Books!

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Created on Monday, 14 November 2011 16:54

So I thought I would try something different today. Writing about BOOKS. Specifically, what I've been reading.

I finished 'Have Spacesuit, Will Travel' by Robert A. Heinlein a while ago, and on the whole, I enjoyed it. One thing I did notice, and am beginning to notice increasingly, is the tendency for the 'retro' (1970's ish) science fiction to be written for young adults/teenagers. I'm not saying they are necessarily immature, but they definitely seem geared towards a 'coming of age' vein. Books like Red Planet, Enders Game, like his one, are heavily centred around growing up, maturing, seeing the world differently, not through the eyes of a child, and usually dealing with something even an adult would find challenging.

Of course, I wouldn't say this was an absolute rule; there are a fair few books from that time I like, that don't follow this theme. 'A world out of time' by Larry Niven is still one my favourite books of all time. Same with 'The Moon is a harsh mistress', but even those two still have overtures of learning and growing as people.

Ok, got a little side tracked there. It was good. Review over.

The next book is a little embarrassing. And I'm not really sure why. Why is it that if someone asks what you are reading, you never want to admit it's a game based on a book series? So back in the days of Pacman and Asteroids, that might have seemed a little strange, with not a whole lot of story past ‘shoot this way, don’t die’. But nowadays, games, even a growing number of mobile games, have stories more epic, and in a lot of cases, a whole lot more complex than most films. And yet it's still considered strange to be reading a book based on a universe that happened to be created for a game, which by its nature usually means it has to be already richly detailed and populated.

The book I've just finished with, and been impressed with, is the Infinity Blade novel, Awakening. It fills the story gap between the first and second upcoming game, and does it pretty damn well to be honest. It's good to see this quality of writing for something which evolved from a mobile game. As is, if you know me, then you will know, I loved the first game. Slightly obsessed is probably a more accurate description. My character is at level 400, and I am close to mastering all items to the 10th Mastery level. Judge me.

The story itself carries on from the game, after completing a very specific section of the game. (Sorry for the vagueness, I'm trying to keep this spoiler free.) In short, it provides a very satisfying twist to the story of the game, destroys the originally held canon, and rebuilds it in a way that will keep the core gameplay of second game very similar to what is loved in the first, but now allowing for a more linear story, with better character development. And also, a lot more cutscenes if the new trailer is anything to go by. If you liked the first game, read this.

And next? I'm determined to finally finish Catch 22. I attempted reading this before, and despite there being a lot of laugh out loud sections, nearly to the point of crying with laughter, I found some of the parts in-between a bit of a slog, which didn’t help as I was halfway through when I finally invested in an eReader, and lost the motivation to carry on, instead starting something new.

Wish me luck.