Temple

Rating:
Summary: Wow! How unrealistic / totally improbable can you get?!
Review: I must admit that reviewing Temple isn't easy for me.

My usual reviewing style is to pan a book for minor inconsistencies in the plot or for unrealistic characters or for a lack of accuracy in information presented as being historically correct. By these standards Temple deserves one star (at most).

But here I am giving Temple four stars despite it being the most blatantly unrealistic and totally improbable book I've ever read!

The operative words here are BLATANTLY unrealistic. And FUN.

Reading a book by Matthew Reilly is like going to a liars convention, where the person who tells the most outlandish, unbelievable, crazy, entertaining story is the winner.

William Race, the hero of Temple, spends approximately 750 pages in constant action, fighting for his life, running for his life, dodging bullets and surviving one disaster after another, always at the very last "nanosecond" (one of Mr. Reilly's favorite words). William Race does things that are not just improbable but totally impossible. He cheats death every 10th page and spends the next nine pages getting into a situation that has only one possible outcome: certain death!

Several other reviewers have characterized Matthew Reilly's books as "comic books in words". Exactly! They can also be compared to the old Batman TV shows, where the screen explodes with a "POW" when one of the characters punches another character.

Here's an example of Matthew Reilly's prose (page 434 in the paperback edition I read):

"Race hit him again, and again, and again - yelling with each punch as the Nazi staggered backwards.
'Get -'
Punch.
'- off -'
Punch.
'- my -'
Punch.
'- boat!'"

In conclusion, totally unrealistic, totally improbable and 100% entertaining!

At the end of the paperback edition I read there's an 11-page interview with Matthew Reilly that I found quite interesting. Mr. Reilly is very up-front about writing books that attempt to pack as much action as possible between the covers, and he also describes how he became an author:

"What led you to self-publish Contest (Matthew Reilly's first book)?

Simple. I offered it to every major publisher in Sydney and they all rejected it!"

Sounds like something so improbable that it could be straight out of a Matthew Reilly book. :-)

Rating:
Summary: Too incredible at times to be believable
Review: Well, the cover and back text really drew my attention: wow, something in the ancient times, some action, a good mix of interesting stuff. The story started out great, but the "hero" in the book tends to be more unbelievable as time progresses. If you have read Clive Cusslers books, you may recognize something of Dirk Pitt in him: everyone dies, but he doesn't, and while he is shot in the shoulder at point blank range, he'll still rescue the maiden from the jaws of the dangerous caiman.

I thought (and this was confirmed in the interview at the end of the book) that Matt Reilly would much more prefer writing thriller scenarios. Some scenes in the book are SO elaborate, and so complex, that it seems like the scenariowriter for Lethal Weapon got together with the scenariowriter for Die Hard, got drunk, and wrote parts of this book together.

There is a particular scene where the good guys chase the bad guys over water, with boats/catamarans/jet ski's where everyones move is being noted in such an elaborate way that I started to feel dizzy. Which Nazi was killed now? And how exactly? Which jet ski did which flip-move and who is dead now? I even glossed over some parts of this water scene (which took on for about 50 pages), which I NEVER do.

So: nice book, if you read it in the back yard, on a lazy summer day. The concept is good, but rather distorted because of Reilly's insatiable taste for ACTION. Shame. Also, as I said above, the hero is rescued a zillion times, which makes him rather unbelievable (an ancient language professor who is wounded, but snatches up a statue, while darting for the exit of a huge tank which is in mid-air and is rapidly crashing down? Naturally, the guy makes it without another scratch).

Darn it. Not what I hoped it to be!

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This book has you at the edge of your seat. It's non-stop action. After every page and action the fun just gets better and better.

Rating:
Summary: A thrill-a-minute adventure
Review: Matthew Reilly's second book, "Temple", is part Indiana Jones, part James Bond, part Clive Cussler hero, and part Tom Clancy hero. Other reviewers have deemed this a "fun" read and I whole-heartedly agree. The novel is not deep on character development, but that doesn't seem out of place here.

The novel hits the ground running with the massacre of monks at a monastery. The novel continues at a quick pace for the next 500 pages and never lets up. There are many twists and turns, surprises, double agents, etc. By then end, the reader wonders who is the more prominent villain in the grand scheme of things. Many mysteries abound ranging from creatures inside the temple, the history of the sought idol, why everyone wants the idol, etc.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to go into much detail as there are a number of surprises the reader must discover for himself/herself. If you're a fan of Clive Cussler, James Rollins, or Tom Clancy, this is a "must-read". While there is little to no character development, the non-stop (and sometimes very far-fetched) action will keep the reader enthralled for many hours.

Rating:
Summary: New kid on the arsenal block
Review: Two stars are deserved for dwelling in old Inca lore, when the "gold-eaters" conquered the empire, but in the midst of all the modern super action, I got bored. I asked myself: "How old is this author?" Born in 1974, he is now 30, presenting an infantile style and plot: characters have no depth, are not convincing, females are stick figures, Nazis are the villains ad nauseam (every 6 year old knows that...), unbelievable amounts of bullets flare out of rectangular muzzles, ripping everything to shreds including this story, and if you are into details of weaponry, maybe you will enjoy this arsenal. And if you are into astronomy you might understand what the Incan god- statue was made of to be of such lure to modern world destroyers. After 295 pages - far from the end at page 523 - , I lost interest. But then I am female and not into high tech weapons with which to kill mindlessly. In my opinion, this story lacks in-depth development and is caput long before it has a chance to reach a conclusion. Gerborg

Rating:
Summary: Ok story but Needs work!
Review: I think many of the other reviewers have summed up this book best. My two word review is comic book! Which is not bad as long as you Know what you are in for.

I have one question though, the plot of the book involves the Incas so how come the front cover displays the pyramid El Castillo from Chi chen itza? That is a Mayan Pyramid thousands of miles away in Mexico. I recomend you try "A Tourist in the Yucatan" for a good acelogical adventure/thriller set amongst the ruin sites of Mexico.

Rating:
Summary: Far fetched doomsday fantasy
Review: Matt Reilly's Temple is a highly implausible adventure centered around unlikely protagonist William Race, a bookish, thirty one year old NYU linguistics professor specializing in ancient languages. Race is visited by U.S Army Col. Frank Nash of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Dept. of Defense think tank. Nash recruits Race to a project in which he will be required to translate an ancient manuscript penned by Spanish monk, Alberto Santiago in the 1500's. So begins the two parallel stories that comprise the plot of Temple, the exploits of Santiago and the present day mission of Race and the DARPA team.

Santiago accompanied the Spanish conquistadors in their pillage of the Incan empire in Peru, to convert the heathen natives to Christianity. Disgusted by the murderous atrocities administered to the Incans by his gold hungry countrymen, he decided to help. He freed Renco Capac, Incan prince and younger brother of the supreme ruler of the Inca, the mighty Sapa Inca, from a Spanish prison ship. With Santiago's help Renco endeavored to recover and hide the most revered idol within the Incan culture, the Spirit of the People, a jaguar carved out of purple and black rock which was housed in Cuzco. They eventually hid the idol in an impregnable temple deep within the Peruvian jungle.

Race and DARPA's mission involved the detection and recovery of the idol which had been carved out of a meteorite. The location was thought to have been spelled out in Santiago's manuscript. The meteorite was composed of thyrium-261 an extraterrestrial element, sort of a super plutonium. The idol was the only known source. Thyrium-261 was the seed required to operate an already built doomsday device called Supernova, which was capable of the total annihilation of the Earth. Both the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy along with a neo-Nazi faction, a German FBI group, and a U.S. paramilitary group the Texas Republican Army were all highly mechanized and in a desperate race to recover the idol.

Reilly's plot was extremely overdone with a multitude of sudden and uncomfortable plot twists and loads of apparent insurmountable obstacles overcome. Reilly's characters are imbued with improbable super human powers which allow way too many outrageous extrications from the jaws of death.

Rating:
Summary: An Indiana Jones Style Technothriller
Review: This was a fast-paced action thriller that combined elements of archeology, Inca history, and hi tech military hardware. William Race, an NYU linguistics professor, is approached by the US Army to go on an archeological expedition in search of an ancient Incan artifact. The artifact is rumored to have the "power of the gods" and is a threat to national security. The modern day Indiana Jones embarks on a journey with many twists and turns as rival groups also try to recover the artifact. The story is quite entertaining, but at some points the reader must suspend belief as Professor Race escapes untouched from one fatal situation after another. All in all I really enjoyed this book and even learned something about Inca history. Move over Lara Croft, there's a new Tomb Raider in the Temple.

Rating:
Summary: Almost as good
Review: In the Authors tradition the book has some neat story twists and alot of action.

While not a suspence as reading Icestation this is still a very entertaining book.

Actually this book tells 2 story's one at the current date and one during spain's colonization of Peru.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite Cussler's standard... yet!
Review: Matthew has it in him to steal Cussler's crown. That is an extremely bold statement I know. However it is 'imagination' we are comparing here, as that is the most important trait required for this genre of professional writing.

Maybe I am biased because I am Australian. However even I concede that Inca Gold wins hands down over Temple in every respect (from intricacy of sub-plots through to factual believability). It excites me though that my two favorite authors both happen to be fascinated by ancient Incan civilisation. It interests me mainly because I have been researching such material myself for the past ten years. These authors have proven that such information is more than simply an 'acquired taste'.

As with many books of the adventure variety, Temple suffers from its fair share of entirely implausible scenarios (never use the word 'nanoseconds' loosely!). However there lies more than enough compensation in the main plot, involved subplots, with commendable character development and interaction.

As with any book, judge Temple not soley by its wording, but by its ideas.