Matthew Reilly’s writing is completely and utterly ridiculous, in the best possible way. He breaks all the rules of “good literature” in creations that are escapist, violent and fanciful. The result is bloody excellent and you should go read all his books right now.
Reilly’s latest is the hotly anticipated The One Impossible Labyrinth, grand finale to his Jack West Jr. series. These particular stories could be described as Indiana Jones meets Die Hard meets The Da Vinci Code meets Mortal Kombat. The books feature an unkillable Aussie commando who sports a Skywalker-esque robotic arm who, together with his family and an international team of assassins, geniuses and fighter pilots, goes blazing across the globe unlocking ancient secrets and protecting the world from cosmic annihilation.
The One Impossible Labyrinth is capital F Fun. It opens with Jack and his crew racing down a heavily booby-trapped tunnel when an attacker falls from the ceiling and starts trying to bite his face off. This is the least of the hero’s problems — he’s running dead last in a race into the unknown, the victor of which will rule humanity or DESTROY THE UNIVERSE. Pretty much all Jack has to aid him in the impossible is the coded tattoos on the scalp of a mummified pharaoh and a clip loaded with bullets forged from the metal of Excalibur.
Anything more I could say about this book would be a spoiler, but you can expect fire to rain from the sky, oceans to part, military hardware to become airborne in a manner you wouldn’t expect, four letter words to be both uttered and shouted, and deaths to be both plentiful and graphically discussed. Jack West Jr is not suitable for children, nor is it suitable for adults who take things too seriously. These novels are engineered for pure, unadulterated entertainment.
In a Q&A hosted on our Facebook page to promote the book, Reilly himself, said it best when he told fans that he’d baked together every crazy thing he loves into the Jack West Jr series, and that The One Impossible Labyrinth is like the icing to go on that cake — this guy has saved his very best until last.
—The One Impossible Labyrinth by Matthew Reilly (Pan Macmillan Australia) is out now.

The One Impossible Labyrinth
Jack West Jr: Book 6
Jack West Jr has made it to the Supreme Labyrinth. Now he faces one last race-against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself-a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth.
But the road will be hard. For this is a maze like no other: a maze of mazes. Uncompromising and complex. Demanding and deadly. It all comes down to this. For it ends here-now-in the most lethal and dangerous place Jack has encountered in all of his many adventures...
About the Contributor
Ben Hunter
Ben is Booktopia's dedicated fiction and children's book specialist. He spends his days painstakingly piecing together beautiful catalogue pages and gift guides for the website. At any opportunity, he loves to write warmly of the books that inspire him. If you want to talk books, find him tweeting at @itsbenhunter
Comments
January 7, 2022 at 9:41 pm
So sad that this is the end of Jack West Jnr. Totally enjoyed travelling in Jack’s back pocket through out his adventures ,just love Mathew’s ability to keep you on the edge of your seat, hovering at the top of the next page in but not daring to turn until you have read the last word on the one you are on . These are the words of a non reader until I was introduced to Mathew Reilly by a friend .A definite contender for Booktopia Award .