The story starts off with the cliffhanger from the prequel where we see Jack falling into an abyss but he overcomes death as usual. Jack’s team guided by Wizard discover that the only way to overcome the Dark Sun’s power is by activating an ancient geological machine at Earth’s core. The only way to activate this machine is to place 6 diamond-like pillars, all cleansed, atop the base of six gargantuan pyramids hidden across 6 different locations on Earth. The clues in this book are Rameses, Jesus, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. The fifth warrior is a mystery.

So Jack and his team…which is battered a lot during this instalment races against time and their enemies – the Carnivore, Wolf/ West Sr., Scimitar and Vulture, Chinese forces headed by Mao Gangli and the Japanese army to resurrect these pillars to save the chaotic world. Not only that but they travel across the globe covering places like Mongolia, Britain, Lundy Island, Easter Island, Indian Ocean, Japan, China, Eastern Russia, New Zealand and Israel/Jordan.

Alliances are made and broken, people are murdered and Jack receives one of the gifts of the pillar…Sight while Lily receives the ultimate gift unexpectedly. While the end is predictable…its how you reach there is what the mystery is about. For good measure…the romance between Jack and Zoe is also highligted which was brewing I suppose since 2nd instalment.

The characters evolved a lot since their adventure in the 6 Sacred Stones and every character is thrown in a new light in this adventure. I really don’t like Lily a lot since I kind of feel she’s a bit obnoxious from having so much knowledge but then that’s my perspective. On the whole its a great read for all those adventure, sci-fi fans out there.

Jack, or the Huntsman, is the protagonist of Matthew Reilly’s series of books, starting with Seven Ancient Wonders, continuing with The Six Sacred Stones and concluding (at least, for now) in The Five Greatest Warriors. Apart from being Australian (and everyone knows that Aussie blokes are HOT (my opinion, take it or leave it); eg Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Eric Bana etc), Mr Reilly gives us this description of him in 6SS: “Of medium height, with blue eyes and tousled dark hair, he was handsome in a rugged kind of way. Once upon a time, he had been ranked the fourth-best special forces soldier in the world, a lone Australian on a list dominated by Americans.”

*BAM* Instant crush.

But, can you blame me? Blue eyes, “tousled” dark hair, awesome soldier (he can take care of you, an obvious benefit), Australian. Plus, he’s got a kick-ass titanium arm (incident with a volcano), a pet peregrine falcon named Horus and a love of history.

Anyway, I just finished reading the latest instalment of Jack West Jr’s adventures in The Five Greatest Warriors. And I loved it.

*Spoiler Alert – Read on and discover spoilers.*

The book starts with the end of The Six Sacred Stones; Jack falling into an abyss with a suicidal Japanese soldier bent on revenge. It doesn’t even take him 20 pages to escape from his predicament. That’s what I like about Matthew Reilly; it’s *BAM* straight into the action. I personally didn’t like The Six Sacred Stones as much as I liked Seven Ancient Wonders; I found it kinda slow. But The Five Greatest Warriors takes it all back, promising a non-stop roller coaster and delivering on every front. After all, it took me about 14 hours to read it, an unprecedented time considering how many interruptions I faced during those 14 hours. And I don’t know how many times I actually yelled out “NO!” or smiled and muttered “awwww…” It actually got me laughing more than a couple of times and the Scottish twins, Julius and Lachlan Adamson, had me grinning inanely for pretty much every one of their scenes. I can’t begin to explain how excited I got when Pooh Bear finally showed his brother up (his brother deserved it too, he was an arse) or how betrayed I felt when several characters who I had begun to like turned out to be enemies. But one event got absolutely no reaction from me.

Let me just explain now; no character is safe in a Matthew Reilly book.

This was proved to me in his book Scarecrow when my favourite character, Fox, was executed by guillotine. It was again pointed out during Seven Ancient Wonders when Big Ears, another one of my favourite characters, was mercilessly shot and killed. And again when The Six Sacred Stones ended with Jack West Jr tumbling into an abyss. No character is safe.  So, when Wizard is killed, forgive me for saying that I wasn’t that shocked. A friend of mine was outraged, coming up to me, ranting and raving, a couple of weeks ago, declaring that Matthew Reilly can’t kill him off. (She knew I hadn’t read the book so she didn’t reveal who had died, just that she was very upset about it.) Me? I just metaphorically shrugged it off, of course feeling sad for the characters but being secretly relieved that Jack’s love interest wasn’t killed. (Alright, she’s described looking a little bit like me. A girl can dream.)

*End of Spoilers – I told you they were there.*

Anyway, I actually did love reading The Five Greatest Warriors. In my opinion, it was a lot better than The Six Sacred Stones, although it can’t compare to Seven Ancient Wonders. It’s not a piece of literary genius, but it is a rip-roaring adventure that takes you from England to China and everywhere in between. And Jack & Lily’s relationship had me awwwww-ing on a whole new level. It makes me really want Jack West Jr as a father.

~ Bats ♥