Area 7 (Matthew Reilly)

Area 7 might quite possibly be the perfect thriller. It has all the elements. Secret underground military facilities? Check. Cool, collected Marine hero protagonist? Check. Secret genetically-engineered Chinese bioweapons? Check. Not one, but two teams of stupendous badass commandos from unlikely places (the USAF and South Africa)? Check. Let’s not forget exotic weapons, jet-powered trains, the Chinese space shuttle, Komodo dragons, escaped serial killers.. I mean, Reilly has shoehorned every thriller staple (or cliche) into this book and glued them together with a variety of plot twists ranging from the hackneyed (HEY! Look behind you!) to the clever. Despite his gleeful ignorance about most aspects of the military (sample: did you know that the VH-60 Presidential helicopter has a one-man escape capsule in it? Me neither), this is a firecracker of a book. Reilly sets a blistering pace in the first dozen pages and keeps it up for the next 480+ pages. Publishers’ Weekly called it “inelegant yet oddly invigorating” and I couldn’t agree more.