The Great Zoo of China

The idea? Fun. The research? In-depth. The action? Intense. But the writing? Good grief is it horrible! I was actually compelled to wiki the author's age because it felt like I was reading something from a 14 year old (he's 45 btw). The incredible amount of first-time-writers mistakes are simply unforgivable for an author of so many books. The general concept is a fun one (Jurassic Park with a twist) and well-explained (almost to a fault!), but it was 442 pages of laughable writing.I am not bashing on the "Jurassic Park as written by the writers of Fast & Furious" story. I understand that his type of works are high-octane thrillers with movie-style action sequences. But that is one thing that hurts them: everything is ploddingly described as if it were an action movie. Vehicles "skid 20 feet to a halt," commandos have "blank faces" and "wore gun belts across their chests with extra ammo clips and grenades on them," and there are more "fireball(s)" and "explosions" in this book than an actual Micheal Bay movie. There is an embarrassing amount of dead words/ sticky words (words and phrases that don't really "do" anything or echo what was just written), and more repeat words than repeated jokes on Family Guy.Would you believe if I told you he uses the word "garbage truck" 32 times in three chapters? Or the word "tunnel" 18 times in just one? Or how about mentioning the main character's name 12 times in a single page? This is a *constant* issue in the book. Obvisouly authors will use repeated words- it is near impossible to create a well-flowing story without doing so. But the way they are repeated here is so overt that they stick out and ruin the entire reading experience. In fact, it was so bad that I actually created a list of some (that can be fact-checked by other reviewers here):Garbage Truck, Hatchback, CJ (character name), Perfect, Ring Road, Cable Car, Chinese (he always tells you if a character is Chinese even when it is completely understandable from context), Explosion/ Fireball, Gate, Tunnel, Peered/ Glanced, Bounded (to run), Rim, Space (the inside of a building/cave/etc), Jaws, and Range Rover. Yes, Range Rover. All of these are used 30+ times, and *literally* all of them 4+ times per page when reused. Several twice in the same sentence!And that list is not all-inclusive (of offending repeats, not normal repeats such as "the" "his/her" "in" etc, I'm not *that* anal!). Further ruining this book is the use of -yet again- juvenile phrases such as "guts started falling out," "glistening with newness" or, my favorite, "she calculated her best moves in a nanosecond." And he uses words like "swooshed" and "zoomed" and... wait for it... "shoomed." Liberally. Really dude? Really?What is sad is that the book starts off on a very strong note: excellent pacing, intriguing writing style, strong world-building, and most importantly, strong technical writing. But as soon as the action begins it's like the author hands the story off to a teenager fresh out the theater and everything goes to hell. Yes, just like in the book (naturally). Again- make your badass female star, have some explosions, and write some cheesy one-liners... I understand this is that kind of tale. But for the love of Zeus... do not use the word "perfect" 10 times on one page, do not write your book as if you were writing a screenplay, and do not name a character "the small girl known as Minnie" until the final chapters.Closing up- I wish I liked this book, because it *had* promise. I love how the author did his research about animals, weapons, and Chinese politics. And I can tell he had a passion for the story with the amount of detail he put into it. Unfortunately that was its undoing; he "showed" instead of "told." It is a very common beginners' mistake, which makes it so baffling as to how he made soooooooo many -mistakes *and* books-. Maybe his affluent parents (back of the book bio) greased a few palms to give their only child's dream a boost? Or maybe I'm just a crazy GenXer who is out of touch with the times. (oh wait- he is older than me by over half a decade...). Anyways, 4/10, won't read again.

*** SPOILER ALERT *** Does it have a lot of action? Yes. Is it realistic? No. The characters neither eat or sleep during the two or three days (more?) of the story. The heroine is like the energizer bunny crossed with Wonder Woman. She and the other characters are constantly running from danger. It’s exhausting. It’s extremely violent with people and dragons getting ripped apart in every scene. By the midpoint I was skimming the story. It was just more of the same; people run to a new location, encounter angry dragons, fight dragons, outsmart dragons, maybe loose a person or two, escape and run to a new location, repeat, repeat, repeat... The descriptions of the zoo are interesting and the story of the dragons is good. It would make an action packed movie. The ending was satisfactory but ultimately the story was disappointing. I wanted something more than repeat, repeat,repeat...

In the very back of the paperback edition of "The Great Zoo of China", there's an interview with Reilly where he states that he hopes his readers enjoyed the story. I've seen enough other reviews to know that some folks actually did like the novel, praising it and adorning the book with 5 star reviews. I, however, am no one of those.I shouldn't really be surprised that "The Great Zoo of China" failed to impress me. 2015 has, after all, been a huge disappointment in anticipated books. Nearly every novel I've eagerly waited for has ended up letting me down. That's probably why I'm not all that upset about another one to add to the displeasure list. What I am upset about, though, is the utter mess this novel was, especially considering this was penned by one of the best authors to emerge in the last 10 years.I don't even have time to go into all the details (cuz there are a lot) but simply put, "...China" is a disastrous novel in every sense of the word. It's horribly written. Sloppy to the point of laziness. The characters are paper thin and there's no emotional connection to any of them, let alone any real backstory. Most of them are written in as place holders or just another body for the dragons to chomp down on..and from the get go, it's pretty damn easy to tell who is going to die and who will end up the victor. The action, though it is non-stop, is just too much and ridiculously unbelievable. Reilly is known for writing some insanely crazy action scenes (go read the 40 page epic chase scene in "Ice Station") but here, it's just too much. While I enjoy explosions and car chases and fights against monsters, I like the pacing to be a little bit more well done, not one of those "and then...and then...and then" kind of prose. Here, it's as if Reilly was replaced by a 14 year old who just guzzled down 8 cans of Red Bull while binging on Michael Bay's filmography.And then there's the plot, which is probably the worst of all. Yeah, the whole "Jurassic Park" thing gets thrown around, and yes, there are some comparisons, but if you put the 2 side by side, there is really no contest. Crichton's book was original and believable (to a point). It made sense and it started an entire franchise of billion dollar movies and merchandise. I can't see that happening with Reilly's book because, honestly, it just wasn't that good. Sure, some of the ideas were clever (the whole hibernating dragon thing was thought out) but overall, it just didn't work and left me shocked this could be by the same author that I've loved for years.

great book in great condition

An entertaining read from start to finish. What better complement can you give a book? Having read only one other Reilly book, The Tournament, I was looking to catch up on his other books. This isn't in the same vein as The Tournament, being more a standard adventure thriller. There will inevitably be comparisons to Jurassic Park, but I enjoyed this stpory in and of itself.The story revolves around a Chinese zoo with a unique set of creature in them; dragons. Avoiding stereotypes, there's no fire=breathing scortching dragons, but a large, winged mammal. He covers the background of the beasts quite nicely, and develops a simple taxonomy of dragons to explain the varieties. Normally controlled by electronic methods, the dragons are smart enough to figure out how to defeat those controls. The first half of the book is a narrative about the zoo and the dragons; the second half is how the lead characters manage their fates with wild dragons chasing them.As with all the the best thrillers, this is a page-turner. I started reading it on the train, and hated having to stop. The story drives forward with solid pace, and the writing is entertainable and readable. The story is good, the character development is solid, and I really enjoyed this book. There will be quite a few more Reilly's being ordered!

This is a wonderful fast paced thriller book which will make a wonderful movie. Yes one can't help thinking of the Jurassic Park series but I liked this even better. There are several scenes in the book which will be fabulous on the screen. The fact that real animal characteristics were woven into the makeup of the dragons I thought was great and it gave me several "I didn't know that!" moments. Would recommend for an afternoon beside the fireplace highly!

Good book from a great writer. Only lasted a dew days. Time for another one.