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The 6 Sacred Stones: A Novel

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Overview

THE END OF THE WORLD IS HERE

Unlocking the secret of the Seven Ancient Wonders was only the beginning...

After their thrilling exploits in Matthew Reilly's rampaging New York Times bestseller, 7 Deadly Wonders, supersoldier Jack West Jr. and his loyal team of adventurers are back, and now they face an all-but-impossible challenge.

A mysterious ceremony in an unknown location has unraveled their work and triggered a catastrophic countdown that will climax in no less than the end of all life on Earth.

But there is one last hope.

If Jack and his team can find and rebuild a legendary ancient device known only as the "Machine," they might be able to ward off the coming armageddon. The only clues to locating this Machine, however, are held within the fabled Six Sacred Stones, long lost in the fog of history.

And so the hunt begins for the Six Sacred Stones and the all-important knowledge they possess, but in the course of this wild adventure Jack and his team will discover that they are not the only ones seeking the Stones and that there might just be other players out there who don't want to see the world saved at all.

From Stonehenge in England to the deserts of Egypt to the spectacular Three Gorges region of China, The 6 Sacred Stones will take you on a nonstop roller-coaster ride through ancient history, modern military hardware, and some of the fastest and most mind-blowing action you will ever read.

Editorial Reviews

The wildly imaginative Reilly has taken inspiration from comics, video games, movies, thrillers and Code-style puzzle novels to create this rocket-fueled sequel to his 7 Deadly Wonders. After completing a 10-year mission to acquire the Golden Capstone of the Great Pyramid from what's left of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Jack West Jr. has retired to the Australian outback to raise his adopted daughter, Lily. Jack's pal, Professor Max T. Epper, known as Wizard, has discovered that the Dark Sun, a mysterious heavenly body, is due to emerge in nine days, triggering the Apocalypse. Ultimate disaster can only be averted if someone can locate the six legendary Pillars, cleanse them with the Philosopher's Stone and insert them in the 6 Vertices, thereby causing the Great Machine to power on and negate the fatal blast from the Dark Sun. If anyone can perform these Herculean labors, it's Reilly's resourceful hero. A pervasive tongue-in-cheek quality (one that extends to the low tech-looking maps and illustrations) will help readers find this outlandish adventure thrilling. (Jan.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Matthew Reilly

Matthew Reilly was born in 1974 and studied law at the University of New South Wales. He has written three novels, several screenplays, and has had several magazine articles published. In 1999, he sold the film rights to his first novel, the action-packed sci-fi extravaganza Contest. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Customer Reviews

  • 4 stars out of 5A good start but it really is only half the story

    Posted January 07, 2009 by VerderameJ, Modesto, CA

    This is the follow up to 7 Deadly Wonders (which I really liked). I picks up not too long after and moves in a similar way to that book. Captivating and fun but about 3/4 of the way through the book you realize that there is no way it is going to finish the story in this book. It leaves you sitting there waiting for more and feeling a bit frustrated because the story ends (if you can call it that) with a massive cliff hanger. Honestly I felt like one book had been split in two to sell more copies. Don't get me wrong, I really love the story, but according to a blog from Reilly, the follow up wont be out for a full year (maybe longer) and that is very disappointing. Read this one, though it might be worth while to wait until its sequel is out so you can enjoy the full story.

  • 2 stars out of 5A Roller Coaster of a read...

    Posted October 22, 2009 by love2travel2gthr, Scottsdale, AZ

    After reading great reviews on The 6 Sacred Stones and feeling that the story line would be one I would be interested in, I downloaded it onto my E-Reader. Normally books are either to my liking or not to my liking. This is a book that each time I was thinking I was going to stop reading because I did not care for it, that something popped up of interest. I am an avid reader and always have been and this is the first time where I can truly say I am not sure if I liked this book or not. There is a lot of interesting information which I liked but the story line goes in and out so much it is hard to follow and that is probably where it had a hard time keeping my interest. Not sure I can recommend it but it might be worth a try.

Additional Info

Imprint

Simon & Schuster

Filesize

3.45 MB

Number of Pages

448

eBook ISBN

1416553754

Excerpt from: The 6 Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly

First Ordeal
The Flight of the Firestone
Australia
December 1, 2007
9 Days Before the 1st Deadline
Zou chu lai dao jia ban shang! Wo yao kan de dao ni. Ba shou ju zhe gao gao de!"
Translation: "Hey! Come out onto the deck! Remain in plain sight! Hold your hands up high!"
Deleting a final image, Chow did as he was told, kicked back from his desk, and stepped out onto the open foredeck of his barge.
The lead gunboat towered above him. It was a modern one, fast, with camouflaged flanks and a huge forward gun.
Chinese soldiers with American-made Colt Commando assault rifles lined its deck, their short-barreled guns pointed at Chow.
That they held modern American weapons was a bad sign: it meant that these soldiers were elite troops, special forces. Ordinary Chinese infantrymen carried clunky old Type 56 assault rifles -- the Chinese rip-off of the AK-47.
These guys weren't ordinary.
Chow raised his hands -- a bare second before someone fired and the entire front half of his body exploded with bloody holes and he was hurled backward with violent force.
Wizard keyed his radio mike.
"Chow? Chow, are you there?"
There was no reply.
Then, abruptly, the harness that until now had hung suspended from the well hole in the ceiling went whizzing back up into the hole like a spooked snake, hauled up by someone above.
"Chow!" Wizard called into his radio. "What are you -- "
Moments later, the harness came back into view...
...with Chow on it.
Wizard's blood turned to ice.
"Oh, dear me, no..." He rushed forward.
Almost unrecognizable from the many bullet wounds, Chow's body came level with Wizard.
As if on cue, the radio suddenly came to life.
"Professor Epper," a voice said in English. "This is Colonel Mao Gongli. We know you are in there, and we are coming in. Try nothing foolish, or you shall meet the same fate as your assistant."
The Chinese troops entered the chamber quickly, abseiling down drop-ropes with clinical precision.
Within two minutes, Wizard and Tank were surrounded by a dozen men with guns.
Colonel Mao Gongli entered last of all. At fifty-five years of age, he was a portly man, but he stood with perfect poise, ramrod straight. Like many men of his generation, he'd been patriotically named after Chairman Mao. He had no operational nickname except the one his enemies had given him after his actions at Tiananmen Square in 1989 as a major -- the Butcher of Tiananmen, they called him.
Silence hung in the air.
Mao stared at Wizard with dead eyes. When at last he spoke, he did so in clear, clipped English.
"Professor Max T. Epper, call sign Merlin, but known to some as Wizard. Canadian by birth, but resident Professor of Archaeology at Trinity College, Dublin. Connected with the rather unusual incident that took place atop the Great Pyramid at Giza on March 20, 2006.
"And Professor Yobu Tanaka, from the University of Tokyo. Not connected with the Giza incident, but an expert on ancient civilizations. Gentlemen, your assistant was a gifted and intelligent young man. You can see how much I care for such men."
"What do you want?" Wizard demanded.
Mao smiled, a thin joyless smile.
"Why Professor Epper, I want you." Wizard frowned. He hadn't expected that answer.
Mao stepped forward, gazing at the grand chamber around them. "Great times are upon us, Professor. In the coming months, empires will rise and nations will fall. In times such as these, the People's Republic of China needs knowledgeable men, men like you. Which is why you work for me now, Professor. And I'm sure that with the right kind of persuasion -- in one of my torture chambers -- you are going to help me find the Six Ramesean Stones."
Great Sandy Desert
Northwestern Australia
December 1, 2007, 0715 hours
On the day his farm was attacked with overwhelming force, Jack West Jr. had slept in till 7:00 a.m.
Normally he got up around six to see the dawn, but life was good these days. His world had been at peace for almost eighteen months, so he decided to skip the damn dawn and get an extra hour's sleep.
The kids, of course, were already up. Lily had a friend over for the summer holidays, a little boy from her school named Alby Calvin.
Noisy and excited and generally up to mischief, they'd played nonstop for the past three days, exploring every corner of the vast desert farm by day, while at night they gazed up at the stars through Alby's telescope.
That Alby was partially deaf meant little to Lily or to Jack. At their school in Perth for gifted and talented students, Lily was the star linguist and Alby the star mathematician and that was all that mattered.