The Great Zoo of China (2014) by Matthew Reilly
What a
great thriller! One of my favourite thriller novel so far after James Rollins’s
The Blood Gospel. I read novels, but
not as much as commentaries, biographies and self-help books. I picked this
book for three reasons: #1 Great title, hardcover and synopsis (about dragons,
come on!); #2 Recommended by two legendary thriller-authors, Brad Thor (praise
for Zoo, “The king of hardcore action”)
and James Rollins (“Adventure with a
capital A”); and #3 BookXcess Bookstore PJ sell it very cheap for large
hardcover book, only RM17.90.
This book
is about the Great Zoo of China which secretly build by the Chinese government.
They have proven the existence of dragons – a landmark discovery no one could
ever believe is real, and scientific revelation that will amaze the world.
After 40 years, now they are ready to unveil their astonishing findings within
the greatest zoo ever constructed (Adam Fisher writes in ‘China vs. the World’,
“China desperately want to be Number One,
the pre-eminent nation on Earth. In the Communist Party this passionate desire
even has a name: ‘the China Dream.’”). Matthew’s story begin when a small
group of VIPs and journalists has been brought to the zoo deep within China to
see these fabulous creatures for the first time. This novel is very much about
Dr. Cassandra Jane “CJ” Cameron, a writer of ‘National Geographic’ and an
expert on reptiles. “CJ,” writes Reilly about the main character, “is as tough
as mother in my humble opinion.”
Deputy
Director of the Great Zoo of China, Mr. Zhang explained this to his VIPs and
other guesses, “Let me ask you this: What
precisely is a dragon? Myths of gigantic winged serpents have existed for
thousands of years. As with many other things, they originally appeared in
China. The first Chinese dragon myth dates back to the year 4700 BC, to a
statue of a dragon attributed to the Yangshao culture of that time… The
Babylonian king, Gilgamesh, fought a fierce dragon named Humbaba in the epic
tale that bears his name. He lived around 2700 BC… The ancient Greeks spoke of
Hercules fighting a dragon in order to steal the apples of the Hesperides, the
eleventh of his twelve labours. Hercules is generally thought to have loved
around the year 1250 BC…
From about 100 BC and for the next
1500 years, several Meso-American cultures, including the Aztecs and the
Mayans, venerated a flying serpent named Quetzalcoatl. And, of course, the
United Kingdom has long lauded the bravery of St George, who slayed a dragon no
in England but in Libya around the year 300 AD. In the eighth century, the
Scandinavians wrote of Beowulf fighting a fire-breathing dragon and in the
thirteenth century, the Vikings sang of Fafnir.” Zhang continued, “There is something very curious, however,
about all of these mythologies. In every single one of these myths found across
the ancient world, the dragons are the same. Their features are consistent
around the globe…” (Page 47-48)
With this
short-but-actually-long quote I leave you, my readers of this book summary… if
you want to know more, go get this book or steal it from me
THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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