The 5 Greatest Warriors - Book Review

The 5 Greatest Warriors
by Matthew Reilly
Simon and Schuster 2010
Authors website

This is the final book in the Jack West trilogy by Matthew Reilly that started in The 7 Deadly Wonders and continued in The 6 Sacred Stones (which I reviewed last year).



Captain Jack West and his team have to find 6 diamonds (pillars) and 6 vertices (inverted pyramids). These diamonds and vertices are scattered throughout the Earth and hidden underground, making them harder to find. Each inverted pyramid is hanging over an abyss which means death if anyone falls into it. To make matters worse, there are deadlines. If the diamonds are not placed into the tips of the vertices on the right dates and in the right order, then the world will be torn to pieces and destroyed. If the pillars are put into place, then they start up some Machine that will prevent the Earth from being destroyed.

In the 6 Sacred Stones, Jack and his team have successfully found and placed the first pillar into its correct vertice. Unfortunately at the time Jack is trying to place the second pillar into the second pyramid, he is hanging upside down, attempting to place the pillar (it is an inverted pyramid after all) and trying to fight off an enemy at the same time.

Jack is able to insert the pillar into place, but then the 2 men lose their grip and fall into the abyss. Thats where the 6 Sacred Stones ends.

The 5 Greatest Warriors opens with Jack and the enemy falling into the abyss. Jack survives. The enemy does not.

When Jack is rescued, he and his team must do their research (just the sort of thing I would love to have done) and find out where the 3rd pillar and vertice are and anything else about the remaining pillars and vertices. Together these will activate some great planetary machine to help ave the planet.

Jack and his team represent the smaller nations who wish to prevent the larger nations from grabbing all the power for themselves.

There are several enemies also out to get the power from the Machine. One enemy is Jacks father, Jack West senior (code named Wolf) who represents the Caldwell Group (shades of the Carlyle group that really does exist) which represents USA, China and Saudi Arabia. Other enemies are the European royal families - specifically the Russian (and yes there is one survivor) and British royal families, and Japan.

The 6 Sacred Stones was a lot of history and research and not as much action. This book - The 5 Greatest Warriors - is all action as the teams race to find the last 4 vertices and pillars and save the Earth.

You may be asking who the 5 greatest warriors actually were? Four of these names are famous names in world history. These men were the holders of the pillars at various times in history. The tombs of these men are places from which to start looking for the pillars.