Ernest Cline – SFFaudio

Review of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

SFFaudio Review

Ready 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

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

SFFaudio Online Audio

My 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!

New Releases: Random House Audio

New Releases

Of the latest Random House Audio releases these three seem the most interesting to me. First up, one we’ve covered before…

It may have a cover too boring to post, but the book trailer for Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One is definitely post-worthy:

Categorized as “historical” and “romance” but it doesnt sound like either from the clip. It’s told in 2nd person and narrated by Jim Dale!

Random House Audio - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern The Night Circus
By Erin Morgenstern; Read by Jim Dale
CDs – Approx. 14 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: September 13, 2011
ISBN: 9780307938909
A fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance.

When I heard that there was a new movie called “Killer Elite” I expected that it was just another pointless remake – this time of the 1975 Sam Peckinpah movie of the same name. Turns out it isn’t a remake, just a lifted title, and that the plot is actually based on a 1991 novel called The Feather Men! On the Wikipedia entry for the author, Ranulph Fiennes, he’s described as an “adventurer” and the novel is supposed to be based on true events.

Random House Audio - Killer Elite by Ranulph Fiennes Killer Elite (previously published as The Feather Men)
By Ranulph Fiennes; Read by Jonathan Cowley
Digital Download – Approx. [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: September 6, 2011
ISBN: 9780307934352
Here is a gripping novel, inspired by real-life events, about a private team of British vigilantes that sets out to eliminate a gang of cold-blooded contract killers. From 1977 to 1990, four former British soldiers die, one by one, supposedly due to accident or illness. But soon a link is established between the victims: a shared mission in the desert kingdom of Oman, where they fought for a sultan against insurgents and ruined the life of a rival sheikh, who in turn has sent a band of assassins to methodically slay the soldiers and salvage his pride. Now these clever assassins are on the run from an underground group of SAS vets with nothing to lose, no time to waste, and a desire to dispense their own form of justice—no matter the cost.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

New Releases

Neat sounding book. Excited about the narrator.

But I’ve got to nominate the cover as being one of the very worst of the second decade of the 21st century.

You’re going to go with a Pac Man font on a red background?

For a book you want me to read?

Seriously?

That’s the cover you’ve really decided to go with?

Time to give up.

Ready Player One
By Ernest Cline; Read by Wil Wheaton
13 CDs – Approx. 15.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: August 16, 2011
ISBN: 9780307913142
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed. 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, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 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. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape. A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

Posted by Jesse Willis