Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Passage by Justin Cronin


I have a very vivid imagination so I wasn't very happy reading how Mausami "had opened like a flower" while giving birth. Now that we got that out of the way can I just say OMFG this book is too long. Granted I've read longer books but OMG everytime I thought "THIS IS IT! This is the last page" there's still another chapter. This happened maybe 6 times I didn't know if I'd laugh or cry.

I try not to read reviews and anything about books except the blurb because I don't like expecting things so it came as a surprise that vampires brought us the apocalypse and not zombies. I mean, seriously, if zombies can't even run or climb and just groan like they do in most movies, how stupid can mankind be for our population to be wiped out just like that?

So yeah, I liked this book. Maybe I even loved it because I want to finish reading the others I have in line just so I could get to the second book. Why three stars then? I feel like this should've been two books not because it was too long but because when I got to the part where the virus already ruled the world I had to stop and get used to the shift in narration and character which actually happened a couple times. I instantly liked the first 30% whereas the rest of it had to grow on me and it took a while to do that. If you could get past that then good for you.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Audiobook)

I think any book trying to give its two-cents on religion, sexuality, racism and people getting immersed in virtual reality in the age of the almighty internet is very ambitious. This is one of those books although it was disguised in a SUPER AWESOME scifi, virtual reality game/treasure hunt and it.SUCKED.ME.IN.

The book's hype came from the use of 80s pop culture which was the same reason I was hesitant to read it. For a non-gamer 90's kid, this wasn't very appealing. I thought I might have problems relating to whatever was "in" in the 80s. I was born early-mid 80s but I was too busy running around in diapers and later on trying to learn how to spell my name that I didn't bother with TV or anything else until the 90s. I know of Monty Python, the game Joust, the album 2112 etc but I didn't watch/play/listen to them over 4 dozen times to be able to memorize the words ... okay maybe I played Joust one too many times but you get the drift. Surprisingly, I loved this book. I think it helped that I chose to get the audiobook instead of getting it on print. The book might be very descriptive but that worked for me too. It's the only way I (again, a 90s, non gamer kid) can understand what everything was all about. The author took his time and painstakingly described each game's rules and how you played it as well as the scenes and lyrics of songs. The little facts about the game developers, the musician, etc also didn't hurt. I think it made up for me not knowing every detail of what was popular then.

This is one book I would absolutely LOVE to see on the big screen … provided Hollywood doesn't mess it up. I could do without the cheesy love thing dialogue at the end of the book, though. Spoiler, I know but that was already a given, right? In the love interest regard, this book got predictable.