- Hardcover: 605 pages
- Publisher: Thorndike Press; Lrg edition (Jan 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 078626117X
- ISBN-13: 978-0786261178
- Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 14.1 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,606,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
" Reilly hurls readers into an adrenaline-drenched thrill ride... impossible to put down."
-- "Orlando Sentinel"
""
" Swain is clever, resourceful, and quick. The action is non-stop... this slam-bang story is great, good fun, and thoroughly entertaining."
--"Tulsa World""" "Reilly...can inspire awe. Speed demons, take note. "
--"Publishers Weekly"
"Compared to Matthew Reilly's "Temple" and his intrepid academic hero, Professor William Race, Indiana Jones is a wimp and The Raiders of The Lost Ark a snooze fest. Reilly's book has adrenaline in super-sized quantities."
--"The Orlando Sentinel" on "Temple" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
-- "Orlando Sentinel"
""
" Swain is clever, resourceful, and quick. The action is non-stop... this slam-bang story is great, good fun, and thoroughly entertaining."
--"Tulsa World""" "Reilly...can inspire awe. Speed demons, take note. "
--"Publishers Weekly"
"Compared to Matthew Reilly's "Temple" and his intrepid academic hero, Professor William Race, Indiana Jones is a wimp and The Raiders of The Lost Ark a snooze fest. Reilly's book has adrenaline in super-sized quantities."
--"The Orlando Sentinel" on "Temple" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
A reissue with new cover in a new format to coincide with Matt's new blockbuster The Five Greatest Warriors
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I suppose the genre for this book is Sci-fi but thriller would fit it too. I like thrillers and this is one of the fastest paced books I have read lately. The action takes place in the New York State Library and action there certainly is. Stephen Swain is a doctor, a radiologist, he is teleported from his Connecticut home to the library and told by a little man in white that he has been selected to represent Earth in a galactic, fight to the death, contest. To complicate matters Swain is holding his daughter, Holly, in his arms at the time of the transportation, so his killer instinct, not that he has one, is directed at protecting his daughter from the six other contestants and a few other ugly creatures along for the ride.
Well-done Reilly I will look out for the rest of your novels.
Well-done Reilly I will look out for the rest of your novels.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After this book i have nothing but praise and thanks for Matthew Reilly as this was the book that made me the avid reader i am today.
This book is an action-packed cauldron of aliens, special effects and .. midgets. The basic plot involves Stephen Swain, a regular doctor, being thrust into the world that is Contest. A brutal, and at sometimes gory, battle to the death.
After finding himself and his daughter telported into this monstrous battle, he must use his intelligence and his instincts to overcome these foes, whilst at the same time protecting his daughter.
While at first trying to avoid every confrontation by running away, he finds out that in the end the only way to survive, is to fight.
Prepare to enter the world of Matthew Reilly, you'll want to pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable, becuase once your there, you'll never want to leave.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
OK, so Contest may never be discussed in the same reverential tones as more profound and visionary sci-fi, penned by the likes of Iain Banks, Stephen Baxter or Jose Farmer, but it's certainly an entertaining read nonetheless.
The adventures of our hero Stephen Swain, inadvertently and unwillingly enrolled in a form of alien gladiatorial combat, are more than competently described by Reilly and I'm sure most readers will devour this entertaining pot-boiler in a flurry of undemanding page-turning.
In the appendix, the author pays tribute to Jurassic Park, and the influence of Crichton is clear in Contest. Indeed the stalking and confrontations set amongst a maze of bookcases are highly reminiscent of the velociraptors in the kitchen scene in JP. Reilly does, however, inject enough original touches to deflect any serious cries of plagiarism. In particular, the cheating alien called Bellos makes for an effectively evil villain and the bizarre creature referred to as Codex was both inventive and downright creepy.
No Earth-shattering surprises or twists along the way, but the ending was suitably explosive and satisfying. So, nowhere near being a sci-fi classic, but it certainly does what it says on the tin and you could do a lot worse than spending a few hours in the New York State Library with Reilly's dramatis personae, in the somewhat lightweight but pretty damn entertaining world of Contest.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting and different
I love the matthew Reilly books and purchased this one with only a quick glance at the review. The story sounded a little different. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Y. Gillespie
SO GOOD
This is the first book I have EVER read in one day, it's not a challenging read and thats good because it just means you can read it faster. Read more
Published 8 months ago by A.Young
Hardly Contested!
Contest by Matthew Reilly isn't just actiona dn adventure, its a sci-fi too. hte action takes place in the NY library; and its the lives of a few humans, and many more... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Beanee
FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE
This is the rewritten version of Contest by Matthew Reilly that first came out as a self-published novel in 1996. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. William Oxley
A real challenge!
This is a Matthew Reilly not to be missed. Come to think of it, it is a book not to be missed. There is no category to put this one in - it is dramatically different. Read more
Published 23 months ago by rhosymynydd
Contest, by Matthew Reilly
I had already read some of Matthew Reilly's later books before I read Contest,which was his first book. Read more
Published 23 months ago by E. Mcdonald
ACMatthew
Matthew Reilly's first book is the introduction to his style. Fast paced and intense. No it is not going to win the booker prize but it is a great action packed thriller.
Published on 2 Nov 2009 by A. Chapman
"breathlessly entertaining"
Unlike the negative reviews for this book, I found it to be a wonderful and breathtaking read. As was mentioned before it hits the ground running and doesn't let up until the... Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2009 by S. Willis
something slightly random
I know matthew reilly writes books where you hit the ground running. Full of adventure, amazing heroic acts, brilliant detail which if your like me and have a very vivid... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2009 by Mrs. J. S. Mander
Context by Matthew Reilly
I'm giving this book 5 stars and I've only ready half, but I've read half in 2 sittings. Really fast paced writing means I just don't want to put it down, I even went to bed early... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2009 by Lulu2608
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