Ready Player One

By Ernest Cline

I will start this review by saying, this is a very rare time when I will say- Watch The Movie First. I don't think that I've ever said that about a Movie or Book. In this case, if you listen to the book first, the movie won't be great. If you watch the movie first, and liked it, you can go back and learn a ton more about the story. You can learn the original Cannon after having enjoyed the movie. If you have the movie, you probably won't enjoy the audiobook. Honestly I felt like the movie would have been better served as a one season Netflix series. 

Oh you aren't here for a commentary on the movie? Just the audiobook? Okay! Well, it's fricking amazing! Of all the audiobooks I've ever listened to, this is Top 10. 

The story takes place about 30 years in the future and follows a young man named Wade. Wade has a pretty rough futuristic life, he is very poor, living out of a van at a junkyard and his aunt's home with her dick boyfriend. Wade basically collects computer parts he finds in the trash and is able to sign into the Oasis. A Virtual Reality world what was built by a eccentric and deceased Tech Guru. 

There has been a contest going on inside the Oasis for like 5 years, but no one had made any progress, the virtual score board remains nameless.

The audiobook is all able hidden Easter Eggs. If you are unfamiliar with an Easter Egg, they are all over the web today, Hidden things that the creator stashes around to "leave their mark" or entertain themselves to see if anyone will ever notice.

Whoever could complete the contest would win all of the eccentric billionaires fortune. The jest of rest of the story should be pretty obvious.

One more thing about the movie, the biggest thing that was far superior in my opinion. The movie did not have the pointless anti-religion rants that the author put into the book for no reason. There are a few random tangents that is the author speaking more than the protagonist. Even if his listeners agree, I think they would also agree, they don't add Wade's story in the least.

I totally recommend this book. It lives up to the hype. I just read that a sequel is in the works :) My favorite part of the book (a thing that the movie hugely lacks) is all of the 80s throwback nostalgia. If you are a fan of the 80's you will like the book even more!

Overall Rating ★★★★★

Audiobook Length - 15 hours and 46 minutes

Appropriate for ages 16 and Up.

Genre: SyFy, Science Fiction,  LitRPG, Utopian & Dystopian Fiction,  High Tech, Adventure

Modern Romance: An Investigation

By Aziz Ansari

Let me start off by saying of all the comedian written books, this audiobook is head and shoulders above the rest. This book felt like - and was researched & written over the period more than a year.

This is a very researched and factual book about Romance in our current time period, from the comedic perspective of Mr Treat-Yo-Self Ansari. You learn and laugh, it doesn't get a lot better than that. It's actually a bit of a self help book as well as an entertaining listen or read. 

The audiobook is read by Aziz, himself who will often remind you how lazy you are for listening to the audiobook instead of reading the book, and on top of that you are making him read it after he spent all the time writing it for you.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is old enough to notice another human in a romantic way. It is written mainly for the perspective of heterosexuals since a complete spectrum would be a total and complete rabbit hole.

This is an audiobook that you could easily consume in a single day, a great change of pace book while you are trying to grind through a long book series.

★★★★☆ 4/5 Stars

Run time: 6 hours and 14 minutes

Ages 17-69 

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Audiobook, Comedy, Psychology, Family, Relationships, Autobiography

Disc World

By Terry Pratchett

Okay so, if you've ever read any of my other reviews you know I pretty much always wait until a series is totally consumed before I chew on it awhile and spit it out at you, as it were.

Well there are 47 Disc World installments. I want you to know about these excellent books long before I finish them all years from now. One word to describe them: "whimsical" one book to describe them: "Hitchhikers Guide.."

They reminded me a lot of Hitchhikers Guide, but I might like Disc World just a little more.

I don't think these books could be taken in all back to back to back, so I listen to them in between other series or books within a series. These books are very different than most other pop series books that I try to keep up with, so its kind of a pallet re-setter.

The Photo at the bottom explains it all. The world is on the back of elephants who are on the back of a great turtle. This book series lets you get to know a wide cast of great characters from the brilliant mind of Terry Prachett, God rest his soul. In this series you will follow many characters on adventures all over the disc. Characters will run into each other from time to time from book to book. Disc World would be a great Netflix Original.

I totally recommend this series. Give it 2-3 books for your brain to properly lubricate and get on the same level as Disc World. This is one of those series that if you go in with no or low expectations, you will be blown away.

★★★★☆ 4/5 Stars

Run time: ∞

Ages 14-62