Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571-ready-player-one

Ready Player One is like being immersed in an awesome massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and reading a wonderful book simultaneously.

On a dystopian Earth, destroyed by a global energy crisis, the only thing left for people is the online utopia of the OASIS, where you can do anything, be anyone, where the lines of distinction between a person’s real identity and that of their avatar begin to blur. When the creator, James Halliday dies, he leaves behind the biggest Easter egg hunt the world has seen. The prize: ownership of his vast fortune and total control of the OASIS.

Wade Watts is just one of the many ‘gunters’ (those who have devoted their lives to Halliday’s hunt) and since it was announced five years ago, he’s learnt all he can about the god among geeks, the nerd uber-deity on the level of Gygax, Gattiott, and Gates: James Halliday.

When Wade deciphers the location of the first clue and is awarded the Copper Key, the first of three, his avatar ‘Parzival’ shows up as the first name on the scoreboard. Passion for the hunt reignites. Hot on his heel are thousands of competitors including the Innovative Online Industries (IOI) who, in Wade’s words, want to turn the game into a fascist corporate theme park where the few people who can still afford the price of admission no longer have an ounce of freedom. Wade soon realises that the IOI will stop at nothing to control the OASIS, and when he can’t be bought to their side, everything he has is threatened.

I was late coming to this book, originally published in 2011. It was the name that drew me in, and the frequency in which it was appearing in recommended read lists. I was not disappointed.

It’s not science-fiction, it’s not fantasy, but it is. Think ‘Enders Game’, think ‘Surrogates’, ‘Gamer’ and ‘Westworld’. The front cover quote says; ‘Enchanting. Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.’ It’s all comparable, but nothing I know is like this book.  It’s a smorgasbord of ‘80s pop culture. There were so many references it didn't matter that I didn't get half of them. Joss Whedon eat your heart out.

It’s not a hard read, it’s a simple plot – good versus evil. Moving from the real world into the action-packed OASIS is seamless. The descriptions of the world outside leave me wanting more, in a good way. I was genuinely anxious when I had to close the book because I was invested in the lives of these characters.

I haven't been this excited over a book since I read Transformation by Carol Berg. For me, like that book, this one is a game changer.

This book was amazing. I read it in a few days. I didn't want to let it go. I can't wait to hand it around to my friends and family so they too can share my excitement.

Read this one.

BABYCAKES by Neil Gaiman

Short Story Review: BABYCAKES by Neil Gaiman

This story opens with the line, ‘A few years back all the animals went away.’ And this sets you up with everything you need to know.

No one knows how or why the animals vanished; they just weren’t around anymore. Someone points out that life shouldn’t change just because the animals have gone. There is no reason to change eating habits, or stop product testing.

We still have babies.

So babies replace animals. They’re eaten, ‘Baby flesh is tender and succulent.’ Their skin is flayed and worn, ‘Baby leather is soft and comfortable.’ They are tested on, and everything goes back to normal. Until… ‘Yesterday, all the babies were gone.’

I think this story is a great narration on humanity, with an excellent first line that sucks you in immediately. It’s especially relevant now considering the controversial Palm Oil industry. With only 6,000 orang-utans left in the world, this story is scarily familiar.

This story makes you think. The thoughts it conjures towards the end last longer than the 500-odd words it takes to tell. Humans treat animals like tools or ingredients for their own satisfaction. But when does it go too far? As the author writes, ‘Babies can’t talk. They can hardly move. A baby is not a rational, thinking creature.’ If this is true for animals, how long before we can shift the thinking onto babies?

I would hope that the target audience is the thinking person. Neil Gaiman wrote it for a publication to benefit PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). It is quite disturbing, and as someone who wears leather and eats meat it doesn't come across as preachy. It makes you step back and think about things. I hope it does anyway.

Tension is successfully created with the way the author writes. He puts important lines in their own paragraphs – and there are many of them.

The conflict is the human way of life. It’s not sustainable, and something needs to change. After animals, babies are the next most vulnerable. Humans see the small picture and can’t see in the end they are destroying themselves.

The plot is believable because he’s making a point, and okay, perhaps people won’t go so far as to eat babies. Nothing is resolved at the end but I don’t think it is meant to be. You’re  left on the edge – thinking. This story haunts you.

This short story is perfect for what it is, and what it was written for. 

THE DAY THE SAUCERS CAME by Neil Gaiman

Short Story Review:
THE DAY THE SAUCERS CAME by Neil Gaiman

The Day the Saucers Came is a wonderfully piece of social commentary, as Neil Gaiman so expertly delivers – at the same entertaining while making us stop and reflect.

The first paragraph describes how saucers land and the people of Earth stare, waiting, wondering. The paragraph ends with: ‘But you didn’t notice.’

The second paragraph tells us that on the day the saucers came, ‘By some coincidence, was the day that the graves gave up their dead and the zombies pushed up through the soft earth…’ And yet again ends, ‘You did not notice this.’

For each paragraph, an additional event is added, so, The Day that the Saucers Came becomes the, Saucer-Zombie-Battling-Gods Day, The Ragnarok and Fairies Day, The Day the Great Winds Came and Snows, and the Cities Turned to Crystal, The Day all Plants Died and Plastics Dissolved, The Day Computers Turned, the Screens Telling us We Would Obey Day… and on and on. And all the while; ‘you didn’t see them coming’, or, ‘you had no idea of any of this’, or, ‘you didn’t notice any of this,’ because…

‘You were looking at your telephone, wondering if I was going to call.’

So it’s either social commentary, or a devoted love story. Either way, it’s incredibly entertaining.

There is no dialogue. The tension is created as each paragraph gets longer and adds more events to it, kind of reminiscent of The House That Jack Built – narrative moving the story forward into the climax because with more and more events. We want to know what it is that is keeping this character so oblivious to all these awesome events. 

THE PRICE by Neil Gaiman

Short Story Review: THE PRICE by Neil Gaiman

The Price is about a black cat that turns up at Neil's house. After sharing space with this cat for a month, one morning it turns up, ‘almost unrecognisable’. He’s beaten, tired, and thin. He’s taken to the Vet, patched up, and taken care of, but the fighting continues. ‘Each night the scratches would be worse – one night his side would be chewed up, the next it would be his underbelly, raked with claw marks and bloody to the touch’.

The cat is confined to the basement to recover. ‘The four days that the Black Cat lived in the basement were a bad four days in my household’. On that fourth night the Black Cat prowls the basement pining to be let out, and once freed, returns to its diligent watch. By morning, the wounds and scratches have appeared again – but good luck has returned to the house.

Neil decides enough is enough and devises a plan to discover the culprit of the overnight attacks. Armed with see-in-the-dark binoculars, he sets up to watch.

It’s the Devil who comes down the driveway. ‘The thing that comes to my house does not come every night. But it comes most nights: we know it by the wounds on the cat, and the pain I see in those leonine eyes.’

I love this story because I love the idea of cats as ‘protectors’ or ‘angels’. I also happen to be a lover of cats, so this story pulls at my heart strings.

It’s written in an autobiographical style to give it a realistic feel. It reveals some of the author’s idiosyncrasies, including collecting unusual toys, such as see-in-the-dark binoculars, which, if written by anyone else, might seem far-fetched.

The mystery of why the Devil is singling out this household is never revealed, neither is anything else regarding the Devil. The story is purely homage to a great creature. Because of this the plot is not resolved at the end. But that just adds to the tension of the story. It makes for a great ‘edge of your seat’ ending, the last paragraph – amazing.

There is no dialogue in this piece. It’s the author’s thoughts and story-telling alone which move the story.

IN VERMIS VERITAS by Poppy Z. Brite

Short Story Review: IN VERMIS VERITAS by Poppy Z. Brite

This story is fantastic as it puts so many images into your mind with the words/phrases used. The author starts with a quote from Francis Bacon. This introduces you to the topic and hooks you straight away. It will either put you off from the start, or invite you to read more.

I love this story, but as with most of this authors stuff, I am a huge fan. I work in Forensic Science, in a mortuary, so I can clearly appreciate the descriptions used.

In Vermis Veritas is, essentially, a short look into the world of a maggot in a slaughterhouse. It was written as an introduction to a graphic novel, Registry of Death by Matthew Coyle and Peter Lamb, in which all the characters are worms or larvae. Have you ever read/written a story where the characters are worms or larvae? I imagine it would be an incredibly difficult task. Poppy Z. Brite pulls it off beautifully.

Phrases like, ‘connoisseur of mortality’, ‘spongy purple of drowned meat, translucent rose of fresh viscera, the seething indigo of rot’, and, ‘The glistening whorls are dissolving, coming unglued, breaking down into their chemical components,’ rouse incredible images, and capture these moments perfectly. 

The story starts with the introduction into the world of a maggot devouring flesh, describes how the maggot saves its energy for the ‘sweetest meat’. It talks about reducing a carcass to the bone, and revealing qualities of the deceased. The maggot lives thousands of lives, memorises thousands of tomes, constructs and destroys dynasties. It has ‘been a foetus in a womb and a guru in a cave’. It tells us the way people die; for sport, love, or, for fun, and finally, it concludes with the harsh reality (punchline) that it is better to be a maggot in a slaughterhouse than a man. It is a complete life to death story.

This story seems perfect for sensory description but I cannot find any instances where it is used, which is a shame, although the story does not need them to work.

At not even 500 words, this story would be hard to discard unread. It’s so easy to read. You don’t have to know who Francis Bacon is because the quote is used as an introduction to the topic – a maggot talking about the many lives it has lived through the many bodies it has devoured.

I imagine an older audience for this piece as it talks about decomposing flesh and liquefying organs, or perhaps readers into horror. I recommend it to anyone who wants a visually provocative piece. 

AMERICA by Poppy Z. Brite

Short Story Review: AMERICA by Poppy Z. Brite

‘America’ is a short snippet into the world of musicians, Ghost and Steve, as they road-trip through the desert on the way to a gig. Travelling through this featureless landscape at night, Ghost unconsciously starts singing a song Steve hates (the conflict). As a distraction Steve decides to tell the story of the ‘Man-Headed Cat’.

Tension gradually increases towards the punchline and as readers we feel this in the reactions of Ghost. Like him, we are hearing the story for the first time. Steve’s long pause at the end leaves Ghost to ask essentially, ‘and then what?’ which leads to the comic relief/punchline.

The characters are completely believable. Ghost (who could come across as, ‘a true thing of ectoplasm’) is strengthened through his innocent reactions to Steve’s story. You can see that the pair, as opposite as they are, are completely comfortable with one another. They have been friends for thirteen years, and their habitual relationship shows.

The author describes the setting perfectly without slowing the narrative. At the start we are caught up in the long journey. ‘Glittering black ribbon into nowhere’ perfectly sums up the scene of driving through a dark desert with little to look at. We are taken into the car with the characters, primarily through Steve’s eyes as he is most unfamiliar with the stretching landscape. We get to know the two men and get a brief look into their life.

The plot is an urban legend being told as two companions drive down an endless desert at night, the perfect setting to imagine such a tale into existence. The plot of the story within the story is resolved at the end, but Steve and Ghost’s journey has not ended, leaving more opportunities for other stories.

This story was essentially written for fans of the book ‘Lost Souls’ so we could be kept informed of what Steve and Ghost were up to. Its structure as a complete short story means it can be read by anyone, young adult and up (because of the cursing).

An Analysis on an Excerpt:

03.03.2014

‘A Georgia Story’ from Wormwood written by Poppy Z. Brite (1994).

Poppy Z. Brite writes to entertain. She takes readers away from ‘safe’ storytelling to the grungy underbelly of social outcasts, weirdos and the ‘freaks’ of society, and her stories, as with these lives, often don’t have happy endings. ‘A Georgia Story’ revolves around one of four main characters as he returns home after a friend’s death drove him from it a few years prior.

Some people can’t ‘be normal’ and these are the characters Brite writes about. We see Sammy’s life through someone who has ‘made it’. I like that Brite gives a voice to these characters. They are far more interesting and she certainly doesn't make them out to be anything they aren't. There is no happy ending.  She writes, ‘Sometime Gene laughed and was human.’ Her characters don’t feel as though they are part of the human race.

This piece is purely emotive. Poppy Z. Brite wants you to be in the character’s place – right there with him, not only seeing what he sees but being in his mind as well, as he reflects on his past. She does it perfectly with her descriptions and character narration.

She takes us from the immense descriptions of what the character is seeing and pulls us, as the character, back to reality with Ben’s character – rather than have him explore the freaks in his own narration in his head. Her dialogue bit with Ben talking to both the main character and to Sammy, she switches effortlessly between. It is easy to follow because of the punctuation and sentence structures. She uses exclamation points and short sentences to talk to the geek – as if he can’t understand anything else, like a child, or an animal.

The main character tells us, ‘I knew that later, before this fresh blood dried, the geek's fingers would find it and use it to create more tracings, new legends to decorate his cage.’ Because he knows this of their past – it’s what Sammy did. But he doesn't say ‘Sammy’. It’s ‘the geek’, because this is who Sammy is now. He compares the make-up Sammy wore, to the gore he's decorated himself with now. You get the feeling of who Sammy was and feeling awful for what he is.

‘Take me with you’, Sammy whispers but there is no hope. He is not saved. There is no ‘feel good’ moment – except maybe for the voice of the story. He has come back to his home town as a tourist. He can leave any time.

When he puts his hand into the cage and says, ‘Sammy reached up to take it, I drew back’, is the point when the main character forgets his friend. It was no longer Sammy and he can move on. That is what he has come back for, an ending of longing for his youth as addressed in the final sentence.

Poppy Z. Brite writes in a mixture of long and short sentences. Her longer sentences are giving descriptions or longer chunks of information and usually followed by short statements to ram in your face, so to speak. This works to transport you to where the narrator is. The carny, Ben, speaks the way he would talk – not in perfect English; ‘Let go that stick, you!’

The introduction for this short story collection is written by Dan Simmons. He describes when he first met Poppy Z. Brite, by chance, while doing a reading and he says, ‘I may have been the only member of the audience not wearing black leather and chains.’ I think to say Brite's target audience is only alternative/goth types is a gross underestimate. Brite writes about characters and subjects that these groups might find more interesting than the general population, but the target audience broadens to young adult – adult, perhaps with a darker attraction, which is why she is so often wrongly categorised as horror.

I chose to analyse this piece because it's one of my favourite short stories by this author, but I could have chosen any of her earlier work.  This one in particular, I love her subject matter, I love the descriptions of the four characters and I relate to the dark, macabre subject matter and how she effortlessly expresses it. As I said, she gives voice to the social outcasts of this world, a voice not heard enough, I voice I relate to, and a voice I think I mimic quite a lot.