Review - Temple - Matthew Reilly


Title Temple

Author - Matthew Reilly
Year 1999

Stand Alone or Series Stand Alone
Pages 763
Reading Time - 10 days August 2012


Synospsis

Deep in the jungles of Peru the contest of the century is underway. It's a race to locate a legendary Incan idol - one carved out of a strange kind of stone. But a stone which in the present century could be used for a terrifying new purpose.

Now rival groups are assembling their teams to hunt the idol down, at any cost.

The only clue to the idol's final resting place is to be found in a 400-year-old manuscript. Which introduces Professor William Race, a mild-mannered but brilliant young linguist who is unwillingly recruited to interpret the document that could lead to the idol itself.

So begins the mission that will lead Race and his companions to a mysterious temple hidden in the foothills of the Andes. There they find a carefully contrived sanctuary seething with menace and unexpected dangers. But it is not until the silence of the temple is breached that Race and his team discover they have broken a golden rule . . .

Some doors are meant to remain unopened.

Review

This was probably the longest book I've read and I read in a week or so. For me it's an achievement.

This is a thriller as it should be with a fast paced narrative with an interesting plot, albeit in the end being kind of funny. My number one question is: Who the heck is the bad guy? First were the Germans, then the Nazis (also germans eheh), then the rapas, then the other branches of USA and in the end the fundamentalists from America/Japanese... This book was written before 9/11 or else the writer should had the space to put the arabs there too. Strangely he didn't put any chinese or jews...

Pro et Contra 
Pros...
-The aforementioned diversity of adversaries.
-The story within the story. The story about the priest and the mayans is interesting abeith unrealistic because of the writing style (Of course I understand if it was written as a priest would had written would be boring to noawdays standard.
-The plot. Interesting even if the science was wrong.
-USA's Army against USAF. Interesting to see the rivarly that exists between the armed forces of USA.

Cons
-The Main character. Totally unbelievable character. He is like... Indiana Jones... BUT EVEN BETTER! 
-His companions. A couple of green berets exploded boats, helicopters and took care of 40 or more Nazis (previously being said that they were the best of the best with uber-machines guns).


There are other couple of things that were a little strenched but this is fiction and a thriller so I let it slide. Those two were pretty annoying.

Would I advice this book to anyone? Yes. Of course. The story it's fast paced and that's what you can expect from a thriller/adventure novel. The characters are a little 2sided but what a heck. It's about fun  6/10

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