SpiderKitten reviewed One Impossible Labyrinth by Matthew Reilly
Review of 'One Impossible Labyrinth' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I've really enjoyed the entire Jack West Jr series, but for this one, I didn't enjoy it as much as others.
I'm spoiler cutting a couple of things as I don't want to hide the entire review.
The books in the series have always been a little over the top in terms of reality, but so many people came back from the dead in this book. Someone died, and five minutes later there they were again. Not once, not twice, not even three times it happened, I actually lost count how many times someone was thought to be dead and then Surprise! Not actually dead. By the end it was no longer a surprise but kind of expected.
Also, the side plot with the bells was super weird. Jack showed in the end that you can control people without them being put to sleep, so what was the point of …
I've really enjoyed the entire Jack West Jr series, but for this one, I didn't enjoy it as much as others.
I'm spoiler cutting a couple of things as I don't want to hide the entire review.
The books in the series have always been a little over the top in terms of reality, but so many people came back from the dead in this book. Someone died, and five minutes later there they were again. Not once, not twice, not even three times it happened, I actually lost count how many times someone was thought to be dead and then Surprise! Not actually dead. By the end it was no longer a surprise but kind of expected.
Also, the side plot with the bells was super weird. Jack showed in the end that you can control people without them being put to sleep, so what was the point of sphinx doing that? Like for real, why did he need to put people to sleep? He'd have gotten the power regardless. It would have even been better power without putting people to sleep because then he could control people without them knowing. Which Jack ended up doing in the end. (I also find that odd, that Jack would actually use the powers in any way, aside from that moment at the end with his dog.
I also felt like there were too many characters too spread out, and too much (but not much really) going on in the different places. It started to feel long. Which is an odd feeling for what is normally a fast paced action story.
Otherwise the book was standard fare for a Matthew Reilly novel and on the surface level I did enjoy it. But it definitely wasn't one of his better books. And I say that as a huge fan who has read everything he has written. But hopefully this isn't actually the end of the series and one day we'll be surprised with a new and better book for the series. :)