The Audio File: Project Pulse

Anime and audio dramas have a bit of a history together. Many anime often create audio drama tie-ins. There are several anime fans within the indie audio drama scene. Many audio dramas take influence from anime in on form or another. The audio drama we’re taking a look at today, however, truly captured lightning in a bolt. It managed to perfectly distill the essence of a shonen anime, and put it into audio drama form. Without further ado, onto the main event. We’re taking a look at Project Pulse. 

The world was changed forever on April 15th, 2022. That was when a company called Octic burst onto the scene. Brent Nolewood, the CEO of Octic, lead a revolution in the field of augmented reality. Artificial intelligence, robotics, and medical technology saw almost overnight advances. Much of the workforce was rendered obsolete thanks to advances in automation. Though, Universal Basic Income also became a thing, so that helped. Still, the people needed something to keep them occupied. That something was Project Pulse. A unique three-on-three battle of wills and human spirit. Each team uses special augmented abilities to defeat their opponents in combat.

It is into this world that Derrick Walker enters. He is the last blind kid on Earth, but he carries the legacy of his mother. She believed that disabilities aren’t a weakness, but a difference to be accepted and cherished. He’s determined to climb his way to the top of Project Pulse.

I’d discovered Project Pulse thanks to Julie Hoverson of 19 Nocturne Boulevard. She used to run the AD Infinitum account on Twitter. It was decided to promoting indie audio dramas. She had to shut it down due to changes to the way Twitter lets you set up automated tweets. Still, we here at The Audiophile, and by extension The Books of Thoth, thank Julie for her service. It truly was an invaluable resource.

Back on topic, I’m glad I finally got to listen to Project Pulse. There have been many audio dramas that take inspiration from anime. However, Project Pulse is, in my opinion, the one the really managed to distill that essence. Now, I should probably preface this by saying that anime is a medium, not a genre. Nine time out of ten, whenever someone says that something is anime-inspired, they are referring to shonen. That is, anime aimed at boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen. That tends to be stuff like Naruto, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Though, on occasion, you also get darker stuff that startles the line like Attack on Titan, Death Note, or Neon Genesis Evangelion. When you have an anime that is aimed at adult men, we call that seinen. Shojo and josei are the female counterparts to shonen and seinen respectively.

Derrick starts off as an underdog, but one with great potential. He is taken in by an unlikely ally. Said ally whisks him into a world of adventure. Derrick proves himself to be incredibly talented, despite being a newcomer to the world of Project Pulse. One of his new allies is a guy with glasses who oozes cool. The other is a snippy, sarcastic girl, but she turns out to have hidden depths. Throughout it all, Derrick strives to be the very best, like no one ever was. Oh, and it all takes place in a future with super advanced holograms and AI. Put that all together, and it sure sounds like the start of a science fiction shonen, doesn’t it?

Ah, but it isn’t just the premise that gives that anime feeling. I have to take a moment to praise the fantastic voice acting. I don’t know if Project Pulse was intentionally trying to sound like an anime dub, but they really captured the aesthetic. Now, I know dub vs sub is a very touchy subject in the anime fandom. I admit I tend to consume my anime dubbed. That’s a personal preference on my part. There’s nothing wrong if you prefer subbed anime. I will admit I’ve watched some anime where the subbed version was, overall, a bit better. That having been said, there’s also plenty of quality voice acting on the dubbed side of things. I am pleased to say that the spirit of those quality dubs is alive and well in the voice acting of Project Pulse.

Okay, now it is time to meet the characters. Derrick is blind, so in a way, we are experiencing the story from his point of view. Or lack thereof, as the case might be. He could have had this corrected via surgery, but he chose not to. However, he compensates for this using the same technology that Pulse players use. Octic tech grants Pulse players enhanced physical abilities. In Derrick’s case, he uses an app called Telescopic Hearing, which allows him to focus his hearing, and tune out excessive noise. I wondered if perhaps he was going to be depicted like Daredevil. That is, having his other senses heightened to superhuman levels to compensate for his blindness.

Well, there’s a scene early on where Derrick runs into some thugs…and promptly gets his ass handed to him. Honestly, that was actually a really smart move on the part of the creators. That scene shows that Derrick has a lot to learn before he’s going to make it to the top of Project Pulse. It makes his victors feel more genuine and actually earned.

Kato Atadori fills the role of the smart guy with glasses who absolutely oozes coolness. I mean, the dude is cool as ice, and that extends to his Pulse abilities. You see, there are different classes of Pulse players who each specialize in different abilities. In Kato’s case, he is an Elemental. He is the master of all things ice, and he’s very creative in how he uses it. The way that Project Pulse is described, everything is created using holograms. However, the Elemental powers sound more like magic. Kato’s ice is genuinely cold, and he can use it to make shields and protective domes. He can also use it offensively to create blizzards. Maybe it's like in Star Trek where the holograms are somehow solid. Then again, plenty of anime also feature surprisingly solid holograms. Clarke’s Third Law is clearly at play here.

Kato is the one who takes Derrick under his wing and introduces him to the world of Project Pulse. The Project Pulse website has a section that includes information about the characters that hasn’t been included in the show. At least, not yet anyway. From this, we learn that Kato is third generation Japanese-American, and is quite proud of his heritage.

Mia Clark is the Speedster of the group. As the name suggests, they are Pulse players who specialize in fast attacks. She is also the resident tsundere. For those of you who aren’t otaku, a tsundere is someone who starts off kind of mean and snippy, but then they turn out to have a hidden nice side. Sometimes, though not always, they act mean because they’re hiding a deep sadness or hurt. This is certainly the case with Mia. She comes from a wealthy family, but her parents are dead. So, she lives with her Uncle Heath. He used to be a construction worker, but that was rendered obsolete due to the technological revolution Octic ushered in. Heath didn’t know what to do with himself, and turned to drinking to drown his sorrows. 

Mia gets a monthly stipend, which should be enough to live in a nice loft uptown. Unfortunately, Heath usually spends the money on alcohol and drugs. Quite ironically, Mia’s family got so wealthy because her mother invested stock in Octic during the early days of the company. Heath tries to pull himself together for Mia, but almost always falls back into temptation. Mia could easily abandon him, but Heath’s the only family she has left, and she feels obliged to him. I feel kind of bad for finding Mia’s tsundere tendencies amusing in the first season. Poor girl sounds like she could seriously use a hug.

In other characters, we have Emma. She is Derrick’s AI assistant. She takes the form of a blue-haired anime girl. She likes to tease and sass Derrick, but she’s always there for him. Especially since she doesn’t want to be factory reset. I would remark that this is slavery, and that factory reset amounts to lobotomy, but that’s kind of an omnipresent trope in works featuring artificial intelligences. Well, that, and we increasingly see the world of Project Pulse is not quite as utopian as Octic would have us believe.

Speaking of AI, let’s talk about Mark Bolt. Well, technically the Mark Bolt in the series is an AI replicant of the real Mark Bolt. Mark is a popular Pulse announcer who gives play-by-plays of the action. This is a creative way of letting us, the out-of-universe audience, know what we should be visualizing. It has the bonus of being diegetic, and makes sense in-universe without coming across as unnatural or forced. Although, if AI voices have gotten that advanced, well, that has grim implications for the voice acting industry.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one unexpected ally Derrick finds. Derrick is transported to the underworld during one of his first Pulse matches. He meets the Greek god Hades. Hades offers Derrick the use of his bident as a Pulse ability. The bident is the two-pronged staff Hades is often depicted holding. Okay, so we started off as an anime, and then we turned into Percy Jackson. I remember listening to that scene and thinking “This show just keeps getting better and better!” Hades might have only appeared in that one scene, but it was certainly a memorable one. Though now that I think about it, a mythological god in a futuristic anime setting, is that a Persona reference?

Okay, now we’re going to switch gears and talk about a few of the things I didn’t like. The creators of Project Pulse were clearly trying to give positive representation to people with disabilities. However, I feel that they missed the mark. Derrick’s mother, Catherine, was a big champion for the downtrodden. She was also a big believer that disabled people can do anything. Unfortunately, that attitude also got her killed. When Derrick was little, he and his mom came across a burning apartment building. The automatic firefighting drone malfunctioned, and Catherine decide to rush in and rescue the trapped tenets. Did I mention that she was paraplegic?

I mean, where do I even begin? Catherine’s wheelchair didn’t appear to be anything other that a standard chair. How did she get up the stairs? How did she navigate fallen debris and fires? She didn’t come across as a hero, she came across as an idiot who senselessly threw her life away. Derrick had to grow up with a mother, and Mr. Walker lost his beloved wife. Frankly, I wonder if Catherine really cared about those people in the burning building. Let’s suppose she’d done the sensible thing and hadn’t intervened. In doing so, she’d have to admit that there are legitimately some things disabled people just can’t do. Yes, sometimes in life we have to make hard calls. It might seem cruel, but the cold equations have to be balanced somehow. Sometimes that means not everyone gets to live.

This also leads me to another point. I feel that having Derrick willing abstain from corrective surgery might not have been the best move. One of the arguments disability advocates give against such procedures is that there will always be those who can’t get them. The thinking is, this will lead to a shrinking of the disabled community. Those who get left behind will find themselves increasingly isolated from society. However, this is not the case with Derrick. His refusal frankly comes across more as him wanting to feel special and unique. Personally, I feel it would have been better if Derrick had a one in a billion genetic fluke that not even Optic could fix. He’d still get to be the last blind kid, he’d still be disability representation, but he wouldn’t come across as trying to be special for the heck of it. Plus, it would tie into the previously mentioned real world issues.

Now, I want to emphasize I don’t think any of this is inherently unfixable. One of the key points of Pulse is the case system. Each special ability takes up a certain number of slots in a player’s case. There are ten slots total, so players have to pick and choose carefully. Telescopic Hearing takes up three slots already. Kato emphasizes that Derrick might have to consider switching it out some day. Perhaps, when that day comes, Derrick will seriously have to consider getting corrective surgery. Now, I’m not saying he’s got to go through with it, but I do see that as a potential source of internal conflict for him.

Perhaps, we could also have him question his mother’s choices. He could acknowledge that she was a good woman at heart, but had her share of flaws. He can decide to honor her legacy, but avoid repeating the same mistakes she did. Unrelated, but at one point Derrick realizes he’s been holding a corndog upside-down, and Kato didn’t tell him. Uh, do what now? You don’t need eyes to figure that one out.

On an unrelated note, I also felt the depiction of Universal Basic Income was a bit inconsistent. Derrick hypes it up as being this wonderful thing that finally ensured equality for everyone. Yet we see that there’s still a fair degree of wealth inequality. Mia and her uncle aren’t the only people we see living below the poverty line. Granted, it would make sense that there would still be rich and middle class people. Presumably, wealth from the old world carried over to the new. However, the way things are presented, it gives the impression that the only reason poor people still exist is that they’re irresponsible with their money. Granted, we do get hints that there’s a sinister undercurrent lurking just beneath the surface of this world. So, perhaps this is by design.

I don’t want to end this review on a negative note. Taken as a whole, I was very pleased by Project Pulse. Season one was absolutely fantastic. Season two only has a couple episodes out so far, and production seems to have stalled. I certainly hope it gets moving again, because I’m dying to know what happens next. Season one was centered on Derrick, but it seems that Mia will be taking center stage in season two.

So, there you have it. Project Pulse is an absolutely fantastic anime-inspired science fiction audio drama. I have seen few other audio dramas that capture the spirit of anime so perfectly. You definitely do not want to miss this one if you are an anime fan. Don’t sit on this one like I did. 

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

The Audio File: SINKHOLE: Season 1

Sometimes I get asked by various individuals to review their audio dramas. I’m alway happy to oblige these individuals. For this audio drama we’re reviewing today, however, I got volunteered by someone else. Certainly a new experience for me. So, without any more preamble, let’s get into. We’re taking a look at season 1 of SINKHOLE. 

SINKHOLE is set in the future. I can’t get more specific without getting into major spoilers. I can, however, say that most people directly connect to the Internet via neural implants in their brains. Older form of media, such as CD, DVD, and especially tapes, have fallen by the wayside. However, there are dedicated online communities working to preserve and access these older forms of media, and the information contained within. We follow a person chooses to remain anonymous. They’re an expert in all things pre-NEV tech. They’ve also got plenty of secrets about their past, and a listenership who are eager to dig them up.

As I previously stated, this one was a new experience for me. Usually, I get audio drama creators directly asking me to review their shows. In this case, however, Ivan Mirko S, the creator of The Program Audio Series, recommended me as someone who would be good to review SINKHOLE. It began, as with many things, on the r/audiodrama subreddit. SINKHOLE creator Kale Brown, who uses they/them pronouns, was asking about finding people to review their show. IMS recommended me, and here we are now. Well, I got a bit sidetracked by other things, but we’re here now.

Kale Brown has been involved in several other audio dramas. For example, they have provide voice work for shows such as Breathing Space, Fading Frontier and Two Flat Earthers Kidnap a Freemason. Kale has also worked as editor on the Breathing Space episodes “The Tale of the Knock at the Airlock” and “The Station at the End of the Universe.”

I also have to give a quick area of praise. I like the way Kale Brown approach making audio dramas. I remember them saying on Twitter that you don’t have to follow a lot of the so-called “commandments” of making podcasts. Some people might say SINKHOLE has episode that are too short, but I strongly disagree. Episodes of SINKHOLE usually average between ten to twelve minutes. I think that the episodes are exactly the length they need to be. Residents of Proserpina Park usually has episode around the length, and it works out pretty well for them.

Some people say that you shouldn’t drops shows on Friday, but I also strongly disagree with that. Greeking Out, Friday Knight Fights, and The Centropic Oracle all drop new episodes on Friday. I alway listen to those episodes on the day they come out. The point being, as Kale notes, if you just want to make a show, well, just make it. Don’t worry if you aren’t an instant smash hit. You’ll find your fans with time.

A lot of audio drama advice assumes that everyone is making the same sort of show. I’m developing an anthology audio drama, and I’ve become well aquatinted with how the advice tends to be geared towards serialized shows. Kale strikes me as someone who is true to themselves and willing to stick to their guns. I respect that attitude. In fact, that Twitter thread is what reminded me I needed to get my ass in gear and get this review out.

Let’s talk about the voice acting. Now, there are a few other characters who appear via recordings. However, for the most part, the narrator has the carry the lion’s share of the show. I’m happy to say that Kale an excellent job carrying the major of the series. They really capture that feeling of world-weariness and detached cynicism that the narrator embodies.

Okay, now there’s something else we need to discuss before we go any further. SINKHOLE is one of those shows that relies on slowly peeling back the layers, and slowly revealing its worldbuilding. As such, it is very hard to discuss the plot of SINKHOLE without getting into major spoilers. So, if you don’t want any of that, turn back now.

If everyone who wants out is gone. Let’s get into it.

So, we start with learning about data retrieval and preservation. I must admit, I’ve never really been into that sort of thing. However, the narrator makes it all sound very interesting. Of course, for people in-universe, there are some unique risks. The narrator advises against downloading the data over a neural implant. The implant slows down your perception time to match download speed. However, this can take a while, meaning that you can be severely dehydrated, or even dead, by the time the download finishes. All the while, we get some hints that there’s something very sinister lurking in the background of all of this. It’s all very atmospheric, and builds a sense of tension and uncertainty.

Alright, all well and good, but what’s it all leading to? Why should I care about any of this? I don’t mind a bit of mystery and intrigue, but I don’t like to be strung along for too long. Thankfully, the answers to these questions would be revealed before long.

Now, there’s a small number of people who can’t use neural implants due to health conditions. However, there are special procedure they can undergo to correct this. Albeit, said procedure is often very expensive. Pretty much all jobs require neural implants, as do many other aspects of modern life. For example, people an use their implants to directly connect to each other’s minds, and experience another person’s emotions and feelings.

However, that’s not a option for the narrator. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with money. You see, they don’t really have the top part of their head. They fell into a sinkhole, and when they came out, the top of their head had become a void known as a sinkage. Anything that falls into their sinkage disappears into the void. They have to be aware of something on their head, or else it falls into the sinkage. Hats are okay, as you’re always kind of aware that you’re wearing a hat. Glasses, however, have to be uncomfortable, or they fall into the sinkage. There’s about ninety-nine other people who also fell into the Hole. They also came out of the Hole much like the narrator did. Oh, and on top of everything else, the narrator and their compatriots came out of the Hole thirty years in the future. Though, from their perspective, it was all instantaneous.

Alright, now we’re talking! The general vibe I get from SINKHOLE, now that I know all this, is that it reminds me of The SCP Foundation. We’ve got an average person who encountered a seemingly normal object, in this case a hole in the ground. But said object wasn’t so ordinary, and changed the person in a fundamental way. As a result, the person isn’t exactly a normal human anymore, and finds themselves in a strange new world. I don’t know about you, but that sounds exactly like the set-up for an SCP article. I don’t know if this is intentional, but Kale Brown really captured the feeling on an SCP tale. The SCP Foundation is most famous for its articles detailing information about the various anomalies. However, there are also short stories, known as tales, set within the SCP universe. Some SCPs are objects with unusual qualities, but some are people or animals with unusual qualities. In fact, some humanoid anomalies were just regular humans that got exposed to something that turned them into SCPs.

So, in many ways, SINKHOLE kind of feels like a tale told from the perspective of an SCP. I wasn’t sure about the cyberpunk elements at first, but they grew on me. They really added to the story, and the atmosphere of the setting. The fact that the narrator is an inadvertent time traveler also leads to some interesting culture clash. The people of the future don’t really believe in privacy and personal boundaries. As previously stated, the implants let them literally get inside peoples’ heads. The narrator, being from our time, has far stronger views about privacy, hence their deliberate anonymity.

Well, I have to be honest. SINKHOLE isn’t the sort of show that I would have sought out on my own. Despite this, I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. The episodes were exactly the right length, things really picked up when the bigs secrets were revealed, and said secrets didn’t drag for too long. I would recommend giving season one of SINKHOLE a try for yourself.

And who knows? Perhaps I’ll be coming back for season two when it comes out. From the looks of it, season two will be here before long.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Sometimes there is a book or movie or what have you that I hear everyone talking about.  I might ignore them for various reasons, but eventually I just have to take a look to see what all the fuss is about.  Occasionally this is because my brother needs me to buy him an audiobook for school.  Now, in a roundabout way, that brings us to the book we'll be reviewing today.  We're taking a look at Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

Ready Player One takes place in the 2040s.  America, and much of the the rest of the world, is reeling from economic recession and the world supply of oil starting to run low.  It's gotten so bad that many trailer parks stack trailers on top of each other into stacks like skyscrapers.  Still, there is some hope amidst the bad times.  There is OASIS, a massive multiplayer game that has basically replaced the internet.  Virtual reality is also very advanced, and you can basically be whoever or whatever you want in cyberspace, if you have enough experience points.  Enter Wade Watts, or Parzival, as he's known in OASIS.  James Halliday, the founder of OASIS, passed away a few years ago. However, he's left behind a virtual treasure hunt, and whoever solves it will gain control of OASIS.  Wade stumbles across the first clue, and overnight becomes a celebrity.  Wade will make new friend, and new enemies, as he joins the fight to determine the future of OASIS.

I've got to admit, this book pleasantly surprised me.  I didn't really have much love or appreciation for the pop culture of the 1980s.  I always viewed it as that thing that happened right before I was born.  I was born New Years Eve of 1992, for reference.  Well, I mean, I always liked Back to the Future and Bill and Ted, and I guess technically the original Star Wars counts, and so does Indiana Jones.  Still, after reading this book, I have a better understanding of why the 1980s are so highly thought of and remembered.  Halliday made all the clues based on his childhood, so they're all based on 1980s pop culture.  Since the prize is in the form of an Easter egg, those who search for it are called Gunters, a corruption of Egg Hunters. 

I felt that everything was very well explained even when I hadn't heard of the game/show/movie before.  I loved when Wade earns the bronze key by traversing a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon and battling a lich king to play a video game about jousting on ostriches.  Sounds totally bonkers, and yet it works.  I also liked that there's apparently a new type of video game where it's a movie, like WarGames or Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and you have to act out and say the lines of various characters.  That actually sound really fun.  I think I'd buy that if it was real.  I thought the part with the Capin' Crunch whistle was clever.  Especially given how it relates to real history.  Of course, I'd always get excited whenever there was a reference I was familiar with.  For example, Wade's friend Ache own the ship from Cowboy Bebop, and he owns a Firefly ship named the Kaylee.  In fact, the part of OASIS he won it from is called the Whedonverse.  I felt like Captain America in the first Avengers movie "I actually got that reference!"

At the same time, it made me want to learn more about the stuff I didn't know. I'm kind of interested in seeing Blade Runner since the Tyrell Building factors into the plot.  I should also get around to watching WarGames at some point.  Not sure I'd be into the various video games.  Just could never get over how primitive the graphic of retro games are.  Still, Cline does a good job of making them sound engaging.  The part where Wade talks about all of the stuff he's studied was relatable.  It kind of reminded me of myself, talking about all the things I'm passionate about. 

There has been speculation among fans that James Halliday might be on the autism spectrum.  He certainly does show certain signs.  He was known to be socially awkward and reclusive.  About the only people he really opened up to where his best friend, and business partner, Ogden Marrow and Ogden's wife Kira.  I should also note that Halliday had a not so secret crush on Kira during their college days in Dungeons and Dragons club.  We also know that Halliday had anxiety and clearly was very interested in a lot of very specific areas of pop culture.  All of this leads me to suspect that he had high function autism, such as Asperger's. 

I also wonder if perhaps Wade is autistic as well.  Granted, he does seem to have somewhat better social skills; though he does learn to be a bit less abrasive and less of a jerk as the book goes on.  However, that same speech where he gushes about all the things he's studied does very much seem like something an autistic person might say.  I'm on the autism spectrum, and it sounded legitimate to me.  I can't say for certain about Wade and Halliday, but it is fun to speculate. 

Now let's talk about Wade's friends and enemies.  I should mention there will be some spoilers, so turn back now if you'd rather avoid that.  If everyone who wants out is gone, then let's begin.

Well, let's start with Shoto and Daito.  They're a pair of Japanese boys who are really into old samurai movies.  They're not really brothers, but they treat each other as if they are.  They're initially frosty towards Wade, but eventually they warm up.  For example, they help Wade with a quest that is in Japanese, but he gives them the prize, the Beta Capsule from Ultraman, because he thinks it should belong to a Japanese person.  Yeah, you can win special teams that give you superpowers by completing quests.  This impresses them quite a bit, and Wade earns their trust.  This is particularly important after Daito is murdered by IOI, and Shoto gives the Beta Capsule to Wade, saying that it's what Daito would have wanted.

That brings us to the main villains: Innovative Online Industries, or IOI for short.  Their goal is to gain control of OASIS and start charging people for access and placing ads everywhere.  By contrast, Halliday allowed anyone to sign-up for a one-time payment of twenty-five cents.  They're led by Nolan Sorrento, who has thousands of employees researching and competing to find the Easter Egg.  Nolan will do anything, including attempting murder, to stop Wade and his friends.  Though IOI we see one of the main themes of the book: don't let corporations monopolize the internet.  In light of the debates about net neutrality, this is certainly a timely message. 

Moving back to allies, we have Wade's best friend Ache.  Ache's avatar is a gray-skinned male orc.  In reality, however, Ache is a black lesbian woman named Helen.  She and Wade never actually met in real life, because they attend school in OASIS.  The school requires that everyone use human avatar that match their actual gender, but Ache faked her records.  Her mother used to work as a telemarketer, and advised her to use a male avatar and voice modulator to be treated better.  Wade is perfectly fine upon learning Ache's true identity.  As far as he's concerned, she's still the same person he's gotten to know, and who she really is doesn't matter one bit.  Wade and Ache often rag on each other, but in a good-natured way. 

Finally we have Art3mis.  No, the 3 is not a typo.  She eventually becomes Wade's love interest, though their relationship certainly has its ups and downs.   Her real name is Samantha, and it's always a bit awkward when I encounter a girl character named Sam, but I managed.  I know some people say it's unrealistic that she'd be bother by her, fairly minor, birthmark, but I disagree.  I've known people who have been sensitive about lesser things.  I liked when she and Wade went on a date to The Rocky Horror Picture Show planet.  Yes, it was indeed named Transylvania. 

Wade himself goes through some character development throughout the book.  At the start he's a bit of a loner, but as the book goes on, he learns to care about other people.  He also learns the importance of exercising and healthy eating.  There is a point where he makes his OASIS rig not let him long on unless he gets in his workout.  As a result, he becomes quite ripped.  He also deliberately gets himself sent to debtors’ prison so that he can hack into the IOI database, and then he manages to escape.  Yeah, debtors’ prisons are back, and so is indentured servitude.  It's technically not slavery, so the government doesn't ban it, but it's still pretty shitty and sketchy.  Although it was kind of funny seeing Wade deal with stupid customer service callers.  I liked how the ending of the book reminded me of the ending of The Last Olympian; the last book of the original Percy Jackson series.

Also, random though, how do trailer stacks work?  Its implied that they don't have staircases or anything.  So how do the inhabitants get up and down?  Then again, after the trailer stack Wade, initially, live is is blown up, the authorities don't seem terribly concerned.  Maybe the government doesn't consider that terribly important? 

Anyway, I do think that the anti-escapism message of the does work for the most part.  As Halliday, or rather, his recording, says, reality is real.  Escapism can be good and even necessary.  I've said before about how the Percy Jackson books were one of the things that kept me going through high school.  I needed a way to get away from the daily grind, and imagine a world outside of my confines.  All the same, eventually you have to face your problems in the real world.  The book tries to impart this, and yet there no denying that OASIS certainly sound very cool and appealing.  The fight at the end where everyone was using giant robots was just awesome.  Personally, I'd I'd been there I probably would have used the original Megazord for mine.   

You can't discuss this book without touching on the controversy it has generate.  Just why is there so much hate for this book?  This is by no means a perfect book, and there are certainly legitimate criticisms that can be leveled at it.  That being said, I think there's another explanation.  Deconstruction is very much in the vogue among the big wigs of the speculative fiction community.  There's an increasing push to deconstruction, and in many case delegitimize, the past.  They may claim to be fighting racism and sexism, but really, when you get down to it, they're judging works of the past by modern standards of morality.  It reminds me of in Fahrenheit 451 where Captain Beatty explains to Guy Montag how the firemen where founded.  For those who don't know, one of the big pushes was people getting offended over everything, and demanding that everything even a little offensive be banned.

The point is, given how diametrically opposed to this mindset Ready Player One is, it's no wonder it has ruffled feathers of the woke brigade.  Ernest Cline wrote it as a love letter and celebration of his childhood.  It's also odd in that, as previously mentioned, the book does talk about the importance to being accepting of different people.  Albeit, it does so in a way that isn't preachy or pretentious, and does so in a way that is actually organic to the story. 

Now let's talk about the audiobook version.  It is narrated by Wil Wheaton.  Personally, I'm with Sheldon Cooper, the dude is insanely annoying and smug in real life.  However, all things considered, he's a pretty good narrator.  Amusingly, it is mentioned that Wil Wheaton is vice-president of OASIS.  Cory Doctorow is the president proper. 

Well, I think that covers everything of note.  As I said, I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed