RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club Showing 801-850 of 2,932

[Brian]

$6 Black Friday sale on Audible. FYI.

[Soo]

Thanks for the head's up! =)

This sale is only worth it if you find 4 books and get the $5 coupon. A lot of the titles are on KU and the popular books have been in $5 or 2 for 1 credit sales.

Hm, technically, there are 4 books I could get but I'll sit and think about it. =)

[Brian]

There are only a few I have either not read or would want. I would like to try American Gods maybe but not sure.

[Soo]

I've read American Gods a few times but I haven't listened to the 10th Anniversary audiobook. That's the one with a narration cast. =)

[Brian]

Did you enjoy it ? Worth grabbing?

[Soo]

I haven't listened to the audiobook. The story is great but people have mixed responses to the story. American Gods is one of my favs by Gaiman. I think it's great. I've enjoyed the tv show adaptation too. It's not exactly like the book but a good spin of the story.

If you love all sorts of myths and fables, you'll enjoy the story. It has a nice dash of American culture/aspects too. I feel like I'm in the right generational range to appreciate what Gaiman did and what he used as inspiration for the book.

Er. Probably a mix of my age and unique love of a wide range of topics. lol

Netflix

Have you guys watched 6 Underground? It's funny like the Big Hit and over the top like Kill Bill. Awesome parkour and insane car chase.

Hmm, not as funny as the Big Hit. I love that movie but a good action flick on Netflix.

Currently Reading

Life and Limb #1 by Jennifer Roberson is on Audible Plus. I'm near the end of the book and I like it!

If you want a Supernatural type fix, I highly recommend this book. =)

[Brian]

Soo wrote: "I haven't listened to the audiobook. The story is great but people have mixed responses to the story. American Gods is one of my favs by Gaiman. I think it's great. I've enjoyed the tv show adaptat..."

Thanks Soo! Added to my never ending TBR list....

[Soo]

Netflix: American Horror Story

Seasons: Apocalypse & 1984 are great!

Just watched 1984 and it was really well done. Great mix of horror flick tropes, twists, 80's culture blend, some political digs and great acting.

Overall vibe was like Cabin in the Woods. Plus, I love the soundtrack. lol

It's interesting how much impact tv shows & movies have on clothing design & comeback surges of older designs/phases. A lot of the 80's stuff is popular now and that's reflected in the show.

[Soo]

Woo! I downloaded my Ready Player Two. I'm going to finish the crime/law book I'm reading now and re-read Ready Player One and jump right into 2 after.

So, I'll probably start RP2 in a day or two. =D

I didn't see a response for the BR in the BR request thread. I figured we can chat it up here.

[Narilka]

Here is great. Mine is downloaded too :D I'm going to see if I can start tonight. Tomorrow for sure!

[Soo]

Yay!

[Narilka]

RP2 Cut Scene/Prologue (view spoiler)[Woah. That is some crazy tech. I find myself both really wanting to try something like that out and horrified it exists.

This will be interesting. I wonder what the quest will be. I didn't read the book blurb, just umped in :D (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

It is good to hear Wil Wheaton's narration again. I haven't listened to anything of his in a while!

[Soo]

He has a soothing voice. Don't you think?

[Soo]

Ready Player One: Somewhere in the intro-ish area.

I forgot how cool the virtual school was in the story. Being able to have simulated trips to explore old ruins, inside the heart and all would be awesome ways to learn. Though, I would still want a mix of in person activities and VR. =)

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "He has a soothing voice. Don't you think?"

Yes. And he is so great at snark! lol

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "Ready Player One: Somewhere in the intro-ish area.

I forgot how cool the virtual school was in the story. Being able to have simulated trips to explore old ruins, inside the heart and all would b..."

I wanted to do a relisten of RPO, just not enough time unless I wanted to wait on RP2 :D I would love to log into the OASIS and like you I'd still need some RL activities to do. Hiking if nothing else.

[Soo]

Jumps over to Wandering Inn

OOO! Pirateaba's latest Patron story poll may mean there's movement in one of the story lines that I'm keen to see in action. =)

Which is great! I haven't read Vol7 in a while so I'll have several chapters to read and I'm excited to do that now. Yay!

Jumps back to RPO

Iain, how can you NOT enjoy this book?!?! It's full of things we love: video games, online friendship, mysteries, movies & world conspiracies. =D

Though, I gotta admit, this is more of my wheelhouse. I don't think I will connect as well with a story full of 2010-2020 pop culture and refs. I don't know them that well and ignore most of them? I feel like most of them are rather shallow and not as fun/clever or flat out goofy as the mid70's & 80-90's stuff I grew up with.

[Soo]

RPO:

Anyone else think this book is a big nod to everything Cline loves? Including personal politics? lol

I'm at the part where Wade is living on his own & hiding out in the apartment. The whole process about how he setup the security for deliveries makes me think of some of the precautions we have to take now.

Current world: In some ways, I'm glad world disasters make it possible for more people to become aware or desire to be informed. To take another look at what is everyday and see it in a different perspective.

[Soo]

RPO:

Finished! That was more fun to re-read than I thought it would be. I was startled by the political yammering that was thrown in around the beginning of the story. Amused in different ways by how much of the pop culture talk that I understood and which ones I got but didn't care about.

The ending was great. Nice & tidy with a swirl of romantic cheese. =)

Onto RPT!

Have ya'll read the posts for the book? People are kinda nuts!

I just read the blurb for RPT and happy to see it'll be a direct sequel vs years later.

[Narilka]

More like days later unless there's a time jump I haven't encountered yet. I'm still in Ch 0000 :D (view spoiler)[Wade and friends did go through with putting the new technology up for sale and we now have the next quest based on the number 7. (hide spoiler)]

You finished RPO fast! Yes, I think Cline was writing about a lot of the things he loves. I think we must be in a similar age group as I get most of his pop culture references and would likely miss out on things if it was too modern.

[Soo]

I listened to like 2 minutes of the RPT. It's been 10 days since Wade found the easter egg. =)

Jumped into Wake of the Bloody Angel #4 and really satisfied by the story. Bledsoe is one of my happy "new to me" author finds for the year. Great adventure fantasy stories with gritty characters.

[Soo]

RPT = Can Power Corrupt?

The audiobook has weird chapter headings. Currently Level Four, second 0002.

I may be in the wrong mode for the story because the premise for this book is different from RPO and I'm like, well, what do you expect will happen when a "young adult" with hardly any real life experience of living in the tactile world gets a ton of power?

Some good and a lot of ignorant choices that lead to DOOM!

Or does it?

=D

[Soo]

RPT:

I'm about halfway now and I'm way more happy with where the story is plot wise.

The opening/intro: (view spoiler)[I felt like it was a hundred steps back for Wade. That he went from making a happy & stable life to bad habits and filling loneliness with illusions.

Guess we're not suppose to enjoy that part and I didn't.

I didn't like it when he's all by himself and being a dork of isolation. He has no skills on how to really interact with others expect within gaming context, etc. (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

Good to know about the chapter headings. I'll see if I can stick to time markers or approximate %s when I post from here on out.

[Soo]

RPT:

I loved the last half more than the first half. Mostly because there are lots of cool things happening and it's not the depressing slant that's put in the beginning portion.

Please note whichever parts that stick out to you! There were lots of things I really enjoyed.

[Narilka]

I have happen to have a physical copy of RP1 so just went and looked at the sections and chapters. RP1 goes through level 3 so RP2 starting with level 4 after the prologue makes sense. It also has the chapter titles as 0001, 0002, etc. so that carry over also makes more sense now too. I don't think Wheaton actually narrated them as 0 0 0 1 before though, hence the confusion.

I bought a physical copy because I snagged a signed version. It's never been read.

Don't worry, I'll come post about RP2 as I have random thoughts :D I'm still in the beginning and (view spoiler)[it seems Wade is backsliding. He's trying to use the OASIS and other people's memories to substitute for real life. I'm ready for him to get on with solving the new puzzles already! (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Yeah! Exactly. Depressing. I felt the same about him moving his butt and figuring stuff out.

Also, signed copy!! Exciting! =D

[Narilka]

Ch 0003 (view spoiler)[No surprise Artemis dumped him. Wade has become especially dickish in the time since winning the original game.

It's nice to catch up on what H and Shoto have done. I'm still impatient to get one with the 7 shards though!

Cline is making some interesting social commentary again. Hope it doesn't go too preachy. (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Cline did the same thing in RPO. I bet a lot of it was edited out. I don't mind authors bringing up topics to be thought about in books but he's rather heavy-handed in how he does it in both books.

Me too! I felt grumpy about the stuff that happened there and eager to see what the deal with the shards were about.

[Narilka]

Heavy handed is a good description.

I think I'm in Ch 0008. I left my phone downstairs and too lazy to get it since I have to do more cooking soon lol Hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving :)

(view spoiler)[The LGBT+ part. Its nice of him to be inclusive but it still felt... I don't know. The fact that he felt he had to spell it out to that degree seems to defeat the point. He's already mentioned H and her wife several times, which felt more natural. I think this is one of the heavy handed sections.

Og's been "kidnapped". My current thought is he left on his own as part of the game. Like finding the first shard was the trigger.

I'm concerned that Sorrento has escaped. He was a great bad guy in the first book. I was hoping this one would be more than just a retread. We will see how that plays out.

It's still fun though even if Wade didn't figure out the first shard on his own. (hide spoiler)]

[Brian]

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

[Soo]

Happy Thanksgiving! =)

Hope everyone is safe, happy & doing well.

RPT Shards: (view spoiler)[The way Wade can go around as the all power in Oasis is cool & creepy. Because he's not always doing things with the right motives. It's a good thing that he's not a megalomaniac or he could be super evil.

I liked the way he had to throw in the towel and put out a digital SOS for help on the Shards. lol

I like the crew of the low-five. They seem cool!

I had some crazy ideas for who the bad guys are and what was going on. Most of the wackier ideas did not happen in the story. (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Anyone watch Spenser Confidential? Offbeat action movie. I liked it. =)

[Narilka]

RPT in Ch 0010 (view spoiler)[And there's the real story. Interesting! I'm not sure if I believe it's a rogue AI or an incredibly sophisticated hacker. Either way, the team is pretty much screwed. I love how Anorak threw in their faces that they should've known not to trust completely in tech after seeing so many scifi movies lol Time for the High Five to get their game faces on and start figuring out the shards. Maybe with the Low Five's help? The clock is ticking. (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "Anyone watch Spenser Confidential? Offbeat action movie. I liked it. =)"

Never heard of that one.

[Brian]

I watched it. It was pretty good I thought.

[Soo]

Spenser Confidential is a new action movie on Netflix. I liked it. Basically a vigilante movie with a ton of action and sprinkles of humor. Spenser is a good guy. Hawk is cool too. Oak milk. Spenser is like what is oak milk? Hahhaha~ Also, "the cloud". Where is the "cloud"? LOL Though, I don't think 5 years in jail is not really enough to not know about backing up to cloud.

RPT - You're at the part where it feels like it's finally MOVING where we want it. =D

[Narilka]

Yep, the story is finally moving :)

RPT in Ch 0015 (view spoiler)[Second shard down :D I had a feeling they might be putting together an AI of Kira for Anorak and seems like the gang thinks the same.

I also think it would be funny if instead of a rogue AI it ended up being their personal helper from Gregarious. I've already forgotten his name lol

They're working on the third shard. I think roaming that city based on all the John Hughes movies would be a bit creepy. (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

RPT (Hughes): (view spoiler)[I think I would have had whiplash from trying to double check what I'm seeing with what I remembered from movies. lol That's Actor ____ from blah blah and doing minor cast here, etc.

One of the plot holes for the story is how much information all of them had to process in order to be a good hunter for the easter egg/etc.

I read fast, enjoy all sorts of music & movies. It took my whole life to absorb a lot of that. It's not possible for these "kids" to watch all the shows, read all the books, play all the games, listen to all the music, memorize lines from all of those things and master it all within a few years. It's not like they spent the whole time doing it either. They had to go to school, went off to play games in Oasis, etc. (hide spoiler)]

What's one of your crazier ideas for what's going on the story to this point?

One of my far fetched ideas: (view spoiler)[Until about this point, I thought Artemis may have been behind the Shards to teach Wade a lesson. (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

RPT (view spoiler)[Oh I legit think something has taken over the OASIS and is holding a lot of people hostage. I just don't know if it's a rogue AI or a person behind it all. I'm not sure why it seems to be linked to the use of the new headsets either other than to trigger at 7,777,777 users of the new tech. This book is obsessed with the number 7.

I agree it seems that it would be improbable for these kids to have all that memorized. They'd have to have been watching/reading/listening since they were born to absorb that much :) It's one of the things you look past so you can have fun with the story. I could see them having some specialties but not that many. And since Cline never goes into anything like time compression within the OASIS we the reader assume that watching a 3 hour movie still takes 3 hours, etc. (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Exactly! All the tv show talk makes me miss Weird Science and Back to the Future movies, etc. lol

Are you at the part where the High-Five are gathered and need to find the shards?

[Narilka]

Also (view spoiler)[Why did the rogue wait 3+ years to hold Wade and the OASIS hostage. Something isn't adding up with the timing. An AI has no need to hurry being immortal. A human though... Like Og knowing he's dying and wanting to resurrect his dead wife to "see" her again, that could be plausible though it seems out of character. (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "Exactly! All the tv show talk makes me miss Weird Science and Back to the Future movies, etc. lol

Are you at the part where the High-Five are gathered and need to find the shards?"

Yes. A little past. (view spoiler)[Artemis jumped out of her plane and escaped. She's just rejoined them and they seem to be on the trail of the third shard. (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

RPT:

I had to go digging for character names because I haven't read the print.

I'm dithering on whether or not to comment because I think some things should be obvious by now but I kinda want you to be surprised? LoL

Am I terrible?!?! lol

[Narilka]

Oh so it's like that :D

I'm going to have a big DUH moment at the reveal aren't I LOL

[Soo]

Yup yup! You gotta reexamine your suppositions. You're taking a few things for granted right now and it's in your spoilers.

[Narilka]

RPT Ch 0020 (view spoiler)[The Nerd Slayer sword? Really?? That made me roll my eyes. And only wieldable by Og of course.

They have the third shard and I'm so excited they called in the Low Five to help. That's awesome :D

I'm starting to think the hijacking of the OASIS is more straight forward. Maybe Sorrento was more clever than I was giving him credit for. It would make for decent revenge. Although it would be interesting of Haliday scanned his brain into the machine and is his own AI that's gone crazy.

Only 4.5 hours to find the 4 remaining shards and save the world. (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

I'm so torn! I don't even know the exact place but you should re-listen to the part where the original gang is called into the meeting and what happens there. Or go back to that part & read the book? It'll make a difference.

[Soo]

I am late & behind on all the movies but I quite enjoyed the movie Selfless. Action packed take on consciousness transference.