The One Impossible Labyrinth

Jack West Series

By: Matthew Reilly

Narrated by: Sean Mangan

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The brand-new Jack West thriller and Sunday Times best seller

The end is here.

Jack West Jr has made it to the Supreme Labyrinth.

Now he faces one last race—against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself—a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth.

An impossible maze.

But the road will be hard. For this is a maze like no other: a maze of mazes. Uncompromising and complex. Demanding and deadly.

A cataclysmic conclusion.

It all comes down to this. It ends here—now—in the most lethal and dangerous place Jack has encountered in all of his many adventures. And in the face of this indescribable peril, with everything on the line, there is only one thing he can do.

Attempt the impossible.

©2022 Matthew Reilly (P)2022 Orion

Better than the previous book

** spoiler alert **. Please don't read if you don't want to read spoilers.

I was very critical of the previous book in the series, The Two Lost Mountains. It had many instances of people (read heroes) dying, only for them to magically reappear later on. There was also the issue of the storyline becoming more juvenile as the series progressed, but foul language and blasphemy were prevalent throughout. I was left confused as to who the target audience was.

The final book in the series was much better. The author toned down on my latter gripe above. However, people die and, as before, miraculously reappear later on. This happened so many times, even with Jack West, that I didn’t care if one died as I knew, really knew, they would survive against all odds. The author stated in an interview that he wanted people to suffer the angst of a beloved character dying early on, only to surprise them later on. Sorry, I was not surprised. You can only cry wolf so many times.

My gripes aside, it was much better than I expected it to be. In fact, I’ve been putting off reading it for some time, thinking I would just be frustrated again. But I must complete a book and a series once I’m committed. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it other than the predictable outcomes of certain characters’ survival. As predictable as the outcome was, it was a good one. Bad guys lose, good guys win, so what’s there not to like?

It was a fitting end to the series, doing it justice. I like how the author tied up all the loose ends in the final chapter. It showed dignity.