21st Century Ghosts - Joe Hill discussion

Feel free to discuss the book here... Marked spoilers allowed!

Just started last night.

What a coincidence, my first video game system was an Atari 2600 (not including pong) and my favorite game on it was Adventure.

It's interesting so far but I'm not that far into it yet. Still getting all of the background info.

I remember playing Atari on my friend's Atari. (boy, I'm aging myself. lol. I loved Pac Man, and Space Invaders!

Great book! I really enjoyed this! Being a child of the 80's, I had a great time catching all the music, movie and game references!

I will be starting this one next. I swear swear swear! :D

Lol. It's good, Becky! I think you'll like it! :)

OK... So I started this just the tiniest bit before bed last night. I read the first chapter, and so far, I like it quite a lot.

I'm very interested to see where this goes. :D

I have to admit that some of the video game references I only got in passing, because I've heard of the games but not played them. I was more a child of the nineties, I guess. I did catch the end of War Games on AMC last week which made me laugh because it is referenced.

I'm making my boyfriend read this because he is a bigger gamer than I am and his comment to me was that the beginning feels kind of like a tutorial level for the book, anyone agree? I thought the format of the book was very much like playing a video game.

I'm about 80 pages into this so far, and I really like it. I would love to try the OASIS. It sounds like so much fun. :D

Count me in to try the Oasis! As far as the beginning of the book being sort of a tutorial, I don't know. Sure you experience more of the Oasis as the book goes on, kind of like a video game getting harder & harder. But beyond that, I don't see it.

Every time I see the word "game", I think the book slips another notch down the TBR.

Why?

I have no interest in video games.

Though it does seem that they're old games, so I might have heard of (and mayhap even played) them.

I see... Well, I mean, I'm only about 1/3 through this, but I can say that while games are the main focus, I think you'd still really enjoy this one. It's part dystopia, part quest, part 80s Trivia Junkie's fantasy.

I'm really enjoying it so far. And I'm not much of a gamer either, as you know. I enjoy playing them, but definitely not a gamer. The way the "modern" game is portrayed is almost as a whole different world. I'm really liking it. :)

That might work then. Especially the 80s Trivia Junkie stuff.

Yes. That's a huge part of it.

I'm not a gamer either, Chris, and I had so much fun with this book. You'll love the 80's reverences! :)

I wouldn't really call myself a gamer either. It is basically a quest novel.

The third gate was made for me. (view spoiler)[ Rush, Tempest, Monty Python - The Holy Grail, and Adventure. Some of my favorites. (hide spoiler)]

It was definitely cool, Scott! I would've had a blast! And even the first gate, (view spoiler)[I love Wargames! (hide spoiler)]

I'm around halfway done with this one now. (view spoiler)[I was really enjoying it last night... Everything got super-exciting and tense... and then, forgot that it was.

Around the point that it lapsed into a teenage swoonfest, it got a little tedious to read, but hopefully that's done now and we can get back to the quest.

That's not to say it was bad... It's not, and I think it was handled pretty well, all in all, but I just wanted exciting and that part wasn't. So, from sitting at 5 stars when the EXCITING TENSION STUFF was going on, down to 4 right now. Still awesome... just lost a little focus there for a bit. But then, that's exactly what Parzival did... so... *shrug* (hide spoiler)]

Becky, for me that section (view spoiler)[reminds you that Wade is a teenage boy w/ all the crazy emotions and hormones going on. Anyone at that age would be easily distracted. He does force himself to focus again and move forward. I agree that if there were more of that, it would steal the books thunder, but it doesn't. (hide spoiler)]

Yeah... I recognize that. It just kinda irked me.

I understand. It's the fear that a book is just gonna turn out to be a (view spoiler)[dull teenage romance or something rather than the exciting book you expected! I have no patience for books that are "just" romances.....sorry to all the romance fans out there! For me there has to be something more to hold my attention. And sometimes I'll be reading a book and can feel the dread if I feel it's going in that direction with nothing else to hold the story up. I think everyone has something like that. (hide spoiler)]

That part kind of bugged me also but not too bad.

Yes... I mean, I know it's probably unrealistic considering that the protagonist is 18, but I can't help thinking, just once, I'd like a story to NOT have that aspect. *sigh*

I agree. (view spoiler)[Have no fear, though. :) (hide spoiler)]

Hmm... I'm not sure what that means. Are you referring to the rest of the book? I don't really want to know what's going to happen or if the love interest stuff happens more or doesn't. But it's already happened, so it's already made its impression.

*shrug*

Aww, I'm sorry. I hope I didn't ruin things for you. That wasn't my intention. :(

Nah... No ruination... I just don't know what you meant... but I'll find out when I finish I'm sure. ;)

True enough! I've decided that this is a book that I will need to own a nice hardcover of for a later re-read! (When I really like a book, I need to own it! lol) :)

I agree, Kathy. I actually felt kinda sad returning it to the library. Too bad I finished it too late to include it in my birthday book binge order. I'll have to find it somewhere. I know I'll reread it, it made me happy.

OK... Finished. Here's my review... http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... It's longish. LOL

I had some issues with this one, so I ended up only giving it 3 stars, but overall, I did enjoy reading it. :)

Good review, Becky. I understand your points, well put! :)

Oh... well. I never actually LINKED to my review here. Oopsie. :P

Edited now.

I found where Leslie, I think, used that book in the last challenge for the task where you cast the characters for a movie. I though her choice of (view spoiler)[Matthew Broderick as Og was spot on!!! (hide spoiler)]

LOL That's not who I would have picked at all! I can't picture him as Og. I imagined someone more... (view spoiler)[ almost Santaish. Elderly (he's 70+), with a full, white beard, maybe a little overweight. But still cool.



LOL! (hide spoiler)]

I getcha, but if they were to tell the whole story...(view spoiler)[they do flashback to when they are younger, I figured he could play the younger and then use make-up to appear older. (hide spoiler)]

I pictured Og as Steve Wozniak,from Apple. I only know what he looks like cuz he dated Kathy Griffin (?,comedian, I can't remember if it's Griffin or Griffeth)while she had her show on Bravo.

Started this morning....

I'm curious to see what you think, Chris! I hope you like it. :)

So far, so good. I think the stacks are a pretty interesting "possible future" for us.

Yeah...

Sadly, I agree. Cool picture, though!

The stacks..?

Gotta read it.

Gotta read it.

You definitely gotta read it! And not just to find out what the "stacks" are. It's that good!

Thank you, Becky and Kathy.:)

It certainly sounds like a fun read!