From Publishers Weekly
In the thrilling third installment in bestseller Reilly's series to feature Jack West Jr. (after Seven Ancient Wonders and The Six Sacred Stones), the adventurer from the Australian outback and his band of merry men, women and children race against several nefarious groups to defuse a disastrous celestial event. The planetary entity known as the Dark Star, the evil twin to our sun, is set to return to our solar system, igniting a massive negative energy source that will destroy all life on earth. It's a tough challenge, but if anyone can save the world, it's Jack. There are riddles to solve, bad guys to kill and derring-do to be done, all of which flashes by as one action scene piles onto the next. Readers should leave their thinking caps behind, hang onto the panic bar and be prepared to be flung hither and yon.Plenty of maps and diagrams add to the fun. (Jan.)
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From Booklist
When we last saw Jack West Jr., our hero was in quite a pickle, having not yet found all six of the sacred diamond pillars that, when ritually cleansed and placed in far-flung secret vertices, might avert apocalypse. West; his peregrine falcon, Horus; his adopted daughter, Lily; and the rest of his colorful band take off in their trusty 747, Halicarnassus, in a perpetually last-minute race to the finish against such baddies as Colonel Mao, Vulture, Scimitar, the iron-jawed Carnivore, and WestΠ²Πβ’s own dark father, Wolf. Reilly leaves no cliff unhung, no tomb unraided, no moustache untwirled, and almost no bit of arcane hokum unused, including the Templars, the Romanovs, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, and Jesus Christ himself. Reilly outstrips, outpaces, and outlandishes such adventure-smiths as Dan Brown, Steve Berry, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler, writing with the inexhaustible invention of a hyperactive 10-year-old with a fresh box of crayons, drawing exotic battle scenes accompanied by real-time narration and sound effects. (Oddly, gratuitous profanity mars the bookΠ²Πβ’s potential as a whistle-clean pulp novel for boys.) Many readers will find this book and its two predecessors hopelessly campy, but for those ready to play along, theyΠ²Πβ’re a giddy delight. --David Wright