Review of 'Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It's a fun story with a ton of '80s nostalgia. It plays on the theme of technology escapism. It gets sappy in places, but overall a fun read.
eBook, 384 pages
English language
Published March 10, 2014 by Crown Publishing Group.
It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in …
It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?
It's a fun story with a ton of '80s nostalgia. It plays on the theme of technology escapism. It gets sappy in places, but overall a fun read.
Despite the fact that I've never played a game myself I enjoyed this book immensely.
Audio book version, read by Wil Wheaton. Well read.
I freaking love this book and can't wait to read it again.
The story is engaging and entertaining and I cared about Wade and his friends. The great pop culture from the 80s just made it even better.
Comme d'autres oeuvres, ce roman est un monument à une époque : une espèce de condensé de nostalgie montrant à ceux qui se revendiquent aujourd'hui geek ce que voulait dire ce terme à l'époque des pionniers. Du coup, chaque oeuvre /produit ayant eu dans les années 80 le moindre intérêt pour l'auteur se voit citée, implicitement ou explicitement, de façon à fournir aux jeunes de notre époque un cadre d'appréciation de la culture pop des années 80. Les références ne sont évidemment pas les miennes (pas un mot de Cobra, ce qui me désole toujours)... Mais dans l'ensemble le schéma correspond bien à la mauvaise culture de ma jeunesse.
Il y a évidemment une histoire autour de ces références. Orientée jeune adulte puisque c'est actuellement le marché porteur (bien plus que la bit/chick/lit ou le mommy porn). Du coup, le héros de 17 ans est un champion des scripts kiddies …
Comme d'autres oeuvres, ce roman est un monument à une époque : une espèce de condensé de nostalgie montrant à ceux qui se revendiquent aujourd'hui geek ce que voulait dire ce terme à l'époque des pionniers. Du coup, chaque oeuvre /produit ayant eu dans les années 80 le moindre intérêt pour l'auteur se voit citée, implicitement ou explicitement, de façon à fournir aux jeunes de notre époque un cadre d'appréciation de la culture pop des années 80. Les références ne sont évidemment pas les miennes (pas un mot de Cobra, ce qui me désole toujours)... Mais dans l'ensemble le schéma correspond bien à la mauvaise culture de ma jeunesse.
Il y a évidemment une histoire autour de ces références. Orientée jeune adulte puisque c'est actuellement le marché porteur (bien plus que la bit/chick/lit ou le mommy porn). Du coup, le héros de 17 ans est un champion des scripts kiddies capable de s'introduire dans un système ultra sécurisé . Mais c'est honnêtement bien moins intéressant pour moi que ce catalogue d'une certaine forme d'élitisme culturel.
Ce qui me donne évidemment un avis des plus mitigés sur ce roman... Que je ne détaillerai finalement pas plus.
An homage to geek culture, this is a fun story of digital natives rising up against corporate control, echoing the battle over Internet freedom and the perpetuation of its organic anarchy. It's not a particularly deep narrative but it is absolutely an enjoyable one.
Great science fiction if you grew up with 80s computers and culture.
I can't imagine you like this if you didn't.
A true geek's novel.
A games developer dies and wills his entire fortune to the player who can find three keys and clear the three matching gates. All of this within the virtual reality MMORPG The Oasis.
It is a classic quest story with a huge amount of 80's geek trivia in matters as diverse as movies, music, anime and of course video games.
The book is read by Wil Wheaton, adding another layer of geek cred.
This has been on my "currently reading" list since December 2012. I've given up and restarted it on and off since then. It was such a struggle to get through. I think the problem is that it irritates the same parts of my brain as The Big Bang Theory - it's supposed to appeal to nerds like me, but it's such a shitshow that I find myself getting annoyed. In place of any character development or story, we're treated to a never-ending string of "like that thing in $nerd_reference". Right up until the last chapter. "It was a hedge maze. With the same layout as the one in Labyrinth". This is cheap, lazy writing at its worst. Dan Brown, all is forgiven.
There was one point in this novel where I was grinding my teeth. It was spelled out for the characters how to find the Jade Key to go further in their treasure hunt, and somehow I got it in an instant and those ubergeeks who knew everything about the creator of the treasure hunt and his way of thinking keep on missing it for weeks. Old run-down house and collecting trophies! How hard can it be?!
Which means most likely that I am a bit too geeky in some way. At least I can't quote WarGames from memory, but at least the Monty Python challenge later would have been able for me.
Ready Player One is about a treasure hunt in a virtual reality (OASIS) which by the point when the novel takes place has taken over all other MMORPGs and works as most peoples' workplace, school, entertainment, and what-have-you. …
There was one point in this novel where I was grinding my teeth. It was spelled out for the characters how to find the Jade Key to go further in their treasure hunt, and somehow I got it in an instant and those ubergeeks who knew everything about the creator of the treasure hunt and his way of thinking keep on missing it for weeks. Old run-down house and collecting trophies! How hard can it be?!
Which means most likely that I am a bit too geeky in some way. At least I can't quote WarGames from memory, but at least the Monty Python challenge later would have been able for me.
Ready Player One is about a treasure hunt in a virtual reality (OASIS) which by the point when the novel takes place has taken over all other MMORPGs and works as most peoples' workplace, school, entertainment, and what-have-you. There is a reason for this of course: the real world is rife with hunger and desperation, slavery has been reintroduced by way of indentures for debtors, gasoline has run out so quickly that whole streets are filled with useless cars, and trailer parks have grown into stacks of trailers all over each other. There is a good reason why the people in this world prefer the virtual reality to their own. And then the founder of OASIS dies and leaves a game as an inheritance: a treasure hunt inside OASIS, whoever manages it will gain control over the company; in end effect whoever wins will be the richest person in the world.
This leads to a subculture called the gunters who hunt for this treasure, and for a revival of 1980s pop culture (because the hints for this treasure hunt are made up of obscure pop culture references). And then nothing happens for a few years, until the main character (a kid from the stacks with a pithy 3rd level avatar called Parzival), manages to get on the high score board as its first entry.
The book reads like a well-written 1980s adventure movie, and it is easy to imagine all the different characters and places described in it by virtue of them being references to 1980s American culture. Sometimes these references are laid on a bit thick, but in most places they read just fine. The issue with the plot is that the reverence it gives to 1980s movies also extends to itself: there were barely any surprises in there, all the plot turns and twists were visible from far ahead, and it was sometimes a bit too clear when something would happen, even if I didn't know what exactly it would be. In the end the moral of the story is that not everything can be online, and that there must be a real world for people as well, which is just such a 1980s cartoon moral. Of course its fitting.
The novel might not be the classic that it has been heralded as (I gather most of the reviewers are from the same generation that is celebrated in it), but its a nice, fast science-fiction adventure.
While not the best writing in the world, I really enjoyed this book. It was like a great walk down memory lane. all the games and movies I grew up with. Even talked thru so many of the computers I owned and grew up with. what a blast!!
Meh. The book could have used another round of editing. The whole thing felt like a 16-hour-long "nerdsturbation" with one of those orgasms at the end that make you regret the efforts you put into it.
This is light, almost fluffy reading, but above all, it is incredibly fun reading. I think in order to fully appreciate this book the reader needs to meet one major condition: a) enjoy video games. If this condition is met, there are further conditions that can enhance the enjoyment: b) having grown up in the 80s and c) having played arcade video games. Also probably d) love old Japanese anime like Supaidaman and e)a sweeping love for anything related to SF and fantasy etc.
Lucky for me I grew up in the 80s and have played a couple arcade games, and I generally do enjoy me some video games. The story is set about 40 years ahead in the future, in a world with no oil left, where people are poor and flee into OASIS which is basically a virtual reality version of what we know as MMOs today. They …
This is light, almost fluffy reading, but above all, it is incredibly fun reading. I think in order to fully appreciate this book the reader needs to meet one major condition: a) enjoy video games. If this condition is met, there are further conditions that can enhance the enjoyment: b) having grown up in the 80s and c) having played arcade video games. Also probably d) love old Japanese anime like Supaidaman and e)a sweeping love for anything related to SF and fantasy etc.
Lucky for me I grew up in the 80s and have played a couple arcade games, and I generally do enjoy me some video games. The story is set about 40 years ahead in the future, in a world with no oil left, where people are poor and flee into OASIS which is basically a virtual reality version of what we know as MMOs today. They go to school there, live there lives there, and level their characters to be super-powerful. When the founder of OASIS dies, he leaves behind a riddle that leads to an Easter Egg he planted in OASIS, and whoever finds it first, will inherit all of his wealth. Around the world, the hunt for the egg begins. The protagonist of Ready Player One is Wade, an 18 year old boy who lives in a trailer park in Oklahoma. In the OASIS he is known as Parzival, and he is one of thousands of 'gunters', short for egg hunters. When he is the first one to make any progress in the egg hunt after years of the hunt being in progress, his life spirals out of control, as he has to try to stay ahead of fellow gunters, especially Art3mis, and the evil corporation IOI who is trying to take control of the OASIS and turn it into a profit business.
It's not a long book and it's compelling enough to be a very fast read. I had a fantastic, enjoyable time reading it. Interestingly enough, everytime I tweeted a Goodreads update on my reading progress, people would get back to me how much they loved this book though they usually don't read much. It's that kind of a book. For me it's mandatory nerd reading, just like Chuck is mandatory nerd watching for me. Thumbs up from this nerd!
Very geeky/nerdy book chock full of references to stuff I love. Great story, though if there's one thing I would nitpick, is that sometimes seeing so many geektastic references piled together in certain parts of the book almost seemed like the author was trying to add them for the sake of adding them, as if he were checking off a list. But OTOH, Halliday was obsessive about this stuff, so it makes sense to the story to do so. A part of me just felt ever so slightly annoyed by the sheer amount of geeky references. But it certainly wasn't a dealbreaker. Highly recommended reading for children of the 80s. :-)
As a special bonus, this audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton. I can't imagine a more perfect rendition. Completely enjoyable retro gamer candy.
I really enjoyed this book. It's basically a nostalgia fest from beginning to end, and if you were born sometime in the early 1980's or a little earlier you're going to adore it.
To be honest, if you took away the constant geek 80's references you'd have a fairly weak book. It was fun, but thinking back on it, I can't say that its left much of an impression.