book review : Contest by Mathew Reilly (again)

Contest is the first book that Mathew Reilly ever wrote, and it was a failure. He self-published it after every major publisher in Sydney rejected it. Hence, only 1000 copies of 'Contest' was sold worldwide. The one that i read was the rewritten version, after he got successful with his other books.

Contest is about a surgeon, Dr. Stephen Swain, who was chosen to represent Earth in an interplanetary contest, held in earth, the New York Public Library to be precise. He had no warning about this contest. The rules are simple: kill or be killed. 6 other contestants also participate, each from a different planet, each seeking to win. The last one standing in the library wins ultimate glory for himself and his race. So Dr. Swain is forced to navigate the library with his daughter, avoiding the other contestants who are all better than him physically. His only weapon is his superior intellect. But even if he survives, he might not make it out alive......

My favorite character in the book is Dr. Stephen Swain. He is smart, and very calm. He does not panic in difficult situations, and works his way out of sticky situations, enabling him to survive many of the dangers in the book. He also does not crack under pressure, and has good reactions.

Of all of Mathew Reilly's books, Contest is easily the fastest. Mathew Reilly writes this 400+ page book about a time span of about 2-3 hours, not even 5. Every page of the book is filled with danger and action, as Dr. Swain tried to survive the deadly contest. As Mathew Reilly says, "it is like a sports car stripped down to its raw components : engine, wheels, frame. No fancy paintwork. No fancy upholstery. Just raw, non-stop energy".

Book review--scarecrow by Mathew Reilly

I read the book, Scarecrow, by Mathew Reilly. It is about a super-soldier, Captain Shane Schofield, call sign the scarecrow, who is on an international bounty hunt. The list comprises of fifteen targets, from all over the world, who have to be dead by noon the next day. The price on their heads: $18.6 million each. So all of a sudden, the scarecrow is thrust into a fight for his life, with no idea why he is targetted, and who is targetting him. With help from his friends, he continues to survive while trying to find out everything that is happening at the same time.

My favorite character in this book is David Fairfax. He is the one that checks out everything for the scarecrow. He looks up people, records and everything for captain Schofield. He is the one that makes everything possible, but he works behind the scenes, unnoticed by anyone until the scarecrow sends him as a field agnet. He is very intelligent, and was able to crack a code the pentagon could not using an ordinary laptop. He is very good at breaking codes and hacking into classified records, unfortunately something he cannot boast about.

I like this author, Mathew Reilly, because he write super-fast-paced books that keep one reading on. The whole book 'scarecrow', is of 12 hours of non-stop fighting. The main characters are actually finding things out while fighting for their lives at the same time. He has this writing style that has a lot of description, and they are over a very short time span. At the end of the book, he makes you look back and think "hey, all this actually happened so fast, in so short a time span??"