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About The Impossible Fortress: A Novel
Product Description *MOST ANTICIPATED NOVELS OF 2017 SELECTION BY * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * BUSTLE * “A sweet, funny, and moving tribute to nerds and misfits everywhere.” —Seth Grahame-Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Until May 1987, fourteen-year-old Billy Marvin of Wetbridge, New Jersey, is a nerd, but a decidedly happy nerd. Afternoons are spent with his buddies, watching copious amounts of television, gorging on Pop-Tarts, debating who would win in a brawl (Rocky Balboa or Freddy Krueger? Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel? Magnum P.I. Or T.J. Hooker?), and programming video games on his Commodore 64 late into the night. Then Playboy magazine publishes photos of Wheel of Fortune hostess Vanna White, Billy meets expert programmer Mary Zelinsky, and everything changes. A love letter to the 1980s, to the dawn of the computer age, and to adolescence—a time when anything feels possible —The Impossible Fortress will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you remember in exquisite detail what it feels like to love something—or someone—for the very first time. Amazon.com Review The Impossible Fortress is one of those books—one of those rare and special few where, once you have finished it, you want all your friends to read it immediately. This is especially true if you grew up in the 1980s, because The Impossible Fortress is a coming-of-age story tucked inside a love letter to that strange and wonderful decade. The novel is set in 1987 when computer games had only recently entered our homes, Jolt cola (the predecessor of modern energy drinks) was still a thing, and Playboy magazine had countless 14-year-old boys across the country trying to get their hands on a copy of the Vanna White (of Wheel of Fortune fame) issue. Billy Martin and his two best friends are three such boys, and their pursuit of the epic magazine leads them to the local office supply store, computer whiz Mary Zelinsky, and a hero’s quest to save a princess. Author Jason Rekulak’s ability to conjure powerful adolescent feelings of friendship, first love, and that difficult place where the two collide, is impressive. Laughter comes from page after page, and some clever surprises too—all of it with a 1980s mixed tape running in the background. --Seira Wilson, The Amazon Book Review From School Library Journal It all starts with 14-year-old Billy and his friends scheming to get their hands on the Vanna White edition of Playboy magazine, and, not surprisingly, it all goes downhill from there, as Billy readily admits. It's 1987, when computers are still running BASIC and the Internet as we know it does not exist. But there's sex, drugs, and rock and roll—and computer games. During the boys' first harebrained scheme to acquire the magazine, Billy is intrigued by Mary, a girl he notices programming on one of the display computers in the store. The two strike up a tentative friendship as they rewrite Billy's computer game, the Impossible Fortress, for submission in a gaming contest. By now Billy has completely lost interest in the magazine heist and begins to believe that he might have a chance at winning the contest and the girl. But his buddies get caught up in ever more elaborate and ultimately dangerous scenarios, eventually dragging Billy down with them. Teens will relate to the protagonist and his friends as they stumble their way through the byzantine world of high school, girls, and their own dawning sexuality. Chapter headings include a section of code, which will attract aspiring programmers, and there is a live version of the game available on the author's website. VERDICT Strongly recommended for fans of nerd culture and 1980s throwbacks such as Stranger Things, though Billy's wry narration and the novel's crazy shenanigans may draw in a broader audience of readers looking for irreverent humor.—Gretchen Crowley, formerly at Alexandria City Public Libraries, VA Review * MOST ANTICIPATED NOVELS OF 2017 S
