Monthly Archives: May 2016

Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A short and witty tale, just as good as the first book in this series. The plot, though short, is engaging and intriguing. Best of all, the plot twists are well hidden, as expected of Sanderson.

The gang imaginary characters are entertaining. I found them to be well thought up characters. It pretty interesting to see a group of people with so many different backgrounds and expertise interacting. The scenes of them interacting are almost like mini thought experiments.

Although this book’s main plot comes to a satisfying end, the overarching backstory is still left hanging. Hopefully, that means this series isn’t over just yet.

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The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book felt like a 21st-century update to H.G. Wells’ original classic The Time Machine. The plot isn’t particularly exciting or meaningful. It’s just like the original, where a man moves forward through time and experiences fantastical new worlds. However, the future worlds are imagined based on our current understanding of science and technology.

The story actually feels hollow. There is barely any conflict in the book. Our protagonist travels into the future, faces some obstacle, and conveniently avoids the problem by travelling into the future again. Rinse and repeat; that’s basically the plot of the book.

:SPOILER:
It all ends when he travels far enough into the future where people have finally invented a backward travelling time machine so that he can go back to his original time. A pretty unexciting ending. It’s not much of a spoiler really. I was expecting something more, like time-travel magics, but that didn’t happen.
:SPOILERS END HERE:

The book explores a lot of themes and future worlds, but only briefly. It glosses over the details of how these future worlds came to be. There are no real adventures in these future worlds other than stopping and having a look at it before travelling again. Kinda like a long road trip with pee breaks. The story should either have been much shorter than it currently is, or should have been longer to accommodate more detailed adventures.

Overall it’s a pretty short book, I finished it in 3.5 hours. If you are short on time travel fiction, then this one is easily digestible. Just don’t set your expectations too high.

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A tribute to geeks everywhere. If you are a gaming geek, you need to read this. It’s right up the alley of the movies Wreck-it Ralph and Pixels. Though this book is less funny than those movies, it is more in-depth in plot and references to gaming culture.

After a billionaire game designer dies, his will launches a modern worldwide quest to retrieve a million dollar treasure he left behind. This quest takes place, you guessed it, in the humongous virtual simulation world created by said game designer.

The plot is engaging and creative. It’s every gamer’s dream, a world where the icons of gaming mesh together and anything is possible. With an epic quest lingering in the background, beckoning everyone who thinks they are worthy of the prize.

Cline truly made a unique book with this one.

The plot is an obvious use of the Hero’s Journey. The climax and plot twist of something I could see coming from a long way off. However, the telling of it, and the imagination put into the scenes made me want to read to the end.

Nothing spectacularly new in storytelling here. But like I said, if you are a gamer, you need to read this. Or at least watch it when the movie comes out.

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Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent continuation of the series. This book picks up right after the ending of the previous one and shows more depth of the world Sanderson built for the book.

There aren’t as many plot twists in this book than in the first, but this time they are more spread out throughout the plot (as opposed to all at the end of the book, like in book 1). the pacing is better now as well. Though I suspect this is because the backstory and basics of magic have been established, and Sanderson can tell the story unhindered.

Though it is long, it is very immersive. It’s definitely a page-turner, and I was struggling to stop reading and reach the end of it.

Sanderson reveals even more intrigue into this book. Even at the end, it made me wonder how the clues together, and what will happen in the next book. If Sanderson can keep this up for the 10 proposed 10 books in this series, I will be very impressed.

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