Gathered are a group of "delegates" from seven different "minnows" of world affairs, waiting on an eighth. Now, these are the countries introduced earlier, in the form of our team, but then their nations of origin were irrelevant and actually didn't come up without Matthew explicitly stating it, even as he tried to raise the stakes in that ridiculously long opening sequence. I prefer this chapter, as even though it is exposition, it's a slower one, it has a little more going on in it as a result, and you can imagine it being done well in a movie. You can picture the camera panning around, showing each of the nations, introducing our characters properly with little touches, like in "Armageddon", but with unfortunately far less Buscemi.
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| The hero we need, and the one we deserve |
"Their leader, a wily old Sheik from the United Arab Emirates named Anzar al-Abbas,"
Oh Matthew. I do appreciate once again that he is going all out with his cards here. His misspelling of Sheikh is rather annoying to me though. Al Abbas is the closest thing to a true supporting character for the majority of this book, everybody else (even Wizard) is an actual part of the mission, so there's nothing really bogging down the rest of the narrative, be that investigations, emotion, common sense, a comprehensible plot... The Sheikh is a minor character, all things considered, but I'm glad that we know he is wily and old, that will be important somehow, probably, when we are shown this rather than told it.
The Canadians are described as "typically, sat there calmly and patiently" as we await the arrival of their guy and the last delegate. It is nice of them to mirror the views and attitudes of Reilly's editor.
Of course, the last delegate is Jack West, accompanied by Canada's Professor Max T Epper. In the interim we're dropped some information about the capstone and some information about a bullshit prophecy. The Capstone is made of seven pieces of a diamond. When it's put together, there's a shaft running down the middle of it, with branching paths into the rest of it, a crystal at the end of each. Don't ask me how.
"This is a crucial point"
We know it is, Matthew, that's why we've picked up on it. Jesus Matthew. What makes you think I'm this stupid?
Oh, right, I'm reading "Seven Ancient Wonders" and writing a blog about it.
The book throws out some quasi-intellectual nonsense about theories regarding the Capstone, all nonsense we can safely ignore.
Wizard comes in, and there is furtive whispering. We get the line "The ones who found the Scrolls of the Museion" dropped as a whisper by one of the Arabs. I could be a dick and chalk this up as a case of Reilly giving us another, more interesting adventure, but I actually am going to be honest here: I like it. It's one of the few times we get a glimpse of actual character from these two fuck-bags. Scrolls from the legendary Library of Alexandria, long thought lost, tracked down and recovered by an old man and a burly Australian? We learn from that that Epper is some kind of classical-orientated genius, and he and West are good friends, whose reputations precede them. There's more character and creativity in that one line than we've had in ten action sequences. I now care a little bit about them.
Of course, this novel is still about a one-armed Australian and a Canadian Wizard carrying Scrolls from the Library of Alexandria on a quest to rescue a magic diamond from the Vatican, so I won't give this too much credit.
Oh, and Wizard and West are among the least ridiculous characters.
We learn that Wizard has a beard, as white as it will be in ten years (important that) and that West has lost his arm, meaning he's not yet gotten his replacement. This could be a prelude to an adventure and epic quest to find the knowledge and resources to give West an artificial arm, or perhaps that adventure retrieving the head of the Colossus of Rhodes was the prelude to the grand finale and the group had to go through hell to get him an arm in time for fun times at the end?
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| It's not |
Then we get this bizarre line, whispered by another character:
"Epper is Professor of Archaeology at Trinity College in Dublin, a brilliant fellow, but he also has doctorates in physics and electromagnetics..."
There's a lot to unpack there. Trinity College in Dublin is a big place, I'd hope that they have more than one Professor of Archaeology, otherwise students are going to get short-changed. Is Epper THE professor, A professor or the Head of the Department? These distinctions are kind of important. Also, I see he graduated from the school of Hollywood science, where he has enough to keep the plot moving. Yes, there probably are experts in archaeology AND those other two things, but I've yet ot learn of them, and there's probably a preference form the two.
I know that they go delving into ancient tombs and underground places, technically archaeology I suppose, but the knowledge Epper spouts throughout the novel regarding the ancient civilisations they encounter and the prophecies they wrote down are far closer to things a Professor of Classics would know.
So whilst we have been given an introduction to Epper, it is inaccurate.
He and West graduate from the Indiana Jones school of Archaeology.
OH!
One more thing, Wizard speaks several languages over the course of the novel. I'm not talking the usual stuff like French, German and the like, but Latin, Greek, Sumerian and things like that, FLUENTLY.
Not only is Epper an inventor, archaeologist, Head of Department, professor at Trinity College (I am presuming he has tenure, because OF COURSE HE WILL) adventurer, expert on ancient cultures, doctor in physics and electromagnetism (I am presuming that is what a doctorate in electromagnetics is, because my spell-checker keeps flagging it up) but he is a multi-linguist too.
This makes Epper a:
We are dropped hints about West's past with the American army in Iraq in 1991, then he sits down. Reilly then makes a big point that HE is the entire delegation of his nation, who have sent no other representatives when the other nations have sent diplomats and soldiers?
"That nation: Australia."
I am surprised at the restraint in Reilly for going six novels (Contest, Temple, Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow and Hover Car Racer, which is a whole different kettle of Speed-Racer, I mean fish!) and a novella (Hell Island, a personal favourite of mine, which actually is important to this series for reasons we shall go into one day) without making a single character, let along protagonist, Australian. Then, when he finally gives us a lead character who isn't Shane fucking Schofield or the guys from the other books, he gives us the most Australian Australian who ever Australias in Australia. The pride this man has in his nation is incredibly endearing. I wish everybody loved each other a tenth as much as Matthew loves Jack West Jr and Australia, or a hundredth as much as I love Matthew Reilly novels.
Epper, unlike Reilly, gets to the point (his actual words on one line) about why they're there:
They tracked down the wife of the new Oracle of Delphi, a woman named Malena Okombo, after she fled her abusive husband (the spoilt man) and West promised to protect her. She was kidnapped literally the day after he said this (I am serious, he says as much in the paragraph) and we get the line about "the incident in the volcano", which is a remarkably low-key way of putting it.
How wonderfully Australian.
And that single paragraph of around six lines is all we ever get of the Oracle and his wife, and her connection to Jack. Nobody forms attachments to women as quickly as Jack West Junior! The Oracle is mentioned in a single line again later in the book, but that's it for the two of them in so far as plot goes.
General Colin O'Hara is named as the head of the delegation.
Enjoy that name.
He may as well be called Brendan Seamus Dermot O'Flaherty.
The plot setting is then spouted off by Epper over the next . I'll give you the key points.
This Capstone is not only capitalised, but hunted by major sides and civilisations throughout history.
Jason and the Argonauts was a tale of searching for the Capstone.
Napolean sent dudes after it.
Caesar sent dudes after it.
Even Hitler sent a few charming gentlemen after it.
Now it's being hunted by America and "Old Europe" (the two major sides in the conflict, as established in the book's opening scene) consisting of Germany, France, Italy and the Vatican. The two sides are at each other's throats.
China and other glorious nations do not register into this debate.
The key piece of information on the Capstone is The Callamichus Text, its eponymous author having personally known the only man to possess all seven pieces of it: Alexander the Great. The ruler broke it (the Capstone, not the text) up into seven pieces and stashed them at every wonder of the world with his old friend Ptolemy I, so that the power would not be used by others.
Legend has it that he or she who manages to assemble it in time for the glorious event known as "The Tartarus Rotation" would have immense power.
And that's the plot in a nutshell.
I know that I have skimmed over a lot of this, but we'll get to the meat of the book soon, as I have rambled on for long enough.
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