It is a secret the Chinese government has been keeping for 40 years. They have found a species of animal no one believed even existed. It will amaze the world.

Now the Chinese are ready to unveil their astonishing discovery within the greatest zoo ever constructed. A small group of VIPs and journalists has been brought to the zoo deep within China to see its fabulous creatures for the first time. Among them is Dr Cassandra Jane 'CJ' Cameron, a writer for National Geographic and an expert on reptiles.The visitors are assured by their Chinese hosts that they will be struck with wonder at these beasts, that they are perfectly safe, and that nothing can go wrong...

Get ready for action on a gigantic scale!

Listening Length

11 hours and 42 minutes
Author

Matthew Reilly
Narrator

Sean Mangan
Audible release date

10 November 2014
Language

English
Publisher

Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
ASIN

B00P2P5YS6
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	11 hours and 42 minutes
Author	Matthew Reilly
Narrator	Sean Mangan
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	10 November 2014
Publisher	Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00P2P5YS6
Best Sellers Rank	646 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Contemporary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Medical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 2 in Medical Thrillers

Customer reviews

5 star		61%
4 star		19%
3 star		10%
2 star		5%
1 star		5%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Chris Radge

I LOVE this book

Reviewed in Australia on 14 October 2019

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Mathew Reilly never ceases to amaze me with his stories. They are always different. Some authors write similar stories over and over again in the same voice. NOT Mathew Reilly, his voice is always different. Do yourself a favour and read everything he's ever written...

2 people found this helpful

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Jean Seifert

Big Scale Action

Reviewed in Australia on 11 December 2014

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Well what can I say - it is all action to the point of making you read on the edge of your seat! Frankly I can just image China creating something so great as to make the world take note with their authoritarian, ruthless and repressive Communist Party. Excellent story and so believable but the action for me was a little far fetched. The main character left Indiana Jones for dead - she was even better then Zena the Warrior however never a minute or should I say second went by without her being tormented to within an inch of her life. The descriptions of the facility and surrounds was breath-taking not to mention the security variations. An enjoyable read.

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Ray O.

Just as exciting as his other works

Reviewed in Australia on 4 January 2019

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It's an independent novel, but it's just as action packed and fast paced as every other book.
The lack of backstory and mythology present in the Jack West series makes it more fast paced, actually.
There's less world-building as it's set in just one location, and doesn't build into other stories.

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Noreen Gibbs

Dragons

Reviewed in Australia on 11 May 2021

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Wow having read all of Matthew’s books this one is spellbinding I had to keep reading until the best ending. The entrance of Lucky one of the dragons in the novel is what fairy tales are made of. Great characters as always and well Lucky steals the scene read it and see what I mean.

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HeatherAnn

Fantastic Adventure

Reviewed in Australia on 24 September 2019

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A classic fast paced Matthew Riley novel. I loved the dragon theme and the humanity of CJ and Lucky. A very clever salute to the Chinese theme was reading the novel backwards i.e. right to left. Well done Matthew you carried off another brilliant action novel to perfection.

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Paul J. Hancock

Escapism at its Best

Reviewed in Australia on 5 January 2015

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This is a fast moving adventure story. It's basically a constant chase with the heroes being pursued by relentless, resourceful enemies bent on eliminating them. Reilly owes a great debt to Michael Crichton whose Jurassic Park" was the clear inspiration for this story. It has very obvious plot similarities, similar characterisation and exhibits the same fears about the dangers of scientific discovery being misused, falling into the wrong hands and leading to chaos. Despite, or perhaps because of, these similarities this book is unputdownable. Yes it's improbable, even ludicrous but you won't think about that until you finish it. Escapism at its best!

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ralphptf

Once again, impossible to put down

Reviewed in Australia on 29 December 2014

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Matthew Reilly has once again delivered a sensational read that, like his dragons, soars and swoops, taking you on the ride of your life. A new genre for Reilly, but then not so much. As always with his books, this one was easy to choose, easy to start and impossible to stop as it carries you at breakneck speed to its final conclusion.
Thanks, Matt, for a wonderful trip to the Great Zoo of China.

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maria

The great zoo of China is one of the best books I have read (I read it three times )

Reviewed in Australia on 2 November 2018

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To me you are one of the best writer of this time, I am 81 years old and I started reading when I was 5 years old. A lot of books have passed in my hands in all this years so I think I can judge a book!

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. C. E. Mayfield

Not quite "Jurassic Park"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 June 2021

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I bought this book as I found a host of Matthew Reilly (“MR”) books for 99p each on Amazon and, as I thoroughly enjoyed some of his previous books, I decided to give it a go as I had always described his books like “watching a fast paced, low budget, action film”.

I didn’t have a clue what this one was about when I started reading, other than a Chinese zoo (obviously) as I was reading on Kindle (not easy to get to a blurb in my opinion).

Let’s start with a positive, I liked the theme of the book, a Dragon zoo, but I quickly started to draw comparisons with Jurassic Park (a fact which the author acknowledges in the review at the end of the book). MR must have realised this on his proofing/feedback of early versions as at around the time when I started to think that is when everything just goes to pot with the dragons trying to escape.

From there it is an incredibly unbelievable storyline from an action point of view (not a problem for me, that’s what I wanted) and found that the whole dragon aspect did seem well done. Particular standout points (without spoilers) were how the dragons survived, the links to other mythologies, and the idea of their pack mentality.

My criticism comes from his use of exclamation marks, almost as if MR can’t believe what he had written (I think I have said this before in a review of another book of his). If you are like me you will hear the story unfolding with a series of “OMG’s!!!” being shouted at you - I somehow managed to ignore the exclamation marks after around 50% of reading the book and see through to the real content.

I initially wanted to give the book only 3 out of five because of this, but on reflection, the story and the setting were well described (the maps did help). I would not say don’t read the book, just… try and get over the exclamation points as soon as you can! That was an intentional exclamation mark to make a point, not an over use ;-)

One person found this helpful

Kingy

I enjoyed this book in much the same way i would ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2015

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I enjoyed this book in much the same way i would enjoy a low-brow action film. It's very entertaining while it lasts but has very little substance.
The pace is quick and the action relentless. The characters are a mixed bag, with the Heroine the only one to receive any kind of development or back story. The rest are there to make up numbers and be dragon fodder.
The beasts themselves are great fun with a pseudo-intellectual reason given for their existence and several distinct species presented throughout the story.
The story itself quite obviously based on 'Jurassic Park' following it's structure closely and even alluding to it directly at one point. Though the author goes to great lengths in an interview - included here as supplementary material - to stress that this book is markedly different to Crichton's novel the similarities are far too obvious for it to be taken entirely on it's own merits.
Furthermore the author is clearly a fan of very good action films as a number of set pieces are taken directly from 'Die Hard' and 'Aliens'. Unfortunately like the premise of the book itself, these scenes are that bit too close to the original to be seen as anything other than a poor imitation.
Ultimately, I feel that Reilly channeled his love of action films into a book he hoped would be another 'Jurassic Park' or 'Jaws' the result is more akin to Roland Emmerichs 'Godzilla' or 'Deep Blue Sea' but no less fun for it.

12 people found this helpful

Mr. J. Bradshaw

A world of Thrills and Spills

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 January 2018

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I'm a real Matthew Riley fan and have read the full series' (so far) on Jack West Jr and Shane Schofield (aka Scarecrow), so when I saw this book I expected it to live up to Riley's thunderous, fast paced, page turning standard. I was not disappointed! This is a 'stand alone' novel, refreshingly featuring a female lead. I've read some reviews which have categorized this book as 'Jurassic Park with dragons', but it is so much more than that. It's written in a way which makes the subject matter, a lot of which is scientifically technical, quite believable and leaves the reader with having 'learned something' as well as being entertained on a thrill-a-minute roller-coaster ride. I thoroughly enjoyed escaping into this book and must say it compares very well with Riley's other stand-alone novels like Temple and The Contest (which I'm currently re-reading). If this is your first step into Matthew Riley's world of thrills and spills; this is a good place to start. Riley's writing style is not for everyone, but if you like wild action scenes, plot twists and cliff-hanger suspense, you won't be disappointed.

Owen

A great zoo of rubbish

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 December 2018

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When I started reading this book, I was surprised that the executors of Michael Crichton’s estate hadn’t raised some complaint about the plagiarism. Reading on it was apparent the executors clearly didn’t want to draw attention to one of Mr. Crichton’s novels and this travesty of an imitation. Jurassic park is notable for its rather loose approach to biology, the Great Zoo of China utterly ignores the laws of chemistry, physics, biology, logic and any attempt at credulity.

4 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Unputdownable!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2021

Verified Purchase

Whew! What a ride! I just couldn't stop reading this book, and devoured it in one sitting. Yes, I know some people will compare it to 'Jurassic Park', but, as Mr Reilly himself points out in the Q & A section at the end, apart from scarily believable creatures and the non-stop action, it is actually unique. The only similarity is the one between Matthew Reilly and Michael Chrichton (both being phenomenal authors). He's come up with a cracking concept, set it somewhere nobody else has thought of, and basically just let rip! I loved it! More please!

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