I was planning on saving Lock In for another time, but after listening to The Dispatcher, I needed to listen to Lock In. I listened to the Wil Wheaton narration. Listening to Wheaton’s narration made me think of Armada, which I had just listened to him narrate. Very briefly, the title of this review was “That’s how you do nostalgia, Cline!” I changed it because that would have been unfair to John Scalzi, Ernst Cline and their respective books. Just so you know, though, Scalzi […]
Wil Wheaton is a hell of a narrator.
I listened to Armada, narrated by Wil Wheaton. Wil Wheaton can make an ok book into a great listen. (Thanks, Natalie!) I am glad I put some space between Ready Player One and Armada. RP1 is a masterpiece of nostalgia, while Armada trades in the same nostalgia, it’s less graceful. It’s impossible not to compare the two, however I think I put enough distance between them that my disappointments and delights are all related to this book on it’s own. Mostly. The central idea of […]
Danger, Wil Wheaton
Ok, I know that my title reference is for a different sci-fi series but I am not a Trekkie (which, by the way is a recognized word on my computer). I know Wil Wheaton primarily from Big Bang Theory, where he plays a fictional version of himself, as well as his leading role in the 1986 film Stand By Me;the closest I’ve gotten to an episode of The Next Generation is this: I wanted to read his memoir because I follow his wife, Anne, […]
“They Should’ve Sent a Gamer”
Ernest Cline has a lot going for him: His first major novel (Ready Player One) was a huge success, it is being turned into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg, and he is getting a screenwriting credit. Cline’s follow up to Ready Player One is Armada. In the simplest of terms, it’s the story of some nerds who try to save the world. Like Ready Player One, Armada is a story largely told through nerd culture references from the 1970s to the present. However, while […]
If you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second, how exactly would you die?
Embarking on a 13 hour car trip I asked a friend for a suggestion for an audiobook. The words “xkcd” and “Wil Wheaton” were barely out of his mouth when I started to download it from my local libraries collection. And I was not disappointed. xkcd is “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language” so clearly probably a hit with this audience. There is a “What If” section where readers can ask questions and, as the title suggests, Randall Munroe will possibly choose one to […]
Continue the quest by taking the test.
This one almost feels like a cheat, since I knew going in I was likely going to rate this 5 stars. I enjoyed the book tremendously when I read it the first time nearly three years ago for Cannonball Read 4. This year I have tackled my dislike/fear of the audiobook experience, and decided on a whim that I really did want to hear the Wil Wheaton version of Parzival’s story. It was simply a delight. In case you aren’t familiar, here’s Goodreads to give […]