Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

[Michele]

I think of Wade more like an athlete in training - he might not be having fun all the time, but it's more about the end result, the community of gunters he belongs to, the personal goals.

And he does mention some things he really likes or responds to - after all he's a huge fan of Ladyhawke and Family Ties.

What gets me is that while this book is science fictional on the surface, it's at heart an epic fantasy of the style written in the 80s.

Young orphan nobody on a quest to save the world with his band of misfit sidekicks...it even has a wizard/mentor/guide (both Halliday and Ogden) and what's basically a prophecy leading him on in search of MacGuffins galore and in the end a big epic battle and he becomes the king and gets the girl and saves the world. All the 80s references are another part of the world-building, like GRRM and his food descriptions.

This book is just like something David Eddings might have written. Maybe that's why I had such fun reading it, since I'm an epic fantasy girl at heart and the 80s were my formative teen years during which I gobbled up books like those by Eddings and Lackey and Feist.

[Jim]

C'mon, everyone loves Joust!
;)

[Leo]

I loved this book, but even I can't quite forgive Wade for Ladyhawke (yet another Matthew Broderick appearance, besides the much more popular Ferris).

Michele's right, it does have all the hallmarks of an 80's fantasy. But then again, those kinds of novels echo even older archetype - Arthurian literature! Those stories are some of the first examples of the Heroic Journey that Joseph Campbell lays out so nicely (and Michele above!). Those stories even feature a long-hidden relic that heroes go through many ordeals to obtain.... Heroes like Percival... Or, if you follow Hartmann Von Aue's version, Parzival...

And just like that we've come full circle. Back to where we started, but different from we began!

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I'm halfway done with the book. It's a fun read. The 80s references are excessive but sometimes they make me laugh out loud, like when Wade went to a party dressed like Buckeroo Banzai. Now THERE'S an 80s reference I can get behind! After all, "no matter where you go, there you are."

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

80% done and still no pop culture references to Aldo Nova or "Spuds" MacKenzie.

[Barrie]

I bought this book as a whim buy one day while browsing in Waterstones and I do not regret my decision at all. One of the best books I've read in a long time, I love all the pop culture references in it, I love the idea of the Oasis and the things it represents, both the good and the bad, and I love the way the story flows throughout. I've read it several times over and I just can't get tired of it. Cannot wait for the movie to come out to see if it lives up to the hype.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished it! It was a lot of fun, despite obvious flaws which have been discussed above. I read the last 90 pages or so in a few hours and didn't want to put it down.

[Deeptanshu]

I liked the book but I really wonder if I would have liked it as much if it wasnt for all my 80's nostalgia.

[Jim]

Deeptanshu wrote: "I liked the book but I really wonder if I would have liked it as much if it wasnt for all my 80's nostalgia."

Doubtful. I thought that was the whole point of it.