Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Apr 10, 2013 Maria Elmvang rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-ebook, 4-stars, owned-physical-book, sci-fi, 2015

A 3.5 star review. I had a very hard time deciding whether to round up or down, but I loved the end, so think I will leave it at 4.

It took me a LOT longer to read this book than it should have done, but I had several problems with it, which is also what pulled the rating down to 3.5.

First quarter of the book: FAR too much telling and too little showing. I understand that world-building is necessary, but I'm not impressed by how he went about it (not to say that I could've done better, but then I ...more

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Sep 13, 2016 Emily rated it liked it

Shelves: dystopian-post-apocalyptic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Info dump, info dump, '80s reference, info dump, '80s reference, stereotype about Japan.

That is my summary of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. So many people I know loved it, and I just...didn't. And it made me sad.

I think one of the reasons why I didn't like it is because I'm a geek. What? you ask. This book is beloved by geeks with its constant references to video games, comic books, Monty Python, and everything that geeks love. But being a geek is not about what you love but about how you lo Info dump, info dump, '80s reference, info dump, '80s reference, stereotype about Japan.

That is my summary of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. So many people I know loved it, and I just...didn't. And it made me sad.

I think one of the reasons why I didn't like it is because I'm a geek. What? you ask. This book is beloved by geeks with its constant references to video games, comic books, Monty Python, and everything that geeks love. But being a geek is not about what you love but about how you love. I feel passionately about some things that this book just not only didn't care about but thought were completely unimportant. What I mean by this is the law. The law in most states says, basically, that you can't leave an unknown someone something in a will unless you will figure out who that person is within a set amount of time. Which, in this book, would leave Halliday's will invalid (maybe there was a separability clause making parts of it valid). I can suspend my disbelief for a lot of things (everything in OASIS, for example), but I was just so sad that Cline didn't even inquire in writing this book "how does one actually make a will?" And I was doubly frustrated by this because at the end of the book, Og told Wade, ok, you need to go talk to the lawyers now. So obviously Cline thought the law was somehow involved, but it is something both mysterious and inconsequential.

And with Og. Og Ex Machina much?

And with the references. It's not clever to talk about how many times you've seen War Games and quote lines from Monty Python. It's clever to work them into the story. And I honestly felt these weren't. The example that stands out in my head is Wade's vehicle--the Delorean/KITT hybrid with ECTO plates. It felt both meaningless and over the top to me. I felt maybe Cline was going somewhere with this--how we brush off the bad memories from the '80s to create some sort of idealism that ends up feeling fake. (I felt like Doc even said something like that in Back to the Future II when talking about Cafe '80s, but maybe I have it wrong.) But he didn't. It was just supposed to be cool because, hey, '80s, and that's everything cool he could think of. The '80s references weren't part of the story, just atmosphere.

When he described wearing a red bowtie and a gray suit like Buckaroo Banzi, I thought he looked more like Pee Wee Herman. ...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Ray rated it liked it · review of another edition

I read a review on Io9 that praised this book for connecting its obsessive focus on 80s culture in a dystopian future with the failed economic policies of the Regan years. I definitely see how you could read that, but I am not sure the author did.

A totally entertaining read. But I found myself frustrated that Cline revealed some brilliant flashes of insight (armored buses; stacks of trailers; an African American woman choosing to use a white male avatar to gain access to his privilege; indenture ...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Misha rated it really liked it

Shelves: doorway-plot, doorway-people, friendship, teen, coming_of_age, funny, ya-crossover, page-turner, dystopian, read-2012

I totally enjoyed reading this!

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Jul 23, 2013 Susan rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction, adult-sci-fi, adult-books-appealing-to-teens, up-lit

This would be heavenly to read if I'd been a gamer. In spite of being in high school when video games (in my recollection,Pac Man was especially big) first became a HUGE exciting phenomenon, I never really enjoyed playing them. However, since I was a young adult in the 1980s, it was fun to read this, with its many 1980s references.

My 15-year-old liked it a lot too, even though she's never been a gamer and (obviously) wasn't around in the 1980s. ...more

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