daughter adopted) in favour of chosen family of friends and mentors of different generations. An underlying current is that it is choices that matter, not the family or privileges you're born into. The first few books of the Seven were good. They balanced action with interesting pseudo-historical events that were well thought up and creatively done. Not just a stretch where you walk past history and destroy it because putting the hero in contrived peril every second chapter is a cool thing to do.

My thoughts on the series - Spoilers below. I did mark this higher as to not spoil anything for friends, but honestly, I got frustrated waiting for them to finish. The books are all high adventure with some mythology thrown in. The mythology is real mythology sometimes looked at from a different perspective. I’ve long been impressed by the author’s ability to blend fiction and reality and he does it so well. Again I looked up some of the historical places mentioned and they do exist, and they are as stunning and interesting as Reilly makes them out to be in the books. Honestly, this is exactly the book I wanted and then MORE. I don't think any fan that has come this far could possibly be disappointed. I'm a big Matthew Reilly fan and I own and have read every novel and most of the novellas he's released. While he's no literary master, he's my favourite 7/10 action thriller author, and is surprisingly progressive to boot (surprising for a middle-aged white man who went to a wealthy private school). That said, this is the worst written Matthew Reilly book by far. Hugely disappointed by it. The number of times he uses . . .

Reilly knows what he likes and writes for people who like it. He can describe his own images as long as you don't overthink the science behind it all. Centres nerds obsessing about "lore". It's a very silly view of how historical facts and expertise actually work in the real world (with all their ambiguity vanished to produce a giant puzzle game) but it's still salutary to see how nerdy historical knowledge is just assumed to be a prerequistite for making progress, for both protagonists and villains. I introduced a friend of mine to Matthew Reilly recently and they've been excited to finish the series alongside me. I was red in the face embarrassed about it while reading this. I'm not sure if he ran out of time or ideas or is struggling personally but it's a severe step down in quality for him. What is normally an exciting one day read turned into a month long challenge. The settings are detailed, intricate and well developed. The pictures help to visualize the locations and puzzles.