The Infernals

by John Connolly
Fic Connolly, John

The Infernals is the sequel to the author's 2009 book, The Gates, and while it is possible to skip that one and pick this one up I would recommend it for two reasons. One is that it was a very fun book and the other is that while the author does recap and mention in brief what happens in the first novel a lot of the humor and heart would be missed. The obvious solution is to get both and have a fun time. I wasn't expecting there to be a sequel to The Gates but when I was looking over new releases I was pleasantly surprised and checked it out immediately.

I am a very big fan of British humor and there is a large hole left by Douglas Adams who wasn't nearly as prolific as I would have liked. John Connolly who started as a successful mystery writer and then branched off with what was almost a fantasy novel in The Book of Lost Things. All of his books at most bookstores though are still in mystery. I'm not a big mystery fan so I hope he continues to write more offbeat stories with loads of humor in them like this and The Gates.

The Gates was about a tween named Samuel Johnson and his dog, Boswell, who while trick-or-treating three days early witnesses a Satanic ritual that sets forth events that opens a portal to Hell. In the process of trying to defeat evil, Samuel and Boswell, befriend a demon named Nurd who helps them stop Satan and his army from taking over Earth. The Infernals takes place around a year after The Gates and has most of the community trying to forget that demons tried to invade their community. Samuel is trying to talk to a girl he likes and Nurd is cruising around in Hell in Samuel's dad's Aston Martin. The demons are not happy about being defeated and while they can not open a portal for them to leave Hell once again they can bring Samuel along with a group of angry dwarves and an ice cream truck and driver to Hell. Samuel has to once again be a hero.

The book is rather funny and some of the after affects on the demons who visited Earth are high points in the story. The book moves at a faster pace than its predecessor as it doesn't have to build up multiple story lines from scratch. I would recommend this to fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

Fic Cline, Ernest

This is the book I read after the very good The Night Circus after trying to pick a few other books and failing to have any interest in them. It was another recommendation by a friend who pretty much told me it had a lot of references to 80s movies which sold me right away. The inside cover told me it was more of a science fiction story but just as The Night Circus was sort of a fantasy novel they are both still categorized under general fiction. This is an important facet as while this is a story of a future dystopian society set roughly thirty years from now and has plenty of technology and other futuristic contraptions, the majority of the book is centered around a coming of age story. The science fiction elements shouldn't scare you off. If you are familiar with computers and video games as they are now it really isn't that much different in the book nor all that important.

I think the one big requirement of enjoying this novel is how much do you love the 80s, actually like the late 70s-80s with some more current references thrown in for good measure, because they are constantly mentioned and play integral part of the story. There is one part where the character has to play the Matthew Broderick role in the movie Wargames, and if you haven't seen it before then you would of course be lost nor would you get the enjoyment the main character has. I believe I could be friends with both the main characters of the novel and the author Ernest Cline as we both share many of the same interests and loves of pop culture.

It is pretty hard to say what the book is about. The first 100 pages or so is world and character building and there is still a lot of new pieces of the world added in constantly. It is a rich world to say the least and I would love to read more of it. The book is basically set in the 2040s with the world kind of going in the crapper and a huge energy crisis has been going on for decades. Basically all the things we are currently trying to avoid and scared of but just a few decades from now where they came true. Most people escape the dreariness by living life in an immersive virtual reality world called the Oasis. The creator of the Oasis died several years earlier and created a game within the Oasis to give away control of his company and a vast sum of money to the winner. Our main character is one of those that is dedicating his life to winning. He is 17.

I am fairly versed in 80s movies and television shows being born in 1983 and but I still had to look up some references and mostly had a small second hand knowledge of pre-Nintendo video games. I still rather enjoyed this book and would say it has been my favorite of the year. With Christmas coming up, this is a good gift idea for that person who reads some and has more than one Star Wars t-shirt.