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A review by vikingwolf
The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly
5.0
I first heard of this book through Nikki at https://breathesbooks.com/ who said it might be to my taste, liking theme parks with animal disasters like Jurassic Park. I was instantly intrigued by the idea of a dragon theme park and how it would look to have them all flying around! After I read Contest by Matthew Reilly, I was even keener to read this one! I had all kinds of questions in my head before I started about how they were controlled and kept within the park so I was already keen to get stuck into it. It did live up to my expectations!
An accident at a zoo in China leaves 19 people dead and the Chinese government decide on a mass cover up which means murdering all witnesses. The event is hushed up and the park is re-prepared for a grand opening with specially invited guests, animal experts and journalists. China is ready to show off their grand new dragon theme park, with 232 dragons in various social groups, and CJ and her brother Hamish travel there to do a piece for a magazine. They are given the guided tour and assured that the keepers and computer people have complete control of the zoo and nothing can go wrong. However when it does go wrong, the survivors have to find somewhere safe to escape the dragons-and the security guards who are determined to hush up yet another disaster at the park.
I liked CJ. She was a herpetologist until being disfigured saving someone from an alligator attack, instead becoming a vet. She carries the scars of the attack with her and it has greatly affected her life. Now she is casting her expert eye over the dragons. She knows her reptiles and is the one who asks the awkward questions that other journalists gathered are scared to ask, which doesn't go down well with her Chinese hosts. She is capable and tough, which is very much needed when things go wrong. Her brother Hamish is photographer for the piece and is pretty stunned by what he is seeing around him. With them are New York Times journalists Seymour and Aaron, their guide Na, US Ambassador Kirk and his aide Greg and Chinese journalist Xin Xili with her cameraman. I liked all of them except the bitchy Xin, who is nasty to CJ, and of course I was hoping to see her eaten at some point. You have to dream!
Kirk is not the steriotype US politician. He isn't the arrogant blowhard that you see in a lot of these books. He comes across as as a nice guy who wants to do good, and he is capable in a crisis, along with his trusted aid Greg, who has a few surprises of his own to share with his new friends. One of my favourite characters was CJ's old friend Go Go, a larger than life gay man who works at the park, who has a wonderful personality and I just took to him straight away. We also meet Ben, who CJ once had a bad date with, and also works in the birthing centre and is pretty far up himself. Then there is the evil Colonel Bao, head of security, who sees every surviving guest as an enemy to be eliminated to save the future of the zoo. I certainly hated that guy as we are meant to!
The story really opens with the journey to and arrival at the park and we get a Jurassic Park style talk to explain how the park exists, where the dragons are from and how things work. It is then time to go into the actual park itself, and the descriptions of the lake, mountains and buildings had me imagining in my head how stunning this place would be if it was real. I could see the dragons flying around the cable car and the photos I could take...! It does take some time to go through all of the introductory stuff but I found it all really interesting as the concept of the park was fascinating. If you enjoyed the Jurassic Park book, then you know what to expect from the opening third here. The other thing I enjoyed was seeing Lucky, the tame yellow dragon who was just so sweet and seemed devoted to the trainer Yim-unlike a few other so called trained dragons who seem to hate the woman and Lucky.
When the disaster occurs it becomes a fast paced rollercoaster adventure with tons of dragon action and run ins with the deadly security forces. There are lots of action scenes and attacks, and a good few twists in the plot along the way as the dragons start to try and plan their own escape and the humans try to stop them. I liked that each colour of dragons had their own traits, and were different kinds of threats to the guests. It gave them very distinct personalities and as soon as a colour was sighted, the people knew whether or not these were the ones to really fear. I never quite knew what was coming next and the action was mixed in with a lot of tension as we followed the group. I enjoyed the book a lot and it is something I would love to see made into a film. I can already imagine the CGI dragons flying around!
This is my second book by the author and it is another 5 star read. I'm looking forward to reading more by him in the future.
An accident at a zoo in China leaves 19 people dead and the Chinese government decide on a mass cover up which means murdering all witnesses. The event is hushed up and the park is re-prepared for a grand opening with specially invited guests, animal experts and journalists. China is ready to show off their grand new dragon theme park, with 232 dragons in various social groups, and CJ and her brother Hamish travel there to do a piece for a magazine. They are given the guided tour and assured that the keepers and computer people have complete control of the zoo and nothing can go wrong. However when it does go wrong, the survivors have to find somewhere safe to escape the dragons-and the security guards who are determined to hush up yet another disaster at the park.
I liked CJ. She was a herpetologist until being disfigured saving someone from an alligator attack, instead becoming a vet. She carries the scars of the attack with her and it has greatly affected her life. Now she is casting her expert eye over the dragons. She knows her reptiles and is the one who asks the awkward questions that other journalists gathered are scared to ask, which doesn't go down well with her Chinese hosts. She is capable and tough, which is very much needed when things go wrong. Her brother Hamish is photographer for the piece and is pretty stunned by what he is seeing around him. With them are New York Times journalists Seymour and Aaron, their guide Na, US Ambassador Kirk and his aide Greg and Chinese journalist Xin Xili with her cameraman. I liked all of them except the bitchy Xin, who is nasty to CJ, and of course I was hoping to see her eaten at some point. You have to dream!
Kirk is not the steriotype US politician. He isn't the arrogant blowhard that you see in a lot of these books. He comes across as as a nice guy who wants to do good, and he is capable in a crisis, along with his trusted aid Greg, who has a few surprises of his own to share with his new friends. One of my favourite characters was CJ's old friend Go Go, a larger than life gay man who works at the park, who has a wonderful personality and I just took to him straight away. We also meet Ben, who CJ once had a bad date with, and also works in the birthing centre and is pretty far up himself. Then there is the evil Colonel Bao, head of security, who sees every surviving guest as an enemy to be eliminated to save the future of the zoo. I certainly hated that guy as we are meant to!
The story really opens with the journey to and arrival at the park and we get a Jurassic Park style talk to explain how the park exists, where the dragons are from and how things work. It is then time to go into the actual park itself, and the descriptions of the lake, mountains and buildings had me imagining in my head how stunning this place would be if it was real. I could see the dragons flying around the cable car and the photos I could take...! It does take some time to go through all of the introductory stuff but I found it all really interesting as the concept of the park was fascinating. If you enjoyed the Jurassic Park book, then you know what to expect from the opening third here. The other thing I enjoyed was seeing Lucky, the tame yellow dragon who was just so sweet and seemed devoted to the trainer Yim-unlike a few other so called trained dragons who seem to hate the woman and Lucky.
When the disaster occurs it becomes a fast paced rollercoaster adventure with tons of dragon action and run ins with the deadly security forces. There are lots of action scenes and attacks, and a good few twists in the plot along the way as the dragons start to try and plan their own escape and the humans try to stop them. I liked that each colour of dragons had their own traits, and were different kinds of threats to the guests. It gave them very distinct personalities and as soon as a colour was sighted, the people knew whether or not these were the ones to really fear. I never quite knew what was coming next and the action was mixed in with a lot of tension as we followed the group. I enjoyed the book a lot and it is something I would love to see made into a film. I can already imagine the CGI dragons flying around!
This is my second book by the author and it is another 5 star read. I'm looking forward to reading more by him in the future.