Ready, Player One
As regular viewers of my blog will have noted, I've been having a tough time with the books I've read lately. Out of the last six or seven books I've read, I've failed to finish one, found two seriously underwhelming, and outright disliked three. It's become dispiriting.
Therefore I could literally kneel down and kiss the feet of Ernest Cline, because I adored Ready, Player One , I loved every single page of it, and I powered through it over a matter of hours, I can't think of a single thing I didn't love about this book, it's both a thrill to write about and a massive sigh of relief.
Ready, Player One takes place in the none too distant future the earth is over populated, resources are depleting, there's a Global Energy Crisis. In the midst of this James Halliday; eccentric billionaire computer inventor of the universally used OASIS virtual reality computer universe, dies leaving his fortune to the person who can solve the Easter Egg puzzle he has encoded within the vast system.
Years pass, and the unsolved Easter Egg becomes an urban legend, but many computer geeks still hunt it. They are up against "The Sixers" employees of the dreaded IOI corporation hunting professionally for the egg in order to take control of Hallidays fortune, and the OASIS system, and turn it into a corporate entity.
The genius of Ready, Player One is that while set in a future world within a kind of MMORPG that does not yet exist, the billionaire Halliday was a child of the 80s and the key to the Easter Egg is knowing enough about 80s gaming, films and pop culture to be able to crack his codes.
So rather than a bunch of meaningless references to things that don't exist in the minds of the reader, Ready Player One is grounded within actual history, it's one long nostalgia trip, particularly for people of my generation.
Our heroes Parzival, Aech and Art3mis live in the 2040's but need to know as much as they can about subjects like the Atari and all its games, the Commodore 64, the films of John Hughes, the music of the period, the developing reflection of computing within popular culture, and they do, because they study it as if it were a religion.
The research in this novel is mindblowingly meticulous, rich and detailed on every level from the years certain games were released to the names of their programmers, no detail is too minor. It makes for an authentic, dazzling experience. It is the nerds dream novel, and there will be many a nerdgasm had over it and much envy from those who share these obsessions and who will wish they had written it. It is a Herculean effort in terms of factual clarity.
As a minor scale nerd, I too gave little jumps of joy when certain obscure references were made and I understood them. For example when "Setec Astronomy" is used as a password and not explained I knew that it came from the 1992 Robert Redford film Sneakers about a group of off the grid hackers and was an anagram found via Scrabble tiles for "Too Many Secrets" I loved that film, I saw it more than once.
In addition to this rich detail, our characters are great, and uniformly easy to care about, and our baddies, faceless grunts working behind a smarm bucket called Sorrento easy to hate, which means that you root for outcomes and you get excited by developments as well as getting off on all the retro goodness.
I cannot speak highly enough of this novel, I thought it was awesome. If you too were a child of the 80s and you played arcade games and you had an Atari or an Acorn or a Spectrum and you watched these films and you listened to these bands, or watched these shows I think you will love it too. Naturally there's a slightly skewed bias towards American culture, but it really doesn't have a negative effect on the book as a whole. Yes, the outcome is always obvious, it's a hero's journey tale after all, but don't let the inevitable destination spoil the thrill of the journey!
This book is epic. 10/10
Showing posts with label Future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Future. Show all posts
Monday, 15 October 2012
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Book #11 Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku
Parallel Worlds
Last year I read Michio Kaku's Physics Of The Impossible in a bid to expand my knowledge around the subject of physics, something which, alongside maths and chemistry was not a particular strong suit for me when I was still in the education system. I enjoyed it so much that I determined that I would eventually get around to another. I've had Parallel Worlds now for some months and eventually got around to it this week.
Parallel Worlds is at once accessible and complicated. It splits into three categories.
1) Historical approaches to theoretical physics and the birth of the universe : Einstein, Big Bang
2) Literary approaches to parallel universes and how this could be possible within string theory
3) What might happen when the universe dies and how human life might survive
The early sections of the book are quite easy to digest as they are mainly historical. I found later discussions on M-Theory and string theory difficult to comprehend, but as is quoted in the book, if you think you've understood quantum mechanics then you probably haven't as it is at the farthest edge of what humans are capable of comprehending.
I came to this book mostly in search of quotes in relation to quantum science and got what I was looking for in that respect, but, the final third in relation to the possible death of the universe was so beyond my lifetime as to disinterest me a little.
What I did love about this and found rather heartwarming, is that Michio Kaku among others is clearly of the belief that the existence of human life with its frail balance of not just ecosystems upon Earth but within the grand exacting balance of the universe itself, points to some kind of argument of intelligent design. As a spiritual person I liked this a lot, but men of Science and men of faith are seldom one and the same. Kaku is an eminent physicist and like me, sees no reason why the two beliefs cannot coexist.
The book has dated slightly as it was published prior to the advent of the LHC in CERN in Switzerland. Kaku was aware of the approaching advent of the LHC and speaks theoretically of it in this book. I think I would like to read a bang up to date book by him.
Interesting and detailed if often a little overwhelming, Parallel Worlds is a gateway to some serious existential philosophising. I enjoy Kaku's approach and will certainly continue to read his physics books for lay people 8/10
Last year I read Michio Kaku's Physics Of The Impossible in a bid to expand my knowledge around the subject of physics, something which, alongside maths and chemistry was not a particular strong suit for me when I was still in the education system. I enjoyed it so much that I determined that I would eventually get around to another. I've had Parallel Worlds now for some months and eventually got around to it this week.
Parallel Worlds is at once accessible and complicated. It splits into three categories.
1) Historical approaches to theoretical physics and the birth of the universe : Einstein, Big Bang
2) Literary approaches to parallel universes and how this could be possible within string theory
3) What might happen when the universe dies and how human life might survive
The early sections of the book are quite easy to digest as they are mainly historical. I found later discussions on M-Theory and string theory difficult to comprehend, but as is quoted in the book, if you think you've understood quantum mechanics then you probably haven't as it is at the farthest edge of what humans are capable of comprehending.
I came to this book mostly in search of quotes in relation to quantum science and got what I was looking for in that respect, but, the final third in relation to the possible death of the universe was so beyond my lifetime as to disinterest me a little.
What I did love about this and found rather heartwarming, is that Michio Kaku among others is clearly of the belief that the existence of human life with its frail balance of not just ecosystems upon Earth but within the grand exacting balance of the universe itself, points to some kind of argument of intelligent design. As a spiritual person I liked this a lot, but men of Science and men of faith are seldom one and the same. Kaku is an eminent physicist and like me, sees no reason why the two beliefs cannot coexist.
The book has dated slightly as it was published prior to the advent of the LHC in CERN in Switzerland. Kaku was aware of the approaching advent of the LHC and speaks theoretically of it in this book. I think I would like to read a bang up to date book by him.
Interesting and detailed if often a little overwhelming, Parallel Worlds is a gateway to some serious existential philosophising. I enjoy Kaku's approach and will certainly continue to read his physics books for lay people 8/10
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Book #5 Disputed Land by Tim Pears
Disputed Land
*slight spoiler alert*
Disputed Land by Tim Pears is frankly, to me, a bit of an oddity of a novel. It begins with a man intent upon recording some aspect of his family's history for his children, who seem bemused by this.
At this point I anticipated a story set in the 1970's about the man's past in connection to the current present. However, when we flashback we are in 2008 our "present day". Theo, the story's author and main character is a teenager and is meeting up with his relations, a rare occurrence, for Christmas at his grandparents home. It transpires that his Grandmother has cancer and has brought them all together so that they can divide her possessions prior to her death. There is bluff selfish businessman Uncle Jonny his obnoxious twins Xan and Baz and his beautiful wife Aunt Lorna. Theo's Aunt Gwen who has newly become a lesbian, her partner Melony and her daughters Sid and Holly with golden child and favoured grandson Matt set to follow on.
What bugged me is that with the reveal or twist in the closing pages of this novel, like Theo's children I wondered what precisely the point was of this particular story he told. It didn't seem to bear any relevance or importance to the lives which his children and grandchildren now led, and would seem in many ways likely to anger them with the laissez faire arrogance of the past and the almost fairytale like plenty. The truly interesting story for me was Theo's present in relation to his past, of the past there is plenty but of the present there is next to nothing.
What remains is essentially the story of your average middle class privileged Christmas with everyone trying to be civil and get along. And the strange, uncomfortable yet important act of sorting out someone's possessions when their death hasn't yet occurred but is known to be impending.
Though these are common experiences, it's a bit boring, and nothing special. The idea that Theo is writing this from a future that was predicted yet not heeded is supposed to be what makes this special. If there had been a continual juxtaposition of this concept throughout the novel it might have become moving even alarming but instead it just feels like a juvenile sensational addendum to a thirteen year olds short story, and a riff on the ideas of the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present.
Sadly the bulk of this novel is very Aga Saga esque and its failed attempt at a decent twist doesn't save it. If it were a paperback and not an ebook it would be off to Oxfam tomorrow I'm afraid. 5/10
*slight spoiler alert*
Disputed Land by Tim Pears is frankly, to me, a bit of an oddity of a novel. It begins with a man intent upon recording some aspect of his family's history for his children, who seem bemused by this.
At this point I anticipated a story set in the 1970's about the man's past in connection to the current present. However, when we flashback we are in 2008 our "present day". Theo, the story's author and main character is a teenager and is meeting up with his relations, a rare occurrence, for Christmas at his grandparents home. It transpires that his Grandmother has cancer and has brought them all together so that they can divide her possessions prior to her death. There is bluff selfish businessman Uncle Jonny his obnoxious twins Xan and Baz and his beautiful wife Aunt Lorna. Theo's Aunt Gwen who has newly become a lesbian, her partner Melony and her daughters Sid and Holly with golden child and favoured grandson Matt set to follow on.
What bugged me is that with the reveal or twist in the closing pages of this novel, like Theo's children I wondered what precisely the point was of this particular story he told. It didn't seem to bear any relevance or importance to the lives which his children and grandchildren now led, and would seem in many ways likely to anger them with the laissez faire arrogance of the past and the almost fairytale like plenty. The truly interesting story for me was Theo's present in relation to his past, of the past there is plenty but of the present there is next to nothing.
What remains is essentially the story of your average middle class privileged Christmas with everyone trying to be civil and get along. And the strange, uncomfortable yet important act of sorting out someone's possessions when their death hasn't yet occurred but is known to be impending.
Though these are common experiences, it's a bit boring, and nothing special. The idea that Theo is writing this from a future that was predicted yet not heeded is supposed to be what makes this special. If there had been a continual juxtaposition of this concept throughout the novel it might have become moving even alarming but instead it just feels like a juvenile sensational addendum to a thirteen year olds short story, and a riff on the ideas of the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present.
Sadly the bulk of this novel is very Aga Saga esque and its failed attempt at a decent twist doesn't save it. If it were a paperback and not an ebook it would be off to Oxfam tomorrow I'm afraid. 5/10
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Book #100 Genus by Jonathan Trigell
Genus
As Genus stands proudly as Book #100 of the 100 books in a year challenge, I am glad of it, and glad I was able to finish on a high note. Genus by Jonathan Trigell, the acclaimed writer of Boy A is a great book, so good that halfway through it I messaged my one of my best friends on Facebook to tell her to get it whilst it remains 99p for the Kindle on Amazon.
Genus takes as its concept, a dystopian future London. A scientist who renamed himself Prometheus has taken the concept of the designer baby to its zenith. "Improving" ones genetics, buying add-ons and building ones child from the ground up, but, this kind of technology comes at a price, and has created an alarming new social scale, the rich, are now also the most beautiful, the healthiest and the most talented, what is left is the "scum" the disabled, the defective, and the working poor, coralled into small areas of Britain, unprovided for.
The novel focuses on London's Kings Cross, now The Kross and a variety of characters from this underworld: Dwarf artist Holman, policeman Gunt, drug runner Valentine, blind war veteran Crick, gang member Quigley and assorted other people from the social bottom rung, and a select few from the top.
This novel was published at the end of July this year and would have been written and complete to go to press some months before that. Therefore Trigell himself must have been chilled to the bone when a section of the novel which now seems more like premonition than future prediction came true on the streets of London in August. In an eerie replica of the summer riots, shops are looted and buildings burned out, this isn't a vision of things to come, the future is now. I think it was this section of the novel which tipped it over into "something special" land for me, I mean it's so on the pulse it's living. In addition, the characters are likeable, particularly Gunt and Holman, so as to hold your attention upon the novel. I was already imagining the movie version with Peter Dinklage that would be brilliant.
The eradication of genetic defect seems like a marvellous thing the future could grant us, but Trigell truly succeeds in making clear the very dark end game involved in meddling with nature, belief in God or otherwise with a cracking warning shot from our own history at its close.
I am so glad that Genus was my final book of 2011 so I could end on a high. Read Genus Please. 10/10
As Genus stands proudly as Book #100 of the 100 books in a year challenge, I am glad of it, and glad I was able to finish on a high note. Genus by Jonathan Trigell, the acclaimed writer of Boy A is a great book, so good that halfway through it I messaged my one of my best friends on Facebook to tell her to get it whilst it remains 99p for the Kindle on Amazon.
Genus takes as its concept, a dystopian future London. A scientist who renamed himself Prometheus has taken the concept of the designer baby to its zenith. "Improving" ones genetics, buying add-ons and building ones child from the ground up, but, this kind of technology comes at a price, and has created an alarming new social scale, the rich, are now also the most beautiful, the healthiest and the most talented, what is left is the "scum" the disabled, the defective, and the working poor, coralled into small areas of Britain, unprovided for.
The novel focuses on London's Kings Cross, now The Kross and a variety of characters from this underworld: Dwarf artist Holman, policeman Gunt, drug runner Valentine, blind war veteran Crick, gang member Quigley and assorted other people from the social bottom rung, and a select few from the top.
This novel was published at the end of July this year and would have been written and complete to go to press some months before that. Therefore Trigell himself must have been chilled to the bone when a section of the novel which now seems more like premonition than future prediction came true on the streets of London in August. In an eerie replica of the summer riots, shops are looted and buildings burned out, this isn't a vision of things to come, the future is now. I think it was this section of the novel which tipped it over into "something special" land for me, I mean it's so on the pulse it's living. In addition, the characters are likeable, particularly Gunt and Holman, so as to hold your attention upon the novel. I was already imagining the movie version with Peter Dinklage that would be brilliant.
The eradication of genetic defect seems like a marvellous thing the future could grant us, but Trigell truly succeeds in making clear the very dark end game involved in meddling with nature, belief in God or otherwise with a cracking warning shot from our own history at its close.
I am so glad that Genus was my final book of 2011 so I could end on a high. Read Genus Please. 10/10
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