Rating: 
Summary: Interesting story line....at least?
Review: If you're interested in quality action scenes, and a story that twists and develops non-stop; look no further than Area 7. Matthew Reilly continues with his hero from Ice Station, pitting the daring Schofield and the President of the USA in a showdown with multiple enemies. Ranging from elite special forces armed with the best of weaponry, to runaway fugitives, Area 7 is in no short supply of the bad guys. Area 7, located deep in the Utah desert, known only as a secret military institution, gets a visit from the President and his security escorts. Among his escorts, belongs a marine, whos eyes hide legendary combat experience; in short this guy can kick ..., his name is Schofield, call-sign Scarecrow. The book houses page after page of intense action involving foreign special forces, and corrupt military members. Matthew Reilly, utilizes his characters, story, and setting effectively to compile a story that is relatively exciting for those that are interested in STRICTLY action. The book does not belong in a "What does that word mean?" category, the lack of advanced vocabulary, did at times really diminished my attitude towards the book. Note that while Reilly, is effective at his descriptive action scenes, lacks a sense of sophistication in the writing, good or bad is up to ones own preferences. As most readers will observe, the amount of unrealistic page turning scenes adds up, and can have a detrimental effect on your overall liking of the book over time. Though I must give credit to a creatively constructed story line, I would still have to conclusively state that this book is really made for readers, that appreciate suspense and bone-chilling combat scenes, over minimal rationality. If you are more turned on by books that depict realistic scenes, and portray an ultimate image of complexity, this book may be one that stands in your bookshelf, partially untouched. None the less, if your looking to take a break from Tom Clancy's style, this ones a definate candidate.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond rationality
Review: This book is totally absurd. Yeah, it's got a lot of action, but if it's not supposed to be science fiction, then it should touch base with reality occasionally, and it doesn't. However, if utterly ridiculous plots, hair-raising, unbelievable, nick-of-time escapes from death and destruction, and burning incense to feminism are your thing, then by all means get this book. But if you like your action stories to be semi-believable and rational, then avoid this book like....like....like....the Sinovirus......
Rating:
Summary: Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the library
Review: Mr. Reilly requires only one thing of a reader...the ability to ignore fact and absolutely suspend belief. If you can accomplish that, his books will in fact keep you involved. If, however, you require even a modicum of reality in your stories, this will be as disappointing as 'Ice Station', if no more so. It will probably appeal to the PS2 and X-box crowd, but if you seek a military style techno-thriller that you can read without stopping every two pages to wonder at the inaccuracies, try Tom Clancy or Harold Coyle.
Rating: 
Summary: Overblown follow-up to Ice Station
Review: Reilly followed up a fairly decent action tale called Ice Station with this way overdone tale involving Shane Schofield, Libby Gant and Mother from the first book and adding a few new characters. It seems like the author is trying to outdo the makers of the Die Hard movies. It just seems that wherever Schofield goes he is caught in the midst of corrupt military and competing corrupt foreign powers. He escapes from one impossible situation after another, some of which are insults to the reader. I would have rated this book lower but the three main characters are highly likable and the reader hopes that something may develop between Schofield and Gant.
Rating: 
Summary: I want more
Review: As I'm used by now, the books by this author would almost define as a movie script. Alot of action and stunts and in overall pretty entertaining to read if you're not going tho think through and accept whats going on. And in responce of another review, never had issue's with bad italic's use, must be left out in the translation I guess.
Rating:
Summary: No more... <I>stop</I>!
Review: Like Chinese water <I>torture</I>, as the book wore <I>on</I> my nerves became increasingly frayed by the constant use of <I>italics</I>, often in the most inappropriate <I>places</I>...
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This book is one worth staying up all night reading for. And even if you don't think you it is worth that, it is just what you will do when you think, "I'll just start this book off..." you will end up finishing it in the proccess. Matthew Reilly, who is also a excellent public speaker is one of the best authors I have had the pleasure of reading his books. I look forward to his next book Scarecrow and hope and am sure that it will keep up with the pattern of getting more exciting with each page. Scarecrow is the perfect hero, and the continuence of his presence in this book continued from Ice Station makes us even more in awe of Reilly's ability to bring someone to life, through words.
Rating:
Summary: Matthew Reilly Rocks!!!!
Review: It's clear from reading so many one-star reviews of this book that a lot of people just don't get Matthew Reilly. He is about one thing and one thing only: Action. And what glorious action it is -- inasane, unbelievable, wildly over-the-top action that doesn't quit for a single page. This book has more shootouts, fistfights, explosions and general all-around mayhem and destruction than a dozen ordinary action books combined! This is probably the fastest paced book I have ever read and I have read a lot. In short, this book ROCKS!!! With that said, if you're looking for well developed characters or deep meaning, you won't find it here. This is just pure escapist fun at its absolute best. Everyone who has complained about the lack of realism or character development needs to lighten up and just enjoy this book for what it is: pure, unadulterated FUN! And if you like this book, check out his other novels. They all ROCK just as much. I can't wait for his next book, Scarecrow, due out soon. LONG LIVE MATTHEW REILLY!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: If there's such a thing as a pure action novel . . .
Review: . . . Matthew Reilly owns the franchise. I may end up sounding just a bit schizophrenic here; after all, I'm a guy who used the term "gratuitous action" (the first time I am aware of its use) to describe Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Yet I like Matthew Reilly--who throws a ton more action sequences into his fiction than even Jerry Bruckheimer--and didn't like Temple of Doom. Why? First of all, Indiana Jones was never JUST about action--the Harrison Ford Character was a cool, noirish thirties dude, nothing like Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield, Reilly's hero--in the way that a Matthew Reilly novel IS just about action. When they turned the Indiana Jones series that direction with the second installment, a delicate balance between character, sensibility, and action was upset (and never fully recovered, although The Last Crusade was a good corrective). Second, Reilly really is a master of the action thriller in a way that those who made Temple of Doom aren't. Third--and this seems a little counter-intuitive, but I think it's right--pure action works better in a book than on the screen, for two reasons, I think: In a book, you can describe and depict things that would probably be impossible to pull off, or at least would come off seeming implausible or contrived on the screen. Second, if one were to make a film of Area 7, it would either be so frenetically paced as to be unwatchable, or would be substantially altered to make it play on the screen. Overall, I'm a Reilly fan. I like his singlemindedness. I like Scarecrow Schofield. I (generally) like the way he sets up his scenes and pulls them off. I like the amount of jeopardy he packs into his books. And I like his high concept. I would've given this book five stars, except, for me, two things drag it down. I thought the racial angle was a cliche, and I thought he went over the top with the release of the condemned killers and the animals from their cells. I do generally like the way he manufactures mayhem, but these two things just didn't work for me. As for other criticisms noted at this site, I don't read this kind of fiction for rounded characters, for emotional realism, or even for plausibility. There is a cartoonish aspect to any Reilly thriller, but I at least don't expect or ask for anything else. So long as he pulls it off. Which I think he does. 4 and 1/2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Read one Matthew Reilly book, you've read them all.
Review: Reading a Matthew Reilly book is like grading the homework essay of a bright, precocious child. His vivid imagination is cute at first but his shortcomings quickly get annoying. Matthew Reilly has written the same book four times now, only varying the location and sometimes the characters, if you can call those zero-dimensional stick figures "characters". The basic element is the same - a fight to the death with high tech weaponry in an enclosed area. The McGuffin is never original - the basic idea in "Contest" originated in a classic science fiction story called "Arena" and has since been done to death by everything from Star Trek downwards. Similarly, the alien spaceship trapped in polar ice is ripped straight out of "The Thing from Another World". But the most annoying this about Reilly is his juvenile writing style. He can't seem to go more than a few paragraphs without: "And then - SHOCKINGLY - the man's head exploded". He freely invents weapons and gadgets that defy every law of physics, and thinks he can make them sound plausible just by stringing random numbers and letters in front of them: "A type-240 quasi-nuclear plasma bomb", "an MH-12 Maghook" which turns the hero Shane Schofield into the poor man's Spiderman, etc. If you just want to switch off your brain and wallow in totally mindless escapism, you might enjoy this book. But if you're looking for an intelligent, well-crafted thriller, keep looking.
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