A Book Review: The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I used to think the gothic genre is dead.

Mind you, I have always enjoyed a gothic novel as long as the story was creepy and intriguing, like Dracula and Frankenstein, for examples. However, I was under the impression that the genre no longer has its practitioners. My impression was proven wrong, when I discovered Carlos Ruiz Zafón and his book, The Shadow of the Wind, which made me realize the gothic genre is alive and well.

I adored The Shadow of the Wind as well as its two sequels; its story was beautiful and harrowing, and I was spellbound by it. The Shadow of the Wind opened up a new vista in my reading world. In the months that followed I specially seek out the works of Zafón, and I read and enjoyed all of them. Carlos Ruiz Zafón entered my list for favorite authors.

Two weeks ago, during a regular visit to my local library I came across The Midnight Palace, which I haven't read. I quickly loaned this book, as this is one of Zafón's earlier works prior to The Shadow of the Wind.

Set in the 1930s, the story began on a street in Calcutta. Under the cover of night, an English lieutenant took flight with a pair of baby twins under his arms. At the cost of his own life, the brave lieutenant delivered the twins, a boy and a girl named Ben and Sheere, to places of safety. Many years later, upon their 16^th birthday, Ben and Sheere's lives suddenly came under threat by an assailant, whose past was shrouded in mystery. All clues pointed to a spectacular building in Calcutta – The Midnight Place, and only the twins' loyal friends could aid them and face the terror lurking under its shadows.

I did enjoy reading The Midnight Palace, but I don't think this book is as good as Zafón's later works. Make no mistake, Zafón wrote as brilliantly here as he would in his later works, and it is not hard to see how he would go on from here and write a masterpiece like The Shadow of the Wind later on. The writings in this book is top notch. So why am I saying this book is subpar to Zafóns later works? Is it the characterizations?

Well, no. This book's characterizations were surprising good, considering its short length of 200 pages. Zafón gave each character a personality of his and her own, and these characters made up a memorable and likable bunch. Having said this, I do think the protagonists, Ben and Sheree, were not portrayed with enough depths, and so the ending (which I will not spoil here) lacked the emotional impact that it could have had on the readers. This also means, I think this book would have benefitted from a longer length, where Zafón could use the additional spaces to address the character developments.

What is really holding this book back, I opine, is the worldbuilding. Hang on, am I really saying Zafón's worldbuilding is lacking here? Ok, I understand my opinion may raise some eyebrows. After all, Zafón is renowned for his vivid and beautiful depictions of Barcelona in The Shadow of the Wind and Marina, and I adore those books because of it. So what is it about the worldbuilding in this book that I found lacking?

Let me explain.

Zafón's works, especially The Shadow of the Wind series, as well as Marina, are Spanish Magic Realism novels. What is magic realism? It is a film, literary, and visual art genre where the aesthetics and the style has magical elements blended with the real world. In a magic realism novel (or film), the story presents "reality" and "magic" as the same stream of thought, and thereby presenting the magical elements in a straightforward manner. But magic realism is not the same as the fantasy genre. No, because fantasy is set in the fantasy world, where magic realism is set in the real world. Moreover, what really sets magic realism apart from fantasy is the purpose of the magical elements; in magic realism, the author uses the magical elements to highlight the character's inner experience and perception of the world, to illuminate and help us look at our reality in a different way. An example for magic realism would be Martin Scorsese's movie, Hugo (a very good movie, BTW! Check it out if you haven't seen it yet).

Zafón's works, including The Midnight Palace, are all rooted in the vein of magic realism. The Shadow of the Wind was successful, because it used the magical elements to flash out the characters' inner emotions and experiences about their pasts, love and hatred, and in the process making its readers reflect on these things in our reality. The Midnight Palace attempted to do the same, yet it came short of it, because in this book Zafón used not magic, but supernatural elements, and the story failed to adequately address the origin of this supernatural occurrence. In other words, this book had a supernatural agent in the story, but it failed to explain how did this supernatural agent came to be. Mind you, I am not asking if such a supernatural agent is "possible. No, as an avid reader of the fantasy genre I have no problem with authors using supernatural elements to tell stories. What I am saying here, without spoiling the story, is that Zafón did not address "how" this agent, an agent whose identity is the crux of the story, became supernatural. Instead, Zafón glossed over it, and as a result the story lacked the power that Zafon was trying to communicate.

Is The Midnight Palace a bad book? No, definitely not. This book may not be as good as Zafón's later works, but it is still a very good read. Under Zafón's pen, Calcutta transformed into a place of mysteries and intrigues, and his characters left lasting impressions on my mind. I think this book is still fun and worth reading, and it will find admirers among Zafón's fans.

A Book Review: World War Z by Max Brooks

“Fear,” he used to say, “fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe.” That blew me away. “Turn on the TV,” he’d say. “What are you seeing? People selling their products? No. People selling the fear of you having to live without their products.” Fuckin’ A, was he right. Fear of aging, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty, fear of failure. Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells. That was my mantra. “Fear sells.”

                                                       - Max Brooks, World War Z

World War Z is a great example of why some books can never be adapted into movies properly. Furmore, this book is also the proof that people who don't read but only watch TV and movies are missing out, big time. If your impression of World War Z is based on the Brad Pitt movie, then scrap it, because the source material is not an action adventure story found in the Hollywood blockbuster. No, the book is so much more than movie.

This book is as original as it is ambitious. It reads like non-fiction, told in the form of a compilation of interviews. In this book, the readers followed an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission (named Max Brooks), as he travelled around the world and interviewing the survivors of a "world war" against the zombies. The zombies, were the human victims of a viral outbreak, but the origin of the virus remained unknown. However, the official patient zero was found in a remote village in China, where the virus spread to the rest of the world through human trafficking, refugees, and black market organ trade.

This book is divided into 4 sections: 1) before the viral outbreak, 2) the mass panic during the viral outbreak, 3) the world war against the zombies, and finally, 4) the aftermath of the great war. In this book, Max Brooks interviewed no less than 100 people from all over the world, and they are from all walks of life; including a Chinese doctor, a Central Asian refugee, a Mossad agent from Israel, a Russian priest, a pharmaceutical tycoon from the US etc... The book has a very big international cast, and the scope is ambitious and breathtaking. When I was reading this book, it made me feel as if I was watching a documentary program about history. Normally I don't associate the zombie genre with realism, but this book felt real, like something that could, and had already, happened.

But how can a story about zombies feel "real"?

When I started this book I was expecting a "zombie horror story". 20 pages into the book, however, it defied my expectations. I was surprised to discover that zombies made very little appearances in the book. Instead, I realized this book was actually about geopolitics, and it explored themes such as survivalism, fear, and uncertainty.

I will briefly discuss each theme:

Geopolitics:

I particularly enjoyed reading about the geopolitics in this book. The many scenarios in this book are grounded on the real geopolitical history in our world. For example, at the onset of the viral outbreak, the Chinese government attempted to cover up the news, by escalating the tensions across the Taiwanese strait and then diverting the media attention to it instead. This is not a far fetched scenario, considering the Beijing government does have a history of media censorship, and they are still threatening to invade Taiwan. Furthermore, the book also explored how the Three Gorges Dam became China's Achilles Heel during the zombie war. Another example is that during the viral outbreak, Israel built a great wall to block out the infected victims and the zombies, but they also accepted Palestinian refugees on the basis that every human being saved is one less zombie to fight. However, the young, zealous Palestinians were suspicious of the Israeli government, and they thought the refugee policy was a trick to lure Palestinians into concentration camps. Meanwhile, a civil war broke out in Israel because the Zionists thought their government betrayed Israel by taking in the Palestinian refugees. These are just some examples of the geopolitics in the book, there are many others, such as in Russia, Mexico, Cuba, the Korean peninsula, Japan, so on and so forth. As I said, the scope of this book is breathtaking and ambitious, almost every nation has her own shining moment in the book.

Fear and uncertainty:

This book also explored themes such as fear and uncertainty. It highlighted how fear and uncertainty underpin the principles for our society and economy. Here is an example, at the onset of the viral outbreak, the US retreated into isolation, where the pharmaceutical companies and the government reached an agreement to produce and sell the placebo vaccine to the public. This way, the government could prevent an outbreak of mass hysteria, while the pharmaceutical companies can rip sizeable profits. However, this cover up eventually blew up, because the news got out that the vaccine was placebo and there is no cure to the zombie virus. What followed was a mass panic and a total break down of the society.

Survialism:

World War Z is primarily a war about how mankind survived an extinction event. Whenever survival is concerned, things often tread in the grey areas of morality. For example, in this book, at the onset of the zombie war, humanity was losing every battle. Mankind's salvation finally arrived with the "South African plan", which saved humanity from total extinction. What was this plan? It was similar to the scorched earth strategy used by the military. Except that in scorched earth strategy, you sacrifice the lands and resources, but in the "South African plan", you sacrifice masses of people to the invading zombie hordes while some people retreat and survive, thus our species can continue. This part of the book was particularly interesting, because it pushed the boundary of morality – when facing an extinction event, what is more important? The survival and the continuation of our species? Or is upholding our much treasured egalitarian value more important?

The above descriptions are just giving you a taste for this book, but there is a lot more to say about it, and I am unable to discuss the full scope of the book in a single book review. It would suffice to say this book narrated how (almost) every nation in the world dealt with the zombie virus, each according to its own cultural, social, and geological history. World War Z is fictional, but this book made me feel as I was reading history. The geopolitics and the themes in this book both feel real and authentic. On the surface, the book is about projections of "what could happen" if such a global pandemic does break out, but at its heart it is a commentary about our world and the nature of society. World War Z sent a shiver down my spine, and it is not because of the zombies, but because some of the things mentioned in this book are actually happening in our world today. This is the most interesting book I have read this year. It is thought-provoking. I highly recommend it to my fellow readers.

A Book Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeymoon

When the Librarian handed me a book called Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, she commented on how the book was "unputdownable". Despite her assurance of the book's quality, I was not thrilled. In fact, I was thinking to myself, "man, this one looks like chick lit. Not my type of book!"

I borrowed the book anyway, because my book club prescribed this book in July. I spent the next three nights reading the book and it surprised me. This book defied my expectations at every turn. This book reminded me of why you should never judge a book by its name. This novel is not chick lit, nope. Instead, I discovered a touching story about kindness and dealing with past traumas.

The book tells the story of one Eleanor Oliphant, a young lady whose life was "fine". Eleanor lived in an apartment, she worked in a stable job, and every Friday night she celebrated the weekend with a frozen pizza and some vodka, followed by a chat with her mom.

All of this goes to say that Elearnor was doing "ok" at making a living. Her life was carefully structured, always on track. However, she avoided social interactions. This is because Eleanor didn't have good social skills, and she had the tendency to speak what she thought.

Life brought its own surprises when Eleanor met Raymond, who is an IT geek from her office. These two became unlikely friends. An intentional act of kindness followed, and it transformed Eleanor's life, where she discovered that life should be more than just "fine".

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the debut novel for Gail Honeymoon. This novel won multiple awards and apparently a movie adaptation is on the way. I am grateful to the person who suggested this book to my book club, because this one is worth reading.

You might develop the impression, that this book is a contemporary romantic comedy, but I can assure you it is not. The opening chapters of the book introduced me to Eleanor Oliphant, and she was a bit isolated and self-centred. Eleanor had a contradictory nature; she was very clever but also naive, and she was harsh but also vulnerable. In the beginning I did not like Eleanor. However, as the story went on, the author provided me with more information about her, and I began to understand why Eleanor acted the ways she did. From there, this book explored the psychological effects from childhood trauma. At times, the story was gut-wrenching. However, this book does not spell gloom and doom, because this book reminded me of a powerful, but simple truth - that it is never too late for any of us, and that an act of kindness, no matter how small, or unintended, can cause profound changes in someone's life and then expanding into others', just like how a pebble landing in a still pond can create small ringlets which turn into large ripples.

Blu Ray movie review: A Quiet Place

Shhh, be quiet! If you make a sound, you die!

Imagine yourself in a world where to survive is to remaining silent. If you cough, you die. If you cry, you die. And if you accidentally step on something sharp, then better bite down you lips than let out a moan lest you die.

Such a world would be a very quiet place.

Why should you stay silent? Because there are these monsters, you see, they are blind predators but they can hear very well, and the human flesh just happens to be their favorite snack. Unless you have a death wish, then you better stay quiet.

Very, very quiet.

That, is the premise for A Quiet Place, a science fiction horror movie which came out earlier this year. I missed the cinematic run, but I had the chance to watch this movie on blu ray. And? A Quiet Place is currently, my favorite movie of 2018. This movie is unique, it is intense, and it had me glued to my seat for 90 minutes. Most importantly, this movie deeply moved me, and it did so with only 2 or 3 lines of dialogue.

"Moving and emotional", are you kidding Daniel? You are talking about a horror movie, mate! Well, just because a story belongs to the horror genre doesn't mean it cannot be meaningful and emotional. I mean, Charles Dickens'  A Christmas Carol is a ghost story, yet at its core is a story about the redemption of one man. So I say, A Quiet Place is similar; it is a survival horror story, but at its core lies a story about a family dealing with grief, and it is also about the parents' worst fear.

A Quiet Place is set in a post apocalyptic world, where monsters are lurking in the shadows, hunting humans for food. The world in this movie is desolate, cities are abandoned with little but ghostly traces of people who used to live there. The movie did not explain the monsters' origin, they are just the fabric in the reality. These monsters are blind, but they hunt with their superb hearing abilities. The story focused on a family, a couple with their three children. To survive, this family adapted their daily life to minimize the sounds they make. For example, they do no speak but use sign language, and they carefully marked down the house's floorboards, so when they walk the floors won't creak, so on and so forth. Living in such a world took a heavy toll on them, as the family was dealing with the grief that came from losses and tragedies.

I have never seen a movie like A Quiet Place. In today's cinematic world where most blockbusters are either superhero movies or franchise sequels, A Quiet Place stands out as a beacon of originality. Finally, Hollywood is giving us something new. Everything in this movie, from the productions, the story, the characters, to the sound engineering, is excellent.

The run time for this movie is only 90 minutes, but it is perhaps the most intense cinematic experience I ever had. There was so much suspense in this movie, and it walked on a fine line between thriller and horror. I don't usually feel edgy or scared when I watch this type of movie, but when I was watching A Quiet Place, I held my breaths and sat at the edge of the couch, the whole time. I felt a real sense of danger for the characters. I feared for them. This is when I can tell a movie is good.

The characterizations in A Quiet Place are masterfully done. This is a character-driven story, with only 4 major characters in the film. For a story about a family, it portrayed the dynamics of their relationships vividly and realistically. For example, the husband had a relationship to his wife that was different to how he related to his son, but it was also different to how he related to his daughter, and vice versa. Meanwhile, this family was constantly in life and death situations, where they were communicating their innermost emotions for each other, in the sign language. What would that be like if it was you? Making sounds is fundamental to how we express ourselves. Not only do we speak, but we also make a range of different sounds, from screaming, crying, to slamming the door, to communicate how we feel, both physically and emotionally. But how will we adapt to a world where our survival depends on remaining silent? How will living in such a world change our humanity? This movie explored these themes in the context of a family drama, with the backdrop in elevated horror, and it is very powerful.

A Quiet Place comes very close to being a silent film, yet its sound engineering was a feat, a great achievement. Most of the movie took place in silence, but during the action scenes, the sound effects added suspense to the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the family drama played out with the beautiful, but harrowing soundtracks in the background. When people watch horror movies they usually yell and scream and laugh, but not for this movie. When people watch A Quiet Place, they will become so immersed in the atmosphere and the story, such that they won't make a sound.

I love A Quiet Place, but it is not a perfect movie. A few things in this movie required too much suspension of disbelief. However, one should keep in mind this is a fictitious story, and with any fictions you can pick out flaws in logic and rationality. Why? Because it is harder to weave perfect lies than telling rough facts, so to speak. This also means, one misses the point of fictions by thinking too much about the rational and logical consistency of a fictitious story. Therefore, I usually measure the quality of a fictional story, not by how logical or rational it is, but by its underlying meanings. A Quiet Place, when viewed from this angle, is a beautifully told story. This movie delivered great entertainments, but it was also an emotionally satisfying experience.

I watched this movie on blu ray (1080p), and the video quality of this disc is demo material. The pictures are sharp and clear, where the colors and the special effects looked natural instead of artificial. Meanwhile, this disc shines in the audio department. From the sound of the whistling wind, to the roars of the monsters, the disc's audio offered an unforgettable cinematic experience. The special features on this disc is somewhat lacking, however, but it still contained enough materials to satisfy those who wish to know more about the movie's makings. 

If you can only watch a few horror movies this year, then shortlist A Quiet Place. This is one of the best in 2018, and it is currently my favorite movie of the year. This movie is an instant horror classic. It is very re-watchable, and I think it is worthwhile adding the blu ray to your collection. This blu ray disc excelled in visuals and audio, it is the kind of disc to show off your home theatre system. Really, it is that good! If you haven't seen A Quiet Place, then grab some popcorns, relax on your couch, then sit back and enjoy this film. But remember to stay quiet. Yes, stay very, very quiet. You never know, what monsters can hear you while they are lurking in the dark! Shhh....

A Book Review: The Midnight Line by Lee Child (Jack Reacher #22)

In the last twenty years Lee Child wrote more than twenty thrillers, featuring his famous creation, Jack Reacher. Just when we think the series is running out of steam, The Midnight Line, the 22^nd entry into the series, bursts into the scene and providing readers with a breath of fresh air. In comparison to Lee Child's earlier works, such as Make Me, the pace in The Midnight Line is slower, and the tone is more thoughtful. The result is a Jack Reacher book that reads more like a detective novel than an action thriller, and I liked this book.

Synopsis:

Jack Reacher walked passed the pawn shop window in a small Wisconsin town. He saw a class ring. It was tiny. The ring belonged to a woman, her initials were carved on the inside. On the ring said: West Point, 2005.

2005, a rough year; Afghanistan and then Iraq, it was a tough time to graduate. Why would she pawn her ring and gave up 4 years of hard work? Curiosity seized Jack. He had to know.

Just like that, Jack began to search for this woman. The quest took him to the upper Midwest, from the small towns to the middle of nowhere. Along the way Jack encountered cops, gangs, bikers, and a strange PI wearing a black suit. The more Jack dug into this, the more harrowing his journey became.

This time, Jack is treading the midnight line, and some lines should never be crossed.

But we are talking about Jack Reacher, and his first rule is that no one should cross him either.

My thoughts on this book:

The Midnight Line had Jack Reacher doing more detective works than playing the action hero, and this is a welcomed change. This also means The Midnight Line is slower in pace, especially in comparison to the earlier, more action-oriented entries such as Make Me or Gone Tomorrow. I guess this book is a slow burn, but for those with patience, the story did deliver a satisfying conclusion, alongside some twists and surprises.

The theme of justice permeates throughout this series, and The Midnight Line is no exception. This time, Jack Reacher is still the lone ranger exacting justice in a small Midwest town. However, in this book Jack was confronted by the grey areas of morality, where things aren't exactly black or white. I will not spoil the story, but in this book, for the first time, Jack faced a dilemma, where he had to choose between either the law, or being humane. As usual, I believe Jack Reacher did the right thing in the end, and this is what made this character so enduring and the stories so satisfying; unlike the most of us, Jack is the person who can do the right thing.

The Midnight Line is a good detective novel, and most of the book is believable. This does not, however, mean the book does not require suspension of disbelief. In fact, the one flaw of this book is that Jack Reacher's character requires too much suspension of disbelief. Too much suspension of disbelief? But all heroes in action thrillers, such as James Bond, Jack Ryan, Robert London, they all demand readers to suspend their disbelief to some extent, isn't that right?

Well, as I read more and more Jack Reacher novels, I find myself in the need of suspending more and more disbelief to enjoy them. While I would call myself a fan of Lee Child's works, but admittedly the suspension of disbelief is becoming too much and it is starting to tarnish my enjoyment of these books.

Let me explain. In 1997, Lee Child released the first Jack Reacher novel, Killing Floor. At the time, Jack Reacher was 37 years old. This means, 20 books and 20 years later would put Jack Reacher's age to 57 at the start of The Midnight Line. In this book, the baddies described Jack Reacher with figures of speech such as,"the bigfoot coming out of the forest", and "the incredible hulk". The narratives in this book had me envision Jack Reacher looking like a WWF wrestler on the green side of thirties; six foot three, two sixty pounds, big shoulders and thick arms. However, Jack Reacher is a drifter, he doesn't work out and his diet for the last 20 years consists of cheese burgers and pancakes with bacons. Not to mention he is 57 years old. Yet, this book still described Jack Reacher as a one man tank, who can fight and take down men like Mike Tyson in his prime. How is that possible? I think this book is demanding too much suspension of disbelief from its readers. It would be interesting to see how Lee Child will depict Jack Reacher in the future books, as our beloved hero grows older and older.

That is my only qualm with The Midnight Line. Otherwise, if you don't think about Jack Reacher's age too much, then this book is a very good action thriller. It has a gripping story with twists and turns, and it has enough actions along the way to spice up the story. Pick up The Midnight Line, relax on your couch, and have fun with the book. You won't regret it.

A Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

If you are a movie enthusiast, then you probably have heard, or seen, Stephen Spielberg's new movie, Ready Player One. The movie is an adaptation of a science fiction novel of the same name, written by Ernest Cline. The novel, Ready Player One, was published in 2011 and it won multiple awards.

I thought the movie was ok, but it piqued my curiosity about the book, and so I read it last week. What I discovered was that the book and the movie are almost completely different to each other, and while the movie was ok, but the book is great.

Synopsis:

It is 2045 and the reality is ugly and harsh; global warming, energy crisis, and pollutions sent the economy into a neverending contraction, and the unemployment rate rocketed skyhigh. In this new world, most people are living in poverty and misery. This is why people are escaping into OASIS - a virtual reality where you can live, work, and study, as anyone you wish to be.

Life, in 2045, is a humongous, MMORPG!

Like the billions of people on the planet, Wade Watts is another lonely soul who only feels alive when he is jacked into OASIS. Wade has dedicated his life to solving the greatest challenge in OASIS. The challenge was created by James Halliday, the creator of OASIS, and it consists of puzzles based on the 1980 pop culture that Halliday was obsessed with. Whoever can be the first to solve the challenge can also win the ultimate prize, inheriting all of Halliday's wealths as well as the control of OASIS itself.

For the first time in the human history, being a pop culture geek gives you an advantage in life, because you stand a chance at winning the challenge and become the most powerful person on the planet. Like many of his fellow geeks, Wade dreamed of being the winner. But when Wade became the first person to solve the first puzzle, he discovered a shadowy force who will stop at nothing to win Halliday's prize, even if it means turning OASIS, a video game, into a game of life and death...

My thoughs on this book:

If you:

• are a science fiction fan
• are fond of cyberpunk fictions
• are a geek of the 1980s pop culture
• like a a good story
• are the kind of person who likes to think about technological advancements and its impacts on  the society, so on and so forth.

Then you will love this book, just like I did.

Steven Spielberg's movie adaptation was good, but it was more of a family friendly, action adventure film that wowed the audiences with glorious CGI. But story wise, I thought the movie was average. If you have seen the movie and you liked it, then I would highly recommend reading the book. Actually, if you haven't seen the movie then I would highly recommend that you read the book before you watch the movie. Why? This book rocks.

I mentioned in my intro, that the novel is almost completely different to the movie. I am not going into a detailed discussion about the differences between the movie and the book. After all, I am writing a book review, not an article comparing the book to the movie. In my review I will mostly be talking about what I liked about the book, and occasionally mentioning how it differs from the movie.

Ready Player One is a science fiction novel with elements of cyberpunk, this is a sub-genre with defining characteristics such as a combination of high tech and low life. The common theme in Cyberpunk is where the technology advances too rapidly for the society to catch up, and therefore it causes radical changes, or breakdowns, in the social order. The cyberpunk world is also Orwellian, where the government is often weak and corrupt, and powers are often in the hands of a few wealthy elites. Meanwhile, the inhabitants in a cyberpunk world often experience social problems, such as a big gap between the rich and the poor, loneliness, drug abuse, so on and so forth. Furthermore, the technology in cyberpunk fictions is usually not far-fetched, but a near-future projection from where we are today, featuring technologies such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics. The prominent examples for cyberpunk, are books written by authors like Philip K. Dick, Richard Morgan, as well as movies and TVs such as Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Altered Carbon.

I am not a huge fan for sci-fi, but the rebel in me drove me to love cyberpunk. This is because the subgenre is prophetic and thought provoking, and my personal view is that unless we can change the way do and think about things, then at the current trajectory we are heading to a cyberpunk future, and it will not be a bright future. 

How does cyberpunk fit into Ready Player One?

This book explores loneliness and escapism, and the story is set in a future world where our existing economic model, one that achieves growths by expending resources, begins to contract due to resource shortages and global warming. As a result, there is mass poverty and unemployment. In the world of Ready Player One, real life becomes unbearable, and people escape into a virtual world instead to live, work, and study. After all, in the virtual world things aren't so bad.

This book placed a heavy emphasis on depicting, what it is like to be living in such a world, and it really hits you, a reader, in your ethos and pathos. But this is also why the book is far superior to the movie adaptation, because the movie glossed over the aspects of living in such a world, and the story lost much of its power in comparison to its source material.

In other words, the book is a cyberpunk masterpiece, but the movie is a action adventure, pop corn flick.

There is nothing wrong with a fun movie, but I am just surprised at how much of the story's meaning is lost in the process of adapting it into a movie. Anyway, on the bedrock of VR technology and a torrent of 1980 pop culture references, this book explores loneliness and escapism, not in a mocking and disdaining tone, but it humanizes escapism, it peels back the layers surrounding the issue, and then asking the readers two questions:

1. What made Wade lonely?
2. What made Wade happy in the end?

I will leave my would-be readers to enjoy the book and come to their own interpretations. But it suffices to say, the story didn't blame technology and entertainment as the sources for loneliness. Instead, this story argues that the cause for our loneliness, and its solution, rest in something  more fundamental to our human nature. What is it? I encourage you to read this book and find your own conclusions.  

Some readers may disagree with the views being presented in this book, and that is fine. Even then, given the context of the present day, this book is still worth reading because the subject matter is interesting and it affects us all. Meanwhile, for those who have seen the movie but haven't read the book, then I will highly recommend reading the book, because the story that was originally envisioned by Ernest Cline is so much richer than the movie adaptation.

A Book Review: The Core by Peter V. Brett (The Demon Cycle #5)

At 856 pages, The Core is the finale to Peter V. Brett's epic fantasy saga, The Demon Cycle. I love this series, and I was expecting great things from this whopping tome. Did this book deliver? I would say for the most parts, The Core is excellent, but the book also has some small problems which prevent it from being a perfect book.

Synopsis:

Arlen Bale and Ahamn Jadir, these two men were once enemies, but now they are uniting their strengths to bring Sharak Ka, the final war, to the demons. Arlen and Jadir hatched a desperate plan, in which they would capture a demon prince and force him to reveal the location for the Mother of Demons. But they are racing against time, because their actions triggered the swarm, an event where demons are launching an all-out assault against the human forces.

Meanwhile, Leesha, Innerva, Ragen and Elissa must rally and persuade their people to letting go of their petty differences and working together against the swarm. This is because they need to buy themselves previous times while Arlen and Jadir are reaching for the Core.

The stakes are high, and with the final war reaching the boiling point, both Arlen and Jadir are not expecting to return from the mission alive, but will their sacrifice be enough to save humanity from the demons' claws?

My thoughts on this book:

The Core delivered a satisfying conclusion to the series, but there are a few bumps and mishaps along the way. At this point, the story has quite a few characters, and Peter V. Brett was trying to tie up every story threads. While Mr. Brett was able to attend to every character and every story arc, but it also made the book very long. This book suffered some pacing issues, especially in the book's mid section.

For example, this book brought back Ragen and Elissa and then started their own story thread. Ragen and Elissa were Arlen's foster parents from the first book, and I liked them. However, between book 2 and 4 we never heard from them again, and so I was not invested in these two characters. This is why, when The Core suddenly brought back Ragen and Elissa, I just didn't care about them. Most of Ragen and Elissa's story took place in the book's mid-section, and those pages were slow moving and uninteresting. I would have preferred more explorations on the characters whom we became familiar with in the last two or three books, such as Ashia, Asome, and Innvera. Make no mistake, Ashia and Innverva received a lot of spotlights in this book, but it wasn't enough.

Speaking of Ashia, who was introduced in The Skull Throne, she remains one of my favorite characters in this book. Her part of the story was fun and exciting, but the conclusion to her story also felt a bit rushed, as if there should be more in her story but it was left untold. Meanwhile, characters such as Abban also received a healthy dose of attention in this book, but while Abbam started off as a very interesting character in The Desert Spear, but his story's conclusion rendered his character a wasted opportunity; Mr. Brett could have done so much more with Abban's character, but it was not so.

The focus in this book is on Arlen, Jadir, and Renna, as the three of them ventured into the Core and slaying The mother of Demons. It suffices to say, out of all the story threads in this book, this trio's story arc is the most interesting. Once the trio arrived at the Core, the story finally revealed all the answers to our questions; the truth about The Deliverer and the prophecy, the origin of life, and how the "demons" came to be. Without spoilers, let me just say this is where the story took a twisted turn from "epic fantasy" to "science fiction". I mean, I have written a review for each of the previous installment, and throughout it all I have been saying that the "demons" in this saga reminded me of the xenomorphs from the movie, Alien; these creatures are not evil, but just predatory animals hunting human for food. Apparently, my take on the nature of these monsters are confirmed by Arlen, the main protagonist in this book. How? Well, I leave the would-be readers to enjoy the story and find out for themselves.

The Core is a satisfying conclusion to a stunning fantasy saga. The book does suffer from some pacing issues, and it could have been better if it was shortened by 100 pages. Yet, this book is excellent nevertheless. When I reached the last 200 pages of this book, I could not put it down, instead I kept reading it until I reached the very last page, where I let out a sigh of content. This book tied up every story thread, while leaving rooms for another series. But for now, The Demon Cycle is one of the best fantasy series of the modern days, it is an interesting twist to the concept of good versus evil, and it deserves to be read. I cannot recommend this series enough.