The Official Matthew Reilly Homepage

Hey there, Matthew Reilly here, coming to you after watching way too much soccer!

STOP PRESS!! There is now a new short story up on the site, called: A BAD DAY AT FORT BRAGG

It's about a young action novelist who goes on a research trip to Fort Bragg and finds that the soldiers there have a score to settle with him. This story first appeared in an Australian magazine called The Bulletin last year, so most of my readers around the world will not have seen it. Enjoy!!

Well, after last month's review of Star Wars: Episode II, I guess it's only fair that I give my opinion on that other big release of this year, Spider-Man...

The verdict?
I liked it!

In fact, I felt myself thinking of the original Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Like Batman, Spider-Man seemed so sure of itself, so sure that it would spawn at least one sequel, that it didn't bother with the traditional 3-act structure which is so common (and boring) in Hollywood these days. It was as if the film-makers just said, 'We're just use this whole movie as set-up for grander things to come...and throw some cool action in there along the way.'

That works for me. I love confidence in movie-making, and this was a really confident, have-fun, munch-on-your-popcorn movie.

Tobey Maguire was excellent, as was Kirsten Dunst (an actress I've been keeping an eye on for a long time - note her sensational performance in The Virgin Suicides). Having seen Hollywood decisions made up close, I praise the executive who green-lit Tobey Maguire as an action hero. Many would not have.

And Sam Raimi, the director...he infuriated me with The Quick and the Dead (it was an awesome idea) and Darkman, but with this one, he hit the target.

Now, I'm waiting for Minority Report...

This is a common question that comes up in emails. Are there any plans to make computer games out of my novels?

Now, I'm the first to agree that my books would be great fun as computer games. Their structure-lots of baddies, nasty creatures, isolated and confined locations-lends them to computer games, especially first-person shooters.

The answer to the question, however, is a little complex. Firstly, computer game rights now go hand-in-hand with movie rights. Therefore, Paramount Pictures (who bought Ice Station) have the computer game rights to it. Selling the computer game rights to a novel that isn't going to be a movie is pretty hard to do-I can only think of Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy as a rare example of a direct translation of a book to a computer game. In other words, you have to be a huge, huge author like Big Tom to get it and (moment of honesty here) I just ain't that big... yet!!!

That said, I often get people asking me if they can use the settings of my books to create "MODS" (modifications) for existing computer games (like Doom, Quake, HalfLife or Unreal Tournament). Go for it! I love that-that you would want to play a game inside Wilkes Ice Station or inside Area 7. You don't even have to ask me to do that! Just do it.

** The webmaster suggests going to game development forums and recruiting people willing to work on mods for free **

A short story about a young action novelist getting ambushed by angry US soldiers while on a research trip to Fort Bragg....

Is it based on personal experience? Well. What do you think? Hope you like it. It's in the * Exclusives * section of the site.

The other day, I heard about a woman who was actually afraid of novels: they are too big, she says, too daunting, so many words, filling all those pages. So she just avoids novels altogether and doesn't read them.

This makes me so sad. Reading is about enjoyment! About having fun! It's about transporting yourself to another place inside your head! My books will never win literary awards, but I get people reading! My books demystify reading for many people by making it an enjoyable, escapist experience.

Learning to read is like learning to swim.
If you don't learn to swim at an early age, you can spend much of your life being afraid of water.
If you don't learn to read at an early age, you can spend much of your life being afraid of books.
The good thing is, all is not lost. You can learn to do both at any age!

As an Australian, I am so used to watching major sporting events (the Olympics, the World Cup, the Masters, Wimbledon) in the middle of the bloody night. It's nice to watch this World Cup during prime time for a change!!! Go Portugal!

Well, I'd better get back to work. Schofield III is completely out of control and I'm the only one who can rein it in... and I'm not even sure that I can!

P.S. Not playing much sport at the moment. Am going too helter-skelter on the new book... and when you're in the zone, let me tell you, you really have to run with it!