Each character has exactly one stereotypical personality trait of which we are constantly reminded of every time the character is mentioned. Immediately after hanging up, Walters' office building is infiltrated by the Fury of Russia, who knows Walters is the case officer for Cobalt's secret daughter. Cassie questioned Black's coldness, to which he responded that his idea is simple mathematics, and without their mother to deter the Fury, he will simply be an unstoppable force.

Because of this busy time, and the original purpose of the text, this novella adaption he has released is leagues beneath the quality of his prior work. The Cobalt’s are a loving family, there are the usual family differences (Red doesn’t get along with Green, Black hates everyone etc), but Cassie is the glue, everyone adores their little sister. Cobalt then tried to encourage Cassie to consider being a hero like her siblings, and while Cassie has always disliked the idea of being idolised and in the spotlight, Cobalt believed her daughter has the right mix of brains, strength and foresight necessary to stop the Fury. Matthew Reilly is now the internationally bestselling author of the Scarecrow novels: Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves and the novella Hell Island; the Jack West novels: Seven Ancient Wonders, The Six Sacred Stones, The Five Greatest Warriors, The Four Legendary Kingdoms, and The Three Secret Cities; and the standalone novels Contest, Temple, Hover Car Racer, The Tournament, Troll Mountain, The Great Zoo of China and The Secret Runners of New York. At the surface of the Groom Lake Complex, the Fury meets Black, who gives him two options, join forces and let Black rule America, or he can just kill him.

Might recommend to new readers who don't care for character development or story substance, but I wouldn't even recommend this to a Matthew Reilly fan. This isn't just bad, it's writing so terrible that his editors and publishers should have stepped in. Matthew has also written several short stories, including Roger Ascham and the King's Lost Girl, a special free prequel to The Tournament which is available online. A quick read on a Swiss train,when the appeal of the snow capped mountains started to fade (after several hours). This was a good example of strong female leads, along with a good bit of science, and a lot of fight scenes.

For 35 years, due to Events, the US and Russia have had their own superheroes - America’s sweetheart protector Cobalt, and the personification of Old Russia, Fury. And then there’s our lead who apparently has 0 emotions despite a whole bunch of people she loves dying around her within the space of 24 hrs. Russia doesn’t score much love these days in the West, and making the Russian superhero purely evil adds to the book's populist appeal. Black was certain that their only option would be to lure the Fury to a major city and detonate 10 nuclear warheads at once, though Cassie and Cobalt vehemently opposed the idea since it would sacrifice millions of civilians.

I think sometimes the predictability element helps in sucking me in - even if I think I know what's going to happen, it's still a lot of fun to watch it play out. The violence was OTT gory for a book aimed at teens, and the losses our heroine sustains seem not to have much impact on her.

Odessa and Kazan admitted that their government's agencies have little intel on Cassie, and their intent to gift both her and Arnold's heads to their father. Oh, and he regularly threatens sexual violence against women, even threatening to turn our hero into a slave to breed with. At the Federal Building, CIA agent Shawna Eason is quick to bring Cassie to the interrogation room containing Argentov, who prattles on before Cassie urges him to speak his piece. It might be because I've read every single one of his books, some of them multiple times, but this one was much more predictable. In a secret lab somewhere in Siberia, the Fury of Russia's last son, the Fury of Sevastopol, otherwise known as the Genius, watches the news reports on the Fury's death.However his brawl with Fury of Russia goes no better than his siblings', and after Cobalt Red is killed, the Fury acknowledges his fighting spirit before going on to decimate Chicago. Reflecting on the teachings of her parents and older siblings (except Black), she uses coloured sharpies to mark her helmet in her siblings' signature colours before she and Trey set out to prepare for the Furies' arrival.

Cobalt and Sergeant Furin found that they were evenly matched, and while the former was selfless, working to understand her powers and defend peoples' lives when they needed her, Furin was tyrannical, viscously reclaiming the old Soviet republics and taking whatever he desired, earning the moniker the Fury of Russia. Since Seven Ancient Wonders in 2005, Matthew's novels have been the biggest selling new fiction title released in Australia for that year. I blitzed through this book and I'm definitely keen to read more from this world of megalomaniac supes. This book reads like an amateurish attempt by an edgy teen high on the America good, Russia bad patriotism juice binge-watching the plethora of superhero material available in media today.

They name ‘their’ Superhero ‘The Fury of Russia’, whilst the US names their hero ‘Cobalt’, after her surname.