Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Published August 2011 in hardcover, June 2012 in trade paperback
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for this review

Thirty years in the future all of our worst fears have come true - this year's drought has stretched on for decades, gas is scarce and cities are crumbling under the weight of an influx of people who have moved in from the small towns and suburbs. The one place every wants to be is the OASIS, a computer simulated universe designed by the Howard Hughes-like James Halliday.

When Halliday dies, his will puts the world into a frenzy. Somewhere in the OASIS, among its hundreds of sectors and thousands of planets, Halliday has hidden an egg. The person who finds the egg will inherit Halliday's billions and control of the OASIS. The egg can only be found after three keys are found and three gates entered and beaten. Five years later, when no one has even discovered the first key, most of the world has given up. But for "gunters" (egg hunters) like Wade Watts, the search is everything. An orphan, Wade lives with an aunt who only puts up with him for the extra food she can get. With no friends outside of the OASIS and few inside, the only thing Wade really has going for him to an incredible memory and mad gaming skills.

When Wade discovers the first puzzle and the first key, his avatar draws the attention of the world, including the attentions of a giant corporation intent on winning the egg and ready to do anything to do it. To beat them, Wade is going to have to draw on everything he has learned about Halliday's passion - the pop culture of the 1980's and learn to trust and depend on others.

The Barnes & Noble overview calls this book "wildly original." That it is; I've never read anything like it. It also says Ready Player One is "stuffed with irresistible nostalgia." It certainly is filled with nostalgia; unfortunately, I had no problem resisting the nonstop references to the movies, music and games of the 1980's.

Since almost all of the action takes place in the OASIS, Wade is almost the only human we meet until very nearly the end of the book. With a story filled with nothing but avatars, Cline was left himself with very little to develop in his characters and it made them difficult for me to connect with them. While there were some things I wasn't expecting, there were no surprises for me which was a big disappointment.

At 100 pages, I was ready to make this my second DNF (did not finish) in a month but so many people love it, I plugged along thinking I would soon come to the point where the book would grab me. It never did. I will, however, pass this one along to Mini-him who is a gaming nerd. Although he wasn't born until almost the end of the decade this book highlights, the intricacies of the game play will certainly appeal to him more than it did to me.

9 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm sorry that you didn't love this one! I had a lot of fun with it, but I think my husband liked it a lot more than I did. He is an extremely skilled technophile, and his favorite time period was the 80's. This book was like brain candy for him. I think it was really well narrated by Wil Wheaton, and the audio version was pretty good!

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  2. I've heard this one was good. Sorry you didn't like it. Makes me wonder if it would grab me. Sometimes the artsy books just don't get my attention.

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  3. Aww it's a shame it didn't work for you! I guess it definitely is a book that would appeal more to those who like and play video games, at the very least. I thought it was fun :-)

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  4. I'm so sorry you didn't like it. I was one that loved it. I'm not a gamer but I could definitely get into the nostalgia piece.

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  5. You gotta try the audio, it was excellent. I don't think I would have liked this book very much in print, but I loved it on audio. Will Wheaton was great!

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  6. Oh no!! My son loved this one and a few other friends so I purchased it on audible.com. I'm hoping that I love it!!!???

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  7. Yes, the audio edition is wonderful! Even though I'm sure I missed a lot of the 80s movie and gaming references, the audio narration carried me through!

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  8. Yup--I think this is one best listened to. It's interesting that you note that Wade is the only character for a majority of the novel. I didn't even notice that until now! The audio is so wildly narrated that it really comes to life. BUT like I've mentioned, it's not one that I recommend because it is so out there. Hope mini-him loves it!

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  9. Oh well. I had read a review that the 80s refs got tiresome but they never did for me. I kept reliving my youth? And if I didn't 'get' something, I was mad that I couldn't remember it! I just thought it fun. Maybe it was the audio? Apparently on some books I can easily squelch any doubts and misgivings and some I let fester. This one was the kind I had a helluva good time. I'm glad you didn't LOVE it, actually. I would be worried if I didn't have a few dissenters in my fave-bloggers group. Ti of BookChatter didn't like it either.
    Btw, I saw your status of going to the Upstream. LOVE that place. I have such fondness of OmNe.

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