The Official Matthew Reilly Homepage

Well, I’m now back from touring with Books Alive. The initiative (where people could buy Ice Station and some other Aussie books for just $5) was a huge success, raising book sales across Australia. It has also seen the rather unusual phenomenon of catapulting the full-price edition of Ice Station back onto national bestseller lists! It’s currently at No.8! Go figure. Anyhow…

In a word: sensational.

Go out and read this book. It’s not a thriller, not by any means, but (along with The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown) it is without a doubt one of the best books I have read in the last 5 or 10 years. It’s funny, I’ve been searching for a great read for ages, and in the space of three months, I’ve found two cracking reads.

The entire book is written from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome (hope I spelled that right – I’ve loaned out my copy to a friend so I can’t check), which is a mild form of autism: Christopher can do all sorts of complex maths and physics calculations, but he can’t comprehend human beings (be it their facial expressions or the metaphors they use). He is a most amazing character, someone who is so monumentally literal, he makes you realise how strange we human beings really are.

This book is a huge achievement. It deserves every bit of the success it is garnering.

Having heard about the massive box office grosses this movie made in the US, I was wondering how the wizards at Pixar were going to top Toy Story and Monsters Inc. Well, with Finding Nemo not only do they top the level of animation, but they have come up with a story that is far more epic (and to me, far more satisfying) than its predecessors. They also push all the right emotional buttons on themes of a hero going on an epic, impossible quest, parents-and-kids, and simple friendship.

Ultimately, for me, the genius of the movie comes in how Marlin (the hero) saves his son Nemo (don’t worry, I’ll try not to give it away): it’s not any specific act of heroism that saves Nemo, it is the word-of-mouth that spreads around the animal kingdom when they hear of Marlin’s epic quest to cross the ocean to save his son – and the genuine awe and respect that that word-of-mouth generates – that in the end saves Nemo.

I love that idea: it’s not what you do that makes you a hero, it’s the fact that you tried. I can’t think of a better way to teach kids that it’s the effort that counts, not the result.

Awesome storytelling. Go and see it.

This is just something that I’ve been thinking about lately. Often these days it seems as if you’re not allowed to chage your mind on a given topic. Once you state your view, you’re stuck with it forever. While it is nice to have firmly-held convictions, I don’t think this necessarily has to be the case all the time.

A light example: the movie Black Hawk Down, which I’ve been watching a lot on DVD lately. Now, I must admit, when I first saw Black Hawk Down at the movies I was a little disappointed. I had high expectations: it was Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott, two of my favourite film-makers working together. Now, sure it was big budget and all, but I felt, story-wise, it was a bit of a mess. It was funny, then, that when I saw the Bruce Willis film Tears of the Sun recently, I found myself saying: “It’s okaaaay, but it just doesn’t have the realism of Black Hawk Down.”

And suddenly it dawned on me. Black Hawk Down, far from being the mess I first thought it was, has become the benchmark by which I measure military action movies. Its attention to detail and sheer audacity of film-making has left an indelible impression.

A question which has come through to me from Peter Bower at ThePresidian.net fansite, and through emails to my webmaster is: "Why is Scarecrow coming out first in the UK?"

The answer is actually pretty boring. My British publishers (Pan Macmillan UK) saw an opening in their market in October and, knowing that in the past my books have always come out first in Australia, asked very nicely if they could take advantage of that gap in the market and publish there first. So we here in Australia said sure. As always, the covers in the UK and Australia and the US will be different. Hey, spare a thought for the Americans – they have to wait until next February!

Oh, by the way: I will be touring Hong Kong, Britain and Germany later this month and in early October (including a trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair), so watch out! I’ll try to put the dates and locations of signings and stuff up on the site.

Those who went to the Melbourne Writers Festival last Friday to see Dennis Lehane talk about books and movies would have got a little surprise to find me sitting on stage instead! Mr Lehane couldn’t be there, so the Festival Director, Simon Clews, called me in Sydney and asked if I could come down and stand in.

So I did. It was completely unannounced, unpublicised and a lot of fun. I had a great time. Then I flew home the next morning at 7am!!

Roy Govier, the webmaster of MR.com has told me that he’s been receiving heaps of entries in the short story competition (the prize for which is an early signed copy of Scarecrow that comes direct from my collection – I’ll even go to the post office and post it to you!).

As many of you will know, the topic is how would you go about killing the Scarecrow? Thing is, Roy has told me that a large number of the entries are suggesting that you kidnap Libby Gant and use her as bait to lure Schofield into a trap. Roy suggests that more daring ideas will, just by standing out, capture the judges’ attention.

Naturally, I would also condemn you all for taking the easy slacker option…if I didn’t do it myself in Scarecrow! In other words, I wouldn’t win my own short story competition. How pathetic is that?!

Here it comes. My new book Scarecrow. On 4 October, for those of us not in England to grab it, the first chapter of Scarecrow will be uploaded onto MatthewReilly.com. Read the first few pages of it right here, next month. God, I’m excited.

Until then, I’d better run. This time next month, I’ll be in England, so take care, and for those of you who get your hands on it, I hope you enjoy the new book.