Matthew Reilly is an author living in
Sydney,
Australia. To date he has written four books,
Contest,
Ice Station,
Temple and
Area 7. Contest, his first novel, was originally self-published but was picked up by Pan MacMillan after the success of Ice Station. His writing style is similar to that of
Tom Clancy and
Michael Crichton; the latter's Jurassic Park inspired him to begin writing.
Ice Station and Area 7 revolve around Lieutenant Shane Schofield,
United States Marine Corps, and the Marines under his command. Ice Station finds them in the hostile Antarctic frozen wilderness sent to secure an American ice station and the occupants. Area 7 goes to the opposite extreme, set in a secret military base in the middle of the American desert.
Temple follows Professor William Race in an innovative split timeline, one in the present and one in 1535, both in the South American jungle. The story switches between the two among many twists and turns as Race reads a manuscript guiding the way to an Incan idol wanted by
DARPA. Plot twists abound.
Contest follows a different pattern to Reilly's other novels. It's absent much of the military and technological contents of the later books, but makes up for it with an action-packed plotline. Contest places Doctor Stephen Swain and his daughter into the Presidian, an interplanetary contest between seven alien races with only one survivor.
Reilly himself has two degrees, Arts and Law. He was a student in Sydney at St Aloysius' College, where he played cricket, and wrote Contest during the first year of his law degree. He has also written screenplays.