Ready Player One

You guys know me. You guys know I’m a nerd of the highest degree. I know obscure facts about TV shows, I read books that can be considered pretty cringe-worthy. I play video games (although this is a pretty recent development). I grew up in the 90s, with Buffy and Charmed being on TV regularly.
But even I thought this book was a bit too much.
Ready Player One is every nerd’s dream, because the entire time it’s just a jerk off to see who knows more facts than the other person about this 80s TV show, or that 80s video game, or this 80s movie, and on and on it goes.
The story revolves around Wade, an orphan who lives in a not-so far off future, somewhere around the year 2040. The world has gone through a massive energy crisis, and so show more a lot of people left the cities where they lived to live in slums that have taken up the majority of the landscape. Wade lives in one of these slums with an aunt who couldn’t care less about him. And while the world is going to shit because of how terrible the lack of energy has become, they have one saving grace – The OASIS.
The OASIS is a virtual reality world where people now spend most of their time. Wade, who is still of high school age, attends school in the OASIS, and much everything else happens in the OASIS. Buying and selling stocks, setting up companies, prostitution, dates, you name it. The world, for all intents and purposes, has migrated onto an online world because people can’t deal with how bleak and unhappy the real world has become. The OASIS is a place where people can be whatever they want, whoever they want, do whatever they want (if they have enough money to pay for in-game credits). Who wouldn’t want to live in it? I know I would, actually.
There’s an added layer to everything, though. Halliday, the man who invented the OASIS, died five years before the start of the story, and left strict instructions in his will that his fortune was to go to whoever could crack the code that he had built into the OASIS - a set of puzzles and three keys that could only be found through solving riddles. Whoever found all three keys first would become Halliday’s successor and earn all his life’s savings. And everybody knows that the only way to beat the game and find all the eggs in the Easter Egg Hunt is to know as much as possible about the 1980s, the era that influenced Halliday the most.
The whole premise of the book is awesome, don’t get me wrong – I love the idea of people going on a worldwide hunt to find virtual keys to become rich and famous. It’s a great concept and the story behind it is awesome, as is the amount of research put into the whole thing to make the references and descriptions so believable and real.
But I can’t stand Wade.
Do you know what a Gary Stu is? A Gary Stu is a character who is the male equivalent of a Mary Sue – “an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character. Typically, this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfilment. They can usually perform better at tasks than should be possible given the amount of training or experience”. Yes, I took this definition straight out of Wikipedia, but it’s pretty accurate. And Wade is a Gary Stu and every nerd’s wet dream and wish fulfilment rolled into one. Rather than being the author’s own personal author insert, he is a reader insert – a person that the reader has always wanted to be but couldn’t.
I say this because of certain scenes in the novel that were just a bit too unbelievable.
Wade always comes up with plans that somehow work out perfectly for him. Wade manages to beat people to the keys with seemingly zero effort on his part. Wade even seems to know exactly what to do in sticky situations to the point that he manages to dupe an organization that is seemingly all powerful and all encompassing with their resources. But no, one eighteen year old with no hope whatsoever manages to beat the whole system. And get the girl. And be super cool doing it all.
I like how the book celebrates nerd culture, it celebrates being interested in something and knowing a lot about it because it could eventually come in handy (but so far, my extensive knowledge of Buffy has yielded no results yet). But it turns Wade into the perfect nerd – he starts off fat and loses weight and becomes slick and strong and amazing. He’s super smart and talented and knows how to do things with seemingly no effort whatsoever. Opportunities seem to fall into his lap without him trying. Wade is just too perfect, because he’s what every nerd has always wanted to be. And the prime example of this is that, at the end of the whole thing, he gets the girl (even though said girl told him previously she didn’t want to date him but surprise, surprise she changes her mind when he saves the world).
All in all, the concept is amazing but the execution sucks. So I give it a 3/5. show less

I had never heard of Ernest Cline before this book arrived at my door and now I am glad that I have. Having been there at the birth of the home computer revolution, owned a number of those pieces of plastic history that I remember with more fondness than any of my old girlfriends this book can only be described as Geek Porn. Why? Put simply it tickles every bit, pops every stack and loads my drive. It bytes!

Ready player one is written with such a depth of love for its subject that it reads like a digital historical novel. Yeh verily it is sooth. I could happily sit and read this all over again - right away. There is nothing in this book that I would change. The characters are believable teenagers with enough street cred to make them show more instantly viable in the real world. There is action on every page without it ever being overdone. Even the bad guy fits in his world of corporate greed as much as any that you could name in our world. Ernest Cline has crafted a story that I sincerely hope falls into cult lore right up there with the Rocky Horror Show.

You don’t have to be a geek to enjoy this book but if you are you even a tiny bit geeky (or a lover of all things 80’s) you’ll get so much more enjoyment from it. Others have tried and failed miserably to write stories like this one. Tron was a masterpiece of just this sort of idea its sequel however falls into that category of: oh dear. Like the last Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I pretend that it never happened.

Ready Player One has leapt into my top twenty books along with the likes of Lord of the Rings, The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Invisible Man, The One Tree, and others of that ilk. Not because of its eloquence of words, its flowing language, or the rich vibrant, living world in which it dwells but because it just deserves to be there. Nuff said.

So, I can only give it that rarest of all accolades a bright shiny fully rendered 10/10. show less

[This was also published at my website, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography.]

With Steven Spielberg's high-profile adaptation set to come out soon, I thought the time was right to finally read Ernest Cline's 2011 Ready Player One, which I had never gotten around to reading (for no particular reason) despite having pretty much every goddamn nerd I've ever met excitedly exclaim, "You haven't read that book yet, Pettus? Oh, you just gotta, you just gotta! You gotta read that book, Pettus! YOU JUST GOTTA, YOU JUST GOTTA READ THAT BOOK!!!" Okay, so I finally have! And the verdict? Eeeehhhhhhhhhhh... It turns out that there's simply not much to Ready Player One besides an endless amount of references to empty 1980s popular show more culture, plus a vision of virtual reality that Cline stole wholesale from such cyberpunk novels as William Gibson's Neuromancer and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash; eliminate those and you're not left with much else besides a simplistic children's story, with sneering obvious villains and a three-act plot straight out of your community college's "Storywriting 101" class, the entire book written in a cloying "BroSpeak" vernacular that gets increasingly annoying with each passing page.

For those who don't know, it's set in a future where America has officially gone to hell, which has driven most of its citizens to spend most of their time in a dazzling VR environment called the OASIS, which has become pretty much the de facto means for accessing the internet despite it still being a privately held company, solely owned by the "Bill Gates Times Ten Thousand" Asperger's poster-child James Halliday. So when Halliday dies, and announces beyond the grave that the first person to solve a puzzle he's hidden within the OASIS will become the heir to his fortune (worth as much as the annual budget of most industrial nations), and that the clues to this puzzle are all based on his nostalgic memories of the '80s movies, music and computer games he voraciously consumed as a lonely antisocial child, suddenly the entire planet becomes obsessed with this time period as well, cleverly letting Cline both have his far-future-technology cake but also eat his pandering "Hey, do you remember THIS thing from the '80s?! How about THIS thing from the '80s?" cake too.

That's perhaps the thing I liked least about Ready Player One, which I know is the very thing that many others like the most about it, making it natural that I would have a different reaction to the novel than most others. I just find it the epitome of lazy writing when an author says, "Hey, here's a thing from the past I just mentioned! Do YOU remember this thing from the past I just mentioned? You DO??!! FUCK YEAH, WE BOTH REMEMBER THIS THING FROM THE PAST I JUST MENTIONED!!!!1!!!" Ready Player One is by deliberate invention essentially 300 pages of that, an entire storyline that very self-consciously makes conspicuous nostalgia the engine fueling the entire plot along, to the exclusion of any other well-done aspect of literary storytelling. (Also, Cline sometimes gets this nostalgia wrong, which drove me crazier than anything else; for example, no actual '80s autistic antisocial computer nerd would've been caught dead listening to "burnout bands" like AC/DC and Rush back then, a historical retcon that was totally and completely invented by contemporary tattooed hipsters who want their nerd-cred but their metal bands too.)

Still, though, I have to admit that there are many charms to be found in Ready Player One as well, and there's a reason this book has taken on a fandom that is much larger and more passionate than its publishing details would otherwise justify. For example, even though the book wallows in nostalgia like a frat bro bathing in cologne before a night of clubbing, at least Cline does this nostalgia in sometimes very clever and inventive ways; to name just the first great example we come across in the book, Cline's physical recreation of Dungeons & Dragons' very first adventure module (a particularly obscure '80s reference that I myself remember with a lot of warmth) is a real thing of beauty here, and especially when the final showdown with the main baddie turns out to not be a swordfight but a duel on the coin-op videogame "Joust," the exact kind of thing you could just imagine a frail asthmatic like Halliday creating in old age as a way of amusing his inner 14-year-old. And for it being a simplistic plot lifted straight from a children's book, at least Cline keeps this plot going at breakneck speed, a thrillingly-paced storyline that I suspect is the main reason that people mistake it for a more complex story than it actually is. (Other nice touches include the fact that Cline finds a way to enfold Japanese nerd culture into this US-heavy story; and that a crucial part of the puzzle is solved by memorizing and reciting lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the ultimate nerd wet dream.)

Perhaps this book's most lasting legacy, though, and the thing that will continue getting it attention long after its '80s nostalgia has worn out its welcome among future generations, is that this is also Cline's love letter to autism and the differently-abled; pretty much every protagonist in the book is clearly characterized to be somewhere "on the spectrum," as the term goes, from the high-functioning Steve "Woz" Wozniak stand-in Ogden "Og" Morrow, to the Howard Hughes shut-in Halliday, the Roxane-Gay-like overweight black lesbian puzzle-solver "Aech," and our hero Wade Watts who is described like a teen version of Cline himself. It's refreshing to see a group like this, usually relegated to "comic foil" roles if included in contemporary books at all, actually turn out to be the saviors of the universe here; and it's a testament to its fans that this book has grown into the kind of phenomenon it has while still presenting only autistic heroes, yet another sign in the 2010s of the turning tide in the way we think about what constitutes "appropriately mainstream" artistic projects (but for more, see Wonder Woman, Get Out, the female remake of Ghostbusters, etc).

So all in all, a mixed bag; a book I nominally liked, but not nearly as much as most others, that drove me crazy during giant chunks of the page count, but that I ultimately found just too charming and clever to dismiss altogether. Certainly I can see why there's been so many bitter criticisms of Cline's second novel, the similarly themed Armada -- this book is very clearly a case of Cline accidentally catching lightning in a bottle, randomly at the exact right moment in history to do so, and we all know how difficult it is to catch lightning like that twice -- but it's enough, I think, for an obscure indie writer to have one giant massive hit like this in their career, even if they never have another one again (which I suspect will be the case with Cline). It comes recommended with reservations today, a book whose enjoyment is directly tied to how much you keep your expectations low going into it. show less

Ready Player One is straight up a tribute to all things 80s. If there were one book that a gamer should read it would have to be this one! Not only would gamers love it but any child of the 80s because there are so many movies, games and music references strung throughout the entire book that it was like one big ride of nostalgia for me. I remember fondly every science fiction and fantasy movie or game I played as a child and to have them mentioned in the book and frankly pretty much turned into a guide of all things awesome just blew my mind away.

If you couldn't guess already I thought Ready Player One was fantastic! Beyond fantastic really because not only is this a great book for teens (the main characters being teenagers) but this show more is an excellent book for adults - especially those adults like me that are still big kids at heart. That's right I'm looking at you folks who still like to RPG, Game, Cosplay and do anything at all SFF related. This book was written for us! It didn't just speak to me as a fan and lover of all things SFF this spoke to my soul. Am I getting sappy there? - Yes, I can't help it, I'm a big geek and I love what I love. Each one of those teens I could see reflected back at me anytime I talk to one of my genre loving friends.

I know this might have been hyped up all over the place, even while reading it, my friends who had already read it were all 'Oh I loved that," "Oh I couldn't put it down"...yadda yadda yadda. So it was really hyped up and I admit I was very hesitant to read it because I have been let down in the past by hyped up books and I was scared to be let down again. So I let it flounder on my shelf for 2 years! Don't let that be you LOL because man, this is already one I'll be reading again asap. I'll give you a moment to go click the buy button...done? Ok good.

So maybe you don't want to listen to the hype? Good don't! Don't listen to the hype, don't anticipate anything - just go along for the ride and enjoy. Approach and handle with caution because your head might explode in radtastic proportions...ok there I go hyping it up again.

All I have to say is this is more than just a coming of age story. While I think Ready Player One is reaching out to a specific generation, I also think it really could be for everyone. It is simply that entertaining. The comedy, the action, the pain, and pangs of love, there is so much to enjoy. I don't even want to go into the contents of the book one iota because the description tells you everything you need to know to reel you in - and I guarantee within the first chapter Ernest Cline will have you hook, line and sinker. You don't stand a chance. show less

Okay, you ever make up a secret handshake with your best friend in like sixth grade that took hours to get right? And then when you finally did it, you were like shit yeah, we are the coolest dudes in town right now!? This is the book of that secret handshake.

It's about this kid who lives mostly in a virtual reality game in the future, and there's this contest that gives him the ability to be a hero just for knowing a bunch of weird shit about 80s video games, and then giant robots and...well, shall we play a game?

As geek lit goes, which apparently that's a thing now? - See also The Magicians, which looks very mean indeed in this company - Oscar Wao is better literature. But it's not better fun.

They're an interesting comparison, in show more fact. Junot Diaz is purposefully, and effectively, exclusive: if you don't get his references to Lord of the Rings or obscure Marvel villains or...Spanish, you just don't get them. Cline, in contrast, is absolutely ingratiating. If you don't understand a reference, he'll go out of his way to try to include you. "Oh, you don't know who Leopardon is? Well..." I mean, you still didn't get the joke - but Cline wants you to have fun at his party, and Diaz is wondering why you came.

Which all sounds like I'm doing that thing where I'm calling Diaz better because I know I ought to but secretly I like Cline better, and I...don't think I'm doing that? Diaz is saying important, true things about people. Cline is mostly just saying, "Wanna see some shit that's awesome?" I'm psyched that I don't have to choose, I guess.

Ready Player One isn't devoid of meaning, but it's young adult meaning. He has some sweet things to say about relationships in the Catfish age, where everyone can be the person they feel they are inside, in a world free of the shabby, glitchy genes they came imprisoned in. Since we're already there, this is germane even without the virtual reality world the book is largely set in. But it's not exactly brain-bending stuff. Solid, lovely, basic. (Lol, BASIC.)

I liked that the protagonist has agency here. Wade's a clever, motivated kid; he doesn't fall into the Harry Potter trap of spending most of his time blundering about and getting saved by Dumbledore. (This blundering-about trope goes back to at least The Hobbit, and probably much further, but Harry Potter did it so clumsily and insistently that it kinda ruined what used to be a perfectly good idea.) Other characters get moments to shine, but this is Wade's story and he never stops directing it, and that was refreshing for me.

I actually got more of the references in Oscar Wao than in this. Moon Patrol was my game, man. But when Leopardon, whoever the hell that is, touches down...I had a good time. High five for this book. And then behind the back, and then turn around and foot five like Kid N Play, and then...shit, I fucked it up. show less

2020 Reread:
I haven't read in months. Something about the pandemic and the constant stress of life in this house has made me only want to play match-3 games. And that's fine. But I ordered a copy of this a few months ago in preparation for the sequel and finally cracked it open a few days ago. Again, I had to stay in bed to finish the last third because it's just so damn good. I love this book.

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Loved it. Loved every minute of it. I am so in awe of people who can create entire worlds, and I have no idea how Ernest Cline managed to create such an incredible universe. I couldn't wait to see what happened, so I ended up snuggled in bed this morning, reading the last third as fast as I could. I really hope they don't make show more this into a movie. It would just be so...lacking compared to the text. show less

Like other reviewers here I found this to be an incredibly compulsive read. After page 60 or so I really couldn't put it down. As addicting, one might say, as the OASIS world Cline writes about.

What I found so fascinating were the author's descriptions of various games from my childhood. I've never read anyone who could describe the experience of playing these games with the same thrill that comes from actually playing them. Interactions with virtual worlds, video games, and various discourses between human players and online environments are where Cline shines as an author. Ironically, he's not so good at writing about human relationships.

Ready Player One gives the same satisfaction as a really well made summer blockbuster film. Think show more beyond that and you start to uncover an incredibly pessimistic worldview as well as an author who takes for granted characters who have simply given up on human touch.

That said, I completely recommend this book to anyone looking for a great read. It has been a long time since I haven't been able to put a book down (and had to mourn a little, finishing it). show less