Angband mentioned in Ready Player: Two

[Diogenes]

Hi all,

Wanted to tell you that the Angband game is mentioned in the second book of the Ready: Player series (indeed named Ready Player: Two).


It's mentioned only briefly as a small part of one of the quests the protagonist has to perform, but a mention nevertheless (the author mixes Angband with the tale of Beren and Lúthien).

Cheers!

PS: This is not an endorsement of the book. It's rather poorly written and I had much difficulty in finishing it.

[fph]

Neat. Can you provide a quote? Is it Angband the game, or Angband the middle-Earth fortress?

I read the first book, but did not continue with the second one.

[Diogenes]

It's both, actually: The fortress and the game.

In the second book one of the quests (the book follows more-or-less the same structure as the first one), takes place on a planet called "Arda 0", which is a replica of Arda as it was before the First Age.

There they have to carve two Silmaril of Morgoth's crown (according to the description). Wade and Samantha (two of the protagonists) take on the role of Beren and LĂşthien and pass Cargaroth (the guard dog) using a song/spell (like in the Silmarillion).


Then comes the part where the game is mentioned:

"Art3mis led me through the massive black Gates of Angband, then down a steep stone staircase that led down into the cavernous depths below. At the bottom, we found ourselves standing at the entrance to a maze of dark corridors and passageways, all of them leading farther belowground.

I was about to continue straight forward, toward the widest and most well-lit passageway. But Art3mis flew into my path and changed back into her human form.

“If we continued this way, we’d be forced to navigate our way down through the Labyrinthine Pyramid,” she said. “It’s a massive subterranean dungeon maze, made up of one hundred procedurally generated levels of increasing size and deadliness. It’s a re-creation of the old roguelike game based on Angband.” She pointed off to her right. “Luckily, I know a shortcut that leads directly down to the Nethermost Hall, which is where Morgoth’s throne is located."

The last paragraph must be based on our favourite game (except for the shortcut to level 100, which is again from the Silmarillion).

[fph]

Cool! I was expecting just a random passing reference in a sentence, instead it looks that it's a major-ish part in the plot.

[DrWho42]

whoa nice! i have a copy but haven't read it yet

[HugoVirtuoso]

That book was actually referencing Sil (one of the variants here)