What do You think about Scarecrow (2005)?
Ohohohohohohho, wow!Okay, so I'd read Area 7 prior to this, and I found the plot of that book unstable. Truly...truly Reilly is one who corrects mistakes. This time, the shit stays focused and the action is better.....ten times!So, Matt Reilly is back with a brilliant scarecrow book this time. absolutely brilliant.Why not 5 stars, then? Well, one problem. Only one and this kind of bugged me. So, there are a lot of times when the main guys get thrown into tough situations. Cool....okay. There always has to be a solution. It really bums me out that 45% of the time, the solution is maghook.I mean, it's okay if you use the maghook twice or thrice, but if you use it a bunch of times, plots tend to get slightly (very slightly) predictable.(view spoiler)[Loved the development of Scarecrow's character this book. The character arc was completed by Gant's death, sorry, by Mother's fight with Scarecrow (:P). That gave me a complete picture of scarecrow. Complete! I could probably live as Scarecrow for a couple of days and people wouldn't know what's up. (hide spoiler)]
—Pranay Venkatesh
This piece of trash makes techno-thrillers just look bad. It feels like parody of the genre, but it's too insane to even be that.Crazy acrobatics, such as protagonist grappling from flying planes and whatnot aside, not a single scene is believable. Even worse is that author couldn't spend few moments to google vehicles, weapons and common laws of physics or country borders. So you get two characters somehow fitting into single seater fighter jet, then flying 5000km in the plane that can fly 2000km at most on with reserve tanks, crossing dozen international borders... while none of the countries wonder about fighter jet zooming through their airspace, lest alone shoot it down... list goes on. There's bad guys everywhere with military planes, choppers and nuclear submarines(!) hopping around the world with no impunity and taking dismembered human heads into commercial flights (I'm sure TSA in Matthew Reilly's head was totally okay with this)... Then there's New World Order and crazy rich men torturing common folk in medieval castle. Need I say more? Whole book feels like imagination of a 9-year old who've played too much Call of Duty. Even if it sounds like crazy fun and general idea of the plot isn't all that bad, every page treats reader like an absolute idiot and excitement is quickly replaced with rage.Avoid.
—InC
The Third Book in the Scarecrow Series is another winner and when it is about the richest bounty hunt of all time how could it not be??15 men from around the world, with almost nothing in common, have a price on their heads so high it makes every piece of shit on earth come out to play.A new weapons system has been designed that can only be broken by those with almost impossibly fast reflexes. Well that explains how he made it alive through the first two books! Everyone who can disarm it is up for grabs.We get a little taste of everything. The honourable bounty hunter who has been fucked by the government and is a decent man and who has actually been hired to keep Scarecrows head attached. The two brothers who think they can cheat the system. The Russian military Unit that has simply gone awol for a chance to score some cash. One of the most amazing car chases every written down on paper and the one of the cruelest most heart breaking death scenes I have ever witnessed.I read this entire book on the Christmas day I got in except for the part where I had to put the book down, pace around the room and breathe. I love hearing people reviewing it who barely read half the book. Real smart. This is really easy to read and a lot of fun. It is a thrill ride not a dark introspective exploration of man.
— Charlie - A Reading Machine
