Sean Randall reviewed The impossible fortress by Jason Rekulak
Review of 'The impossible fortress' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Major credit to Dave for digging this one up. A delightfully wistful work, slickly penned to capture tropes and signs of its time which is a life at once both nostalgic and extremely heartfelt. Rekulak Pays homage to Cline's ready Player One, which is still probably my best novel of that year, he writes "The success of Ernest Cline’s terrific Ready Player One definitely gave me the confidence to write about my own 1980s pop culture obsessions". It works here as it did there, and of course being set in its time rather than the future, we can immediately relate to Billy and his friends.
So much of the book just worked - the little games that Mary leaves him, the fantastically tense robbery, and that perfectly-crafted awards ceremony to end the story so well. You almost find the hidden messages shooting home subliminally because the story unfolds with such …
Major credit to Dave for digging this one up. A delightfully wistful work, slickly penned to capture tropes and signs of its time which is a life at once both nostalgic and extremely heartfelt. Rekulak Pays homage to Cline's ready Player One, which is still probably my best novel of that year, he writes "The success of Ernest Cline’s terrific Ready Player One definitely gave me the confidence to write about my own 1980s pop culture obsessions". It works here as it did there, and of course being set in its time rather than the future, we can immediately relate to Billy and his friends.
So much of the book just worked - the little games that Mary leaves him, the fantastically tense robbery, and that perfectly-crafted awards ceremony to end the story so well. You almost find the hidden messages shooting home subliminally because the story unfolds with such cinematic yet deeply true realism that you're in it, totally at one with Billy and his feelings.
I'm looking forward to much more from this author; it's clear his style of writing lends itself to my style of reading. What a fantastic, solidly amazing debut.