I only managed 2 books in March. I was in a bad car accident on March 15, and that pretty much killed all my desire to read. My car was totaled and I was bruised up pretty bad, but I’m recovering.
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
This is a re-read for me. RP1 is one of my top 10 books of all time, despite Wade being a creeper, and the author really needing an editor. I read this in anticipation of the movie that came out at the end of March. Turns out the book and movie are nothing alike.
The book’s premise is not as simple as I always want to make it. It’s 2045, and the world has gone to hell. Wade spends most of his time hiding out in a crushed van, using a virtual reality headset and gloves to access the OASIS. It’s a cross between Second Life and every MMO you’ve ever seen. The creator of the OASIS passed away some 10 years before, and he left a quest in the OASIS, giving the person who completes it first control over the OASIS, and his vast fortune. Wade spends his time going to high school, and working on completing the quest. When he manages to complete the first step, the entire world goes nuts, and Wade finds that other people will stop at nothing to win.
So yeah, one of my favorite books. I’m a geek, and so a lot of references are like catnip to me. A virtual world where you can be anyone or anything, and get a great quest? I’m game. The story is fun, and there’s enough variety to it that it’s highly entertaining.
I will say Cline needed a serious editor. He goes off tangeant and stops the story completely to add in some Halliday lore that we don’t need. Right before the climax of the story, we’re treated to a huge detour that we really didn’t need. As Wade is finishing up his quest, we get another detour, and it’s information already shared with us. Cline can’t keep feet and meters straight, and things change size mid scene. It’s frustrating. Still, I try to give it a pass.
Tempests and Slaughter – Tamora Pierce
I discovered Tamora Pierce’s books when I was a kid, maybe 8 or 9? Her Alanna the Lioness books were a heavy re-read growing up, and even as a 30 something adult, I still re-read them.
This book just came out, and I’ve been waiting for it for years. This one is the early days of a mage called Numair, who appears in later books in the Tortall realm. My first experience with him was in Wild Magic, in which he’s an adult and an accomplished mage.
The story begins with Numair as his birth name, Arram Draper, attending gladiatorial fights. He’s 10, although he tells his peers he’s 11, having already caught up to them, and bored in classes. As his luck would have it, he ends up being pushed over a railing, where he’s saved by a slave, and helped back to his seat by an elephant.
The book covers Arram from 10 until 16 or so, where he goes from being in the lower academy to the upper, and befriends Ozorne and Varice. The three friends have adventures and end up impressing their masters with their skills with The Gift. Arram is discovered to have enormous talent with The Gift, and his control is not over fine work, but bigger things. He can’t light a candle easily, he’ll be more likely to melt the entire thing if he tries.
The book wasn’t quite what I was thinking it was going to be. I keep forgetting that Pierce takes several books to tell a story, and this one is no exception. The book is thick, like extremely so, so it’s not like she’s skimping on the details. I just kept thinking we’d get the entire story, from childhood to his exile, but I should have known better. Once I remembered it’ll be 2 or 3 books, I relaxed into the story and really enjoyed it. Pierce has a way of telling the story that feel authentic. You could see these characters doing what they were doing, at the ages and places they did it.