A comparative speech of two books, Contest-by Matthew Reilly and The Perfect Storm, Sebastion Junger.

Essay by twigster16High School, 12th gradeB, August 2005

download word file, 5 pages 4.0 1 reviews

Downloaded 17 times

You are hanging from your fingertips, your shallow breathing rasping loudly as you look down to your feet swinging madly in thin air.

This is a typical scene of survival in which a character is in grave danger, hanging on for his life. The theme I have chose to discuss is survival against all odds, and have attempted to analyse this very theme in two books, consisting of a fiction and non-fiction style.

The objective; to understand how the authors of my two books deal with my theme of survival. In order to establish this, the books will be examined for any connections or similarities as well as major differences that are present.

My first book, written by Matthew Reilly, the #1 bestselling author in Australia, was titled contest and was the fiction book I chose to read in order to explore my chosen theme.

Possibly the best way to describe this book is an episode of Survivor, but with a group of nasty aliens being the other contestants.

Dr Stephen Swain and his young daughter, Holly, are trapped inside the sprawling labyrinth that is the New York State Library. They have to survive the night. Of course, it's not just any night: the building has been chosen as the venue for a contest. The contest which is named the Presidian, is an intergalactic battle from which Seven players, each from a different world, is selected to represent their species, and compete for their lives, combating not only each other but also a monster called the Karanodon. Humans are the least advanced, and as well as the lack of knowledge in other intelligent life, have no idea that The Presidian even exists.

The rules are simple: win or die. Seven species will compete until only one is left standing...