Matthew Reilly

**juzzza** · July 27th, 2002, 01:13 PM

As there are so many Ozzies on this forum, I was just wondering if any of you rate your very own Mat Reilly?

I bought Temple in an airport, finished it within two days and bought and read Ice Station, Contest, and Area 7(?) within two weeks.

I love his writing style, he intentionally reduces the amount of commas he uses to increase the reading pace. Quality, every book reads like and should be made into a movie.

Rocketsheep · July 27th, 2002, 09:49 PM

I've met Matthew a coupla times and I think he's a great guy. He gets harrassed because of his gung-ho approach to writing. His writing style's not perfect (he never claimed to be some great literary master) but if you let that drop, or are lucky enough to be oblivious to it like most readers are, his plots are wild, fast and fun. There is definately a market for it.

Temple was my favourite, I read it in 5 hours.

**juzzza** · July 28th, 2002, 02:59 PM

I must admit it wasn't until after I had read Temple that I checked out his Website and he DID NOT look how I expected.

One thing I really like considering the bad press associated with self publishing or vanity publishing, is that he published Contest himself when no publisher would touch it, now look at him!!!

Rocketsheep · July 29th, 2002, 03:22 AM

Not only did he publish it himself... he taught a printer how to do a glossy cover in the style of Crighton's books complete with publisher's logo (one of the monsters from Contest) on the spine then put his own address and contact number as that of the publisher. He also once pretended to be a girl and wrote an article for Cleo magazine so he contacted them and got them to read the manuscript and review it so he had a review blurb for the back!

Having borrowed the money to print it from a friend's dad, he then got up off his wee bottom and traipsed the streets of Sydney getting shop owners to take copies, once that was done, he traipsed back again and got the shop owners to put it in the window, put it beside Crighton...

He was cheeky as hell but it all paid off when an editor picked it up, read it, liked it and called the publisher in the front of the book to see if she could contact Matt about upcoming work!

Er... I'm not a Matt stalker honest, I've just heard the story a couple of times!

**juzzza** · July 29th, 2002, 03:52 AM

Fair Play!!!

And thanks for that, do you know this much about all authors???

Rocketsheep · July 29th, 2002, 09:10 AM

No... just a few. It helps if you have a nice little chat with them. It really is a small world.

**juzzza** · July 29th, 2002, 09:12 AM

Who else have you had chats with?

Rocketsheep · July 29th, 2002, 08:57 PM

Ah now... that would be showing off!

Mostly they are Australians not in SF, since I write comedy and children's stories as well so I have a wide interest in writers... except for a couple of SF writers you probably haven't heard of since they've done only maybe 15-20 short or YA novels (it takes a lot to be a famous writer that way)... oh er... but perhaps you've heard of Celia Dart-Thornton...

**juzzza** · July 30th, 2002, 04:27 AM

Do you mean Cecilia Dart-Thornton?

Rocketsheep · July 30th, 2002, 08:21 AM

Yeah, it always sounds like a stutter to me or a really bad song...

Now SHE is a born wordsmith... she could no more stop writing than you could stop breathing.

**juzzza** · July 30th, 2002, 08:29 AM

Heh heh, very good.

**Hobbit** · August 2nd, 2002, 04:11 AM

Found this this morning. James Lovegrove does not like Area 7!

Quote: 'Reilly cannot do prose, could not do prose if his life depended on it. He writes the way a breathless twelve-year-old writes when emulating the thrillers he’s read'.

And theres more...!

Go to:

http://www.thealienonline.net/ao_030...cid=20&iid=874

**juzzza** · August 2nd, 2002, 04:19 AM

I did enjoy Area 7, my only criticism about MR's writing is that his last three books have followed a similar formula:

Ice Station - Giant Elephant Seals
Temple - Giant Panther Creatures
Area 7 - Giant Komodo Dragons

I have to say though, I do like his 'breathless' writing style. His books really are like watching a movie with your mind. Fair play to him I say.

Contest was a great piece of action sci fi.

**juzzza** · August 2nd, 2002, 06:02 AM

Wow Hobbit,

He really does lay into the poor guy doesn't he!!!

**QUOTE**

Thus we have a novel written by somebody who has not bothered to develop a facility for, or been born with a great love for, novel-writing. Reilly constantly has an eye on the silver screen as well as his computer screen, and the result, as you might expect, is an intelligence-insulting mess. Throughout Area 7 one’s jaw drops repeatedly, not in amazement, but in disbelief at the extremes of absurdity contained within.

**END**

Rocketsheep · August 2nd, 2002, 07:07 AM

Lovegrove is perfectly correct when he says Matthew writes like a breathless 12-year-old and he writes for the silver screen. He does! And he does it great! That is what he is trying to do.

I don't think it is intelligence insulting... there is a definate readership out there who like to read at breakneck speed and are willing to suspend disbelief long enough to hitch a ride on Matt's wild flaming freight train. It's as real as a James Bond movie. And we all love those!

There is no ONE perfect audience to write for. Do most readers even care about prose? Have they ever used the word?

Technically his writing is a little flawed, a lot of writing is, but despite it (and I'm on permanent auto-edit!) I enjoyed Temple and Ice Station. I didn't like Contest tho and I can't be bothered to check out Area 7, there are other styles I'd rather read at the moment. But I don't begrudge Matthew his spot in the sun, I think he deserves it for so many other reasons than the quality of his prose.