The Official Matthew Reilly Homepage

I'm one of those people who think that Financial Education should be taught at high school. We teach our kids history and maths and english and science, but we don't teach them how to manage their money (or their credit cards). The hugely successful "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki was a good start on this matter. "The Smart Guide to Money" by James Walker is even better. Whereas Kiyosaki's book was excellent for the theory of making money work for you, Walker's book delves into the nitty-gritty, the practical, how to do it in the real world.

In short, this book is awesome.

James Walker has a gift for communicating complex and (let's face it, usually boring) ideas with incredible flair and humour. And get this: it's readable! The book positively flies along - and we all know how much I love fast-paced books! (Note: this book is Australia-based, so it might not be as helpful to overseas readers.)

Many of the emails I have received in the last month have been about CONTEST, with people saying how "fresh" they found it to be (seriously, this is a very commonly-used description in the emails).

I love this!! CONTEST is the shortest and, dare I say, the simplest of my books, but I wrote it to be fresh: fast, furious, bloody and just plain fun. I am often asked why CONTEST "works". My view is that, of all my books, CONTEST has the clearest character-motivation. It is about staying alive; kill or be killed. Either Stephen Swain wins the Presidian or he dies. Simple as that. No politics. No human betrayals. Just fight or flight.

Another frequently-asked question. The answer is: I have an idea in my head for a sequel to CONTEST, but I probably won't write it for a few years.

At present, I don't have any plans to put the Scarecrow and William Race in the same book. While I like the idea of a "Matthew Reilly universe", I feel it's generally better to keep heroes in their own fictitious worlds.

The US cities (and dates I'll be visiting them: Feb 14 to Feb 28) should be up on the "Appearance Dates" section of the site. Basically, my US tour is largely East coast-oriented: New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Cincinnati, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Dallas. Hope I'm coming to your town!

Okay, this is really for Australia-NZ-South African readers. We've had an incident in the cricket here recently where the New Zealand team deliberately set about scoring slowly (and not even trying to win the match), in order to deny Australia a spot in the one-day finals.

Up until the "go slow" incident, I really liked Stephen Fleming's captaincy - it was clever, proactive and well-researched (and boy, did he out-think Australia - damn him!). But you play to win. You always play to win. Always. Anyone who has played competitive sport knows this. If you lose in the process of trying to win, then you lose with your head held high.

Now, I know Australia is no saint in this regard (for all his skill as a batsman, Greg Chappell will always be remembered for ordering the famous underarm ball - an act that every Australian cricket lover is ashamed of), but this was pretty poor. Before he does this again, Mr Fleming should remember two things: the fans (who won't come back to watch) and the sponsors (like all professional sports these days, cricket relies on sponsorship, especially TV sponsorship, and what TV channel will show a sport where one team isn't trying to win?)

(Having said that, I'll add: Now, Mr Fleming, go out there and beat those South Africans, will you!)

P.S. Saw the movie IRIS recently. Very good. Kate Winslet is brilliant, as is the ever-amazing Judi Dench. Also liked OCEAN'S ELEVEN.