Matthew Reilly Best Books
Oswald Lemus
Then, in January 1997, a commissioning editor from Pan Macmillan Australia bought a copy of his book and tracked him down. Reilly was already working on his next novel, Ice Station, and subsequently signed a two-book deal with the publisher.
Since then he has sold nearly eight million copies of his books in more than 20 countries. Contest was rewritten for its 2000 publication through Pan Macmillan and copies of the original self-publication edition have sold for more than $1,000 online.
The best place to begin reading the Matthew Reilly books in order is with his standalones. These epic thrillers each features a new fierce protagonist who is willing to do whatever it takes to overcome the obstacles in front of them. You can find out more about each book in the summaries section below.
Soon after Matthew Reilly published his debut, he began work on his next novel which would become the beginning of his Scarecrow series. Each book follows Lieutenant Shane Schofield up against a new formidable foe, and willing to lead his team into hell time and time again.
While this trilogy is slightly different in tone to the other Matthew Reilly books in order, it is still an action thriller. However, the Hover Car Racer books have a science fiction twist and are young adult.
The books follow 14-year-old Jason Chaser, who is a hover car racing phenomenon. But to take the world by storm he must make it through International Racing School and some of the toughest races of his life.
This next series in the list of the Matthew Reilly books in order is another global adventure on an epic scale. The Jack West Jr. books follow the titular protagonist who is an adventurer from the Australian Outback.
Raf must make this quest alone, in defiance of his tribe who refuse to help him, in order to obtain from the trolls an elixir which will cure those dying in his village from a terrible illness. A number which includes his sister. Raf must pass through dangerous swamps and haunting forests before he comes to Troll Mountain.
The New York State Library. It is a silent sanctuary of knowledge; a 100-year-old labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow aisles, and spiralling staircases. For Doctor Stephen Swain and his eight-year-old daughter, Holly, it is also the site of a nightmare.
There is an equipment-testing team up in the Arctic. It does not have the weaponry or strength to attack a fortified island held by a vicious army. But it is led by a Marine captain named Schofield, call-sign: Scarecrow.
History and myth are often woven throughout the Matthew Reilly books in order. He has written straight thrillers, historical thrillers, as well as science fiction and fantasy offerings. Reilly has achieved undeniable success from his self-published debut to nearly eight million copies sold around the world.
Matthew Reilly is an Australian author whose books are very popular with teen boys. He writes fast-paced books which can best be described as action-thrillers, with twisting plots and lots of intense action. His books may not be great literature but if they get - or keep - teen boys reading, they fulfill a need and may even provide a springboard for young men to start reading other kinds of books as well.
Best of all, Matthew Reilly's books make reading fun for teenaged boys and that's a really important thing. Once they find reading fun and want to read, they'll read more often which means they'll become better readers and that has implications for all areas of their life, starting with their school work.
Matthew Reilly was born on 2 July 1974 in Sydney, Australia. He grew upin Willoughby in Sydney with his parents and older brother, Stephen, andwent to a Catholic high school called St Aloysius College. He finishedschool in 1992 and from 1993 until 1997 studied law at the University of New South Wales where he was a contributor to the university journal Poetic Justice.
Matthew wrote his first book, Contest, when he was only 19 and submitted it to all the major Australian publishers. When the publishers rejected the novel, his then-girlfriend (later his wife) encouraged him to take out a bank loan and self-publish it.
He had 1000 copies printed and took them around to book shops in an effort to convince them to stock it. Cate Paterson, a commissioning editor from one of the major publishers picked up a copy of Contest in a book shop and ended up offering him a two-book deal.
Reilly is a huge movie fan and owns several movie prop reproductions. These include a life-size statue of Han Solo frozen in carbonite from one of the Star Wars movies and a DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future. He now lives in Los Angeles.
The Jack West Jr series begins with Seven Ancient Wonders, whose plot centres on a magnificent golden capstone which 4500 yearsago sat on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The stone was a source ofimmense power but it was divided into seven pieces, each of which washidden within one of the seven greatest structures of the age. Nowit's 2006 and terrorists, the most powerful nations on earth and onegroup led by the mysterious Captain Jack West Jr battle booby-trappedmines, crocodile-infested swamps and evil forces in the race to find thepieces.
The Shane Schofield series begins with Ice Station which is set at a remote US ice station in Antarctica. Scientists discover something unusual buried deepbelow the surface, inside a layer of 400-million-year-old ice.It's thediscovery of a lifetime but it's a very valuable discovery and one men will kill for. Led by the enigmatic Lieutenant ShaneSchofield, a crack team of US Marines is rushed to the ice station tosecure this bizarre discovery for their nation. But othercountries are determined to get there first.
I manage to catch Matthew Reilly for an interview on one of his sojourns to his native Australia that he completes every year or so. The forty-four-year-old best-selling author is in town to do the promotional leg of his writerly duties, set to appear at several bookshops the nation over, giving his legions of fanatical fans the opportunity to get a signed copy of the latest instalment in the Jack West Jnr series, The Three Secret Cities and maybe even a photo with the big man himself.
At mentioning his research process, we delve deeper into the nuts and bolts of how he goes about it. Admittedly unique, Matthew Reilly exhaustively researches the historical basis for his stories and then completely maps out said stories before penning a word of what will ultimately become the novel. This style sets him at odds with a large portion of his contemporaries, who predominately tend to charge into a new project, head-first, with no notion of where the story will eventually end up. Furthermore, Reilly reveals that he never definitively concludes the research aspect.googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-ArticlesPOS4'); );
Aside from actualising the epic finish he had pictured in his head, Reilly also presented himself with a plethora of other difficulties to overcome, high among them being the inclusion of a veritable ensemble of characters. Reilly addresses how he went about producing a page-turner, while evenly distributing page-time between so many fan-favourite characters.
Such an endeavour could only ever be considered a taxing juggling act, particularly because characters and a fondness, or dislike, of them all, boils down to subjectivity. One reader might adore one character, and another might find them unbearable, thus the notion of fan service might be a romantic one, but probably impossible to universally realise. Reilly comments on a quagmire inherent in producing such novels.
A prime example of both writer and fan finding themselves in perfect agreement arose in The Three Secret Cities, with Matthew Reilly bringing back a minor, but nevertheless memorable, character with a bona fide bang after some fifteen-year gap between their appearances. The identity of the character has been redacted by me, purely for the sake of spoiler prevention, but Reilly offers some tantalising details, so as to whet the reading appetites of those that are yet to get stuck into reading Three Secret Cities.
With his writing now spanning in excess of twenty years and encompassing almost as many books, Reilly has afforded himself an immense world to play with and, as such, can now intertextually reference himself. Having such a range and depth of material to do this with makes Reilly count himself among other prolific authors like Stephen King, which allows for his characters to mention events from other, seemingly unrelated, stories. It also provides him with a wealth of opportunities to create new stories through minor, supposedly throw-away details threaded in older ones.
With such a detailed backstory warranting even the man who created it all to consult the previous novels for reference, this prompts the question of if he ever finds himself daunted, maybe even floored, by the sheer size of the saga that he is roughly midway through completing.
The fact that Reilly has reached a point whereby having discussions with Hollywood heavyweights about adapting his works into lavish productions is the norm, must make for an occasional profoundly surreal feeling, akin to pinching oneself to distinguish dream from reality.
As one of the most industrious Australian authors doing their namesake at the moment, fans of Matthew Reilly are never in shortage of his new novels to devour, nor are they ever forced to endure long waits until the next comes out (looking at you George R.R. Martin, hint, hint). Case in point, right on the back of the release of Three Secret Cities, fans have but a mere few months until his next novel, the aforementioned The Secret Runners of New York, is set to hit shelves nationwide. Ardent perennial fans and newcomers alike, be sure to stay tuned for more Reilly thrillers coming your way.
Deciding to write about thriller and mystery stemmed from becoming conscious of how much budget is needed in order to finish a movie that is truly enjoyable; whereas he only needs to use his considerable imagination to formulate scenes that are much more satisfying to the readers. His all time favorite book is Jurassic Park because it keeps him glued to the story as well as keeps him in suspense.
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