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Contest, the action-packed extravaganza that launched this international best-selling career, is vintage Reilly at his explosive best.
The New York Public Library. A silent sanctuary of knowledge; a 100-year-old labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow aisles and long marble hallways. For Doctor Stephen Swain and his daughter, Holly, it is the site of a nightmare. Because for one night this historic building is to be the venue for a contest. A contest in which Swain is to compete - whether he likes it or not.The rules are simple: Seven contestants will enter, only one will leave. With his daughter in his arms, Stephen Swain is plunged into a terrifying fight for survival. The stakes are high, the odds brutal. He can choose to run, to hide or to fight - but if he wants to live, he has to win. For in this contest, unless you leave as the victor, you do not leave at all.
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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.
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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