The Great Zoo of China is one of the worst books I've had the misfortune to read. It is, in my opinion, a rip-off of Michael Crichton's classic Jurassic Park, only instead of dinosaurs, it has dragons.

The unoriginal tale (which annoyed me for its borrowing of Crichton), is not improved by wooden dialogue, unlikely scenarios, and an almost-constant barrage of nearly fatal incidents. The author does not seem to have paid any attention to spacing events, so that the reader is under a relentless barrage of poorly-written action.

I could not finish the book, so unimpressed was I, and I would not recommend it. ( )

This review originally appeared on my blog at www.gimmethatbook.com.


Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

What if you were invited to a special behind the scenes visit to a theme park greater than Disneyland? That’s exactly what happens in Matthew Reilly‘s latest novel, THE GREAT ZOO OF CHINA. Veterinarian and crocodile expert CJ Cameron gets invited to get a preview of the new Zoo of China–where the main attraction is genuine, living dragons.

Of course, these creatures are perfectly safe to interact with, and the safety measures are foolproof. Nothing could possibly go wrong…..



This book started out at a normal pace, and then jumped into overdrive, where it stayed until the last page. When CJ and her traveling companions started getting attacked by the dragons, it was like a roller coaster ride that kept on twisting, and twisting, and turning you upside down until you couldn’t catch your breath. There were so many narrow escapes and close calls I wondered if my heartbeat was ever going to go back to normal.

The comparison to JURASSIC PARK may be inevitable (and the author addresses that in the Q&A session at the back of the book), but it’s not exactly the same. Where the dinosaurs were meant to merely be watched, Reilly’s dragons were intended to be interacted with, and were trained to act as sideshow creatures, much as the dolphins at SeaWorld are. I thought the rebellion of the dragons against their training was a good impetus for the uprising, plus the hubris of the Chinese to make the rest of the world prostrate themselves in awe at their zoo added to the chaos. I think ZOO has way more action than PARK, and the choice of CJ as the main character was brilliant. There are not enough strong, smart, resourceful female characters in action novels, and she continually kicks major ass all the way through, without losing her femininity.

Reilly’s description of the park’s construction and the Chinese mindset are dead on. I could picture each dragon swooping down, hell bent on destruction, striking terror into the characters’ souls. The seeming inevitability of CJ’s fate, either by dragon or firing squad, kept me enthralled. With so much action and death surrounding the characters, the addition of Lucky, and her burgeoning companionship with CJ added a light and heartwarming juxtaposition to the non stop action. CJ”s brother Hamish provides comic relief also, and the relationship between them is written well enough that it seems truly real.

I completely enjoyed this book, and would love to see CJ as a recurring character in another novel. I”ll also be on the lookout for more of Reilly’s books.

Want your own copy? Click here to get on the rollercoaster! This book will be published on January 27th, 2015.

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3.5

Would make for an awesome movie! ( )

I love adventure books and movies. I have no problem with over the top storylines and I can even take some flat characters. But even I have a limit and this book, well its story went over that limit. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, partly, the beginning was fast paced and everything and CJ the main character was OK. I liked the fact that she had scars on her face because perfect good-looking characters are irritating to read about. Her brother Hamish was also OK. But you could fairly easily figure out who would live to see the end of this story and who would not; there was no surprise death, there were no feelings of "oh no they killed off him/her and now I'm sad".

Matthew Reilly really tried his best to write the deaths quite gruesome, but since no character that died really was someone that one cared about was it just "another bloody death". I mean I found the death of getting your lungs sucked out of you by a bomb more awful than being bitten to death by a dragon.

Two things really bothered me, the nice dragon and the fact that there was a child in the story. I knew that the nice dragon would come in handy later on the story (it was) and that the child would need to be rescued (yes that happened). So the bloody storyline was so frustrating predictable that the story lost all excitement.

Still, I liked the beginning. I would read more books by Matthew Reilly. But I was disappointed by this one for I was really looking forward to reading The Great Zoo of China.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! ( )

A read for book club which I never would have picked up since I didn’t like the first book I read by this author. It required a great deal of willing suspension of disbelief but I called it sci fi and just went with it. I did enjoy it. Really the best part for me was imagining what it all looked like from the author’s descriptions. A quick read and pretty fun overall. ( )