From the Bookshelf of RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off)…

Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)

Ernest Cline

Start date: January 5, 2018

Finish date: January 31, 2018

Discussion: Buddy-Reads

Discussion leader: Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi

Why we're reading this: January 2018 Buddy Read
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What Members Thought

Feb 12, 2015 Richard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age, adventure, scifi-fantasy, dystopian-apocalyptic-fiction

Once I started reading Ready Player One I got totally sucked in. I mean, who could resist such an awesome premise? Time and pages just flew by and my mood rose every time I picked the book up. Now that's a conundrum because multiple times throughout the book I cringed at some of the writing. Cline's desire to impress the reader with his vast knowledge of 80's pop culture got in the way at times, constantly stopping the story to drone on and on for three pages about some random video game or movi Once I started reading Ready Player One I got totally sucked in. I mean, who could resist such an awesome premise? Time and pages just flew by and my mood rose every time I picked the book up. Now that's a conundrum because multiple times throughout the book I cringed at some of the writing. Cline's desire to impress the reader with his vast knowledge of 80's pop culture got in the way at times, constantly stopping the story to drone on and on for three pages about some random video game or movie. And although, I am familiar with a lot of this stuff, it still seemed to go on for a while, with some of it not having any impact on the story whatsoever. For example, why have an entire chapter of characters arguing about the quality of Ladyhawke and not have it affect the story? It would have been really cool for Wade to eventually have to use his unpopular knowledge (that no one else would have) of Ladyhawke to gain the advantage in the game and make this chapter important, but instead it just sits there as a missed opportunity. And there was a lot of really pedestrian writing throughout the novel, like repeating pieces of dialogue or ideas throughout the book, as if Cline forgot that he wrote about the exact same thing a few chapters before.

And there are also awkward, repetitive exchanges like this:

"It looks just like Rivendell," Aech said, taking the words right out of my mouth.
I nodded. "It looks exactly like Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings movies," I said.

Why have I spent most of the beginning of this review harping on the negative stuff you ask? Well, because I wanted to stress how impressive it is that Cline, despite all of these issues, managed to make my wide-eyed, whimsical self grab my critical self, shake him and say, "Stop being a hater and a boring party-pooper, Richard, this book is awesome!" It's so imaginative and filled with great ideas, like the stacked trailer parks (how great of a visual is that?), and the creative rules within the OASIS itself. There's such a joyous sense of adventure, a celebration of geekiness and friendship, and a true love for the material that is laced into this book that it's pretty difficult not to look at any shortcomings and say, "Screw it, let me jump on this ride, strap in and have a total blast!"

I would recommend this to anyone, so buckle up, forgive the shortcomings, and get ready for a lively and captivating summer read! ...more

32 likes · Like · see review

Oct 30, 2016 Manveer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, sci-fi

Third Read: October 2023
This book is such a nerd fantasy, no wonder the teenage me ate this shit up all those years ago. While I've definitely outgrown a lot of it by now, this was, and still is incredibly fun.

Second Read: 26/10/2020
As I lay in my bed last night, unable to sleep, I found myself randomly scrolling through the countless books I’ve been storing on my Kindle for the last few years. As I neared the very end of my collection, a certain cover popped up, and a wave of nostalgia swept ov Third Read: October 2023
This book is such a nerd fantasy, no wonder the teenage me ate this shit up all those years ago. While I've definitely outgrown a lot of it by now, this was, and still is incredibly fun.

Second Read: 26/10/2020
As I lay in my bed last night, unable to sleep, I found myself randomly scrolling through the countless books I’ve been storing on my Kindle for the last few years. As I neared the very end of my collection, a certain cover popped up, and a wave of nostalgia swept over me, compelling me to pick this up again. I figured I'd take my time, devouring the book slowly and steadily, given that it is a re-read, after all.

Oh well.

Next thing I know, I’ve spent every moment I could spare throughout the day, and most of the evening ploughing through the pages. And let me tell you, this book is WAY TOO SHORT! The reading experience was a lot of the same, and yet SO different? For one, I've outgrown the characters now. But that's the charming thing about re-reads, really, how your perspective and outlook completely changes in the time between the reads, in turn providing a completely unique reading experience. This was something I felt very strongly, especially for this very book. The first time can never ever be matched, yes, but over the years that have passed, I have come to know of and have experienced most of the stuff that the characters mention and deal with, stuff that I had absolutely NO idea about when I first read the book (I had enjoyed it nonetheless), which only made me appreciate it more. And the funny thing is that I never actively looked to read all that, or watch, or play, or listen, or do. It just happened.

As for the book? Breathtakingly FUN! The coolest! A nerd utopia! I found myself giggling and screaming as I read through certain passages, my heart hopping a little whenever a familiar reference popped up. I was skeptical but nah. Still as delightful as ever, a favorite standalone. Hands down. Cautiously optimistic for Ready Player Two, hoping it’s not a disappointment, like the film adaptation was.

First read: 30/10/2016.
I could relate to Wade like I have never been able to relate to a character before.
Also, Monty Python love. So much love!
This is THE best Sci-Fi dystopian book I have read.
We need OASIS. This shitty world would just be so much better. ...more

21 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2018 Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, rmfao, buddy-read, science-fantasy, rmfao-buddy-read

"The Hallidays looked like an ordinary American family. There was no hint that the stoic man in the brown leisure suit was an abusive alcoholic, that the smiling woman in the floral pantsuit was bipolar or that the young boy in the faded Asteroids T-shirt would one day create an entirely new universe."

This book is EPIC! And that too on SO MANY LEVELS!!
First off, I loved the settings! For a hardcore dystopian lover like myself, it was a pure treat! The setting in the book was dystopian in the ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2014 Oliver rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: standalone-favorites, must-reads, for-rereads, 5-stars, second-read

This book’s awesome! It cannot beat The Great Gatsby’s impressive prose, or Lord of the Rings’ epicness, but, it is, in its own way, an awesome read. Right there at the top.

No need to be a geek to enjoy this book. For a number of 20th century pop culture references, I could only relate to Ultraman, Voltron, Neon Genesis Evangelion and, of course, Pac-Man. And yes, I was sheepishly grinning while reading those familiar references. Ultraman’s moves… well, I easily made vivid imaginations of those ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 25, 2018 Amanda's rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Three and a half stars. The idea of the Oasis was well thought through and imaginative, but at times the descriptive detail went on too long for me. The relationship between Wade and Art3mis felt a little... added on? I'm afraid I didn't care that much about Art3mis as a character. And I felt the relationship slowed the middle part of the book down, to the point where I stopped reading it for a few weeks.

It picked up well for the last third, though. The most exciting part for me was where Wade ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

May 03, 2015 Maria Isabel Samonte rated it it was amazing

More on mindlessnesschatter.blogspot.com

Ready Player One is a science fiction and dystopian novel. It takes place in the year 2044, where in the world is not a good place to live in and the people’s way of coping with the situation is by jacking into a virtual utopia called OASIS and wining a contest that the deceased creator, James Halliday, made. And most of the people are dedicated in winning the contest in order to gain Halliday’s fortune. Wade is the main protagonist and he lives in a crapp More on mindlessnesschatter.blogspot.com

Ready Player One is a science fiction and dystopian novel. It takes place in the year 2044, where in the world is not a good place to live in and the people’s way of coping with the situation is by jacking into a virtual utopia called OASIS and wining a contest that the deceased creator, James Halliday, made. And most of the people are dedicated in winning the contest in order to gain Halliday’s fortune. Wade is the main protagonist and he lives in a crappy situation. He’s poor and living with his aunt who constantly maltreats him. In terms of characterization he is a type of person who is driven by emotion. Meaning, he lets his emotion clouds over his mind when making decision, thus resulting in stupid actions, which resulted with the sixers bombing his home thus killing his aunt and his neighbors. But this characteristic of his does not make him any less for me but it makes him relatable to the reader. Art3mis is the love interest of Wade. She comes off as someone who is independent and who does not to lose. Nolan Sorrento and the rest of the Innovative Online Industries is the antagonist of this film since they destroying the true essence of the game by cheating and their intentions to Halliday’s fortune is for greed, which would be against Halliday’s wish.

There are two kinds of conflicts that are present in this book. First is man versus man where in parzival is competing with other gunters, and in the end it shifted to the gunters forming an alliance in order to defeat the sixers. We also see a man versus himself, with Wade trying to struggle with his emotions especially when art3mis breaking up with him that led to him losing focus on the competition. Furthermore, the irony of this book is that even though it is set in the future the characters are living in the 80’s. There are constant 80’s reference throughout the book because the James Halliday is grew up in the 80’s and he conceptualized the oasis with 80’s references and also, in order to win the competition one must have extent knowledge about that era. The concept of this is mirrored to the author Ernest Cline because he grew up around the 80’s.

The journey of the hero (Wade) is not an uphill voyage; he had some downs, especially with the search of the second key that almost led him giving up but his desire to defeat the sixers is what pushed him to continue in his quest and thus winning in the end. Also, he would have not win the quest without the other gunters who helped him. Moreover, this book presented how consumerism and how industries take advantage of this and it also presented the bad side of technology, which is that it is addicted and it makes people not be aware of reality. I have to admit that it is nice to get away from reality once in a while and I realized that if I am not aware of reality for a long period of time and I am just locked away in my room reading books I miss out on things that I could have experience or moments that I would’ve cherish forever. Furthermore, in terms of feminism there is an equality of between men and women shown in the book with Wade admiring Art3mis’ knowledge and capabilities. We also see her in the competition joining with the men and even placing first place during the second level. This just shows that there is a shift in terms of gender traits, with Wade showing some traits of femininity and At3mis masculinity, and also with Aech who happens to be gay and living in the OASIS as a guy, so it goes with the queer theory and that gay people are not free and are forced to express who they truly are closeted.

To assert, I really enjoyed this novel to the fullest. The world building was phenomenon to the point that I was dreaming about being in the OASIS in my sleep, and characters growth was great. I am just in love with this book. There was a perfect balance of action, romance and comedy. I feeling of reading this book is like what I feel when playing a mmorpg game like the world of warcraft.
...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2018 Sojan Jose rated it it was amazing

Whoo. Almost 400 pages in a single go. That's something even by my standards.
Just wanted to get this done before the movie gets out. Geeks, 80's, Pop culture and The girl. This book was totally my thing ❤️ ...more

1 like · Like · see review