Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves – Review

The cover picture just screams ‘Action Movie!’

Rating: 8/10

Matthew Reilly writes some of the fastest books I’ve ever read; they’re like Michael Bay movies, just with better plot (no mean feat there) and probably even more massive explosions.
When writing Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Reilly attempted to make his book “leaner meaner (and) faster” than the previous book in the series (Scarecrow), and he succeeded; the book has less ‘and X was about to die’ than the previous (which was stuffed with such sentences) and reads better.

It’s a surprise his books haven’t been adapted into movies or games yet, their formula is perfect for both media, with many of the enemies easily serving as the easily defeated minions a player encounters before finding the final boss. Despite this, it could just be that his books are too awesome too larger than life and ultimately too expensive to become a blockbuster film. Still, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves reads like any good summer blockbuster, and that’s what makes it so good.

It’s not all sunshine and roses though as the book strictly follows the formula set forth by Reilly’s previous books; In a world gone mad, an ill equipped team of badasses must tread into hostile territory and get the super-weapon/stop the ancient conspiracy/ survive against all odds! The book is pretty predictable, and could ultimately end up being any other book outside of the ‘Scarecrow’ series.

The key to its success is that the book offers enough information about the characters that new readers could pick it up and read it without having to backtrack through the series. Unfortunately for someone who has read the books, being reminded every so often of what happened in the past made me feel like saying ‘get on with it already!’ This is only made worse by the fact that Reilly doesn't spend too much time working on his character’s personalities; if they’re not stock characters then they’re the heroes and villains of the movies he loves ripped out and recycled into his stories.

That said, even thought I was able to predict the fates of many characters, found that there was too many clichés  and thought the book was too similar to his older stories I could hardly put the book down and ended up finishing it in two days. No mean feat when one considers the size of the book; 400 pages. Despite some minor flaws the book is just as addictive as any of Matt Reilly’s better books, being a strong entrant in the series, and a damn good stand alone story.

Written By: Matthew Reilly
Published By: Pan MacMillan
Released: 12/8/2011

Originally written for and posted on Comikkazee.
Posted on the 4th of January, 2012