Yeah I thought when I was listening to the podcast that maybe I would be a little turned off by all the 80’s references you guys talked about (Seeing as how I was born in 1990 – obviously I’m going to know a lot of it but I didn’t necessarily GROW UP with it so I didn’t know), but nothing is diminished even when I don’t get the reference. Blah blah blah, it’s a really good book so far! I’m really not too far into it (About 55 pages or so) because I’ve been super busy, but I’m about to go read a bunch more of it. 🙂

Not much to comment on so far, I mean it’s pretty much just been character/world building. I love the idea of the post-modern semi-apocalyptic real world that they live in, and how it seems to be a sort of prediction for where we’re all headed. o_O The problem I have with discussing books I’m reading is that I try to make EVERYTHING foreshadowing, so if I discussed my speculation I would just be picking apart at everything like “HEY THIS MIGHT BE IMPORTANT…” but I really have no solid guesses.

And yeah, it was surprising how difficult it was to get! Though I guess it is also the Christmas season which I didn’t consider.

Whew, been meaning to post in here for a bit. I finished the book about a week and a half ago! I ended up going through the rest of it in just two days while I was up north.

HOLY SHIT OMFG THIS POST IS GONNA CONTAIN SPOILERS OF ALL MANNER SO STOP READING IT IF YOU DON’T WANT THAT!!!

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Anyway…

So where I do I start? Well I loved the book, as evidenced by my finishing it up in just two days. It was definitely one of those books where as I neared the end I was just getting sad that eventually I would run out of story to read. The things I loved about the book were the plethora of nerdy references, the mystery behind all of the characters, and the unlimited possibilities for what could happen inside the OASIS. It seems almost a cheap route to take but placing a narrative inside a virtual world means that literally anything goes. I feel like a lot of authors could get a little out of hand with that lack of constraint, but everything seemed to be kept in check.

I also liked and disliked the character development. Our protagonist Wade was a very developed character and I attribute that to the fact that this was indeed written from the first person perspective. So I guess I can’t complain TOO much about not getting to know other characters as well, but I feel like their personal stories and backgrounds could have been explored further. Besides Parzival discovering their private files and getting whatever information we get out of that (And of course actually meeting them), we don’t really learn too much about Art3mis, Aech, Shoto, and Daito. I guess in a fucked up world that’s slowly devouring itself though what’s there to learn? Everything about their personal lives has sort of become their avatars and what we would want to know from them.

Like I mentioned though Wade was obviously developed throughout the entire book, and I liked having a protagonist that at certain points I was inclined to dislike. I can’t think of anything specific off the top of my head at this moment… but I know there was more than one point in the book where I was thinking Wade was kind of just being an asshole, or doing something wrong. On the whole I enjoyed his character but I liked the fact that at certain points there was a struggle to do so which actually added a layer of depth to him as far as I’m concerned.

Another thing I found myself sort of annoyed about throughout the adventure was the fact that almost every time Parzival would encounter a challenge he would immediately go OH HOW CONVENIENT I’M GREAT AT THIS THING. I had actually been commenting on this with my roommate who was also reading the book while I was nearing the end and suddenly Parzival finally gets to something where he goes “Oh great I’m admittedly not good at this” which I feel was addressing the fact that HE HAD BEEN PERFECTLY PREPARED FOR GODDAMN EVERYTHING UP TO THAT POINT. I mean I guess it’s sort of the point of a book to follow the hero who is better than everyone else and that’s WHY they’re the hero but come ooonnn. hah.

Ogden Morrow is great. I loved his character. The birthday party scene was flawless.

Ahhhh.

There’s so much to say, so much to talk about, but it’s all sort of escaping me at the moment and I’ve gotta run. I really want to talk about the general implications of everyone escaping reality within virtual reality and the ethics of it in real life. That’s a fascinating topic that this book is based on that interests me. Because we already sort of do that with the internet, heh.

I guess I’ll have to post more later. 😀