I bloody hope so. This would be a plus for a generally disappointing film.
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I’m a long-time SF fan but I couldn’t get through the first chapter, you must be a real masochist.
I can see the resemblance, but this is the guy he kept reminding me of, and I’d been wondering if it was deliberate, considering the material.
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I did not understand why the book was so popular. It was terribly written. Well, 50 shades of grey sold a billion despite being pretty execrable.
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I am almost done… the insert 80’s reference here thing had me roll my eyes at page one and I am very much the target demographic for that part. It is a bit predictable and the writing and plotting are very 30’s pulp novel in format. It is fun in a trainwreck sort of way but I really fail to see why it garnered all the love.
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Considering the film entirely lacked substance, that would be a definite plus. Sadly, I don’t really think there was much behind it beyond what came out of a nostalgia brainstorming session with every 80s kid Spielberg could get his hands on. The whole “hey, corporations have debtors prisons and SWAT teams now, and pretty much own you no matter what” angle is so bafflingly unexplored that that alone ruins the film.
I liked it well enough at the time while recognizing how poor the writing is. Then I read Armada hoping to see some improvement…
There are those who continue to improve at what they do despite their success, and then, well, there’s Ernest Cline.
Now finally, I realize I was completely wrong to enjoy R.P.O.
Not caring much for Spielberg either, I don’t guess I’ll torture myself
Same in the book, and then this is supposed to be an energy scarce future yet how much power do you need to run the server farms that it would take to run OASIS?
Ed Dillinger from TRON?
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Hm. I was under the impression that the book was on the okay-to-good spectrum. I guess I was mistaken. On the other hand this makes me happy I never bothered to read it
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Oh it isn’t awful just eyeroll inducing and a bit cringe inducing in a post gamergate world. If you think of it as trainwreck reading it is amusing enough.
My impression is that it’s a fun book that’s aged poorly. It’s interesting that the author seems to have taken a hard look at it, agreed, and revisited it pretty thoroughly for the film script.
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And rapidly. I enjoyed it myself, but it was essentially written for me. Even so, when I put it down what I wanted more of was a book about someone living in the vertical trailer park slums who found himself caught up in indentured servitude to a megacorp. Cline, in his eagerness to please the fanbois, missed an opportunity to write a better (and still studio-option-worthy) novel.
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This. The two most interesting bit to explore for the world they all live in are basically skimmed over.
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And what little Cline did with it was still very engaging. I could see corporate servitude working out exactly that way in practise if trends continue.
At least Amazon is now developing a series based on “Snow Crash,” which knew how to do that kind of thing right (even if Stephenson can never find his novels a proper ending).
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Agreed. I found that and the Columbus Stacks to be more believable than the VRMMO part.
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Lois McMaster Bujold comes to mine. The early Vor saga books are mostly popcorn munching fun stuff that I enjoyed but never took seriously, On the otheer hand, the more recent works are quite well written, IMHO.
You’ve aided me in spotting a gap on my to-read list.
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