Saturday 16 June 2012

Ready Player One

I'm a terrible blogger, I know.  I apologise for my absence, but I'm going to promise to try harder.  I type two-handed, so I couldn't even cross my fingers while I said that, so it must be true.

Anyway, I was moved to comment on Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, which I've just finished reading a few moments ago.  If ever a book for geeks was made for the big screen and a computer game conversion, Cline's is it.  His fantastic (two?-)world building was really exciting for me, and I really would love to jump into at least the OASIS online vision that he has.  His vision for our world is less positive...

I'd really recommend this book to anyone; Cline is a wonderful story-teller.  In places there's quite a bit of deus ex machina, with characters plucking helpful tools from out of nowhere to help out, but given the pacing of the story and the interest generated in the reader, this is largely forgivable. If you're a bit of a geek like me, or have an interest in old games and '80s culture, then you really ought to pick up a copy.  You're unlikely to be disappointed.

Elsewhere, I've been busy.  It's been a busy time at work, though good too, and I was in hospital this week for an operation - I had to have a lipoma removed from my occiput.  Apparently, that's what doctor types call the back of the noggin.  A lipoma is just a fatty lump - mine was enormous, easily the size of the first knuckle of my thumb.  Two days later and it's still aching - I was under the knife for an hour and a half!  Anyway, having got that weight off, I feel good and ready to get back in to thinking about writing.  I really ought to do some before November rolls round again...