Once again, I enjoy taking mythical figures and reimagining them. I actually considered for a time making one of the ‘three wise men from the East’ a mystic from China.
As I considered the big finish for the series, I wanted to set up some new villains and, the way I see it, a guy like Hardin Lancaster/Sphinx has a great motivation to do what he does. Because of the way royalty works, he’s been passed over by Orlando, despite the fact that he’s smarter and better informed than Orlando. (I honestly find hereditary systems fascinating, precisely because they really do have a fatal flaw: mentally weak princes and princesses. Good kings and queens may have dunces as children, but the system demands that the dunces wear the crown. Very peculiar.)
And if a villain is going to go up against Jack over the final three novels, then he has to be smart, tough and totally committed to his cause and Sphinx is all of those and more, as we see when he does the Fall.
On that, tell us more about the Fall.
As a writer, I’m always thinking about villains and villainy. Because when it’s all said and done, your hero really is only as good as your villain. So I’m always trying to find ways to make my villains tougher and tougher to beat.
Let me first say that it took me a really long time to design the Fall. I’d always had the idea of a death-defying plummet that Jack would have to do to ‘qualify’ for the final labyrinth, but until I sat down to map out The Two Lost Mountains, it only existed in my mind as a vague idea. Making it real meant designing the structure that would actually fall. The clinching moment came as I dabbled with various sketches of the Falling Temple and drew one with a skeletal lower half that would crumple underneath a heavier upper half when it hit the bottom of the shaft.
Having said that, the Fall was designed for another important reason: to establish Sphinx (and Ezekiel and Rastor) as villains willing to risk their lives to attain the power that is at stake.
In my quest to create better villains I’ve found that the best villains these days are totally committed to their goal, to the point where they are willing to sacrifice anything in pursuit of it. A good recent example is Thanos, the villain in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. I very much enjoyed watching him because he was utterly committed to his goal and would do anything for it.
On that point, there’s another big new player in this book—the nihilistic General Rastor. Can you tell us anything more about him?
As we race toward the climax of this whole series, I wanted to have a character in the mix who doesn’t want to rule the world or save anybody.
He was a fun villain to create because not only is he absolutely committed to his goal of destroying the universe, he can’t be reasoned with or talked out of it. There is no way to bargain with Rastor. There is no-one he loves or cares about who can be held against him. And he’s also big and ruthless and a genocidal maniac.
Jack and his team are several steps behind the bad guys the whole way through this book. Sphinx, Rastor and the Omega monks all know way more about the Trial of the Mountains and how to get to the Supreme Labyrinth for the Omega Event while Jack and our heroes can’t seem to catch a break. Tell us how you came up with this structure.
The way I see it, The Two Lost Mountains is really the middle part of a three-book story that started with The Three Secret Cities and will finish with The One Something Something. This whole three-book story was set up in The Four Legendary Kingdoms, which laid down the key ideas of the four kingdoms, the trials and the Omega Event.
This means that The Two Lost Mountains is essentially the headlong race to the final battle which will take place (mostly) in a giant maze called the Supreme Labyrinth. I wanted Jack’s challenge in this book to be that he was always behind, always chasing, always with less information. I wanted to stack the odds against him and make his mission absolutely and utterly desperate. (Indeed, as I mentioned earlier, just when it seems that his mission is completely impossible, he learns that he has to physically move something on the moon!)
A notable, shocking death in the book is the gruesome decapitation of Hades. Then poor Mae! Crucified and crushed! How will the death of Jack’s mother affect him going forward?
Hades had to go. I wish I could explain it in a more profound way, but that’s the truth.
He was a fun character to create, especially as a kind of ‘dark mentor’ to Jack (who kind of replaced Wizard, the nice mentor). He also had lots of money, which allowed me to give him many cool toys, planes and estates! And his knowledge of the kingdoms and their rituals was important. But I felt I’d reached the point in the story where Jack needed to press on alone, without his dark mentor’s help.
Mae is a little different. While also something of a mentor to Jack, she also represents his heart and soul. She was a good mother who, in counterpoint to his father, fostered Jack’s senses of empathy and compassion. Just as Jack needs to press on in his adventure without Wizard’s wisdom and Hades’s knowledge, now he must move on without Mae’s guidance. If he is to truly be a hero, he must face the final challenges alone.
Mae’s death also served to establish Rastor as a worthy rival to Jack. Rastor pays a big role in the final book and now he and Jack have some serious unfinished business.
That Russian Doll plan was one crazy, wild ride of an ending, Matthew! We’re all set for the big finish in the Supreme Labyrinth. Any hints about what the ONE in the series will refer to?
As I mentioned above, much of this book is about putting all manner of insane obstacles in front of Jack and his goal. The final obstacle was an army of bronzemen and silvermen to get past.
The Russian Doll plan was my solution to that obstacle: gradually advance then stop . . . only to reveal another, smaller vehicle; advance further, and stop . . . and reveal a third, even smaller vehicle. At which point, it’s the combination of all of Jack’s friends coming to help him that gets him over the line.
As for the title of the final book, as always, I’ll reveal it a few months before that book comes out. People may not realise this, but I don’t even tell my publisher what the title of the next Jack West book is until the day I deliver it! It’s a secret I like to hold until the last moment, making it something that, for about a year or two, only I know.
Is it the next book you are writing?
Yes, it’s the next book I’m writing. I figure I can’t bring readers all this way, right to the doors of the Supreme Labyrinth, four days from the Omega Event, only to go off and write another book. I’m making good progress with it already. Writing-wise, it’s very helpful to continue straight into the next book. I did this once before with The Six Sacred Stones and The Five Greatest Warriors and it really smoothed the flow of the story between them.
How have you been holding up in L.A. during the coronavirus pandemic?
It’s certainly been a strange and difficult time, but I’ve been healthy and my thoughts go out to those who have lost loved ones or their jobs or even just felt financial stress.
Like everyone else, I sheltered in place and just stayed at home. I had a couple of short stories up my sleeve—Roger Ascham and the Dead Queen’s Command and Jack West Jr and the Chinese Splashdown—so I was pleased to release them online for free during the lockdown. I enjoy releasing free stories at the best of times, just to be able to give something back to my readers. To do it during a time when everyone was sheltering in their homes, made me feel I was, in some small way, making the lockdown a little more bearable.
Being locked down prevented me from attending a writers festival in Margaret River which was a real shame. Hopefully I can get there in the future. The lockdown pretty much postponed all the extraneous stuff I do, so in the end, with my calendar pretty empty, I took the opportunity to write, write, write.
Ultimately, I tried to make the best out of a bad situation and use the time to be productive. I completed a couple of short novels—including a very cool superhero
story—plus a new screenplay, and, of course, I got started on that final Jack West novel.
And after that? What comes next? Will there be any more Jack West novels?
Ha! Ha! No, after The One Something Something, that’s it! That’s all. The story will come to its end with that book. I’ve enjoyed writing this series so much, I wouldn’t want to overdo it by extending it beyond what I originally intended. And I planned to finish it with The One.
I have thrown pretty much everything into the Jack West series: everything I know about history and myths and ancient places. Seven Ancient Wonders was released in 2005. My goal when I decided to write sequels to it was to write a giant, massive, truly epic series that linked all the strange ancient places around the world—from Stonehenge to Easter Island to the Great Sphinx—and by the end of the last book, I think I will have done that.
Hopefully readers found the journey enjoyable, but . . . it is a journey with an end. My sole goal right now is to make sure that ending, that final seventh book, is satisfying to all those readers who have taken the time to join me on it. Finishing the series is actually something of a challenge for me: I’ve never actually ended a series before; the Scarecrow series can keep on going, but to close out a long story in a satisfying way requires lots of thought and I’ve embraced the challenge.
And then it will be time to start something new, which brings me a whole other kind of joy.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this book. The next one will be a doozy.
Matthew Reilly
Los Angeles
May 2020
About Matthew Reilly
Matthew Reilly is 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.
His books are published in over 20 languages, with worldwide sales of over 7 million copies.
Also by Matthew Reilly
CONTEST
TEMPLE
HOVER CAR RACER
THE TOURNAMENT
TROLL MOUNTAIN
THE GREAT ZOO OF CHINA
THE SECRET RUNNERS OF NEW YORK
Scarecrow
ICE STATION
AREA 7
SCARECROW
HELL ISLAND
SCARECROW AND THE ARMY OF THIEVES
Jack West Jr
SEVEN ANCIENT WONDERS
THE SIX SACRED STONES
THE FIVE GREATEST WARRIORS
THE FOUR LEGENDARY KINGDOMS
THE THREE SECRET CITIES
MORE BESTSELLING TITLES FROM MATTHEW REILLY
Ice Station
THE DISCOVERY OF A LIFETIME
At a remote ice station in Antarctica, a team of US scientists has found something buried deep within a 100-million-year-old layer of ice. Something made of metal.
THE LAW OF SURVIVAL
In a land without boundaries, there are no rules. Every country would kill for this prize.
A LEADER OF MEN
A team of crack United States marines is sent to the station to secure the discovery. Their leader – Lieutenant Shane Schofield, call-sign: SCARECROW. They are a tight unit, tough and fearless. They would follow their leader into hell. They just did . . .
Temple
Deep in the jungle of Peru, the hunt for a legendary Incan idol is under way – an idol that in the present day could be used as the basis for a terrifying new weapon.
Guiding a US Army team is Professor William Race, a young linguist who must translate an ancient manuscript which contains the location of the idol.
What they find is an ominous stone temple, sealed tight. They open it – and soon discover that some doors are meant to remain unopened . . .
The Great Zoo of China
AN IMPOSSIBLE DISCOVERY
It is a secret the Chinese government has been keeping for forty years. They have found a species of animal no one believed even existed.
THE WORLD’S GREATEST ATTRACTION
The Chinese are ready to unveil their fabulous creatures in the greatest zoo ever constructed. VIPs and journalists, including reptile expert Dr Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron, are invited to see the beasts for the first time.
ONE FALSE PROMISE
The visitors are assured by their Chinese hosts that they are perfectly safe, that nothing can go wrong.
Of course it can’t . . .
The Secret Runners of New York
THE COMING END
When Skye Rogers and her twin brother Red move to Manhattan, rumours of a coming global apocalypse are building.
But the young elite of New York keep partying without a care.
CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
And then suddenly Skye is invited to join an exclusive gang known as the Secret Runners of New York.
This is no ordinary clique – they have access to an underground portal that can transport them into the future.
And what Skye discovers in the future is horrifying . . .
This is a work of fiction. Characters, institutions and organisations mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe actual conduct.
First published 2020 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Karanadon Entertainment Pty Ltd 2020
The moral right of the author to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
EPUB format: 9781760982898
Typeset by Post Pre-press Group
Cover design: 40ftSlinky.com
Cover illustration: IRONGAV
Image: St Basil’s Cathedral is by Alexei Kouzaev, modified by the author
and IRONGAV, and used under CC BY 2.0 licence
Image: Mony Saint-Michel is by vwalakte/iStock
Image: Aker is by Nephiliskos, modified by IRONGAV and used
(and shared alike) under CC BY-SA 4.0 licence
Image: Sphinx images and Imhotep are sourced from the public domain
All other internal illustrations and endpapers by IRONGAV
The author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for
material used in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked
should contact the publisher.
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Table of Contents
About THE TWO LOST MOUNTAINS
Title page
Dedication
Contents
Endpapers
Epigraph
A QUICK RECAP . . .
Prologue: The Empty C
ity: Moscow
A Girl Named Lily: Part VII: The Sacrifice at Gibraltar
First Offensive: The Moscow Rescue
A Minotaur Named . . .: Australia/France: 3–23 December
The Secret Royal World: The Five Iron Mountains
Second Offensive: The Falling Temple at Mont Saint-Michel
The Secret Royal World II: The Innermost Sanctum of the Vatican
A Girl Named Lily: Part VIII: 2007–Present
Third Offensive: The Second Iron Mountain: Mont Blanc
Fourth Offensive: The Two Lost Mountains
Fifth Offensive: The Last Iron Mountain
Final Offensive: The Five Gates of the Supreme Labyrinth
AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW REILLY
About Matthew Reilly
Also by Matthew Reilly
Imprint page
Newsletter
The Two Lost Mountains - Jack West Jr Series 06 (2020) Page 31