The Official Matthew Reilly Homepage

Yes, it's the book that the Russell Crowe movie was based on. Having been so impressed by the movie, I went out and got the book. Genius fascinates me, and the story of John Forbes Nash, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994 is a riveting story about genius.

Sylvia Nasar's book, naturally, goes into far more detail than the movie could, and makes for utterly absorbing reading. Nasar is a brilliant biographer and her research is awesome. Some commentators took issue with the movie omiting certain features of Nash's life (his early homosexuality, his divorce, his arrogance), but to me, to say such a thing is to not understand what a movie is. Movies must simplify books. They always have. And Ron Howard's movie version of this book decided to look at one aspect of John Nash's life (namely, his overcoming of schizophrenia). This meant that other features of Nash's life had to be left out. It is a movie, not a documentary.

(P.S. In my humble opinion, the movie of A Beautiful Mind was perhaps the most unpredictable movie I've seen in a long, long while. Go see it. It is an execellent piece of cinema. And kudos to Russell Crowe...he's done it again. While I'd love to see Moulin Rouge win Best Picture, I think this will top it on the night.)

After three weeks in the US, I'm finally home. In short, my US Area 7 author tour was fantastic. Among other things, I went onto the Paramount Pictures lot, went on TV in New York (alongside some circus performers), visited Washington DC, went on the top-rating Mancow Muller morning radio show in Chicago and, oh yeah, had the US Government fire a missile at my 747 as it came in to land in LA!!!! (Get this, on our approach to LA, our pilot said over the PA system: "Ladies and gentlemen, we've just heard from Air Traffic Control that the folks at Vandenberg Air Force Base are about to test-fire a missile. If you look out to the right, you should see it in about two minutes." Sure enough, two minutes later, it came...a glorious flaring smoke-trailing missile...which shot up into the sky about a mile from my plane! Glad the guidance system didn't fail...)

After all that, I just met some great people, all over the US, from New York to Ohio to Michigan and Texas. Thanks to everyone who looked after me!

When I arrived in New York, Area 7 was sitting at No.31 on the New York Times list. By the time I left the US, it was at No.27...and rising!

If anything about America struck me during my tour it was the competitiveness of just about every American market. Books, movies, TV shows, widgets, you name it, the competition over there is incredible. It is a crucible of capitalism. You work for every sale, and if you don't deliver, your customers go elsewhere.

One question I am occasionally asked: do you have to read ICE STATION before you read AREA 7?

The answer is: while, yes, AREA 7 is technically a sequel to ICE STATION, no, you don't have to read ICE STATION first. It's kind of like the Indiana Jones movies: you don't have to see Raiders of the Lost Ark in order to enjoy Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Of course, you'll always get a little more out of a sequel if you see the original, but with A7 and ICE STATION it isn't absolutely necessary.

I've been getting a few emails lately from some readers saying that the timer code for the Supernova in TEMPLE (a code written as a date) should have been written dd/mm/yy, since it was built by Germans. This code is written in the book in the American way: mm/dd/yy. This was intentional. It is stated in TEMPLE that the German Supernova is "based on the American model". To me, this means that it followed the American construction plans in all areas, including the decoding system.

It's always funny to come home after a trip and see what the local headlines are, to see what's been happening in your absence. I have returned to Australia this week to find a veritable media feeding frenzy surrounding the Australian Governor-General, Peter Hollingworth.

Hmmmm. As a young Australian who is genuinely sceptical of our current constitutional arrangements, I will be watching this matter with interest. Consider: if this whole episode sees the end of Rev Hollingworth, could it be the beginning of the end for the office of the Governor-General? Mr Howard might well have (unwittingly) answered the question he posed so forcefully during the 1999 Republic Referendum: do you really want politicians appointing the head of state?