Following rejections from all the major publishers, Matthew self-published Contest in 1996, printing 1000 copies. He produced a big-budget-looking novel which he sold into bookshops throughout Sydney, one shop at a time. Distances itself from the claim of birth family (his Mom is alright, but his father is a psycho and daughter adopted) in favour of chosen family of friends and mentors of different generations. An underlying current is that it is choices that matter, not the family or privileges you're born into.

I was nervous that I might not feel able to give this 5 stars, but Matthew has not let us down and delivered another complete winner. He’s also been busy directing a movie and writing a stand-alone, which is all very exciting, but all I really want now is another Scarecrow book - is that too much to ask? I can’t count the times when I’d race out the door of my apartment, my mind racing, only to stop suddenly, having forgotten my laptop or script or storyboards. I’d spin and touch my hip, where my trusty key clip hung, and there – every time, safely dangling from my belt – were my keys. Throughout the whole shoot, I never lost my keys. Unbelievably useful. The item I most regret losing The books are all high adventure with some mythology thrown in. The mythology is real mythology sometimes looked at from a different perspective. I’ve long been impressed by the author’s ability to blend fiction and reality and he does it so well. Again I looked up some of the historical places mentioned and they do exist, and they are as stunning and interesting as Reilly makes them out to be in the books.I'm a big Matthew Reilly fan and I own and have read every novel and most of the novellas he's released. While he's no literary master, he's my favourite 7/10 action thriller author, and is surprisingly progressive to boot (surprising for a middle-aged white man who went to a wealthy private school). That said, this is the worst written Matthew Reilly book by far. Hugely disappointed by it. The number of times he uses . . . Heart-stopping moments. Tense battles. Epic puzzles. Dramatic deaths. All brought together by that insane, way-over-the-top action that we know and love as the signature of Matthew Reilly. I really wanted to enjoy this book. I really wanted this to be a redeeming point on the series. A return to form from the first few novels. From Ice Station most of all, one of my favourite books of all or the Tournament which i feel was his best work, because it wasn't action porn. It wasn't trying to be the literary form of Michael Bay. He will never be the worlds greatest author. He won't have the prose of someone like Rothfuss or King, but when you're writing..... The settings are detailed, intricate and well developed. The pictures help to visualize the locations and puzzles.

The story bounces from one maze to the next and... That's it. Basically one long conclusion that ties up all the loose ends it's a satisfying enough ending if not somewhat predictable. Reilly knows what he likes and writes for people who like it. He can describe his own images as long as you don't overthink the science behind it all. I was very critical of the previous book in the series, The Two Lost Mountains. It had many instances of people (read heroes) dying, only for them to magically reappear later on. There was also the issue of the storyline becoming more juvenile as the series progressed, but foul language and blasphemy were prevalent throughout. I was left confused as to who the target audience was.

The One Impossible Labyrinth: A Jack West Jr Novel 7

Overall, I'd highly recommend this book and series. It's sad to say goodbye to a beloved series after 16 years and 7 books but overall the ending was satisfying and wrapped everything up well. I've finished the series. I've now read everything that Matthew has written. I've loved a lot of it. So I get invited to this big garden party at the Australian embassy in Washington DC (I live in LA so the Australian government sometimes asks “prominent Australians living in the United States” to attend events like this; I confess it is kind of flattering to get these invites. Fun, too.). Now he faces one last race – against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself – a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth.

My gripes aside, it was much better than I expected it to be. In fact, I’ve been putting off reading it for some time, thinking I would just be frustrated again. But I must complete a book and a series once I’m committed. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it other than the predictable outcomes of certain characters’ survival. As predictable as the outcome was, it was a good one. Bad guys lose, good guys win, so what’s there not to like? The highly anticipated conclusion to one of the most jaw-dropping epic series I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Since Seven Ancient Wonders in 2005, Matthew's novels have been the biggest selling new fiction title released in Australia for that year. Oh look. Your favourite character is in danger. Oh look. They're dead. BUT NO. They're alive again thanks to some miraculous stroke of genius that this character concocts to foil the bad guys plot once again. It's lazy writing. He can do better. Most of all, he HAS done better. The last time that a characters death meant something to me was when Wizard died. The twins deaths went by without a blink because they didn't feel relevent enough to me to be kept alive for the future.Now he faces one last race - against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself - a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth. The One Impossible Labyrinth has a deeply satisfying conclusion – it easily surpassed my expectations, and is a great end to the series as a whole. Reilly understands that the misery and pain across the series is only worth it if the narrative does end happily, and I appreciate the thought put into this ending. As someone who really did not like the last book after returning to the series after a long break, TOIL is less aggregious with toned down commentary on the church and modern politics and pop culture references. On the one hand Reilly explains everything on the other any science behind the final revelation is cursary at best and the story would have benefited from even more time at the end explaining how Earth ( and the moon ) came to be, who the civilisation actually was that actually seeded everything and some of the science behind the magic.