Friday, December 24, 2010

AND THE TITLE OF THE NEW SCARECOW NOVEL IS...

Hi there everyone. Sorry it's taken me so long to update this blog, but I do have a good excuse: I've been busy writing the new Scarecrow novel, the title of which I will now reveal. Drumroll, please. It is called...
SCARECROW
AND THE
ARMY OF THIEVES

The first draft is finished, done, dusted. And I can confidently say that this is easily the fastest Scarecrow book yet. It is also considerably more violent than any of my previous books. This sort of crept up on me (and I was the guy writing the book!), but as my readers will know, in my books, death has to be something to be feared. It has to be horrible, grisly, and, well, violent. And the Army of Thieves aren't a very nice bunch of guys, so death at their hands will be very nasty indeed...

It'll be out in late 2011 and I am busy revising it now, making it even faster still!

CO-AUTHORED NOVELS

I go to bookstores a lot. I just like browsing in them. I like to see what's being published, in fiction and non-fiction, and who's writing what.

One thing I noticed this Christmas season was a new Tom Clancy novel on the shelves. It was big and fat, like all his books used to be, and as a fan, I excitedly raced over to have a look at it.

Which was when I saw the co-author's name in teeny-tiny print underneath the loud and bold "Tom Clancy" dominating the jacket. I deflated. Still, I gave it the "read-the-first-page" test. I decided not to buy it.

As a matter of principle, I don't like co-authored novels. I don't like it when the "big" author's name is in large shiny letters while the co-author's name is in camouflaged small text somewhere at the bottom of the jacket or in very small print. I'd actually like to know who wrote the book: the "big" author or the co-author. Maybe these books should come with a "nutritional information panel" on the spine that says, in percentage terms, how much of the book the big-name author actually wrote and how much their less-well-known co-author wrote. Or perhaps a credit system, as in the movies: story by X, novel written by Y.

In the end, I guess all I can say is this: if you buy a book with my name on the cover, I wrote it. Period.

HOVER CAR RACER MOVIE NEWS

If you're interested in Hover Car Racer movie news, go to: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/11/tron-legacy-harry-potter-hovercar-3d-disney.html. Or just Google "hovercar", "Disney" and "Matthew Reilly".

All very exciting, but as I tell my readers: I can only wait and see, and hope that Disney decides to run with Hover Car. Of course, I myself think HCR would suit modern 3D perfectly – I mean, hey, a hovering car could hang suspended out over the cinema for minutes at a time!

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: TEMERAIRE by NAOMI NOVIK

I was browsing through a big bookstore in Sydney recently and in the science fiction and fantasy section I came across a beautiful hardback edition of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. It looked interesting and upon passing the "read-the-first-page" test with flying colours (great first page), I bought it.

The first book is called Temeraire (in the US, it was called His Majesty's Dragon) and it's about a Navy captain in the early 1800s who becomes the rider of a dragon named Temeraire. In the world in which the book is set, the Napoleonic wars are raging, only each country has its own varieties of dragon, which are used as air forces. Our hero, Lawrence, captures a French warship and finds a dragon egg in it, about to hatch. It hatches and the dragon that emerges is a rare Chinese variety which immediately attaches itself to Lawrence. He names it Temeraire, they are bonded as rider and dragon (a really wonderful concept of loyalty and friendship), and a great story ensues.

I'm now into the second book in the series and am pleased to see that there are several more after that. The imagination behind it is fantastic and Temeraire the dragon (who can speak) is a truly great character.

Well, I'd better go. Have a great Christmas 2010, and I am sure I'll be seeing you in late 2011 when I emerge from hiding with SCARECROW AND THE ARMY OF THIEVES.
Take care, and have a merry and safe holiday season!

Matthew Reilly
Sydney, Australia

Currently reading "Temple" by Matt Reilly.

I don't think I've ever re-read a book....and I've been reading books for over 20 years. There's too many books out there and my current list is a mile long of books I want to read. Who has time to re-read some?!

I've read the Hitchhikkers Guide to the galaxy

Should get around to reading that sometime.

Should get around to reading that sometime.

I really enjoy reading, but just don't do it as much as I used to. Don't know why. Last book I read was Sphere by Michael Crichton, and that was at christmas ffs, and I've read that before anyway. Last book I read that was new I read ages ago, and was some random sci-fi book that I randomly downloaded for free through the Stanza app on my iPhone, and I now can't recall what it was.

I've also got Football Factory finally and England away By John King which I am hoping will be good.

I loved Football Factory its nothing like the film really, King does the whole social commentary so well through his characters, it's brilliant. I've got England Away sitting on my desk for when I finish uni

Next up is David Hick's "Guantanamo - My Journey" - I'm not expecting much.

The fact there are people sympathetic to him is disgusting. Then he goes and writes an autobiography, attention seeking twat. [-(

One day your rights could be trampled just as quickly. Like him or not, if you let things like that happen to someone else they can happen to you.

Umm, it's not like Hicks was sitting around his house in Adelaide watching cricket in his stubbies when the big bad government knocked down the door and took him off to Cuba.
Pretty sure no other Australian citizen can expect to end up there, unless of course they do what Hicks did and take themselves off to Afghanistan and pursue military training with known terrorist groups.

Hicks, Habib, Assange.... who's next?

(I disagree with the politics of each to varying degrees)

Edited by mr: 6/6/2011 09:47:36 PM

All very different cases, but for each one the individual has gone out on a limb and done things most of us would consider foolhardy, if not plainly illegal. My issue was with the statement 'if you let things like that happen to someone else they can happen to you'. I don't plan on training with terrorists or releasing sensitive government information so I'm pretty sure it won't.