Captain Jack West is back. He has survived the trials of the Underworld and won the Great Games on behalf of his sponsor, Orlando, the King of Land. He has fought his way through trials and battles in an effort to save those he loves from the painful deaths Orlando vowed to inflict upon them if Jack did not win the Games on his behalf.

Jack has been acknowledged with the title of the Greatest Warrior of his age, ranking him among the likes of Heracles, Osiris and Gilgamesh. However, Orlando did not get the prize he had expected. Tradition held that as the sponsor of the Greatest Warrior, Orlando was to be designated as King of Kings. This did not happen. In fact, nothing went to plan. Expectations and traditions were turned on their head to make way for the brash generation of princes who have struck out for their share of the world.

At the conclusion of the Games, all Hell (literally) broke loose. Not content to wait to inherit their power, the sons of Hades, King of the Underworld, mounted a vicious coup to take control of their father’s kingdom.

Two of the four kings are dead and the other two are on the run. Hades has to outwit his sons, who seek to kill him, and his brother, Yago, who is the Governor of the Royal Prison at Erebus. Yago is tasked with locking Hades within Erebus for eternity, trapping him in the walls of the prison in a living death. Orlando, on the other hand, is trying to secure the three immortal weapons of great universal power: Poseidon’s Trident, the Helmet of Hades and the Sword of the Rock. These weapons will allow him to usher in the Omega Event and cement his control over existence for all time.

Jack and his crew have to join forces with Anthony DeSaxe, otherwise known as Hades. In order to find the weapons before Orlando, they need to face the Trials of the Cities. It’s easier said than done when the cities are three mythical cities, Thule, Atlas and Ra, are long lost to history. Once they have the weapons they must face the Trials of the Mountains and take control of the Omega Event to prevent it from destroying the world as they know it. To get there they have to overcome the obstacles placed in their path by Orlando and his followers, and place their trust in Orlando’s duplicitous sister Iolanthe, who has tried to kill Jack and Zoe on more than one occasion in the recent past. They also have to outfox a new player in the game – the Knights of the golden Eight, a band of relentless mercenary assassins who have been handsomely paid to kill Jack.

Matthew Reilly rockets the readers back into the world of Captain Jack West with The Three Secret Cities. Those who have followed his adventures through this series of books will relish the opportunity to head once more into the depths of the Earth and fling themselves into the face of adversity and strife as West and his crew struggle to keep themselves and those they love alive in the face of overwhelming odds. The action, adventure, detail and suspense from Reilly’s heroic fiction is will not disappoint readers. Thrills and spills will keep all readers engaged and wide-eyed to the very last word.

Reviewed by David Johnson