Ready Player One

Sep 12, 2011

William Cline rated it

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction

For most of the first half of this book, I was unimpressed. The writing was flat, and the story was unremarkable. The book gets hype because of its pervasive use of 1980s popular culture, particularly its references to science fiction, fantasy, and video games. The problem was that most of these references served no purpose. Something would be describing by pointing out its resemblance to something from a film or television show—a particularly annoying form of "telling, rather than showing" give...more For most of the first half of this book, I was unimpressed. The writing was flat, and the story was unremarkable. The book gets hype because of its pervasive use of 1980s popular culture, particularly its references to science fiction, fantasy, and video games. The problem was that most of these references served no purpose. Something would be describing by pointing out its resemblance to something from a film or television show—a particularly annoying form of "telling, rather than showing" given that a reader of the wrong age or background won't know the reference—but said reference would add nothing to the events at hand. Either that, or the reference would be carried to cringe-worthy, fan-fiction-grade extremes. For instance, in one scene, the online avatar of the main character, Wade Watts (known online as Parzival) pilots a DeLorean DMC-12 resembling the one used in the Back to the Future films, except for the addition of the computerized voice and sweeping red light of KITT from Knight Rider, a pair of Ghost Busters logos adorning the doors, and a license plate reading "ECTO 88".

Whether mentioned in passing or over the top like the aforementioned mash-up car, however, virtually all of these allusions are brought up and then dropped in the space of a sentence. The DeLorean, for example, takes up a couple of paragraphs and is then never used again. Ready Player One doesn't draw from 1980s popular culture; it just name-drops it all over the place. Sometimes it seemed the only purpose for these references was that the author and reader could share a knowing, self-congratulating smile.

The notion of a "massively multiplayer" online role-playing game becoming the human race's main form of entertainment presents some amusing possibilities, though, and Ready Player One doesn't completely squander its potential. The moment when I started to enjoy the book came about halfway through, in a chapter describing a day in Wade's life some time after his (view spoiler)

Cline shares the late twentieth century computer geek's vision of the Internet as a benevolent force. Wade has genuine feelings of friendship and love for his online friends, people he would never have met offline, people with whom he shares bonds of mutual interests and ideals rather than geography. An online world is one without racism or other prejudices. (Or at least, it's a world where you can avoid these prejudices by configuring your avatar appropriately. Let's not go into the implications of that.) Furthermore, despite its post-energy-crisis shabbiness, the world of Ready Player One is one in which the good guys have won: free speech, privacy, and "net neutrality" all rule the day.

At the same time, no matter how cool he tries to make the OASIS (and I admit, it is cool), Cline is conflicted about it. Its pleasures are tempered by the fact that for many of its players it serves as a drug, distracting them from the shabby state of real life in late twenty-first century Earth. Wade's dissatisfaction with a life spent entirely online is explored throughout the book, though never deeply. I would have liked to see the book explore this tension between the unifying and isolating effects of the online world in more detail.

In summary, Ready Player One touches on some interesting ideas, although it doesn't explore them as deeply as I would have liked. The writing is nothing special, but it gets the job done. The story gets more interesting in the second half, and the annoying popular culture references become less frequent. I'm glad I stuck it out to the end, but I don't think it deserves whatever hype it's getting in nerd circles.(less)

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Aug 18, 2011

Flannery rated it

Recommends it for: Anyone who loves the 80s, trivia, video games, RPGs, or is looking for a fun read.

Recommended to Flannery by: Joel

Shelves: i-want-to-go-to-there, arc-galley-or-first-reads, swords-and-lasers, so-good-i-stayed-up-to-read-it, reviewed-2011, readalong, read-in-2011, aa-want-dtb-the-most

This book is nostalgia porn. If you grew up in the 80s, enjoy video games, or go crazy for popular culture, you will devour this one. I was supposed to be reading this with a friend but I couldn’t stop. I read the beginning and thought, “what’s the big deal with everyone’s obsession?” Then Ernest Cline got his meat hooks into me and I read it while I was making dinner, while I was eating dinner, and then afterward until I’d finished it. I think I am just a few years shy of this books prime audie...more This book is nostalgia porn. If you grew up in the 80s, enjoy video games, or go crazy for popular culture, you will devour this one. I was supposed to be reading this with a friend but I couldn’t stop. I read the beginning and thought, “what’s the big deal with everyone’s obsession?” Then Ernest Cline got his meat hooks into me and I read it while I was making dinner, while I was eating dinner, and then afterward until I’d finished it. I think I am just a few years shy of this books prime audience but I can see how it will appeal to most of my ~~fellow geeks~~ friends. Ready Player One is set in a future where we have depleted our resources to the point where many people lives in Stacks, which are basically just trailer homes piled 20+ high and many people struggle to make ends meet. Wade Watts, the protagonist, attends school in OASIS like many of his peers. OASIS, an online world created by James Halliday contains thousands of different worlds, including copies of many famous sci-fi verses—I’m sure you could spend most of your time in Sunnydale or on Dune if you wanted to. In a very Westing Game move, Halliday leaves his entire $250 billion fortune to the player who can find the Easter egg hidden in OASIS. The book is set five years after his death and no player has gotten even one step closer to figuring out Halliday’s mystery. And the kicker? Halliday’s obsession, besides video games, was the 1980s. All the kids and adults alike are well-versed in all things 1980s from fashion to music to games to computers. These characters know more about the 1980s than most people who lived through it.

Wade Watts has spent years playing through all of Halliday’s favorite games and songs trying to figure out the first step. When Wade figures out the first move, his name shoots to the top of a previously empty high-scorers list and the world goes into a frenzy. The entire rest of the book follows Wade and his fellow contestants through the game in their attempts to reach the goal first. It seems like every person in the world is up against each other—especially the “gunters” (egg hunters) and the “sixers.” (Corporately-sponsored hunters who want to take over the OASIS for monetary gain, so-called because their avatar names begin with the number 6) My adrenaline ran high for the whole book. In fact, I actually kept speaking to Wade aloud. “Wade, what the hell are you doing? You are past the first gate! Pull your head out of your ass and stop spending your time at dance parties!” “Art3mis is so much smarter than you, Wade!” Wade’s fellow gunters include his long-time online crush, Art3mis and his BFF Aech (pronounced like the letter H). They were seriously awesome side characters with distinct personalities, which I especially enjoyed considering I have several friends on Goodreads whom I’ve never met in real life but I feel like I know pretty well. (view spoiler) My experience with WoW and Second Life is pretty minimal…well, I did once try Second Life but it mostly consisted of my friends and I goofing around and then accidentally wandering into an orgy and getting yelled at. Anyway, my point is that people quest all the time and talk to the same people regularly online. They have distinct personalities. I’m so happy that Ernest Cline was able to capture the personalities so well when the characters were only together outside of OASIS for limited amounts of time.

As someone who has spent probably entire weeks of her life playing video games, this book feels a bit like validation. SEE, NERD! YOUR TIME SPENT COLLECTING RUPEES WASN’T FOR NOTHING!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this highly addictive and fun read!
(less)

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Aug 26, 2011

Kemper rated it

Shelves: 2011, cyber, dystopia, future-is-now, humor, sci-fi, time-mower-adventures

Adventures in Time Mowing

After my laptop fused to my lawn mower due to a freak lightning strike, I discovered that I could use it to travel through time.

“Wow, where’d you come from?”

“I’m from 2011. Got a time mower and decided to come to the future. I’ll spare you the full origin story. My name’s Kemper.”

“I’m Wade Watts. Welcome to 2044.”

“Thanks. I gotta say, things are looking kind of grim around here. Are those mobile homes stacked up like hillbilly skyscrapers?”

“Yeah, I live in one of them. W...more

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Apr 19, 2012

Lou rated it

Shelves: to-be-movies-or-tv, arc, science-fiction, dystopia, fantasy

Three hidden keys open three secret gates Wherein the errant will be tested for Worthy traits
And those with the skill to survive these traits
Will reach The End where the prize awaits.

James Halliday a video-game designer created The Oasis. It made him one of the wealthiest people in the world. He had no successors to hand down the corporation he built. When he died he left a message to the world, one that called for the finder of 'The Egg' in a video game to gain ownership of OASIS.
I am thinki...more

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Aug 26, 2011

Stephen rated it

Shelves: 2011, science-fiction, audiobook, signed-first-or-limited-edition, cyber-punk-prep-and-post, comfort-food, world-in-the-shitter

WOOT, WOOT and UBER WOOT all you MMORPGers, this book is the perfect calm down, happy face diversion next time you find yourself offline and frustrated because:

** you’re stuck medding back in a safe zone after nearly being ganked by some douchey griefers who jumped your camp site when the mob you were going to farm spawned so they could kill steal it and abscond with your loot;

or maybe

** some group of questing ubers turned asshat and refused to let your alt join them so you could PL by leechin...more

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Jul 13, 2011

Jo rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: boy-crush, for-review, my-favourites, ya, when-can-i-move-in, things-are-rotten-in-the-state-of-d, e, own

“Somewhere along the way I started to go overboard. I may, in fact, have started to go a little insane.”

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
I’m already recommending this to everyone I know. EVERYONE.

High Points.
*Deep Breath* Alternate Reality. Virtual Insanity.Scoreboards. Quests (More books should have quests).Good old fashioned competition. W-O-W. Aech. At3mis. Best friends forever. Corruption. Damn the Man. Eccentric Billionaires. Retro. Duran Duran. Matthew Broderick. Monty Python. Rush. John Hughes...more

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Jun 03, 2011

Joel rated it

Shelves: 2011, dystopia, ya, thanks-karen, vote-getters, i-am-8-bit

There's this conceit that keeps popping up in sci-fi dystopia novels that it is only a matter of time before we will all be glued to our virtual reality goggles 24 hours a day as elaborate MMPORPGs slowly take over the world.

I think this is stupid. No matter how increasingly ubiquitous computers become, I just don't foresee Second Life replacing the first one (FarmVille may have replaced actual farming, but that conversation involves a lecture on government subsidies that I just don't have time...more

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Oct 24, 2011

Sam rated it

Shelves: sci-fi-favourites, sci-fi, 5-star-gems

WOW. Just, wow.

This book was mind-blowing. I really didn't think I would like it as much as I did. This is, by far, one of the best science-fiction novels I have read in a long time.

Ernest Cline has delivered a rare master-piece. This book has created a lot of buzz lately, and rightly so! It's everything a hard-core sci-fi fanatic could want in a book and so much more. And the brilliant thing about this novel is that it's so wonderfully written that it has the ability to appeal to non-sci-fi fa...more

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May 23, 2011

Greg rated it

Shelves: sf-fantasy-and-other-dorky-shit

In a bleak near future, which doesn't seem all that implausible from the way things are going these days, large parts of the population escape the misery of everyday existence by plugging into this thing called OASIS that is part Second Life and part MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game). OASIS is a full immersion simulated world where people go to recreate themselves, have adventures, goto school, make a living; or to sum it up to virtually live. The creator of this world (which costs only a...more In a bleak near future, which doesn't seem all that implausible from the way things are going these days, large parts of the population escape the misery of everyday existence by plugging into this thing called OASIS that is part Second Life and part MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game). OASIS is a full immersion simulated world where people go to recreate themselves, have adventures, goto school, make a living; or to sum it up to virtually live. The creator of this world (which costs only a one-time fee of twenty five cents to enter) was an eccentric programmer who amassed a huge fortune and left the entire fortune to the first person who is able to solve game within the virtual world, or in gamer-speak to find the easter egg. He leaves some cryptic lines to help people on their way and the rest is up to anyone who wants to play to solve. At first everyone in the world tries to solve the game, but after years pass and no one makes any progress interest in the game dwindles till there are just a small group of hacker-type gamers and a big evil corporation looking to take control of OASIS and make it more profitable. Five years or so after the game was first announced a high school student becomes the first person to clear the first objective and the public gets more interested in the game than people give a shit about American Idol (or whatever would be like that these days, do people still watch that nonsense?)

That's the basic set up for the novel, I have no idea why I decided to give one, you probably could have just read the info about the book and learned all of that. Maybe I just wanted to put something that felt objective into the review before I started gushing about how fucking awesome the book was. Or maybe I just feel really uncomfortable writing positive reviews, which is sort of the same as the other reason. This book is really fucking awesome, seriously.

I'm not sure if it really is a great book but it's certainly a lot of fun. I'd say it's almost as fun as the first Hunger Games novel, and I even described it to Karen as being a really good YA book but for adults, but not just any adults, stunted adults who are around my age. It's a geek-tastic adventure tribute to the 1980's, but not the Bret Easton Ellis 80's, but the geeky movies and video games and music side of that decade. This is the part that makes me think that teens today might not get as much enjoyment out of this novel, it comes with a pretty hefty amount of pop-culture references that I'm not exactly sure if someone who didn't grow up in the time period would get much enjoyment out of. But even without getting all the references there is still a great adventure story populated by idealistic open-source / anarchist types, money-grubbing ruthless evil corporations and cyber-punk-esque dystopian futurism to make it not just a book version of some VH-1-like tribute to all things geeky 80's.

I spent most of the non-working parts of my birthday reading this book and it was a great way to spend the day. It brought back memories of so many Atari games that I spent days of my childhood trying to beat, games that I hadn't even thought of in years. It captured the dorky escapism of escaping from the real world into worlds of crudely rendered pixels, and afternoons and weekends playing seemingly never-ending Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, and watching the same movies over and over again till the entire dialogue is still embedded in your (well mine, maybe you've done better things with your memory) mind over twenty years later.

I'm not doing any justice to this book with my review. The book is getting all kinds of buzz already and it's still not out for another couple of months. If you're going to read it you'll probably hear about it from more lucid sources than myself but maybe you'll just take my word on this one and check this book out, although if you're childhood memories aren't filled with playing Atari and watching John Hughes films then I'm not exactly sure if you'll find this nearly as much fun as I did. (less)

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Apr 09, 2012

Mike (the Paladin) rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I finished this a few days ago and thought I'd let my thoughts about it, percolate. There were times when I found this book annoying. I'm tired of authors who feel obligated to send me a message about all the politically correct claptrap they have to peddle. This book does have it's share of said claptrap. Other than that however there are parts of this book that I like greatly.

I wasn't a teen in the '80s...my kids were. BUT I am a nerd...maybe I'm a proto-nerd? How far back can you go and still...more I finished this a few days ago and thought I'd let my thoughts about it, percolate. There were times when I found this book annoying. I'm tired of authors who feel obligated to send me a message about all the politically correct claptrap they have to peddle. This book does have it's share of said claptrap. Other than that however there are parts of this book that I like greatly.

I wasn't a teen in the '80s...my kids were. BUT I am a nerd...maybe I'm a proto-nerd? How far back can you go and still be a nerd? (actually it seems Dr. Seuss may have come up the word in If I Ran the Zoo in the 1950s.) Anyway, while the music of the '80s isn't my choice for fun and favorites I am a huge fan of RPGs (table top and electronic), vintage video games, science fiction and fantasy books and movies. In 1978 I was the one who organized our Dungeon and Dragons game... I bought the books, dice and other accoutrements. I've been a DM since 1978. I (and a couple of friends) played Galaga, Space Invaders, Joust...I ~~wasted~~ err, I mean spent, yah spent many hours in arcades (though I was never really into any of the Pac Mans (Pac Men??? no I'm pretty sure Ms. Pac Man wouldn't be one of the Pac "Men", so Pac Mans...whatever). Moving on, I saw Star Wars (you know the first one that is actually the fourth one, but is actually the first of the only 3 that are worth seeing) at a drive in movie...3 times (and now own the DVDs of the first 3....that are really the last 3 but are really the only ones...oh, you get the idea). Of course I'm also a fan of older science fiction movies, not to mention the Indiana Jones flicks and tons of other fantasy/adventure movies. What I'm saying is, the book allowed me to "renew and check my nerd credentials".

In other words, aside from the music everything else in the book is a nostalgia trip for anyone who's into the pass times, hobbies, interests and whatnot that also appeal to the guys on Big Bang Theory.

I found the book's story interesting and all the vintage gaming and fiction references great. There were some things that were pretty predictable and I while I wouldn't call this story the worlds most original, the setting is one that I haven't seen done more than a couple of times before...and this one does it better than the others that come to mind. (view spoiler)

So, if you're a gamer, a fantasy or science fiction fan (books, movies graphics or whatever), an '80s music enthusiast...in other words a nerd (and proud of it) this book's for you. If you're like me, you can side step the annoying crap and enjoy the nostalgic fun. I settled on 4 stars. Enjoy. (less)

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Aug 27, 2011

Brooke rated it

Shelves: kindle, netgalley-slash-egalley, favourites, nerd-alert

4.5 stars.

This book was clever. And I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it.

Ignoring the fact that I'm by no means a 'gaming' addict (Xbox, PlayStation, Computer Games etc.), I thought I'd find it hard to relate to the obvious addiction the characters have to the OASIS. I was pleasantly surprised when I realised that was not by any means the case. I found the plot fast paced, action packed and incredibly detailed.

That being said, I suppose I'll just sum it up as best as I can.

The story is set i...more 4.5 stars.

This book was clever. And I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it.

Ignoring the fact that I'm by no means a 'gaming' addict (Xbox, PlayStation, Computer Games etc.), I thought I'd find it hard to relate to the obvious addiction the characters have to the OASIS. I was pleasantly surprised when I realised that was not by any means the case. I found the plot fast paced, action packed and incredibly detailed.

That being said, I suppose I'll just sum it up as best as I can.

The story is set in the future (2044, if we're being precise) in a world that has succumbed to a global crisis (financial, health, you name it).

James Halliday, the god of online gaming, has passed away. Halliday is famous for his creation of the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) - a simulated alternate reality used by the masses to escape the unpleasantness of life in the real world. Users can create Avatars and the system is designed to allow, if so desired, complete anonymity. Dying without an heir, Halliday's 'people' share a video in which he reads an excerpt from his Will, detailing instructions for the users of the OASIS to compete in the ultimate treasure hunt. He explains that he has hidden a virtual 'Easter egg' somewhere in OASIS and that the person who finds it will inherit his entire fortune, including the power to control the OASIS. There are three special Keys to be found, each of which unlocks a special Gate. Clearing the Gate gives the user a clue to finding to the next Key. And so on. In the five years following Halliday's passing, millions of hunters, labeled 'Gunters', commence their search for Halliday's egg, all without success.

We are introduced to Wade, a poor 18-year-old boy who is a self confessed Halliday fan and OASIS addict. Wade lives in the Stacks, what would today be called a caravan park, the difference being that caravans are stacked (hence the name) 20 or so high, one on top of the other. Inheriting a multi-billion dollar fortune would appeal to anyone, and for that reason Wade has spent a large part of his life using the OASIS, not only for schooling, but trying to learn anything he could about Halliday and the OASIS, convinced that the key to finding the egg lies somewhere in details of Halliday’s life. Wade's research pays off - he discovers the first key and loses any anonymity he once had, becoming a celebrity quite literally overnight. His discovery comes at a cost - death threats, blackmail and a horde of Gunters ready to give Wade a run for his money.

What ensues is an adrenaline inducing, action packed, edge of your seat race which had me flying through page after page of story, desperate to know who would win the ultimate prize. I was amazed at the sheer volume of information in this book (fictional and otherwise), and I cannot imagine how long it must have taken to write a story like it. The different worlds, games, machines, technologies - everything was explained so well that, despite the volume of information, I was never felt lost or confused. Huge kudos to Ernest Cline, man. Wow.

I loved Wade, he was such a great protagonist. He was easy to love, funny, crazy geeky smart (but the impressive kind of geeky smart... I imagine him as a young Leonard (Big Bang Theory) for some unknown reason), he made me laugh.

The secondary characters were just as memorable; Aech and Art3mis were butt kicking awesome and laugh-out-loud funny, I sort of kind of maybe wish they were my friends.

I'm going to leave it there, as I really don't want to elaborate much more. I've been saying this a lot lately, but I can hardly believe this is only Cline's debut novel. I cannot wait to read more of his work, especially if this book is any indication as to what his work will be like.

Thanks to Netgally for the ARC!(less)

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Jun 15, 2011

Maja rated it

Shelves: sci-fi, netgalley, all-the-right-choices, favorites, male-pov, postcard-from-outer-space, ya, reviewed-in-2011

4.5 stars

I have to admit I don't know the first thing about videogames. The only game I've ever played was StarCraft, a gazillion years ago, and to be honest, I sucked at it. So when this book started with a story about videogames and their creators, I figured I was in serious trouble. However, Cline really took the time to explain OASIS, and he did it in a way that is accessible to everyone, even someone like me. What's more, his descriptions were detailed, but never boring. I thoroughly enjoye...more

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Jun 11, 2011

karen rated it

let me get the gripes out of the way first, because despite overall being a fun, escapist book, there are things that rankle.

i have a crush on the 80's (not an obsession, mind you, but a crush. when i was little i managed to simultaneously want to make out with both jon cryer and molly ringwald and to this day depeche mode's album black celebration soothes many sorrows.

so a book that revolves around 80's pop culture sounded like my kind of thing, even if a lot of the references are video game re...more

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Sep 10, 2011

Mith rated it

Recommends it for: Geeks everywhere, UNITE!, Pretty much everyone who loves an awesome book

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, young-adult, science-fiction, i-needz-moar, wishlist

How do I begin to review this book? Is it enough if I say - "IT'S FRIGGIN' AWESOME WHAT ARE YOU DOING WASTING TIME READING THIS REVIEW GO READ THE FRIGGIN' BOOK INSTEAD!!!!!"?

No?

*sigh*

I though not. Fine.

It's the year 2045. The world as we know it no longer exists - the ongoing energy crisis has driven everybody poor and on to the streets. Unable to afford a roof over their heads, people are living in trailers stacked on top of each other and sudden gunshots in the dead of the night surprises n...more How do I begin to review this book? Is it enough if I say - "IT'S FRIGGIN' AWESOME WHAT ARE YOU DOING WASTING TIME READING THIS REVIEW GO READ THE FRIGGIN' BOOK INSTEAD!!!!!"?

No?

*sigh*

I though not. Fine.

It's the year 2045. The world as we know it no longer exists - the ongoing energy crisis has driven everybody poor and on to the streets. Unable to afford a roof over their heads, people are living in trailers stacked on top of each other and sudden gunshots in the dead of the night surprises no one. Wade Watts is a broke, 19-year old orphan who lives with his aunt in one of the trailer "stacks" and hates every minute of that life. To keep his sanity, he regularly escapes his reality and, like millions of people on Earth, enters the OASIS.

OASIS, which started out as a massively multiplayer on-line game, is now a global Virtual Reality which allows people to, literally, have a second life - for free. In the OASIS you can be who you want to be, travel to where ever you want to in the blink of an eye, go on quests (it still retains certain aspects of its original state), get credits for winning them and then trade those credits to buy whatever you want either in the OASIS or the real world, and make friends and interact with other OASIS avatars, all without leaving your couch.

The creator of the OASIS is the eccentric multi-billionaire James Halliday and our story beings when he dies. In his will, he states that somewhere deep within the bowels of the OASIS, he has hidden an Easter Egg and the person who finds that egg will inherit OASIS as well as his vast fortune. Now Wade just happens to be an avid gamer and worships Halliday. He takes it upon himself to find that egg and joins the quest as an egg hunter or "Gunter". He now has to traverse the length and breadth of OASIS, filled with hidden meanings, 1980's pop culture and video games references, and find that egg before millions of others like him, all hell bent on getting there first.

I LOVED it. You can see by my status updates that I devoured it. Never before have I come across a book plot based on video games and it thrilled me to bits! The book is filled with references to possibly every video game created before the 90's. Now I'm no gamer geek but I did enjoy Dave and Prince of Persia during the days and I can still whoop anyone's ass at Super Mario Bros. It was sheer fun to read about Wade (or Parzival, his OASIS avatar name) solve the clues set by Halliday and advance through the quest one vintage video game at a time.

One of the things that irked me about the book was the ridiculous amount of name-dropping (Spielberg, Tolkien, Gaiman, Douglas Adams, AC/DC, WHAM!, Rush, Matthew Broderick - you name it!), it got a little too much. Also, the author needs to work on his tension-building skills (between two crucial moments in the book, he wasted about a 100 pages just describing stuff and it threw me off a bit). The evidence of that is in the climax which is a tad, well, anti-climatic.

But you cannot NOT enjoy the rest of the book! You'll want to BE IN the book yourself and solve those clues along with Wade and the rest of the gang. Speaking of which, I loved all three main characters - Wade, Aech and Art3mis. I could relate to Wade and his need for an escape and was rooting for him from the word Go.

I was sad to finish it. I want more! I need more! Gimme a sequel! GIMME A GODDAMN MOVIE!(less)

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Feb 14, 2012

Sissyneck rated it

That one star is probably misleading...I thought this was going to be a 4-5 star book for a good portion of the time I spent reading it. The 80s pop-culture references are so pervasive and so relevant to my life that, at times, the book felt like it been written specifically for me. (The love interest is described as being like Jordan, from Real Genius...c'mon!)

But.
All of the Star Wars, Ferris Bueller, and Highlander references in the world can't hide that this story is at best, empty, and at wo...more

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Nov 02, 2011

Sesana rated it

Shelves: actually-pretty-funny, awesome-title, dystopian, geek, science-fiction

This may be the geekiest book that I've ever read. The story is set almost entirely in Oasis, a sort of World of Warcraft on steroids. The Oasis is an entirely immersive VR simulator, which is so awesome it's managed to license content from basically everything good. In practice, this means that I could spend Monday flying my X Wing into battle against geth and Tuesday riding my unicorn across Middle Earth with my trusty vorpal sword in hand. I bet I could even spend Wednesday in early 19th cent...more This may be the geekiest book that I've ever read. The story is set almost entirely in Oasis, a sort of World of Warcraft on steroids. The Oasis is an entirely immersive VR simulator, which is so awesome it's managed to license content from basically everything good. In practice, this means that I could spend Monday flying my X Wing into battle against geth and Tuesday riding my unicorn across Middle Earth with my trusty vorpal sword in hand. I bet I could even spend Wednesday in early 19th century Paris, fighting with Les Amis on the barricades. Thursday? Thursday is TARDIS day. (I want this game. NOW.) The entire setup is steeped in 80s nostalgia, of course, and with good reason. The designer of the Oasis, James Halliday, has died, and left his entire fortune, and control of the Oasis itself, to whoever can find his Easter egg first. And the key will be understanding Halliday's own nerdy obsessions, which are grounded in the 80s. Which means that being skilled at Pac Man could win you billions.

This is nerd porn at its finest, and as a second-generation nerd, pure heaven for me. At least half the joy of the book is the references, which are fast and furious. And the author trusts (and knows!) his audience enough to not insert a bunch of, "Star Wars, right?" comments. He knows we know, and if we don't, then that line just isn't for us. But that really is only half the joy. The storyline itself takes elite gaming to a new level by giving it realistic, real world consequences. There's the money, of course, but there's also control of the Oasis, and a truly evil villain (in this case, an evil megacorp) to struggle against. There are a few pvp battles, but it's mostly solitary pursuits getting people through the contest. And somehow, Cline managed to ramp the tension up even on those.

Our narrator is the hero of the piece, Wade Watts. He has one of the most authentically nerdy voices I've read recently. Early on, he has an argument with a friend over the relative merits of the movie Ladyhawke, and it's pitch perfect. My friend and I just had essentially this exact same argument over Dragon Age II last night. Wade has a nicely done and very believable character arc, moving him from a true Oasis obsessive to... more. Much more.

But no, it's not perfect. The narration could be really repetitive. In a relatively early scene, Wade has found a dungeon based off of an old D&D module. And that? That is awesome. But I did get tired of hearing how each individual element was "exactly like the original module" over and over again. And again. And again. Considering how much of the hunt for the egg was spent playing in other people's sandboxes, that happened much more often than I would like. It made those chunks of narration drag.

This is kind of a nitpick, because it doesn't have much impact on the story as a whole. Now, I'm not a player of MMOs, so I'm speaking from my experiences as a more traditional gamer. (Everything I know about MMOs I learned from Kingdom of Loathing and The Guild.) It seems to me that Oasis is really tough on the noobs, implausibly so. From what I can gather from Wade's narration and experiences, when a new avatar is created, it shows up on a planet that has nothing but shops, and with no in-game money (credits, of course). Credits are needed to go anywhere else in the Oasis, including anywhere that might have some XP. The only way to get credits at this stage of the game is to use real-world money to buy credits. And this is the point where I think the Oasis would have some problems appealing to the wide variety of people it apparently does. Low-income gamers, for one. Unless I'm missing something, a gamer with no real-world money to invest in the Oasis would spend their entire experience stranded in a giant shopping mall, with no way to leave or purchase anything. That would suck. A more plausible setup would be for low-level gamers to have free access to a planet with low-level enemies and loot. Not only does this make the entire game more accessible for those with no money to spend on a game, it also acts as a hook, to get people addicted. It also seems like players need a huge amount of XP to gain even lower levels. (At one point, Wade mentions having spent entire weekends slaying kobolds, and he's still only level 3.) This would easily frustrate a lot of players. Most games require small amounts of XP to get the first few levels, and ramp up the XP requirements exponentially. Halliday was (obviously) a genius at game design, and I don't think he'd make his masterpiece quite so hard to get into. But like I said, it doesn't have much impact on the story as a whole, and after awhile it ceases to become an issue at all.

I listened to the audiobook version, of course. I mean, it was read by Wil Wheaton, who is just perfect for it. I can think of no better match between narrator and text. In fact, I don't think anyone else could have read this book. It was made for Wil Wheaton to read. I'll go further and say that this is a book that must be experienced in audio form. You're just cheating yourself otherwise.(less)

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Sep 15, 2011

Katie rated it

Shelves: signed

Totally awesome! I loved this book! You do not have to be a child of the 80's or a computer-playing, arcade-going geek to appreciate it, but it would probably help. Enough people have been raving about it that I don't have much to add. Ernest Cline is my new hero for using all his obscure 80's knowledge to make money, and he deserves it. I'll be buying a copy for myself when it comes out :-)

GAME OVER

I also wanted to add that one of the first things Ernest Cline bought with his book advance mone...more

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Dec 17, 2011

± Colleen (of the Crawling Chaos) ± rated it

Shelves: dystopian-and-post-apoc, group-read, library-read

2 1/2

This was an ok read. Outside of the sci-fi aspect of it being set in a future world where people, to various degrees, spend chunks of their lives in a virtual reality world called OASIS, it's pretty much a standard quest type story - and not a particularly well written one.

The back-story is given in large wiki like chunks of exposition, the characters are kind of one-dimensional - Wade, in particular, borders of Gary-Stu territory or, at the very least, is an obvious author insert, and the...more

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Nov 29, 2011

Pamela rated it

I should probably change my rating from one star to two as I did manage to finish this piece of garbage. Is this supposed to be a YA book? I did the math, and the people the references seem to be appealing to are those who were young in the 80s. They aren't YAs today.

Some observations:

The author explains why things are so bad that people are happier in a virtual world, but he never says why IQs have dropped 20 or so points. I mean, come on! That first clue...and the reader is supposed to believ...more

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Sep 25, 2011

Crowinator rated it

Recommended to Crowinator by: Pretty much everybody

Shelves: science-fiction, 2011-reads, pop-culture, the-future, favorites, favorites-read-in-2011, books-i-own-kindle

While writing this review, I am listening to Ernest Cline’s
official Ready Player One soundtrack mix, a list of all the songs used in the book. Now I don’t have to spend hours hunting down all the songs on my own! He even made it so I could subscribe on Spotify (one of my favorite new music resources), and it’s a pretty damn good playlist.

I love geeking out over the 80s, even though officially I didn’t hit my teen years until the end, so I probably remember the late 80s and 90s a little better....more

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Sep 20, 2011

P. rated it

A must-read for Geeks and Gamers and fans of all things 80s.

So there are books I love, and then there are books I *love*. Seriously.

READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline (Crown, August 16, 2011)

I managed to pick this book up at ALA with zero clue what it was about and never having heard of it. I was actually standing in line waiting for an ARC of THE NIGHT CIRCUS. This one had a cool title and looked a bit like the 80s. But it wasn't until I saw it in the Audible recommendations that I decided to re...more

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Apr 14, 2012

Derrick rated it

Shelves: pop-culture, science-fiction, e-books, 2012read, 1-star

When Wade is actually adventuring, I liked it. Watching him think through the puzzles and use his knowledge of pop culture to help him solve them grabbed my attention. And I have to admit I finished the book hungry to find some classic arcade emulators and a text-adventure or two.

Too bad the good bits are few and far between. Instead, what we have are mostly reference after reference. The Delorean scene is perhaps the silliest one, but it only scratches the surface on how the author feels the n...more

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Jan 19, 2012

Melissa Proffitt rated it

Shelves: dystopian, science-fiction, flawed

So disappointing. The premise of a treasure hunt inside a gigantic immersive online environment is interesting. I like the idea of the people of 2044 being fixated on '80s culture for clues to solving the puzzle. The execution simply doesn't live up to the promise. The writing goes like this:

interestinginterestinginteresting

INFODUMP

interesti-

BIGGER INFODUMP

...and so forth. I honestly don't know who the intended audience is. The author overexplains all the '80s references as if he expects readers...more So disappointing. The premise of a treasure hunt inside a gigantic immersive online environment is interesting. I like the idea of the people of 2044 being fixated on '80s culture for clues to solving the puzzle. The execution simply doesn't live up to the promise. The writing goes like this:

interestinginterestinginteresting

INFODUMP

interesti-

BIGGER INFODUMP

...and so forth. I honestly don't know who the intended audience is. The author overexplains all the '80s references as if he expects readers to be too young or too disconnected from geek culture not to get them, but my experience with SF fandom is that no element of fandom, however old, ever completely dies out; all of us old farts who were teens in the '80s (and, interesting fact, the creator of the book's treasure hunt has the same birth year I do) make sure the young sprouts experience all the golden oldies. This is a first novel, and I make allowances for first novels, but this stretches my tolerance quite a bit.

More difficult for me to get past was the poorly-conceived dystopian future from which the story arises; to the bugaboos of environmental destruction, overpopulation, and economic collapse is added the fear of giant, evil corporations. This despite the fact that the guy who set up the enormous online multiverse AND created the treasure hunt did so by creating an enormous corporation of his own. His online creation is lauded (in one of those massive infodumps) as being so egalitarian because they don't charge anything for access, just for the things you buy inside it, but the corporation couldn't have set it up in the first place without needing a grundle of cash. (My computer programmer friends will fall on the floor laughing at the idea that all of those virtual items people buy are pure profit for the company because they "don't cost anything to make.") Every time I started to get interested in the story, I came up against some background element that only made sense in a tautological way--it is because it's said to be so.

But what really killed it for me, what caused me to finally give up about halfway through, has always been a deal-breaker for me in any work of speculative fiction. I don't like books that seem to exist independently of the great body of work that has explored the same issues or ideas. In this case, it's as if the author has never heard of Tad Williams' Otherland or (despite the hero's homage to Stephenson) The Diamond Age and Snow Crash. These books (I except Stephenson's more recent book Reamde because it was released the same year as Ready Player One) raised and evaluated issues with virtual reality, and yet Ready Player One does a lot of unnecessary reinventing of the cybernetic wheel. And yes, I do think this is a valid criticism; science fiction is interconnected to a degree that trumps any other genre, except possibly experimental literary fiction. There's an expectation that readers will be familiar with concepts raised elsewhere and have more than a passing familiarity with other SF novels. Ready Player One doesn't do much more than revisit ideas that other authors have explored, and the addition of a high-tech fantasy quest (an admittedly very cool idea) isn't enough to elevate it beyond the ordinary.(less)

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Aug 25, 2011

Melissa rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 06, 2012

Carlos rated it

Aviso para navegantes: le pongo 5 estrellas a un libro sin valor literario, de prosa plana, efectista y con mil trucos de la peor especie. Pero.

Ready Player One es un libro para una generación. Explota la nostalgia de quienes teníamos en casa un Spectrum 16K y, admirados del Amstrad de nuestros primos, perdíamos adrede las partidas de Barbarian sólo para ver cómo nos cortaban la cabeza y caía la sangre en enormes píxeles de color. Y lo hace tan increíblemente bien que acabas pensando dónde metis...more

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Aug 29, 2011

drea rated it

Enjoyed the crap out of this one, although I should give a disclaimer in the form of a couple of key personal facts.

1. A cousin and I used to think it was the height of coolness to act out episodes of the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, where the couch was Bowser's castle and the neighborhood cats were Goombas.
2. I have, in my possession, several hand-drawn, intricately detailed maps of the labyrinths in the original NES Legend of Zelda--all circa second grade, all written in very measured D'...more Enjoyed the crap out of this one, although I should give a disclaimer in the form of a couple of key personal facts.

1. A cousin and I used to think it was the height of coolness to act out episodes of the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, where the couch was Bowser's castle and the neighborhood cats were Goombas.
2. I have, in my possession, several hand-drawn, intricately detailed maps of the labyrinths in the original NES Legend of Zelda--all circa second grade, all written in very measured D'Nelian.
3. There was a point in READY PLAYER ONE where Wade was explaining the virtual internet of OASIS and how people could buy all different kinds of ships modeled off of pop culture, and I thought "I bet someone has a Firefly!" And then three paragraphs or so later, he explained that there was a whole planet modeled on the Firefly verse, and my little geeky heart went pitter-pitter-pat.

All of this is to say that the nerdom stars definitely aligned for me and this book; I'm not sure if it will have the same impact on those who don't have a pre-existing interest in video games or 80s culture, mainly because I don't think the sci-fi/dystopia elements are all that novel. The idea of the world's population turning to virtual reality to escape problems of the real world is not a new one, and the jabs at Evil Corporations are all expected and broad. And while I didn't have any problem believing that Halliday's challenge would revitalize 80s/90s culture, I found the absence of new pop culture in the society to be shenanigans.

But! But but but! What READY PLAYER ONE does do awesomely, I think, is tap into the ways that individual personalities influence technology and what we do with it, both good and bad. I loved everything about Halliday's Scavenger Hunt--its riddles, its puzzles, its Joust matches and Monty Python and the Holy Grail reeactments and Pac-Man perfect games--but most of all, that it began because hey! Halliday loves all of this geeky pop stuff, and he thinks you should to! Let's face it--if I had enough money to influence society, we would all be watching episodes of The Vampire Diaries on repeat and there would be a pre-school that used my favorite kids' book, Rainbow Brite and the Color Thieves, as its textbook. (Why do you think Murky Dismal hates colors SO MUCH? I don't know, kids. I don't know).

With that in mind, here is the scavenger hunt I would create in the Oasis if I were a hermity billionaire game designer hiding clues in treasured things of my geek past.

The First Key--Found on Planet Veronica Mars. Hidden in Lily's spy pen. Bonus points for killing Duncan.
The First Gate--Aladdin Sing-a-long. Miss a line in "You've Never Had A Friend Like Me" and your avatar dies.
The Second Key--Beat the Noid at the pizza-eating game in the NES classic video game, Yo Noid! (This one will likely be difficult, as I imagine I owned the only copy in existence).
The Second Gate--Reenact Robin Hood BBC as it sould have gone, i.e. Robin dies and Marian/Guy is triumphant forever. Be awarded a bubble tea that will come in handy during the final fight.
The Third Key--Go back to Southport Library and shelve all books on a children's cart correctly. Fall asleep in break room for 45 minutes while nobody notices.
The Third Gate--Battle the dreaded Nicolas Cage/Katherine Heigl monster. Throw bubble tea in its face! Kick it until it promises to never make any more movies.

And there you go.
(less)

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Jan 07, 2012

Stacia ~ the professional insomniac rated it

Shelves: young-adult, favorites

4.5 stars. We have another winner!

By the halfway point I was giddy with all of the gamer fan trivia. How flipping crazy is this that ONE scene had references to D&D, MMO's, and the 80's game Joust? It's as if the heavens opened and decided to rain awesomeness.

We won't even go into all of the classic t.v. sitcoms, cartoons, movies, and technology which have been mentioned. Star Wars, Thundercats, War Games, and Atari, indeed. NERDGASM!

This book is a must read for fans of the 70's and 80's, as...more 4.5 stars. We have another winner!

By the halfway point I was giddy with all of the gamer fan trivia. How flipping crazy is this that ONE scene had references to D&D, MMO's, and the 80's game Joust? It's as if the heavens opened and decided to rain awesomeness.

We won't even go into all of the classic t.v. sitcoms, cartoons, movies, and technology which have been mentioned. Star Wars, Thundercats, War Games, and Atari, indeed. NERDGASM!

This book is a must read for fans of the 70's and 80's, as well as anyone who has ever played a console game, RPG, MUD, MMO, etc. How could anyone not love being immersed in the subculture of today's technology buffs?

The near-future involves a world where we as a people become far too immersed in a false reality - a virtual reality. Do I see this potentially happening in our future? I hate to admit this, but I'm a little afraid. Anyone who's habitually spent too much time on the internet or locked away inside of a game could probably relate to disengaging for a period from the real world. I'm even guilty of this, to an extent. I am an ex-gamer, after all. To actually see such a future played out in the pages of a book is quite scary. I hope we never get to the point where society as a whole forgets to go outside and see the sunshine. I'll be crossing my fingers and hoping on this one.

All potential doom and gloom aside, this book was entertaining! Who didn't dream of treasure hunts and winning prizes as a child? The trip was one I wished I could have gone on from within the safety of my own home (without being chased by an evil corporation, of course!). I can't say that I was able to solve any riddles myself, nor am I nearly schooled enough in 80's trivia to have been able to accomplish 1/10 of the things Wade did, but it was fun to accompany him on his journey.

If you aren't a gamer, 80's buff, or sci-fi nerd, this book might take a few chapters to warm up to. I'd say give it until at least chapter 5. It really does start to take off into a wonderful adventure, once you start to see the contest unfold and other players step in. (less)

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Sep 23, 2011

Patrick Brown rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: video game fans, people who dig RUSH

Recommended to Patrick by: Goodreads staff

"Now I see that your dystopia is more of a Fruitopia."

Ready Player One had a lot of trouble getting on its feet. The first 100 pages are 99% summary, much of it explaining how the world of the book works, what its rules are, and what the stakes are. This made it difficult to create John Gardner's "vivid and continuous dream" that I'm always hoping for in fiction. Every time I wanted to get into the story, to be carried away by it, the narrator would stop to explain how some arcane rule of the vi...more "Now I see that your dystopia is more of a Fruitopia."

Ready Player One had a lot of trouble getting on its feet. The first 100 pages are 99% summary, much of it explaining how the world of the book works, what its rules are, and what the stakes are. This made it difficult to create John Gardner's "vivid and continuous dream" that I'm always hoping for in fiction. Every time I wanted to get into the story, to be carried away by it, the narrator would stop to explain how some arcane rule of the virtual reality world worked. The best speculative fiction manages to convey the nature of its world without belaboring how it came to be. This book couldn't pull that off. It was also set in that nebulous time "the not too distant future." Companies like Ebay and YouTube continue to exist, but there's no real mention of Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads (Seriously, we couldn't have worked in a Goodreads reference once? "I went to Goodreads and did a quick search of my Halliday-Canon shelf." Or something like that?), or AT&T, GE, etc. Difficult to pull that off. Couple with some fairly flat and sometimes even stock characters (An aside: Am I the only one who always thinks of that Metallica documentary whenever I use the word "stock?" "It's just stock, man." Okay then.) and the result is a book that feels like it doesn't fully respect the reader.

That being said, once it got up and running, it was a fun and sometimes very clever story. There are a couple of satisfying twists, including one that seems to argue the importance of anonymity without being too over the top about it (Other themes -- such as the danger of corporate monoculture -- were significantly less subtle). And there are a bajillion pop culture references from the 70s and 80s. Again, when the author wasn't taking the time to explain the reference, these were pretty great (I liked catching "Setec Astronomy" a reference to the bitchin' Robert Redford movie Sneakers, part of Redford's Anti-Technology Cycle), but too often, he had to completely unpack the reference for anyone who might have slept through the 1980s (And for those who somehow managed to avoid the band Rush until this book, I envy you. Tell me your secret.). Imagine a Woody Allen movie where instead of just making a joke about Marshall McLuhan, he stopped to explain to everyone exactly who Marshall McLuhan was. It got tedious.

I was happy that the book forwarded the notion that it's tech corporations -- rather than the federal government -- that represent the greatest risk to American's freedom, though I also have a few issues with the way this played out in the book. For instance, fairly early on, there's a discussion between Parzival or whatever his name is and Art3mis about what they'll do if and when they win the hundreds of billions of dollars that are at stake. Parzival will give up on humanity while Art3mis will try to save it. Fine. Okay. I doubt there was a single reader who doubted how the book would end at this point, but whatever. What I found myself wondering was "If this James Halliday guy was such a righteous dude, why didn't he do something to save humanity? Or, failing that, why didn't he at least come up with a succession plan that did something other than put his fortune and company (and, in a weird way, all of civilization, at risk?" It seemed to me that James Halliday, genius though he may have been, was actually kind of a dick. It's like, I know you're afraid of girls and everything, but pull your shit together and come up with a legally structured will that will stop a rapacious corporation from seizing control of your legacy. Or don't, you know. It's a free country. Sort of. The book seemed more than a little bit enraptured with the idea of the tech icon -- Jobs, Gates, Bezos (An aside: Whenever I think of Jeff Bezos, I say his name like Conan O'Brien used to say John Stamos' name. "BEZOS!") -- the maverick genius who can do no wrong. I felt a little bit about the book like I did after Inception, where they have all this cool high-stakes dream-hopping but the result is that one corporation gets to beat another one. Well, la-di-da.

In the end, this is a fun book, but I wanted it to be more nuanced, more subtle, and more complex. It reminded me a bit of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, though I greatly preferred that book. It suffered from some of the same over-explanation, but since it was explaining things like proxy servers rather than Ladyhawke, I was somehow okay with it.

To end on a positive note, this book did make me want to play some old 8-bit video games. I was always more into sports games, so it's not quite the same (though if you know of a place I can play RBI Baseball online, I'll be forever in your debt). Here's a fun anecdote from my youth. The summer after my senior year of high school, I worked at a video store. In addition to renting video cassettes (DVDs were not yet invented, I don't think), we also had a large selection of video games. One day, a guy came in with an older woman and was browsing the video games. I assumed they were mother and son, but who knows (I have a big thing for Patricia Clarkson, so...don't judge). Anyway, they came up to the register and his mom picked up an NES game (not the Super Nintendo, but the original Nintendo system, which was already a relic). I think it was Castlevania, but I'm not sure. "Why don't you get this one?" she asked. He scoffed -- literally made that sound that is a scoff! -- and said, "Mom? Hello? 8-bit action? I don't think so. I play on a Sega Genesis gaming system." I wonder if that guy looks back at himself now and is like "You fool! That was only 32-bit action!" I hope so, in a way. I also hope he finds this book, because he would totally dig it.(less)

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Feb 20, 2012

Crystal Starr Light rated it

Shelves: science-fiction, simply-the-best, so-good-it-s-awesome

Let me cut to the chase and ask a few pointed questions:

1. Were you raised in the 80's and/or love 80's geek culture?

2. Are any of the following movies among your favorites: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, War Games, Blade Runner, Ladyhwake?

3. Do you love video games, tabletop RPG games, D&D, or MMO's?

4. Is your iPod filled with Rush and ACDC?

If you answered "YES" to any of those questions, stop reading this review RIGHT NOW and buy this book. I'll wait until you finish reading it before co...more

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Apr 09, 2012

Brad Wheeler rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, science-fiction

I thought a lot about what review to give this novel. As a pure science fiction novel, it's not that great; the virtual construct that serves as the novel's setting isn't very realistic or even consistent. As a nostalgic vehicle for 80s pop culture, it's awesome, but slightly off-the-mark for me. As a character story, it's straightforward and unsurprising. Plot-wise, doubly so.

As a whole, though, it becomes something more than the sum of its parts. It becomes a very, very fun read (slash listen)...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The Opinionless V...: Ready Player One takes place in the year 2044 and presents an Earth that is faced with an energy crisis, catastrophic climate change, and widespread famine, poverty, and disease. How realistic does this future feel? Are we headed down a similar path?	8	8	16 hours, 8 min ago
The Sword and Laser: * Questions for Ernest Cline	15	236	May 14, 2012 08:40pm
Books similar to Ready Player One	25	279	May 11, 2012 06:32pm
Cast?	6	91	May 11, 2012 08:55am
Musing about the ending * Spoiler Alert*	10	54	May 08, 2012 04:37pm
IRC chatroom	1	13	May 07, 2012 04:45am
Can they make it into a good movie?	16	231	May 06, 2012 04:52pm

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