The Four Legendary Kingdoms, The Three Secret Cities, The Two Lost Mountains, The One Impossible Labyrinth (Matthew Reilly)

The Four Legendary Kingdoms

1. Premise immediately looks interesting
2. Like contest but more advanced
3. Hades! I know! About the Labours!!
4. 4.4/5

The Three Secret Cities

1. I'm a friend of Scarecrow's. My name is Captain Aloysius Knight
2. She's your mother
3. Pooh and Stretch are loyal
4. Probably better than the previous book by a tiny margin 4.5/5

The Two Lost Mountains

1. CFA and CPA is a hard qualification
2. Jack treats everyone with respect and courtesy
3. Easton is Jack's friend
4. Also good but maybe slightly weaker than 4 legendary kingdoms

The One Impossible Labrinth

1. A very familiar pattern emerges - Jack appears to be coming last in a race and he's catching up
2. Probably on par with three secret cities
3. Diagrams are also cool
4. It's the type of book that conspiracy theorists will love - a secret group of elite in the know and running the show
5. 4 subteams with 4 missions
6. Rufus and Sky Monster, fish out of water, launching a rescue mission without their heroes
7. Really good, but weird ending
8. I think it's the equal best book 4.5/5

The Jack West series as a whole is interesting in the sense that Reilly tries to explain away real world legends, wonders, places, phenomena by way of conspiracy theory. In the first 3 books, and particularly the first book, it's a bit ridiculous to think ancient humans could have designed all those advanced booby traps or hid away all these ancient caverns without being detected. But once you hit 4 legendary kingdoms, it gets really interesting because you then see the hidden world / kingdoms Reilly has created to explain all the conspiracies, and he delves a tiny bit into aliens and science fiction. Great read but I wouldn't be in a hurry to re-read this. Much of the action can be skipped and just glanced over, which isn't exactly my favourite thing to do. But it does make for exciting reading. 

Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves

1.  The cooling system actually warms the air up in here
2. Make that 5 hostiles - snake
3. Interesting battle with the deceptive French
4. What is their objective? How are they going to get it? What are you going to do to stop it?
5. Suits in eyes
6. Riley or Book got Schofield out, and Schofield later became commander
7. I'm part of the team that got him out - Book
8. They planted men in my unit!
9. Resistance Avalon
10. Men infiltrating my unit
11. Forgot about Renshaw 
12. Scarecrow cares for his troops - Mother
13. "I should have anticipated it."
14. Ice cold water acting like defibrillator 
15. Kevlar neck plate
16. Who is the bad guy - done well
17. Death it seemed had just saved him from death
18. Interesting hovercraft battle
19. I like how there are new enemies all around and traitors. Very well written
20. Barnaby stared at him coldly - it's what I would have done
21. Too coincidental re sub and research station
22. Find it hard to believe that a commander the calibre of Scarecrow would neglect to make the task of sending a squad down.. the very first thing he did once he got here
23. Bit too good to be true
24. Didn't like the whale scenes 
25. 4?/5

Area 7

1. president looks at braniac weirdly 
2. Everyone underestimates Scarecrow 
3. Like the idea of 5 teams attacking scarecrow
4. The second half of the book was boring and not as good as the first book. The villain doesn't seem that good
5. 3/5

Scarecrow 

1. Bounty hunters idea a much better idea
2. Fairfax's loyalty is alluring
3. Majestic 12
4. Rufus and the Black Knight are cool
5. Gant :(
6. 4.25/5?

Scarecrow and the army of thieves

1. Scarecrow will never sacrifice one of the team. 
2. Interesting premise and twist about the villain
3. 4.2/5?

I feel like all of his West and Scarecrow books can be glossed over and I speed skip over all the details

Sariwon Korean Bulgoki

 ...has the best spicy pork

Wcq playoffs

 I pick:

Dr Congo over Jamaica

Iraq over Bolivia

Kosovo over Turkiye

Denmark over Czechia

Sweden over Poland

Italy over Bosnia Herzegovina

Matildas v Japan

If it rains heavily or in a sustained way,  the odds will be evened out and the Matildas can win this..

See Scotland v Wallabies at the 2015 RWC where Scotland played like crazy once it rained and almost beat us. 

In all cases they may be underdogs but the Tillies just have to believe in and back themselves!!!! 

The Five Greatest Warriors (Matthew Reilly, book 3)

1. Pooh Bear and Jack rescuing Stretch one of the best moments so far
2. Stretch's tear
3. Everyone's here - Pooh felt his heart soar
4. Roman ruins of Aroham
5. Ruins around Uqaba
6. Attack with aggression but always have a plan of retreat
7. Jesus giving 3 wisdoms to Peter 
8. Guessing coastlines of ancient landforms and matching them up with present day coastlines is pretty cool
9. Mongolia
10. A friend's loyalty lasts longer than their memory
11. Julius smiled grimly "He's not heavy, he's my brother"
12. I like how a new enemy was introduced that became the enemy of Jack's enemies
13. There's no honour among thieves
14. Good book and more interesting than the others. 3.85/5?

Six Sacred Stones (Matthew Reilly)

1. It's okay, kid. This sort of thing happens to us all the time. 
2. Chinese are attacking
3. Interesting concept of the dark sun and the top Pyramid of the capstone only being a small part of a bigger puzzle
4. Dark sun sucking all energy - net negative void
5. Hidden energy
6. Great incorporation of diagrams by Reilly
7. Earth as a machine designed to ward off an evil - truly entering the realm of scifi
8. Asteroid belt used to be a planet that was destroyed by the negative energy
9. This book is already better because it doesn't pretend its ideas aren't crazy, and the theories fit the context better
10. It was also a bit crazy to think that the seven ancient wonders could be the subject of so many traps hidden away and lasting forever (humans can't be that good..) whereas alien involvement and Sci Fi aspects are more "believable" if that makes sense
11. Mr Robertson it's time to pay your entry fee. 
12. The past civilisation theory
13. I would ask then that you honour my friend. 
14. Interesting concept of Laozi's dual trap system - teacher and student each having a pathway in Laozi's plan - witch mountain in Sichuan province
15. They spend a long time in China - 20-30% of the book??
16. A great Pyramid under Easter Island - crazy
17. Interesting journey through Africa 
18. Zoe v Warano
19. Congo, Rwanda
20. Alby's split second decision
21. Lalibela, Ethiopia 
22. Repetitive caverns and replicas of existing sites eg Ur
23. Considerably better than the first book but the same idea over and over becomes a bit boring
24. 3.7/5 say