Ernest Cline
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Rating: 5
Absolute Epic Nerdyness!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live your favorite video game? Have you ever longed to explore worlds you have dedicated endless hours of button mashing, leveling up, and questing to? Maybe your not a gamer but you would still love to adventure through Middle Earth with noble rangers, stout and sturdy dwarves, and powerful wizards? Or soar through a galaxy far, far away in your X-Wing? If you have ever had a dream like this, if you have ever been called a nerd, if you have ever screamed over a cliffhanger, waited in line at a midnight release, or debated over whether Han actually shot first... Well, then this book is for you.
Many readers have been labeling this as young adult, however I tend to disagree. Although more mature teens would be just fine reading this, it does contain sexual references and have a section discussing the benefits of masturbation by the nerdy masses. This book is a bit light on the dystopia. Sure the world is in trouble, but the focus of the story is life inside the OASIS. A virtual reality based MMO where as long as you've got the dough, you can literally be whoever/whatever you want to be and go wherever you want to go. Are you a Twi'lek goddess trapped inside of a 300 lb man's body? No problem! In the OASIS you can embrace your groovy, tentacle headed, bikini clad side.
This is usually the part of the review where I go into the quality of the plot and characters, but honestly it's not necessary. I loved all the characters involved, and believed in the author's portrayal of the rag-tag group of gamers that make up the High-Five. I also had a ton of fun trying to figure out the riddles and following Wade through all the gates in his search for Halliday's Easter Egg. All I can say is, I hope Cline keeps writing books, because I will keep reading them. If you know me, you know I am pretty picky on what books I buy in hardcover. Books are so expensive these days and I am hesitant to pay $20 for a book that I may not like. I can honestly say that it was completely worth it in this case. Ready Player One sits proudly on my shelf shinning like the epic lightsabre of a book it is.
Can you tell I love Star Wars? Don't worry, this book isn't as Star Wars oriented as this review.
So...go read it...like now
1 comment:
I love this book, one of my fav reads in 2011 :) I actually read it from galley, but I'm planning to buy it! And, yeah, I'm with you, I don't think that this one is YA, it just didn't have that feeling, but I think anyone would love it. And although I knew I was a little bit of a geek - I didn't realise how much until I read this book :D
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