Scan barcode
A review by albionscastle
The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly
5.0
I received this books as an ARC from Gallery books.
I own several books by Matthew Reilly but they are still on my "to-read" list so this book was actually the first one for me. Being a fan of Steve Alten and Michael Crichton I was drawn to the synopsis of fantastic, extinct creatures brought back to life. Naturally you knew something was going to go wrong.
The parallels to Jurassic Park were obvious and in fact the writer makes mention of that in the book when one of the characters mentions how well this sort of thing worked out for Jurassic Park. Turns out he was right on the nose.
This book is incredibly fast-paced with a barely a moment to take a breath before the next disaster or epic battle takes place. It was in no way a relaxing read as I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I almost literally could not put it down, to the point that I considered calling into work just to stay home and read it.
The humans are treated with barely restrained contempt in this novel and I like that. These humans are acting without any humanity, breeding, caging, training with pain, messing with forces beyond their comprehension and simply murdering anyone or anything who gets in the way. The whole idea of the zoo, minus the awe-inspiring nature of the inhabitants, is one that is portrayed as over commercialized, tawdry, dirty and just downright unethical. The idea that humans could "train" these kinds of ancient mythical creatures is absurd and every description of this high tech uber-secret facility is described with this undertone. You get the sense that no one who really knows their stuff is fooled by the shiny exterior of the zoo's operations.
This book isn't light-hearted nor is it for the faint of heart. There is plenty of gore, violence and outrage to be had, served on a buffet of vivid descriptions and action-packed sequences that really test the limits of your imagination.
All in all I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with this read and I absolutely loved the book. Matthew Reilly just moved to the top of my "to read" pile.
I own several books by Matthew Reilly but they are still on my "to-read" list so this book was actually the first one for me. Being a fan of Steve Alten and Michael Crichton I was drawn to the synopsis of fantastic, extinct creatures brought back to life. Naturally you knew something was going to go wrong.
The parallels to Jurassic Park were obvious and in fact the writer makes mention of that in the book when one of the characters mentions how well this sort of thing worked out for Jurassic Park. Turns out he was right on the nose.
This book is incredibly fast-paced with a barely a moment to take a breath before the next disaster or epic battle takes place. It was in no way a relaxing read as I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I almost literally could not put it down, to the point that I considered calling into work just to stay home and read it.
The humans are treated with barely restrained contempt in this novel and I like that. These humans are acting without any humanity, breeding, caging, training with pain, messing with forces beyond their comprehension and simply murdering anyone or anything who gets in the way. The whole idea of the zoo, minus the awe-inspiring nature of the inhabitants, is one that is portrayed as over commercialized, tawdry, dirty and just downright unethical. The idea that humans could "train" these kinds of ancient mythical creatures is absurd and every description of this high tech uber-secret facility is described with this undertone. You get the sense that no one who really knows their stuff is fooled by the shiny exterior of the zoo's operations.
This book isn't light-hearted nor is it for the faint of heart. There is plenty of gore, violence and outrage to be had, served on a buffet of vivid descriptions and action-packed sequences that really test the limits of your imagination.
All in all I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with this read and I absolutely loved the book. Matthew Reilly just moved to the top of my "to read" pile.