Review of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

SFFaudio Review

Ready Player OneReady Player One
By Ernest Cline; Read by Wil Wheaton
15 hours 46 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2011
ISBN: 0307913147
Themes: / Gaming / Virtual Reality / 1980s nostalgia / Dystopia / Near-Future /

Sample |MP3|

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, 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.  

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle…

If you are a pop culture junkie, or a gamer, or a virtual world inhabitant, this is the book for you.   It was such great fun that I found myself making up reasons to listen to the audio book.  Wil Wheaton has become one of my favorite readers, especially at 1.5 speed.  His casual tone is perfect here.

Don’t be turned away by people who claim that this book is pure nostalgia.  While not heavy-handed, and arguably YA in tone, I found it to be thoughtful on issues of identity in an increasingly virtual world.  And just try imagining the new cities of stacked mobile homes without smiling!

Other fun things – author Ernest Cline has a vibrant blog for the book, including a RP1 Game.  He even posted a Spotify playlist featuring most of the music mentioned in the book.  If that can’t get you in the mood for a little nostalgic romp, you are dead on the inside. Dead!

Posted by Jenny Colvin

The SFFaudio Podcast #128

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #128 – Scott, Jesse, Tamahome and Luke Burrage talk about recently arrived audiobooks, new releases and more.

Talked about on today’s show:
Germline by T.C. McCarthy, Russia vs. United States, Kazakhstan, Blackstone Audio, Hannah, Finland, unapologetic fairy tale imagery, Brothers Grimm, Tama is a sucker for girls who kick ass, Kick-Ass, Bourne Identity, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Full Cast Audio, Tunnel In The Sky by Robert A. Heinlein, interplanetary survival course, “Rod Walker, as Heinlein Intended“, Ozzy in Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton, Between Planets, Space Cadet, Perseus by Geraldine, Hercules, Odyssey, Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce, young adult books, The City And The Stars, abstracting the voices of the characters, Jesse enthuses about Full Cast Audio’s format, Blackstone Audio, Downward To Earth by Robert Silveberg (it draws from Heart Of Darkness, The Secret Sharer by Robert Silverberg, The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad, “the heart of lightness”, The Hidden by Jessica Verday, The Hidden (movie) with Kyle MacLachlan, The Hollow, The Haunted, supernatural/romance/YA, “maybe Jenny can take up the lance”, Macmillan Audio, How Firm A Foundation by David Weber, On Basilisk Station, “Steve Gibson loves it”, George R.R. Martin, the Writing Excuses podcast, I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells, “it’s very tempting to kill everyone”, Star Wars: Heir To The Empire by Timothy Zahn (20th Anniversary Edition), Mark Thompson, Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye (Luke and Leia get married), the Han Solo novels, Michael A. Stackpole, Star Trek novelizations vs. Star Wars novelizations, Wookipedia, perhaps Lucas was lucky and not talented, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, Stories Of The Golden Age: The Tramp and Shadows From Boothill, Jenny is late, War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, The Island Of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, Moxyland by Lauren Beukes, Zoo City, South Africa, China Miéville audiobooks flood audible, Iain M. Banks, Audible Frontiers vs. Audible Ltd., Ready Player One sounds like nostalgia not SF, everybody who wears spandex and legwarmers likes Ready Player One, the Gweek podcast, virtual world, Daemon by Daniel Suarez, Blackstone Audio, The Ringworld Engineers, To Sail Beyond The Sunset by Robert A. Heinlein, Origin Of The Species by Charles Darwin, Recorded Books, Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem, Lawrence Block audiobooks, Hard Case Crime, Getting Off by Jill Emerson (Lawrence Block), AudioGo, Such Men Are Dangerous by Lawrence Block, The Specialists, Coward’s Kiss, You Could Call It Murder, Small Town, Paul Kavanagh, Michael Crichton, Eaters Of The Dead, Smoke by Donald E. Westlake, The Comedy Is Finished by Donald E. Westlake, Psycho by Robert Bloch, Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner, Luke’s novel Minding Tomorrow, does Stand On Zanzibar have a cylindrical structure?, long stuff tends to be crappy, Luke is on Audible’s platinum plan, Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, Courtney Brown’s Science Fiction And Politics podcast, Spellwright by Blake Charlton, spell errors?, “as you well know…”, Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer, The Swarm by Frank Schatzing, Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein, tie-in novels, Dan Abnett’s Warmhammer 40,000: Horus Heresy series, Black Library, “a fist the size of a baked ham”, Jesse’s meta review of Luke’s meta review of Sword Of The Lichtor by Gene Wolfe, Halting State by Charles Stross, Luke’s pick of the week: Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian, Jesus’ final words on the cross, Jesse’s pick of the week: Invincible Ultimate Edition Volume 1 written by Robert Kirkman, Ed Brubaker, Gregg Rucka, Scott’s pick of the week: Declare by Tim Powers, On Stranger Tides, is Declare idea fiction?, Kim Philby, Tamahome’s pick of the week: The Mote In God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 1

Posted by Jesse Willis

Good Story 019: Declare by Tim Powers

SFFaudio Online Audio

Declare by Tim PowersA Good Story is Hard to Find is on Episode 19! Julie and I talked about Declare by Tim Powers. I gave the book five stars over on Goodreads, because there are so many things about that book that are going to stay with me. As I said in the podcast, I’m going to read some more Powers as soon as I can. I’ve got two of his audiobooks in for SFFaudio – The Stress of Her Regard and Last Call. Last Call has been on my list for a long while, and I see that Jeff Miller, who recommended Declare for Good Story in the first place, said that The Stress of Her Regard is another of his favorite Powers novels. Looks like I’ve got a couple of excellent novels ahead of me.

Next up at Good Story is Shaun of the Dead, the zombie comedy movie. We’re recording Wednesday morning so that we’ll be back on schedule. And two weeks after that – Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I love October!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Edgar Allan Poe from Christopher Arrufo

SFFaudio News

Christopher Aruffo is back with more readings of his (possibly exhaustive) survey of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Volumes 11 – 13 are available separately or in a combined set. This set includes some of the mid-list fiction from Poe’s body of work, including the notorious “Bernice”, and the granddaddy of all, “The Telltale Heart”.

I’ve said it before (in a review of Volumes 9 and 10 from this Poe series) and I’ll say it again: Aruffo has a stradivarius voice, and he knows how to play it. His lush tones are perfect for Poe and better-than-perfect for “The Telltale Heart”, where he inhabits the crazy-yet-calculating mental world of the narrator. The well-placed giggles never let you forget his lunacy. At the end, his recitation slips into a throbbing rhythm as the heart of the story pounds out its accusatory beats. It’s a performance not to be missed.

Other titles in this collection are:
“Man of the Crowd”: Poe impulsively spends an entire day stalking a strange old man.
“Hop” – Frog: an under-appreciated story of an outcast wreaking terrible revenge.
Metzengerstein: Magic and horror combine in the body of a horse of unexplainable origin.
“Bernice”: another horror story with a Poe-esque protagonist (rich) of Poe-esque habits (solitary) and a Poe-esque grip on reality (none) who obsesses over a woman’s fine set of teeth. Really. This story is so out of proportion, Thomas Disch made it Exhibit A in his indictment of science fiction’s adolescent tendencies (although it is not science fiction).
“The Sphinx”: A possibly-true, slight account of a strange optical illusion.
And, in addition: “The Assignation”, “Shadow”, “Silence”, and “Morella”.
This microcosm gives a fascinating glimpse into Poe’s mental world. Everything about him that is brilliant, obsessive, and unhinged is sampled here.

Posted by Fredoosphere

Spark #156 – Canada’s Lawful Access Legistlation and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC Radio - SparkMy taxes pay for CBC Radio One’s Spark. I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. Spark is an intelligent and informative radio show that brings me snappy interviews with clever folks who talk about technology and internet-related issues. I also really appreciate that CBC, the manufacturer, doesn’t try to control my sharing my purchase with my friends. Take the latest show, Spark #156, it features an informative discussion of Canada’s upcoming “Lawful Access Legislation” as well as an interview with Ernest Cline, the author of Ready Player One. I know people who care about both topics. And thanks to Spark‘s use of creative commons those segments are available individually, with no EULA, age verification or terms of use garbage to get in the way. Spark just works.

Here’s the complete show:
|MP3|

And here are the two segments I mentioned:
Lawful Access |MP3| Approx. 20 Minutes
Ernest Cline |MP3| Approx. 13 Minutes

Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/cbcradiosparkblog

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. Sadly, CBC still hasn’t delivered on my purchase of the J. Michael Straczynski radio drama that I paid for! Pay up CBC!

WIKISOURCE: Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick – MANUAL AUDIOBOOK EDITION (you have to read it aloud yourself)

SFFaudio News

WIKISOURCEWikisource, the “Free Library of source texts which are in the public domain or legally available for free redistribution” (a sister project of Wikipedia) has a now completely OCRd edition The Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick.

The complete text, including images from its first publication, is now up and ready for your reading pleasure. |GET IT HERE|

Since the public domain audiobook version isn’t available anymore (due to the threat of a lawsuit) you can’t read-along.

If you’re civil minded, and a PKD fan, why not go and protest the threat, support the common good, and read the text aloud to a friend?

I’ve done it myself, it’s really fun, but I would actually recommend you print up a couple of copies and read it aloud with that friend!

Take turns, enjoy yourselves.

I don’t know if you’d want to record the audio, LibriVox is still under threat. But maybe you could even make a YouTube (or other) video out of it!

If you do I’ll embed the video below.


http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Adjustment_Team

Adjustment Team was first published in Orbit Science Fiction’s Sept-Oct 1954 (No.4) issue.

Illustrations by Faragasso:

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

Posted by Jesse Willis