Book Reviews and Bookish Photos #1: Ready Player One
A spoiler free 3.5-star review of READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline!
"Jim always wanted everyone to share his obsessions, to love the same things he loved. I think this contest is his way of giving the entire world the incentive to do just that."
Exchange Jim for Ernest Cline and contest for book and you've got yourself a biographic assertion from the author himself. This is pretty obvious even when considering Ernest Cline's author photo is him leaning against a DeLorean wearing a pair of Chucks.
Ready Player One is a love letter from a geek, to all geeks everywhere.
That's not to say I didn't like it. My own profile picture on Instagram right now is me, dressed as Princess Leia on Hoth, leaning over R2-D2. So this book spoke to me.
Does it speak to everyone? Probably not.
Ah, Fan Expo memories.
Ready Player One is set in 2045. Everything IRL is pretty hellish, but dontchu worry because the people (and there is a lot of them) have a virtual reality called Oasis to help them deal. Halliday, the Oasis creator, dies. The world goes nuts when they find out he is going to give his fortune along with Genie-Jafar (sans lamp) power to whoever can complete his series of clues, quests and games. Wade figures the first clue out, but he isn't alone. Enter a romantic interest (Art3mis), a rag tag group of besties (Aech and crew), and a bunch of bad guys (The Sixers) that make things interesting.
I especially appreciated the world building of Ready Player One. I had a very clear image of the world outside Oasis, and the world(s) inside Oasis. This comes from Cline's combination of descriptive language and pop culture references. While Wade was running around the "real" world, I was all like "okay, it's like Mad Max meets Trailer Park Boys", and then when I was reading about Oasis I was banking on every nerdy movie, book and video game I've ever seen/read/played.
I should disclose, I do love the 80's. During the Wade and Art3mis texting session I got all excited when they began saying things like "Answer the question, Claire" because who doesn't love a good Breakfast Club quote? Every time I recognized a reference I gave myself a little pat on the back, which I think proves that whole sharing of obsessions premise of the book.
My brother and I do this all the time, we have full conversations using movie quotes, and if someone recognizes the reference they get to be in our little nerd club. Luckily @somebuttstuff was able to recognize a quote on our second date, so he has been accepted into the fold.
I think part of the problem with Ready Player One being such a reference packed book is that sometimes I lost interest in the bits of pop culture I didn't know. For some unknown sources, I would rush to imdb or wikipedia and conduct some research, but others I would just let slide by. By the third gate (questy-bit) I wasn't as invested. It was a little like a party trick that had lost its novelty; an overplayed song. Probably kind of like how my brother's wife feels when Corey and I really get going with the movie quotes.
I also didn't love Art3mis. I really liked her in the beginning, but then she felt one dimensional to me. Maybe if I got her perspective throughout the whole book I would appreciate her turn to snarkiness, but I just found her to be a bit annoying by the end. I get that she was protecting herself, and was probably torn between the whole saving the world or being in love thing but sometimes I just found her unnecessary. Is that a bad thing to say as a female? I don't know. Probably.
I did love the whole Aech reveal though.
Overall, this was a fun read, and I hope that the movie is done well. I'm always a little grumpy when characters are depicted differently in the film (a la Colonel Graff in Ender's Game--even though I heart Harrison Ford) but the visuals for the movie look pretty dang cool. Check out the trailer here.
*This is my first posting of a book review on steemit! I would love to know if it's something that people would like to see more of. Give me feedback, teachers love feedback! I've got lots of thoughts on books floating around, what with my addiction to posting pictures of books on instagram.
I would also love to know if you game. What's your favourite platform? Games? Thanks!
Happy Wednesday!
I have yet to finish the new Tomb Raider. I think I'm only 20%, actually. I blame life, getting in the way.
Kimberley! You are Steemin' so well! I love your posts.
(Apologies for the lack of upvote... I'm doing the very painful march back to 100% from 17% - don't go too hard too fast kids).
I loved Ready Player One, it totally took me by surprise and I'm honestly super surprised Ernest Cline hasn't written more..
I'm usually pretty good at guessing where a story is going, but that reveal was so good and completely caught me off guard. I need to settle down about the movie because I get all angsty about these things and just need to accept that you can't tell the same story in movie format. It does look stunning though. I really enjoyed the pop culture references too, books so often have a timeless feel so it was actually really exciting to have something that was clearly crafted here and now.
I've got a PS4 that I fire up occasionally. I'm halfiway through Horizon Zero Dawn which I'm loving and Overwatch if I've only got a short time.
I assume you've seen the trailer for Tomb Raider. It gives me chills, I'm so excited.
Ahhhh! Thank you so much. Your comment made writing this whole post worthwhile! I'm still stumbling around to see what kind of posts the people of steemit are interested in.
Don't worry about the upvote! I'm struggling with bandwidth right now. Steemit thinks I'm spamming the world, or something. I need to sit down with @mstafford and gang to understand how to use blocktrades etc. I feel like I'm Marty McFly and my hover board isn't working over water or something. I need more power!
Oh man, Horizon Zero Dawn is on my to be played list, at probably the very top. They had me at robot dinosaurs and a female protagonist.
I understand the movie angst!
Tomb Raider looks amazing. I'm always looking for action movies to watch with my Dad so maybe I'll take him out for a little daughter date.
Thanks so much for reading my stuff! Like I said, it really means a lot.
People have been telling me about this book, as well as Snow Crash for the better part of 2 or 3 years now -- essentially, since I got interested in VR. I wish I had more time to sit down and sink into reading a book, but I can't seem to motivate myself to do it. Maybe I can find some time, but my jam is usually non-fiction -- because I hate fun.
On a VR related note -- I should set up the VR headset that I picked up a little while back, and get you to do some high-speed drunk driving the next time you swing by (and once my computer is done doing its thing with some crypto mining....). It's usually fun for a couple minutes, and a bit of a laugh.
NON-FICTION CAN BE FUN! Poor non-fiction.
I haven't heard of Snow Crash but I will head on over to GoodReads and check-er out.
A VR night sounds amazing. Question: is it drunk driving in the game or is it just driving and we get drunk before we play?
No it's real life drinking, virtual driving. We must drink the beer then put on the headset!! It'll be fun! I find the driving game to be very dizzying for my poor little brain/tummy/inner ear. It's cool though!
I may throw up but it will probably bond us all closer. :P
I just finished this last night! So good!!!
Amazing! What's up next? I typically try to read something completely different from my previous book.
I'm trying to forgive that out! My last great read was Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult - sooooo good! Any recommendations?
Hmmm it really depends on what genres you like!
I went through a HUGE Jodi Picoult phase. I'm not sure if I've read that one though. I liked the one about the teacher..... Salem Falls! :)
This book was great to read when my heel was broke, and it was a fun and engaging story, but there was a lot of cringey moments that made me think less of Cline as a writer. But I'm a snooty English major so take it with a grain of salt.
The snootiest!
You can silence your snooty English major, you know... But I only have an English minor so maybe I have an easier time ;)
I believe we agree with each other on the book though, I just think I'm an easier marker than you (your poor future students). A 3.5 read is a "I liked it, but there were inherent problems" for me.
<3
Hi! I'm new to Steemit and I was so happy to find this! I listened to the Audiobook of Ready Player One read by Will Wheaton and I really enjoyed it...I did catch all the pop culture references but it was still an awesome book. I'm wanting to post book reviews too...I'm still new to reviewing but yeah...I love reading and taking bookish photos :)
So awesome! Sorry I missed this comment, I haven't been on steemit very often these days! I'll give you a follow!
No problem...Steemit is still new to me, trying to stay on top of it is hard work 😅