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A review by frootjoos
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4.0
Ready Player One follows a young man, Wade Watts, as he tries to live a somewhat normal existence in a dilapidated future America. The world has been pretty much sucked into the Internet, now virtually synonymous with a simulation called OASIS. Wade lives in poverty, as does most of humanity; unlike most people, he is also a hardcore "gunter": a particular type of netizen whose sole purpose is to find "Easter eggs" set up by OASIS creator James Halliday, and win not only his ginormous estate but also the opportunity to control OASIS itself. Being a gunter entails hours spent studying Halliday and his obsession with the 1980's, which quite obviously figure in solving the mystery; thus Wade spends as much time as possible plugged in, playing video games, reading sci-fi/fantasy novels, and watching old reruns. What a life!
Years pass without anyone even finding the first hidden clue. Then Wade's years of research finally pay off when he finds and retrieves the first key. From then on, he's a fugitive--chased by other gunters who want to win the prize for themselves, as well as mercenaries called Sixers who work for a faceless corporation that wants to take over OASIS, "for the greater good," or so they try to make it seem.
While I had some issues with this book, I really enjoyed it. I am totally the intended audience--geek raised in the 80's. One of my fave references is to an 80's tv show no one else seems to remember. Hrm, was it only popular in the Philippines? I remember being super in love with the main character when I was about 7 (probably the year after the show aired in the US).
But I digress. I really liked the characters and how the author put it all together. Juxtaposing a bleak analog future with a digital utopia is... well, it's been done, but I'm almost always interested in how someone else envisions the somewhat near, I-may-still-be-alive-by-then future. Some readers might find the first 1/3 of it daunting--it's dense with world-building and the sheer number of 80's references makes for a slow, clunky experience. Raising the stakes later on in the book makes the plot flow a little faster, and ultimately the momentum is what I needed to finish reading.
I found the occasional geek-but-not-80's reference kind of jarring and I ended up Googling things just to make sure I wasn't having a stroke. On the other hand, some of the references are almost double-meta (e.g., two references to Spaced which is a show made in 1999 about two people who, like Halliday, share an affinity for all things 80's). I think readers will enjoy this the most if they can feel the same nostalgia, or at the very least the same sort of fanboy/fangirlishness about any topic. It's hard for me to tell if this book would make sense for anyone who can't empathize with that kind of geekery.
At its core, I think this book is more about psychology, belonging, and relationships than it is about a future without oil. It's not about a crumbling dystopia reliant on technology for the most basic infrastructures or an obsessive, socially-awkward bajillionaire setting up a contest to inherit his estate. Cline's intentions seem to range from making every 80's reference a being can possibly remember to explaining (or at least chronicling) the behaviors, diet, and mating habits of a young nerd. There are parts of the book where the whole plot to find Halliday's keys and gate is almost an afterthought.
This book made for a pretty good discussion in my YA book group. While not a YA title, Ready Player One did make it to the Alex Awards list the year it was published. I'd definitely recommend this to older young adults (16-up) and a good family read particularly if the parents (geez, we're old) grew up in that decade.
My cousin Jomz recommends [b:Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter|7059033|Extra Lives Why Video Games Matter|Tom Bissell|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356909143s/7059033.jpg|7310818] as well. For a younger read, I would recommend [b:The Westing Game|902|The Westing Game|Ellen Raskin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356850909s/902.jpg|869832] (even though it's not about a video game, it does capture the inheritance plot point as well as the relationship and puzzle-solving aspects).[b:Feed|169756|Feed|M.T. Anderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327891005s/169756.jpg|163928] would be another possible read-alike, though with a very different prose style and theme.
I'm looking forward to seeing this book in film format (the writing really lends itself to that medium), however I think the licensing costs would make this prohibitively expensive to recreate exactly. Someone's going to have to get really creative and replace some of the references with others that still evoke the same kind of "I know what you mean" feeling that the ones in the book do.
Years pass without anyone even finding the first hidden clue. Then Wade's years of research finally pay off when he finds and retrieves the first key. From then on, he's a fugitive--chased by other gunters who want to win the prize for themselves, as well as mercenaries called Sixers who work for a faceless corporation that wants to take over OASIS, "for the greater good," or so they try to make it seem.
While I had some issues with this book, I really enjoyed it. I am totally the intended audience--geek raised in the 80's. One of my fave references is to an 80's tv show no one else seems to remember. Hrm, was it only popular in the Philippines? I remember being super in love with the main character when I was about 7 (probably the year after the show aired in the US).
But I digress. I really liked the characters and how the author put it all together. Juxtaposing a bleak analog future with a digital utopia is... well, it's been done, but I'm almost always interested in how someone else envisions the somewhat near, I-may-still-be-alive-by-then future. Some readers might find the first 1/3 of it daunting--it's dense with world-building and the sheer number of 80's references makes for a slow, clunky experience. Raising the stakes later on in the book makes the plot flow a little faster, and ultimately the momentum is what I needed to finish reading.
I found the occasional geek-but-not-80's reference kind of jarring and I ended up Googling things just to make sure I wasn't having a stroke. On the other hand, some of the references are almost double-meta (e.g., two references to Spaced which is a show made in 1999 about two people who, like Halliday, share an affinity for all things 80's). I think readers will enjoy this the most if they can feel the same nostalgia, or at the very least the same sort of fanboy/fangirlishness about any topic. It's hard for me to tell if this book would make sense for anyone who can't empathize with that kind of geekery.
At its core, I think this book is more about psychology, belonging, and relationships than it is about a future without oil. It's not about a crumbling dystopia reliant on technology for the most basic infrastructures or an obsessive, socially-awkward bajillionaire setting up a contest to inherit his estate. Cline's intentions seem to range from making every 80's reference a being can possibly remember to explaining (or at least chronicling) the behaviors, diet, and mating habits of a young nerd. There are parts of the book where the whole plot to find Halliday's keys and gate is almost an afterthought.
This book made for a pretty good discussion in my YA book group. While not a YA title, Ready Player One did make it to the Alex Awards list the year it was published. I'd definitely recommend this to older young adults (16-up) and a good family read particularly if the parents (geez, we're old) grew up in that decade.
My cousin Jomz recommends [b:Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter|7059033|Extra Lives Why Video Games Matter|Tom Bissell|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356909143s/7059033.jpg|7310818] as well. For a younger read, I would recommend [b:The Westing Game|902|The Westing Game|Ellen Raskin|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356850909s/902.jpg|869832] (even though it's not about a video game, it does capture the inheritance plot point as well as the relationship and puzzle-solving aspects).[b:Feed|169756|Feed|M.T. Anderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327891005s/169756.jpg|163928] would be another possible read-alike, though with a very different prose style and theme.
I'm looking forward to seeing this book in film format (the writing really lends itself to that medium), however I think the licensing costs would make this prohibitively expensive to recreate exactly. Someone's going to have to get really creative and replace some of the references with others that still evoke the same kind of "I know what you mean" feeling that the ones in the book do.