carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I thought that this book was a lot of fun! This was actually my first experience with Matthew Reilly's work despite the fact that his books have been on my radar for quite some time. I have had a copy of this book for years but it somehow slipped through the cracks of my review schedule. I am glad that I finally got around to reading this one because it was incredibly entertaining.

I haven't read Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton but I have seen the movie several times. I don't usually like to make a lot of comparisons but this book had a lot of similarities to that story. It was different enough that I didn't feel like it was the same story but they had the same feel. 

China has built a new zoo. It is a different kind of zoo that will end up changing the world. CJ, her brother, and a group of others are brought to the zoo to see just how different it really is. This zoo doesn't have your average zoo animals. This zoo is filled with all kinds of different dragons. Yes, dragons. During their visit to the zoo, things go very, very wrong. 

This was a pretty exciting book that was filled with action which made it really entertaining. There were some real surprises along the way and I enjoyed piecing together exactly what was going on. I liked CJ and liked how her skills as a veterinarian helped her to navigate the situation she found herself in. I also found that I had a lot of respect and couldn't blame them for their actions.

Rich Orlow did a great job with this story. This was a really exciting and often intense book which I think he was able to take up another notch. I thought he handled all of the characters voices very well. I thought he had a very nice reading voice which I found easy to listen to for hours at a time. I think that I enjoyed the story just a bit more largely because of his narration.

I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a highly entertaining tale that read like an action movie. I think those action readers that don't mind some similarities to well-known stories will enjoy this one. I definitely plan to read more of Matthew Reilly's work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.

Initial Thoughts
This was entertaining. I haven't read Jurassic Park but I have seen the movie a few times and this book reminded me of that quite a bit. There was a lot of action in this book, sometimes maybe a bit much. I thought that the narrator did a fantastic job with the story. I am glad that I finally gave this one a try.