OK. First off, I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book as a guilty pleasure. As one reviewer put it, reading this was akin to watching an episode of MST3K- many of the situations in the book were so implausible that they were laughable. I'm not talking about the fantastical sites as much as I'm referring to the way the characters constantly cheat death and always have the right answers. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this was a self insert fan fiction. 
 The plot line is intriguing. Jack West & crew have to discover the whereabouts of the pieces of an ancient capstone, the one that was formerly on top of the Pyramid at Giza. The capstone is the only thing that can save the world from a sizzling sunspot that threatens to kill off much of the planet. The only trouble? Each spot was hidden in one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, and only one of them remain standing or even discovered. Luckily for Jack he has a wunderkind born of an oracle that can read a previously untranslatable guide to the riddles of the capstone locations. Unluckily for him there's a large troop of armed forces from Europe & the US (boo, hiss!) that also want the capstone for themselves. Why? Because the capstone can also grant one nation incredible power over everyone else in the world. 
 If the plotline sounded ridiculous, then rest assured- it is ridiculous. It's an interesting premise, but the delivery just falls flat. Much of the plot is either glossed over or in incredible detail. Unfortunately the parts that need details are the ones that are frequently glossed over. Jack seems to have an almost miraculous knack of constantly defeating traps and solving ancient riddles. In fact, it's so far fetched that it's actually something that takes away from the rest of the story and the rest of the characters. None of the other characters (save one or two) ever really do anything to distinguish themselves, especially when Jack the Miraculous is on the scene to take care of all the traps and bad guys. Speaking of traps, I'm amazed that so many ancient traps (some being between 2,000-4,000 years old) were still working perfectly. It's even more amazing that the ANIMALS in these traps were still alive when they're completely cut off from any outside food sources. 
 Add on top of that, there's the rabid US hate that Reilly has going on in the books. I'm ok with the US being portrayed in a negative light, but this goes beyond normal characterizations & takes it to the level where anyone who isn't Australian or part of the West team is automatically a Snydley Whiplash bad guy with no redeeming characteristics. In fact, the over the top US hate seems like it's more of a soap box for Reilly's view points. That would have been tolerable enough except for Reilly constantly writing how great the West team is & how they (unlike the US team) try not to kill anyone. That's great, except that for the majority of the book West's crew kills just about every team they come across. Not just kill in fact, but decimate in such "quick" ways as dropping a statue on them. Sounds like a pack of humanitarians to me. 
 Yet I still enjoyed this book, even if only for the laugh value. It was fun reading about the seven wonders of the world and it's always intriguing to read different spins on where and what they would be like. I just wish that the author had spent a *little* more time polishing this book up and that a good editor had stepped in and put the reigns on a few topics (the US rage & the Gary Stu-ish characteristics of the West team) that needed to be a bit more restrained. I would recommend this book, but not to everyone. You have to enjoy pulp novels to be able to like the book, and even then you have to be a fan of the lower grade pulp novels to really get into this book.