Hell Island by Matthew Reilly; 2006; 115 pages; $2.99; Pan Books, London, England, UK; 978-0-330-44232-9; Checked out from the Multnomah County Library, Saint John; 6/25-6/26

Shane “Scarecrow” Schofield and his team jump out of a perfectly good airplane and land on a an aircraft carrier where an unspeakable enemy awaits.  Once again the defense department and a group of scientist have tried to replace American soldiers with a genetically altered group of apes.  Trapped on the carrier and an adjacent island the team battles against the apes and another team assigned to take them out.  As usual Scarecrow has to fight multiple enemies and contend with problems within his own team.  This could have been laughable if handled by anyone else, but Matthew Reilly deals with it in all seriousness and makes it awesome.  This was originally written and published as part of a collection sponsored by the Australian government highlighting Australian authors.  It was an awesome appetizer while waiting for the next full length book from Matthew Reilly.  Grade-A