Ready Player One: A Novel

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Originally published: 16th Aug 2011
Authors: Ernest Cline
Page count: 374pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Subjects: Sci-Fi
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030788743X
ISBN-13: 9780307887436
Product Dimensions: Kindle eBook / Audiobook

100 Word Book Review:

Wade Watts, along with other global players, dedicated his life studying hidden puzzles. These puzzles are in the virtual world, and it is based on the creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. Individuals and teams, everyone is using all ways to win the final prize. In this narrative story, as the race drags on Wade needs to win in order to stay alive. At the end of the day, Wade needs to face the real world that he tried to turn away from.

Who should read:

Anyone who has a passion in gaming will enjoy this book thoroughly. From the hardware specifications, to the software requirements, this book is peppered with many IT lingos, concepts and terms. Common terms include, ‘experience points’, ‘level up’, ‘high score’. If you are a gamer, you will find these terms very familiar.

Who should NOT read:

If you are looking for romance, or something close to real life, please stay away from this book. It is not entirely according to the typical boy meets girl and fall in love while they go on dates. It is a complete story of how Wade overcome the game and life challenges. Surely it is not a romance story as that is not the focus.

Takeaway points:

Overall as a gamer myself, I find this book very appealing and comfortable to read. I finished it in one seating, immersed in the literary world that the book has described vividly. At times it brings me back to my younger days when I was gaming delirious, a little similar to the character (Wade) in the book.

About the Author

Ernest Cline is an internationally best-selling novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. He is the author of the novels Ready Player One and Armada and co-screenwriter of the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. His books have been published in over fifty countries and have spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-traveling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic video games.

The Hanged Man’s Song – John Sandford

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The Hanged Man's Song
The Hanged Man’s Song – John Sandford

 

A super-hacker friend of Kidd’s named Bobby suddenly disappears from cyberspace, and Kidd – artist, computer whiz and professional criminal – knows that isn’t a good sign. Going over to his house, he finds Bobby dead on the floor, his head bashed in and his laptop missing – and Kidd knows that really isn’t a good sign. The secrets on that laptop are potent enough to hang Kidd and everybody else in Bobby’s circle – just to start with. But before Kidd and his partner LuEllen can get very far in their attempts to track the laptop down, the secrets start coming out anyway – and they’re much more staggering than even Kidd imagined. Because it’s not just about the lives of a circle of friends and colleagues now – it’s about something much, much bigger. And much, much scarier … *

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Midnight Tides: A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen – Steven Erikson

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Midnight Tides: A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
Midnight Tides: A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
Midnight Tides: A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen – Steven Erikson

( Please note that the BooksAvenue has the different edition of this book. A picture is as below.)
After decades of internecine warfare, the tribes of the Tiste Edur have at last united under the Warlock King of the Hiroth, There is peace–but it has been exacted at a terrible price: a pact made with a hidden power whose motives are at best suspect, at worst deadly.

To the south, the expansionist kingdom of Lether, eager to fulfill its long-prophesized renaissance as an Empire reborn, has enslaved all its less-civilized neighbors with rapacious hunger. All, that is, save one–the Tiste Edur. And it must be only a matter of time before they too fall–either beneath the suffocating weight of gold, or by slaughter at the edge of a sword. Or so destiny has decreed.

Yet as the two sides gather for a pivotal treaty neither truly wants, ancient forces are awakening.  For the impending struggle between these two peoples is but a pale reflection of a far more profound, primal battle–a confrontation with the still-raw wound of an old betrayal and the craving for revenge at its seething heart.

The Silent Man – Alex Berenson

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The Slient Man
The Slient Man
The Slient Man

The New York Times bestselling author of The Ghost War and The Faithful Spy

CIA agent John Wells has spent years in the company of evil men. He’s paid the price and is beginning to doubt if he can ever live a normal life. And when a powerful adversary from his past finds him, Wells must once again enter the fray.

For his country. For his soul. For revenge…

The Winds of Folly – Seth Hunter

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The Tide of War
The Tide of War

The second brilliant novel in Seth Hunter’s naval adventure series, featuring Captain Nathan Peake. Newly-promoted Captain Nathan Peake is despatched to the Caribbean to take command of the British navy’s latest frigate, the 32-gun Unicorn. But the Unicorn already has a tragic history of mutiny – and murder. Meanwhile the Revolutionary authorities in Paris have sent the best frigate in the French fleet, the 44-gun Virginie, on a secret mission to spread mayhem from the shores of Cuba to the swamps of the Mississippi Delta. While the Unicorn embarks on her epic duel with the Virginie, Nathan confronts the seductive charms of Sabine Delatour, witch queen of the Army of Lucumi, the intrigues of the American agent Gilbert Imlay…

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Pirate: Buccaneer, The Adventures of Hector Lynch – Tim Severin

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Buccaneer: The Pirate Adventures of Hector Lynch (Hector Lynch 2) by Severin, Tim 1st (first) Edition (2009)
Buccaneer: The Pirate Adventures of Hector Lynch (Hector Lynch 2) by Severin, Tim 1st (first) Edition (2009)

Sailing across the Caribbean Hector Lynch falls into the hands of the notorious buccaneer, Captain John Coxon. Hector’s two friends, Dan and Jacques, are released when Coxon mistakes Hector as the nephew of Sir Thomas Lynch the Governor of Jamaica – an error that Hector encourages.

Coxon delivers Hector to Sir Henry Morgan, a bitter enemy of Governor Lynch. The captain is expecting to curry favour with Henry Morgan but is publicly humiliated at a Christmas ball held in Morgan’s grand Jamaican home when it is revealed that Hector is not a member of the Governor’s family. From then on, Coxon seeks to revenge himself on Hector and the young seafarer finds himself on the run again. On his new journey he falls in love for the first time, gets caught in a deadly hurricane and merely survives another shipwreck. Eventually he teams up again with his old friends Dan, Jacques and the group joins an expedition along the Panama coast. Their aim is to raid one of the biggest Spanish gold mines, but their plans are soon interfered by some angry Spaniards. . . and their clash has even more dramatic consequences . . .

 

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The Pillars of Rome: Republic – Jack Ludlow

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The Pillars of Rome
The Pillars of Rome

With barbarians at the gate and enemies within, two men must fight for the soul of the Republic and the greatest empire in the world. A cave hacked out of the rock, lit by flickering torches…two young boys appeal to the famed Roman oracle for a glimpse into their future. The Sybil draws a blood-red shape of an eagle with wings outstretched. An omen of death. As they flee from the cave in fear, Aulus and Lucius make an oath of loyalty until death. An oath that will be tested in the years to come. Thirty years on and Aulus, now Rome’s most successful general, faces his toughest battle. Barbarian rebels have captured his wife, and are demanding the withdrawal of Roman legions from their land in return for her life. It is unthinkable for Aulus to agree, and he fears her life must be forfeit to Rome. Meanwhile, Lucius has risen to high rank in the Senate; a position he uses and abuses. But when Lucius is suspected of arranging a murder, the very foundations of the Republic are threatened. Lucius and Aulus soon find themselves on very different sides of the conflict perhaps the prophecy of the eagle will come true after all. History and adventure, brutality and courage combine to powerful effect, making The Pillars of Rome an outstanding opening to the Republic series.

 

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The Lost Army of Cambyses – Paul Sussman

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The Lost Army of Cambyses - Paul Sussman
The Lost Army of Cambyses – Paul Sussman

In 523 BC, the Persian pharaoh Cambyses dispatched an army across Egypt’s western desert to destroy the oracle at Siwa. Legend has it that somewhere in the middle of the Great Dune Sea his army was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and lost forever. Two and a half millennia later a mutilated corpse is washed up on the banks of the Nile at Luxor, an antique dealer is savagely murdered in Cairo, and a British archaeologist is found dead at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara.

The incidents appear unconnected, but Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police is suspicious, as is the archaeologist’s daughter, Tara Mullray. Lured into a labyrinth of intrigue, violence, and betrayal by a mysterious hieroglyphic fragment and rumors of a mythic lost tomb, what began as a search for the truth becomes a race for survival. Confronted by both present day adversaries and ghosts from their pasts, Khalifa and Mullray find themselves on a trail that leads into the desert’s unforgiving, burning heart, and the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world.

 

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Deadhouse Gates (Malazan) – Steven Erikson

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Deadhouse Gates (Malazan)
Deadhouse Gates (Malazan)

 

In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha’ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends.

Steven Erikson is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian novelist, who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist. His best-known work is the on-going series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

 

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Game of Thrones

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Game of Thrones (Full Set)
Game of Thrones (Full Set)

 

Game of Thrones (Full)
Game of Thrones (Full)

 

A Game of Thrones is the first novel in A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of high fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin. It was first published on 6 August 1996. The novel won the 1997 Locus Award, and was nominated for both the 1997 Nebula Award and the 1997 World Fantasy Award. The novella Blood of the Dragon, comprising the Daenerys Targaryen chapters from the novel, won the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella. In January 2011 the novel became a New York Times bestseller and reached #1 on the list in July 2011.

In the novel, presenting various points of view and plot-lines, Martin introduces the noble houses of Westeros, the Wall, and the Targaryen plot-line. The novel has lent its name to several spin-off works based on the series, such as several games. It is also the basis for the first season of Game of Thrones, an HBO television series which premiered in April 2011. A March 2013 paperback TV tie-in re-edition is also to be titled Game of Thrones, without the “A”. The title comes from a proverb that Queen Cersei quotes on page 471: “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”

This is a complete set of Game of Thrones.

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