Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) in Pop Sugar's Annual Ultimate Reading Challenge

Apr 26, 2013 Debbie (Doc) rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, urban-fantasy, read-in-2014, glad-its-done, dystopian

3.5 Stars rounded to 4 stars

After reading this book, I have decided to read other reviews to see how mine compares. It appears that I am in the minority of my rating as most readers are including this as a 5 star read. I did like the references to 80’s video games as that is probably the last time that I played. Perhaps if I was a gamer, I would appreciate this book more than I did.

It’s 2044 and the world is definitely different than now. Poverty and war rule. Most of the citizens spend their t ...more

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Nov 24, 2015 Jessie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

To be blunt, this is a book for those who happily and unabashedly identify as nerds.

For every 80s kid who grew up playing in arcades and watching John Hughes' movies, who memorized lines to Monty Python and feverishly wished to own the DeLorean, who stayed up all hours of the night enthralled with computer games and know the movie reference for Falken's maze...this book was written specifically for you. I found myself laughing out loud at each reference from a beloved game, movie, or song from ...more

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Jan 28, 2019 teacupsandunicorns rated it it was ok

Two stars. It was okay.

I thought this was going to be a fun book, but it ended up being boring and long-winded. I appreciate that it had a lot of action, however, it got tedious when I kept having to read summaries and walk-throughs of the main dude playing video games. A lot of climactic parts involved him playing video games and beating them--imo, that's not very exciting to read. Also, I simply didn't like the writing of this book--a lot of telling when showing would have been more powerful. Two stars. It was okay.

I thought this was going to be a fun book, but it ended up being boring and long-winded. I appreciate that it had a lot of action, however, it got tedious when I kept having to read summaries and walk-throughs of the main dude playing video games. A lot of climactic parts involved him playing video games and beating them--imo, that's not very exciting to read. Also, I simply didn't like the writing of this book--a lot of telling when showing would have been more powerful. And then too much showing when a telling or brief recap would have sufficed. Boring things were drawn out while things that could have added depth and power to the story were skipped over.

This book reminded me a bit of Mazerunner and Ender's Game. The main character is a cardboard cutout, his main personality trait being a geek, or his interests in nerd culture. He is also incredibly lucky, rather than skilled, which is what gets him through most difficult situations, which felt liek a cop-out.

However, I do admire that the protag, Wade, was kind and wanted to share his success with his friends. I really appreciate sentiments and lessons like that, especially when we are often encouraged to be ruthless, cut-throats that do whatever it takes to win. So, that was also fun to read about their friendships, and to see who the "real" people were behind their avatars. Although, I thought it was odd that they all had this weird hang-up over not "meeting" each other in real life. Most people don't give a crap about that now--many people meet and make friends online--many even date and marry. So I don't see why things didn't progress to the point that they already felt like they were friends despite not being physically in the same room together.

I also appreciated that this celebrated nerd culture without all the gatekeeping. Wade often expresses how fun it is to share his interests and knowledge with other people, and how he enjoys learning more about it, whether from his own research or from someone else. You don't have to worry about being "nerd enough"--the author celebrates community and connection to other nerds. They do have "show downs" about showing off their knowledge of geeky stuff, but I found it in good fun, rather than bullying.

I found it slow and felt like it was a chore to read until the ending. There were scenes and parts that I liked, but overall I wanted it over with. I did like the ending when everything was crashing down around Wade and his friends. I am not inclined to read any of the rest of the series, but I'm glad to say I finally read this one so I could form an opinion myself. However, it did have its good points, so I recommend you give it a try and see for yourself. ...more

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