Seven Ancient Wonders (53 page)

This was a thematic thing that I started in
Hover Car Racer
and I enjoyed it immensely when I wrote that novel. In the end, when you write an action-thriller novel, you must have characters that you care about, and by creating this quasi-family environment out of a bunch of hard-ass troopers, I felt I’d created a special kind of team that readers would want to cheer for.

I particularly love how Lily renames all the soldiers, changing all
their tough-guy callsigns into goofy childish nicknames. Having utilised ‘serious’ call-signs in the Scarecrow books, I felt it was time to have a bit of fun, and turn this plot device on its head.

Is it true that for this book you created your own language?

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I created a language! What I did do was create an alphabet (not unlike cuneiform) to display the Word of Thoth—but my translation is just from English, not a brand-new language. That would have been way too hard and time-consuming. I’ll leave that sort of thing to JRR Tolkien!

It took some time, but it was great fun. I created symbols to match those of our own alphabet, plus rules for proper nouns and special symbols for certain objects (like the Great Pyramid, Alexander the Great and the Sun, for instance). If anyone has the time and the inclination they can translate all the Thoth references in the book back to English, but be careful, as in the novel, it gets harder, as more symbols are used, and sometimes not from left-to-right!

After the book has been out a while, I’ll put up the alphabet on my website, so that anyone who’s interested can see how it works.

With the exception of Jason Chaser in
Hover Car Racer, Seven Ancient Wonders
sees the introduction of your first Australian action hero. What made you decide to make Jack West Jr an Australian?

It suited the story. Simple as that. I’m often asked why the heroes of my other books are American and the answer is really the same: it suited those stories (it especially suited
Ice Station
).

With
Seven Ancient Wonders
, I wanted the hero specifically
not
to be American. He had to lead this little band of small nations against the combined might of America and Europe. And so I
thought of an ex-SAS soldier from Australia. I also knew that the ending of the book required one country to be imbued with the power of Tartarus, and what could be more fun than Australia being the most powerful country on Earth and not knowing it? (I already think that, anyway!)

You mention
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown a couple of times in the novel. Have you read it? Did it influence you?

I have indeed read
The Da Vinci Code
and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I actually read it long before it dominated the bestseller lists—when I was touring with
Scarecrow
in 2003, I would recommend it to anyone who would listen!

That said,
The Da Vinci Code
wasn’t really an influence on
Seven Ancient Wonders
. The Indiana Jones movies were probably more of an influence. I wanted to create an Indiana Jones-type story, with booby traps and high adventure, but set in the present day. The reason I mentioned
The Da Vinci Code
in the book was really because that novel is now
so
globally known, if you do write a story about Catholic Church conspiracy theories or one which has a scene set in the Louvre, you should probably make a
Da Vinci Code
joke!

Seven Ancient Wonders
features some pretty dastardly American villains! Is it an anti-American novel?

I hope it’s not interpreted that way. The Americans are just the villains in this book, that’s all. They want the power of Tartarus and so they go after it—they just do so a little more ruthlessly than our heroes!

The key to
Seven Ancient Wonders
was that the heroes had to be underdogs, underdogs battling the most powerful nation on Earth, and that at the moment is America. America has more guns, tanks and planes than the next dozen countries combined. For a bunch of
little countries to go up against the United States is a big thing, a hard thing. And that, to my mind, makes for an interesting story.

I guess, like many others, I do question the new American ‘Imperialism’ under George W. Bush, but unlike others I don’t dislike America for it. It’s a lone superpower in a changed world. It has to figure out how to find its way, just like the rest of us. It will make mistakes. Unfortunately, any mistakes it makes will have a big impact on everyone else on this planet. It will also, it must be said, do much good.

I don’t know. I invariably find myself
defending
America when I’m out at dinner with friends. I have many American friends, and I work with some
very
clever New Yorkers and Los Angelinos. Smart people, all of them. I also firmly believe that America is a fantastic social experiment—a land of opportunity, where capitalism is king, and where 280 million people live in relative peace under the rule of law; not a bad achievement at all.

After all that, if some Americans think that just because I made them the villains of this book that I’m anti-American, then what can I do? I’ll just have to cop it and know that they’re wrong. And hey, the Brits never minded being the villains of
Ice Station
! But then again, I still have not been published in France . . .

Will we see Jack West Jr again?

I think there’s a good chance we’ll see Jack West in a new book sometime in the future. I enjoyed writing about him and going on this huge adventure with him—and that’s the key incentive for me to write about a character a second time. It takes me a year to write a novel, and if I’m going to spend a year with a character, I have to like him or her!

And I do already have an idea of what that adventure could be . . .

You’ve had a busy year.
Seven Ancient Wonders
,
Hell Island
,
and your movie work on
Contest
.
How have you survived it all?

Yes, it has been a busy year! But it’s been enormous fun.

I had just finished
Seven Ancient Wonders
when the call came from the Federal Government asking if I would write a brand-new short-novel for their Books Alive campaign. Luckily, I had a new idea sitting in the ‘Story Ideas’ drawer of my desk ready to go, so I turned around, sat back down and started writing again!

And yes, at that stage, I’d already planned to direct a pilot shoot of
Contest
, so I was in the midst of pre-production when I was polishing both
Hell Island
and
Seven Ancient Wonders
. I’m still not quite sure how I did it, but I figured I could sleep later! Believe me, I’m resting now.

Shane Schofield appeared in the Books Alive edition of
Hell
Island
.
Will we see the Scarecrow again in a new novel?

A few things about
Hell Island
, especially since I didn’t do an interview like this in the back of that book.

I really enjoyed doing
Hell Island
, and making it a Schofield book. I think it’s a pretty kick-ass story—bold, fast and
mean
; and yet still short. It was designed to be a kind of ‘side-adventure’ for Schofield; a minor mission that occurred in between books (although technically it occurs after the events in
Scarecrow
). You also have to remember that my fans in the US and other countries won’t see
Hell Island
, as it was a free book given out in Australia only, which I actually kind of like.

Will he appear again? I reckon so. He’s a fun character, who’s always getting into trouble, and they’re the ones I like to write about. The question is, who do I write about next? Schofield or Jack West?

What is the latest movie news?

Hover Car Racer
is still with Disney. Last I heard, Al Gough and Miles Millar were still at work on the screenplay. And, of course, I’m hard at work trying to get
Contest
up and running as a feature film.

I had an awesome time directing the pilot of
Contest
earlier this year, which was the first twelve minutes of the book: this included getting a creature shop to build a fully-articulated Karanadon head and filming it in the stack of the New South Wales State Library. We also filmed in the abandoned train tunnels underneath Sydney, the Royal North Shore Hospital and even in the basement of my house! Ah, movie magic.

So, what’s next for Matthew Reilly?

Sleep. Rest. And maybe play a bit of golf. It’s been a very busy year and I need to slow down a bit. I’m just going to sit on my couch and read a bunch of non-fiction books! Although if I get
Contest
up and running, then it’ll be all systems go and I can sleep next year . . .

Any final words?

As always, I just hope you all enjoyed the book. I had a lot of fun writing this one and I hope you had just as much fun reading it.

M.R.
Sydney, Australia
October 2005