Review: Ready Player One
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Things have been slow. I did manage to finish Ready Player One over the weekend, so here we go. Ready Player One might be one of the best sci-fi novels of the past few years. It is cyberpunk, an enormous tribute to 80s geekdom, an epic quest, and a bit of a love story.
Wade Watts lives in abject poverty in the mid 21st century. To escape his struggles in reality he enters the OASIS, which is World of Warcraft on steroids. It is a fully interactive online game with layers upon layers of complexity. Inside the game, players embark on a quest to solve the riddles of its founder in order to inherit his multibillion dollar fortune. Standing in Wade’s way is IOI an evil corporation seeking the fortune for itself.
The book is wildly entertaining with accurate depictions of geeky, anti-social gamers but also looks at the aspects of their personalities that attract them to science fiction, fantasy, online gaming, and all other forms of geek. They are usually escaping from something in their lives or reality that causes great pain and suffering. Its a new look at individuals that are normally the target of numerous jokes (no lives, live in mom’s basement, etc.).
The tech in the book is fantastic. Since I’m not a computer wizard, I can only presume it is all accurate. The quest requires players to have enormous levels of knowledge about 80s culture, particularly games, cheesy sci-fi movies, novels, and music. It was probably an extremely nostalgic experience for the author to write this book then setup a Da Vinci Code/National Treasure/Indiana Jones style quest right in the middle of it.
It is very entertaining, even for a non-gamer who grew up in the 90s. I suppose non-geeks may find the book with too many 80s gaming references, movie quotes, and other stuff they know nothing about and don’t care to know.
The love story is unique given that it is two very unusual romantic characters. Both are gamers with less than attractive physical traits (it would’ve been insulting to readers if they were both really attractive, like Twilight) and some anti-social tendencies. Their lives are lived in the OASIS, and with all the baggage that comes with it.
The only negatives I can think of is the overload of “one of my favorite” this and that, as if everything from that period was just so damn awesome and epic. The constant pop culture references got a little tiresome in a couple chapters, usually when it had nothing to do with the quest. Some of the dialogue is pretty obnoxious, particularly early on, but is accurate since all the characters are essentially teenagers with little or no social skills.
The book is perfect for geeks who grew up in the 80s. For the rest of us, its an excellent YA cyberpunk novel. It gets 5 stars! I am finishing up Feed by Mira Grant and then its Hunger Games.
Jacob
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