Terry Schott – The Game is Life Book 1: The Game

Well, recently I finished this book. I get deals from BookBub sent to my e-mail and whenever I see a book that is free for downloading, I read the description and when I read this one, I was hooked. Thing is, I have another book that I want to finish, but well, this one took precedent.

The genre of the book is, in my humble opinion, very hard to pinpoint. I’d say that it is the opposite of dystopia but not utopia. Which in itself is a bit of a mindfuck.

Most of the book takes place in a virtual reality called EARTH. And yes, it is an acronym. Only, the full name was only mentioned about twice in the entire book so I don’t remember it.

The premise is that kids in the real world are educated through the virtual reality where they live full lives. The first five plays are free and then they have to buy any additional ones with credits earned through playing. They can also use the credits to purchase different upgrades like long life, charisma and many others.

Zach is the main character and during this book, he plays his final game as he is nearing his eighteenth birthday after which he will “graduate” from playing and enter the real world as a productive member of the society. He did a lot of careful planning with his team and sponsors. But when he enters the game, a wrench is thrown into all the planes. A wrench in the form of Zach’s (ex)-girlfriend Alexandra.

Alexandra lost everything in her last play but has been awarded a free playthrough for the thirty-year anniversary of the game. Her goal? To treat the game itself as a game. Which may seem difficult to achieve considering that when a player enters the game, they forget everything about the real world. But Alexandra manages this even without her memory of the real world.

When she and Zach meet inside the game, they strike a friendship and later start dating. They both believe that their lives inside the game are indeed a virtual reality and later they amass a following of people which leads to Zach being assassinated in-game with a special weapon that is supposed to kill you even in the real life.

And if that is not enough, well, let’s just say that the game itself is sentient. And names Sylvia. Well, the game… More along the lines of the AI that more or less runs the game.

The whole book ends with the Game’s creator being told to not unplug Zach from the game as he is not yet dead and done for.

To express my feelings about the book in a single word: Awesome! It is written in an easy and flowing style and I was hooked after the first page. Which makes it my kind of a book. If I can’t get behind a book after the first three pages or so, I don’t consider it a good book. So this would be considered a great book. Only thing is, I got this one for free, but when I went to hunt down the following books, well… Headdesk.

Six and a half dollars! Are they fucking crazy? Guess I’ll be doing a bit more thorough search of the internet to see if there is a possibility of a free download. I’m sure I’ll find one.

But other than this little problem, I definitely recommend the book to all the ones who liked the Divergent series, the Giver movie or even the freaking Hunger Games. Heck, Star Trek fans might like it! And those who loved the Sword Art Online anime will lap it up and beg for more!

Noah

Hi,

So, I decided to discard the idea to write about ABEL: It Can’t Be You and move directly to the post about the Noah movie I was talking about earlier.

So, where to start, where to start… I should probably mention that I saw it in 3D and that makes even a bad movie seem okay. Anyway, so I saw the movie. The idea is directly taken from the Bible, obviously, since it is the big flood or whatever it is called in english… The movie starts with talk about Adam and Eve and their line. And how it is split into two lines. From one, Noah is, the other one is the line of Kain. By the way, why is it always the guys with cool names that are the bastards?

Okay, nevermind that. Moving on.

So, Noah has been told by god. He was told that all the evil will be flushed out by the flood. And he is to save the inocents. The animals. And he starts building the Arch with his family. Which includes a girl they found – Hermione… Ehm… Pardon – Illa (Is it two L?).

I really don’t want to reveal too much, but I’m suspecting that you know the story from the Bible anyway. So, they build the arch, then tehy fight off the other humans on the planet, because, obviously, they want to be saved.

Ah, and Noah is such a badass. At first, he believes that his family is to die out after they save the animals, but the twin daughters of Illa and Chem (Shem?)? *doesn’t know the english spelling for his name* change that. They make him see that not all humanity is bad.

And in the end, they land and start making their home there.

And then, there is this moment! A moment where you just want to sing a song from this french/czech movie La Creation du Monde. That was the french name, in czech it is Stvoření světa, in english it should be The Creation of the World. However, I have no idea wether the song is in the original version, or if it was for example translated in english. I only have the knowledge of the song in czech. And it’s great. And this song… There was this moment in the movie, almost at the end, when Noah tells them to repopulate the world. In czech, it’s almost the words from the song, no Idea what he says in english. So, I imagined the song. Sure, it’s in czech and majority of you won’t understand, but I will still link it.

And the conclusion? Go watch the movie. It’s good. And it has good actors. Apart from Hermione, because that is waht Emma Watson will always be to us, Harry Potter fans, there is Anthony Hopkins and other well known actors. Though I will have to check who plays the sons. I have no idea and I wanted to find out yesterday!

See ya.

X. Aratare – Birth Rite

A darkish book about a boy who is living the life of someone else. Kinda. He was kidnapped from his crib and raised by some other people, away from his clan that has complicated french name! And I will not write it!

Then, he somehow becomes interested in this weird mannor and his inhabitant(s). And then he meets them. After his friend is devouered by  this worm-ish thingy.

I started the book a while back and finished not too long ago. So I don’t really remember the begining. But the ending is dissapointning. It ends with the boy defying his true heritage and going back to his “foster” parrents.

The plot idea is good, but I think it could have been written differently. In a more interesting way and with a different ending. I probably won’t be reading anything else from this author. And frankly, I don’t recommend the book.

There are definitely better slash books out there.

See ya.

Pompeii

It’s about half a week back when I went to see the movie Pompeii. I saw the trailer before and had high expectations. And I was not dissapointed. The movie is very good and definitely worth watching. About a young celtic “slave” (gladiator) that is moved from the city Londinium into Pompeii. There he meets the love of his life – Cassia. And another gladiator who he becomes friends with – Atticus.

However, life is not happy and there is this mean and nasty politician from Rome. And he has his eyes on Cassia. And wants the “slave” dead. So, games in the arena. Okay, that would have been okay. The celtic gladiator is strong enough to win. However, the mountain has other ideas and starts spouting fire. So, everyone panics and starts running. And… “Surprisingly” everyone is fried.

Yes, the plotline is a bit more complicated than that, but I don’t want to reveal too much in case you want to see it for yourselves. So there.

The movie was really good and I definitelly recommend it. For some reason it was like I was watching something from the fantasy genre. Even though this is more of a catastrophic movie than anything else. The actors did a good job and while I don’t know any of them, it doesn’t matter.

However, my slash-y side decided I don’t like Cassia. I was hoping that at least the celtic guy would save himself. But no, he has to be the gentleman and stay with the lady! God, I don’t like her! If she were a guy, then… But that is not happening. But that’s just me. I simply don’t like female protagonists. Antagonists, yes, I can bitch about those without being lynched, but female protagonists… No. Not my cup of tea. At least the main guy was pretty.

Go watch it.

See ya.

The Hunger Games – Chatching Fire

Hi,
Just yesterday, I finally saw the second Hunger games movie. And, I have to say that I liked the first one better. It was somehow a complete chapter. This one has too much of an open ending. Yeah, I know there will probably be another one, but still… Second movies in trilogies (tetralogies) are usually the worst. And I think this one is not an exception.

So, Katnis is elected to be part of some kind of special round of Hunger games. Okay. Understandable, since she’s the only female to ever win in district 12. There are revolutions and somehow the one who organized the hunger games is part of that. Yes, it’s complicated. And frankly, I didn’t even try to understand it all.

 

Another thing is I don’t like the mockingjay. Sure, it is the symbol of teh revolution or something. And there is some mysterious district 13 and waht not, but seriously, nightingale would have been better. I like nightingale better. However, if I were to choose a bird, I’d go with the Raven.

Well… That’s beside the point. One thing’s for sure. Do not try to watch it before watching the first movie. I think it would be too confusing.

All in all, it was kinda a dissapointment. Not completely, but still… Second movie and all that. Unlike the czech movie Babovřesky (second movie), this one was not better than the first, but worst. With Babovřesky, the second was as good as the first. I can’t say it was better, it was too different, but it was enjoyable.

Okay, enough of this. I’m getting sidetracked!

See ya.