Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Rating

* * * * 

The book's description from the publisher's website:

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.  

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

Are you ready, indeed?! Because it's going to be the most fun roller-coaster ride you'll have in a while. In some cases, when deciding whether to read a book or not, I let the ratings guide me even though the parts in a synopsis may disturb me. Ready Player One has gotten fantastic ratings and I just had to see for myself, despite my general indifference (in the least)/ dislike (at the most) of pop culture and the 80s. Clearly, I did like it a lot. To put it simply (and hopefully, in the spirit of the 80s pop culture), Ready Player One is awesome.

This book is straight out science fiction. Even though this particular genre used to be my favorite one in my high school years, I have since turned my attention to other books and after having read Ready Player One, I honestly cannot tell you why I abandoned science-fiction. Ernest Cline did gives us a book that is entertaining, engages your imagination but that also forces you to face the reality that one day might very well be. Unlike fantasy which deals with purely imaginary worlds and/or creatures, Ready Player One takes us to a very bleak future, where people have given up and instead of trying to do something, anything to preserve the quickly vanishing good parts of the real world they lived in, they decided to turn to virtual reality, to living in made up worlds, where they can be anything they want to be. Anything but themselves. I must say, I did find it really depressing at times. And, when you really think about it, really scary. Because unlike other dystopian novels, where catastrophes happen to humans, who don't give up and don't go out without fighting, Ready Player One has humanity receding from the world and hiding their heads in the sand. To me, there's nothing more depressing than my own species willing to just give it all up. For the sake of ultimate escapism; escaping from bad reality around them, but really escaping from themselves. 

 

Anyway, a little bit of a rant there, but that's the beauty of Cline's writing. On the surface it's an entertaining, fast-paced, science-fiction bit, with the nostalgia for the 80s permeating the pages. But if you know how to read between the pages and to dig a little deeper, there's existentialism of the first order there, the one that's probably plaguing most of the humanity right now. Of course, there's never one, good answer. But Ready Player One raises some pretty darn good questions. And honestly, even if you take this novel at face value, you'll get a chock full of action, feeling at times you are in an arcade game yourself.

There is one gripe I had with this book and it's probably not something that will affect readers in America. To me, Ready Player One seems to be America-centered novel, mostly because it couldn't take place around the world because the 80s pop culture the whole plot is involved in, is the pop culture of the U.S., which means that players from other countries (besides Japan, since the pieces of their pop culture were mentioned as well) wouldn't have much knowledge to go on. But that's possible I guess, since they could learn about it. However, the audience this book is intended for has to be American. Why do I say that? Because (myself coming from Poland and living through the 80s there), other countries had their own 80s to live through that had nothing to do with the pop culture used in Ready Player One. I lived through the 80s, one of the most tumultuous decades in the history of my country, Poland on the brink of the civil war, the 'march' to long-dreamed-of and hard-fought-for democracy, people dying fighting rather than living a day longer under a communist regime. Trust me, we had no idea what even a sitcom was. And that's just one country out of many. so unless you know the 80s in the U.S. either because you lived it, have family members who did, or have lived here for some substantial amount of time, it'll be difficult to fully appreciate this aspect of Ready Player One (not that it's not it won't be a hit, I can't know that and it's already been translated into many languages). But anyone can appreciate the message in the end. At least I hope so. Especially our young ones. That it's not all about picking which boy to choose, or how to vie for a girl's attention, and especially not about having the latest iPhone.

 

Trust me on this, though. You will not waste your time or money if you choose to read Cline's Ready Player One, no matter what age you are. It's that much fun.

 

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FTC: I received Ready Player One by Ernest Cline for review from the publicist, Wunderkind PR.

The paperback copy of Ready Player One will be released on June 5th, 2012.

 

Make sure to visit Ernest Cline's website & Ready Player One's website.

2-in-1: The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor & Matched by Ally Condie

1. The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

The book's synopsis from the author's website:

1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge

They say Jerusalem is haunted by Mrs Whichcote's ghost. Frank Oldershaw claims he saw her in the garden, where she drowned. Now he's under the care of a physician.
Desperate to salvage her son's reputation and restore him to health, Lady Anne Oldershaw employs her own agent - John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts, a controversial attack on the existence of ghostly phenomena. But his arrival in Cambridge disrupts the uneasy status quo. He glimpses a world of privilege and abuse, where the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs life at Jerusalem more effectively than the Master, Dr Carbury, ever could.


But Holdsworth's powers of reason and his knowledge of natural philosophy have other challenges. He dreams of his dead wife, Maria, who roams the borders of death. Now there's Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife, to haunt him in life. And at the heart of it all is the mystery of what really happened to Sylvia Whichcote in the claustrophobic confines of Jerusalem.


Why was Sylvia found lying dead in the Long Pond just before a February dawn? And how did she die? Indeed, why was she at Jerusalem, living or dead, in the first place?

It was an okay book for me. It took too long to get into the whole murder mystery and despite there being more than one secret to reveal, I just couldn't get myself very interested. The Anatomy of Ghosts is considered a literary thriller and maybe I'm just not that big of a fan of this particular genre. There is definitely a lot more to the story than simply solving the murder case. The whole little society of scholars living on the grounds of Jerusalem College (a fictitious part of Cambridge University) seems to be almost drowning in secrets. The characterization is not bad really. No one's character seems to be really spotless and the ones that do, turn out quite the opposite at some point in the story.

I actually liked the ending quite a lot and this is what redeemed the whole novel for me. The action picked up as the mysteries started to get revealed, one by one and I didn't see the outcome of the murder coming at all. Fans of literary thrillers will probably like The Anatomy of Ghosts a lot, as well as history fans since it was interesting to read about the life in Cambridge in the 18th century. But if you're just looking for the swift plot and quick action, it's probably not a book for you.

2. Matched by Ally Condie

The book's synopsis from the book's website:

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion.

It was a nice read, very quick, it can be easily read in one day, if the time allows. The concept of the dystopian society where everything is controlled, including the nutritional content of the food one eats, and no one stands out is interesting and scary. I hope it will never come to that in real life (I think that teenagers, if no one else, would rebel sooner or later, unless there's something in the food that makes them docile and not interested in asking questions and seeking answers). Ms. Condie did create a convincing, if frightening, reality.

What I didn't like was the love triangle. I think this part of the plot is what usually keeps me away from the YA books. Call me a bitter cynic or something, but the sappiness of it all just put me off and was the barrier keeping me from fully enjoying the story. And Cassie was another problem. Her cowardice throughout most of the book was annoying and I'm just glad she showed some guts in the end. All and all, it was an all right book and young readers will definitely enjoy it.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that almost everyone has heard about The Passage by Justin Cronin by now. At least  the people in the booking world have. And for good reason now that I’ve read it myself. I’m not kidding when I say, I have been waiting for this book my whole life. Well, maybe I’m over the top a little bit :), but The Passage is such a book that will make you feel like this is it, you have found what you were looking for in the reading department.

Project NOAH was supposed to make U.S. soldiers invincible. The virus found in the jungles of Bolivia turns humans into powerful, indestructible beings but it also kills them shortly afterward. One scientist, with the help of U.S. Army is determined to make this deadly virus work for humans, not against them. The experiment conducted on twelve death row inmates takes a tragically wrong turn when the twelve subjects, who are now fully functioning virus carriers and no longer humans but vampires from your worst nightmares, escape and devour every living creature in their way.  Soon, the human species faces extinction and the only person that can save people from this fate is a six-year-old girl, Amy with the help of an FBI agent, Wolgast and a nun from Sierra Leone, Lacey.  Will Amy succeed and will humanity persevere or will the consequences of  trying to tame what cannot be tamed be finally too high a price to pay? Well, you just have to read The Passage to find out :).

I think I already made it pretty clear that I loved this book. I will say it again though, just for the effect, I LOVE THE PASSAGE!!!!! I have been on the lookout for mean, nasty and bloodthirsty vampires for the longest time. I will be honest with you here, I got really sick of the noble, out-of-this world beautiful creatures who drink blood only to survive but really are our best friends. This is not what you’ll find in The Passage. The vampires, or virals as they are called by some, are some mean SOB’s whose hunger takes over every other instinct and who are nearly indestructible. I guess I have a mean streak in me but I really enjoyed myself reading about them.  This book is actually pretty scary and I don’t say it lightly. I have read my shares of horrors and not much can scare me but Mr. Cronin did a pretty good job doing just that. I suppose, it’s mainly because all the time while reading The Passage, I kept thinking how the story might not be as far fetched as it seems on the surface. That possibility plus awesome action that stops only to allow a reader to take a short breath kept me literally on the edge of my seat. I swear to you, I had The Passage-related dream every night while reading it.

The Passage however, is not all vampires, action and nightmares. It is also a novel with some beautiful writing, sometimes almost lyrical prose that you normally wouldn’t look for in a horror novel. That’s why I even hesitate to label the book and categorize it in any one way. It’s a study of characters, of what people are really made of, it’s a scary look into what our future might be (whether the cause are vampires or some other nasty things we dabble in unnecessarily) , and finally it’s an enthralling ride that will take you places you never thought you wanted to go until you got there and will put in your path people you’ll love, hate and feel sorry for until you’ll realize you don’t want to part ways with any of them. And guess what, you won’t have to. At least not for long because The Passage is actually book one of a trilogy (YAY!). I am very happy that there gets to be more of Amy and a few other people that I can’t reveal here. Let me just say that I was very happy with the way things ended for now. Thank goodness, the ending was just as good as the whole novel and didn’t ruin the experience for me (it sadly happens more often than I care to admit). That’s that, I won’t sing any more praises and will just ask you to go and dive into The Passage yourself.

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I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, Ballantine Books.

Under the Dome by Stephen King

There are books that get me fairly upset, enough to keep me in this state for days or even weeks until I vent about what’s bothering me to someone.  Now, you’d think that a book blog is a perfect place to vent. But I have found it’s not necessarily so, mainly because now I am crowded by doubts if I will offend anyone or make people all of a sudden dislike me, so on and so forth. I have been hesitating to write the review for Under the Dome more than ever because I know that this book is liked by majority of readers and I know why I could offend others by disliking the things in it that are the reasons they love this novel so. To make the long story short, my review might be controversial.

Stephen King has written another behemoth. With over 1000 pages, Under the Dome is a story with tons of characters, a lot happening and plotlines to entertain a reader for days. One October day, the town of Chester’s Mill, Maine gets separated from the rest of the world by a mysterious transparent wall. It soon becomes apparent that nothing and no one can get in or out through the wall. It’s called the Dome for a reason too, because that’s precisely the shape of it. Now this little town with big personalities for residents has to fend for itself, with no outside help but also no outside interference. And that means that a scheming selectman Jim Rennie has a free reign and can finally be the ultimate law without consequences. People die, they’re murdered, killed or give up hope and commit suicides. Soon, there will be no more gasoline for the generators and subsequently no more electricity. But the evil reign of Rennie and his “helpers” is not what the residents of Chester’s Mill should fear the most. There is something much more sinister coming their way.

You have no idea how I wanted to read Under the Dome. I was so excited when I got it for Christmas that I thought I would actually fall asleep hugging it. Stephen King is after all one of my all-time favorite writers and Under the Dome was supposed to be a work of art akin to The Stand (which happens to be my most beloved book of his and the golden standard for all dystopian literature). The excitement waned quickly, when I realized that Under the Dome is a crowd pleaser. There, I said it. For the first time ever, Stephen King decided to write a book that would stroke the egos of the majority, instead of coming up with something new, something that’s non-conformist and that eludes the mainstream. The characters are very cliché, I almost couldn’t believe that the most evil, corrupted and power hungry person in the whole book would be a Republican, Christian white male. Really?! Could you have come up with anything more obvious than that, Mr. King? I don’t think so.  Political orientations aside, I was most bothered by King taking cheap shots at Christians. I have to be honest with you, I am sick and tired of writers doing that nowadays, especially when it happens to be an author I respect and like for his unparalleled characterization skills. King chose the road of least resistance because who is honestly going to not like reading about this ‘far right, fundamentalist Christian looney’.  If you read majority of the reviews, people love it. Well, I hate it because written word is a powerful weapon and Under the Dome propagates a stereotype that happened to be unjust and hurtful.

Technically, King is still somewhat successful. He knows what he’s doing when introducing a cornucopia of characters without having a reader dazed and confused. You will most likely have no trouble with finding your way among the residents of Chester’s Mill. Character development is flawless and I had clear images of each and every person featured in the novel even though the descriptive passages and adverbs and adjectives were few and far between. You want to read a fest of ‘show and don’t tell’? Grab Under the Dome.  Despite all of the above however, at the end of the book I realized I couldn’t care less about any of the residents. It was a shock to me because that never happened with other King’s books.  One last thing, this is not another Stand. The Stand is a timeless masterpiece and Under the Dome pales to transparency in its light, almost as if Mr. King ran out of ideas and there were no more tricks up his sleeve.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I think I have mentioned already that I am not a particular fan of YA fiction, especially the paranormal/fantasy genre. There it is, I mentioned it again :) I do however read YA novels from time to time and from time to time there is a gem in there. This time the gem is The Maze Runner by James Dashner. And to think that I almost didn't pick it up at BEA (Book Expo America, which, BTW, is coming up soon and if you can, be there) last year! Thank goodness I stopped and waited in line because the wait was more than worth it.

The novel is what I would categorize as science-fiction Young Adult with dystopian elements. The main character, Thomas, wakes up one day in what looks like a lift. He remembers nothing besides his name. He doesn't know where he is, what happened to him other than that whatever it was, it wasn't good. When he is greeted by other boys approximately his age (at least by the look of it, since Thomas doesn't really know his own age) into what they call the Glade, Thomas gets the feeling that things are about to get much worse. None of the boys know why they have no memories of their previous lives and why they are in the Glade. All they know is that the Glade is surrounded by the Maze from which there is no way out and which at nighttime is a very dangerous place to be. They are protected from what's in the Maze by stone walls that shut tight at dusk and keep the boys safe. They also know that the lift has delivered a new boy every thirty days for two years now as well as weekly supplies necessary for survival. However, things start getting complicated with the arrival of Thomas as some boys seem to recognize him from their previous lives and on top of that, one day later the lift has another delivery and this time it's a girl, something that had never happened before. Even more disturbing is the message she brings with her that may have just squished any hope of the boys getting out of the Glade.

Wow! What a ride this book was! I am very, very impressed and completely hooked, since yes, there is going to be part two :) I loved the originality, which is hard to find nowadays in the age of Young Adult books with swooning girls, chasing after boys (and I'm not talking vampires only) and simplified plots that are all pretty much the same (it's as if you read one, you read all of them). The Maze Runner is actually a very intelligent book that makes you think actually, you have to engage your brain cells to follow what's going on and what might happen. The story is full of surprises and secrets, you never know what's waiting for you on the next page and in effect I guarantee you not one moment of boredom. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), Mr. Dashner wrote an action-packed "Cadillac" of YA dystopian novels. Personally, I liked better than Hunger Games. That's right, I said it :O! Why? Because even though there is part two coming up and I of course can't wait tot read it, The Maze Runner didn't leave me hanging frustrated like Hunger Games did. I know that there is going to be more to the story but at the same time I was completely satisfied with how the first installment ended and did receive a certain closure as a reader. In other words, I didn't feel tricked into buying part two but instead the plot, the writing and James Dashner's talent convinced me to want to read more.

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I received this book during a BEA '09 author signing.

Make sure to visit James Dashner's blog, The Dashner Dude as well as the website dedicated to The Maze Runner.

2-in-1: Cell & From a Whisper to a Scream

I rather like this 2-in-1 idea and decided to give it a regular appearance in my blog. It’s a way of still giving my opinion along with a short summary of books I read without writing an in-depth review. Sometimes I just don’t think I have enough to say about a book to warrant a review, but I still want this book to be mentioned in expressing my ‘bookish thoughts’ on it.

1. Cell by Stephen King

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of King’s writing. I like not only his creativity in the horror and fantasy departments, but his writing skills as well. Cell, therefore, was no disappointment. It is another kind of the-end-is-coming novel but definitely more gritty, brutal and therefore more believable than what the book market is flooded with nowadays. Clay Riddell, a graphic artist who is finally on the verge of becoming noticed and somewhat successful in his career, witnesses some strange happenings one day after signing his first deal. The happenings turn into a full blown apocalypse when it turns out that all the cell phones transmit a message that resets human brains and turns people into bloodthirsty, murderous creatures. They all act like zombies and the only thing they have in common is a drive to eat and kill all remaining people unaffected by this ‘disease’. Clay, together with others who did not use their cell phones, are now fighting for their survival.

What can I say? I enjoyed this book from the first to the last page. It is scary mainly because, as I read more and more, I started to think that all this may very well happen one day, as crazy as it sounds. But that’s just the way Stephen King writes his horrors. No matter how unbelievable the premise may sound, I invariably find myself believing every bit of it. One thing that may disappoint the readers is the ending which does not deliver a closure. Personally, I didn’t mind that at all. Instead, I saw it as a way of giving a reader a free hand in imagining whether this end-of-the-world would truly be the end or not. If you are looking for a hard-core post-apocalyptic tale, with nightmarish reality, King is always your man.

2. From a Whisper to a Scream by Charles de Lint

Here’s a different kind of horror but just as engaging as the previous one. Thomas Morningstar, a Newford policeman ends up shooting to death a man, who did not stop to pull over. It soon becomes something more than a traffic violation turned tragic. Officer Morningstar killed a serial child murderer. However, things did not end there. Evil merely began. A few years later, Morningstar is a detective and has the case of his life on his hands. Young girls are being murdered in a red-light district of Newford and the police do not have a thread of lead. All of a sudden, a crime photographer, the killed child molester’s daughter and detective Morningstar discover that they have a lot in common and it all has to do with the shooting that had happened a few years back. And it turns out to be evil beyond anybody’s imagination and that evil might as well be too much even for people well-versed in spiritual world.

I was surprised to find out that From a Whisper to a Scream was a horror novel. All the previous de Lint’s books I had read were sci-fi and you know how it is with expectations. I must say however, it was a darn good horror. Charles de Lint has been compared to Stephen King actually and I can see why. The turn of events is unexpected, the characters in this book are nicely developed and yet again, even though I knew it was fiction, I caught myself thinking about the actual possibility of such events happening. The author’s writing is very convincing and he definitely has enough skills to keep a reader up at night.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Okay, I'll just come right out and say that this book was a big disappointment to me. I know that it puts me in the minority, probably somewhere right at the bottom of the list but I just could not make myself care for the story and the characters at all.

Let me first go over the plot, which is probably not necessary as most of the readers out there already have heard about it. But the plot summary is always in order. As the story begins, we meet Mary who lives in a tiny village surrounded by the Unconsecrated (another word for zombies) and the only thing that separates the world of zombies from the world of the living is chain link fence (ahem, how tall is that fence or how strong that it kept the zombies at bay for generations?). Mary is a teenager ready to be married and start her own family when her mother goes out too far into the Forest of Hands and Teeth (where zombies reign supreme) and gets bitten by one of the Unconsecrated. At this moment Mary's world as she knew it ceases to exist. Her brother Jeb, who can't forgive Mary for letting their mother live and become one of the zombies, gives her away to the Sisterhood, who have more secrets that the author bothers to share with the readers. Mary is miserable, she loves a person who cannot be with her and his brother is the one who finally speaks for her (proposes to her), but she doesn't love him and she wants to get away from the village and find the ocean her mother had talked about. Mary finally gets her chance when the village is breached, the Unconsecrated turn or kill all the inhabitants, apart from, of course the most important characters: Mary, Harry, Mary's brother Jeb, Mary's love Travis and her former best friend, Cas, plus a little boy Jacob (why he's thrown in there I have no idea, maybe to help preserve the human species in the future). Okay my head hurts already. The rest is history...or future.

To be fair to the author, I think that the story is interesting and her portrayal of Mary's despair and unhappiness engaging. To a point. But when I realized that Mary was going to be the only character described in depth and all others might as well have been zombies for all the insight given the reader, I lost interest completely. I am not sure whether Mary was supposed to come off as a self-absorbed, egocentric young woman or not. If it was intentional, then it has definitely been achieved. Then again, if I have to wonder about it then one way or another something just isn't right.

Another thing going against this book was that I listened to it on audio and the narrator killed the story. The whole book was read in a monotonous tone of reading the telephone book. I actually think that the person reading the introduction about who recorded the book, the title, the author and the narrator put more intonation and emotion into her voice than the narrator. I simply could not tell when Mary was happy, sad or horrified. All and all, the narration was very robotic and the only reason I kept listening to it was because I hoped that it would get better. It didn't.

Lastly, I am not a die-hard fan of Young Adult fiction. I do enjoy some books (The Book Thief, Hunger Games, Inkheart, to name a few) but because I do not love it, it's probably difficult to fully satisfy me and what faults I can justify in genres I love, I cannot overlook in this one. As far as the dystopian theme that is resurfacing in contemporary fiction goes, if it's done well I love it. But, yet again, I am more of a King's The Stand girl than The Forest of Hands and Teeth one.

Book Info:

Author: Carrie Ryan

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Published By: Random House

In: 2009

Recorded by: Listening Library

Narrator: Vane Millon