happy
to one lucky person. All you need to do is beat a game. Wade Watts is a gunter, an individual dedicated to searching OASIS, a fully immersive virtual world, to find this grand prize. He spends his days combing through James Halliday’s favorite movies, TV shows, games, and music (all from the 80s) for potential hints and clues. When he stumbles upon the first key, Wade becomes the only person in years to make any headway on this race. But Wade isn’t the only one looking for clues, nor is he the fiercest competitor.As a librarian, I get more recommendations than I could possibly read. But when an acquaintance described Ready Player One as one of the best books he had ever read, I decided I needed to give it a try. Although I wouldn’t rank the novel quite that high, I have to admit that I had a lot of fun reading it. The story, where the main character must collect objects and unlock puzzle to meet his goal, is action paced and fast paced. The setting, a fully immersive virtual reality world where people not only play games and chat with friends, but attend school and spend almost all of their time, is equal parts thrilling and terrifying. Who wouldn’t want to transport themselves to a virtual world where they could experience their favorite fandom first hand? But would you be able to resist turning it off to go back to the real world when you were done?
I felt like Wade was an easy character to root for. At the beginning of the book, he is living in poverty and misery, much like the rest of the world, and finds his only escape in OASIS. I also enjoyed his two main allies, Aech and Art3mis, and the surprises that came with their characters. The villains of the piece work for a giant corporation that are also desperately looking for Hallday’s fortune. Only they want to begin billing people for using the now free OASIS, and saturate the worlds with ads. When you consider some of the large issues plaguing the Internet right now (should everything on the Internet be free? How many ads do you have to deal with to access one webpage?) this felt very current.
Admittedly, I didn’t quite enjoy as much as the acquittance I mentioned above. A lot of the fun in reading the book is picking up on all of the 80s references. As someone born in the 80s with few memories of the time frame, I couldn’t appreciate them to the fullest. Also, as much as I enjoyed the story, there were times when I felt things were a little too convenient for the main character. It could be pretty predictable too. Similarly, although I liked the cast, the characterization drew a little too deeply from sterotypes for my taste.
Regardless of my issues, I found Ready Player One to be a fun fast read that I suspect would make a fantastic movie if they ever decide to create one. I would recommend it to fans of classic video games, 80s culture, and action packed sci-fi novels.
Rating: four stars
Length: 374 pages
Source: Lewiston Public Library
Other books I've read by this author: This is my first
Next I will be reviewing Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World by Lisa Bloom
xposted to
temporaryworlds, 
bookish, and goodreads