Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
The hype is real. Ready Player One has been talked about and praised by people I know for months now, and with the movie coming out, this seems like a good time to read through it and see what all the fuss is about. But did I like it? Well… I think so?
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline takes place in the not so distant future where the world has fallen into shambles and the majority of people live their life online in a virtual reality simulation. The story follows our hero, Wade aka “Parzival.” Pretty typical stuff here, he’s poor, lives with his aunt who doesn’t like him, and excels at video games. We first find him in “the stacks” (a pile of old rv’s and trailers) in which he has created a secret hideout where he can plug into the OASIS.
The OASIS is an online virtual reality simulation that once started as a game, and has since morphed into a way of life. You can create your own avatar as anything you’d like. School is held online in a virtual classroom. You can go on missions and earn items and travel to other planets and interact with other avatars, too. Basically, anything you want. Sounds ok. The creator of the OASIS has made a fortune off of his invention. Having passed away, he left the entirety of his wealth to whomever can find the easter egg he hid somewhere in the game. And so, our story begins.
Ready Player One is a buffet of everything 80s. Music, movies, games, pop culture, you name it. In the story, the creator of the OASIS was a huge fan, so everyone competing for the prize is constantly studying up on the time period. Parzival is nothing short of a savant with this stuff. We get a (not so subtle) pagely reminder that he knows everything there is to know about everything. I’ll be frank – it felt contrived. I love the 80s, don’t get me wrong. That stuff is my jam, but 25% of the way through the book (and I know this because I read on a Kindle), I had only read about two things: the OASIS and the 80s. One of those I’m rather familiar with already.
It felt like I was reading about the author’s hobby and not a story. Almost as if he had an agenda and the best way to tell it was wrapped in a thinly veiled adventure with all of the major plot points conveniently leading up to a conclusion that best gets his point across. Ready Player One, up until this point, felt like Cline said to himself, “You know what? I love the 80s. I should write a book.” And then proceeded to word vomit all of his favorite stuff onto the page. He wouldn’t be the first author to fall into this trap. Later in his literary life, I felt Crichton got this way too.
Once we finally get past that, the story starts to unfold. Parzival finds the first clue and instantly becomes famous, having been the first person to do so. This leads to plenty of money from sponsorship deals, which he’s never had, and recognition wherever he goes (online). Our hero is met with opposition from both his friends and corporations, though. It’s not going to be a walk in the park. This is where I started to get drawn into the story. The character was starting to develop a little and the relationships around him were starting to form. But then it got so cringey I almost stopped reading.
There is a part in the book, and I’ll try not to spoil anything here, where Parzival is chatting with his new crush, Art3mis (one of the other avatars hunting for the treasure). No big deal at first. Typical high school kinda stuff. But holy shit does it get bad. He starts using the trusty *looks down at toes* trick and I almost got whiplash wincing so hard. Not just once, but multiple times. I honestly do not know if this is the author’s way of showing us how socially inept the character is, or if he genuinely thought this would add to the story. I really really really want to believe it’s the first one, but I have trouble with that given the multiple (actually speaking to one another) instances in the story where Parzival has a normal social interaction. Oh man, it was so bad…
Further along in the story, we find more clues. Each one leading to the next, until the ultimate conclusion and the grand prize. It’s very linear, and while that may not be the most interesting story to read, it makes sense and is easy to follow along. As I was following Parzival, I kept thinking back to things I had read previously in the book hoping that maybe there was some foreshadowing for the clue that he was trying to solve. Nope. Don’t even worry about it. Every solution to every clue was something in the OASIS that you’ve never heard of before. Some planet or building or feature that the author never hinted at, described, or referenced anywhere else in the novel until the hero is headed there to solve the puzzle. There was never that “aha!” moment as the reader where you think, “I should have seen that coming!” Given that a quarter of the book was explaining to the reader everything there is to know about everything, I was very disappointed. I wanted to go with Parzival on this journey. I wanted to feel like the Russ to his Danny, not watch him from a distance. Opportunity missed.
So things are coming down to the wire here and the bad guys are setting up for their final stand. They so badly want the grand prize, they are willing to kill for it with no regard. Parzival finds himself stuck. They are between him and the final test. The absolute, hands down, best part of this book is when Parzival (Wade) gets out of the OASIS and launches a full blown covert mission. I truly enjoyed this part. The mystery and intrigue that I had been waiting for all along finally showed up and allowed this part of the book to really shine. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but his actions take a some guts that we haven’t seen before out of our hero. We finally get to see Parzival become the kind of person outside of the OASIS that he is on the inside.
The ending is… ok. It was cute. Nothing surprising, but I felt satisfied with what happened. Overall, Ready Player One left off about where I expected it to, and for this kind of story, I think that’s fine.
Did I like it, though? I’m really not sure. I didn’t fall into it like many of my peers, but I enjoyed my time while I was reading through the pages. I think if it was any longer, I may not have felt that way. Cline developed an interesting world and I definitely appreciate the imagination it took to come up with small little intricacies that made it seem functional. Some of the writing, as I’ve mentioned previously, hurt to read, but other parts were really exceptional. If you’re into video games, technology, science fiction, or the 80s, it’s worth picking up. Just don’t expect Ready Player One to be as life changing as something like Ender’s Game.
★★★☆☆
