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Review: Ready Player One
Mar. 18th, 2018 09:32 pmI really liked this book!
In a dystopian future, a high school student finds the first key in worldwide contest from the will of a guy who co-created a giant online interactive environment, and this is the student's version of what happened next. I like him, and I love his best friend, his crush, the company's living co-founder, and the online persona of the dead co-founder (not the real-life dead co-founder though--he had no social skills). There were many read-aloud bits. And many spots that made me laugh, cry, and/or cheer.
It starts off super depressing, like "Idiocracy," only worse because it's closer to our time and not a comedy. And the super-horrible bad guys are too much like many of today's horrible bad guys (unethical businessmen). But then we get sucked into the online world. A USA Today reviewer calls it "Willy Wonka meets The Matrix," and I get that, but it reminds me more of Jumper with all the student's strategizing to deal with the new situation.
The guy with the will loved video games, music, and movies from the 1980s, and anyone who wanted to win would need to learn about those things, too. It's true that I was around and cognizant during the 80s (I was age 17-27), so I definitely got some references that younger people might not get. But I didn't play video games and I mostly listened to music from the 1960s, so I really was not at an advantage in figuring out the mysteries. They explained plenty of things well enough for you to follow what was going on regardless.
One negative review: "What if the entire world revolved around me and the specific video games and movies I like? ... Ready Player One goes so far beyond a reasonable reference-to-plot ratio that it often feels more like binge-reading 1980s-related Wikipedia articles than reading a novel."
Yes, sometimes. It's way better in this regard than Moby Dick, though. (But then, what isn't?) Except I suppose whaling is more interesting than 80's trivia.
I suppose a movie could get around this difficulty. But I have low expectations for the movie. At best, I will like it as much as "Hunger Games," which was well done but left out a bunch of my favorite things. I already know that one of my favorite parts (the secret identity of one of the characters) is being ruined (by not being secret). I'll probably still watch the movie eventually.
Normally I recommend watching a movie before reading the book because the book is generally better and has more details. So you enjoy the movie because you don't know what you're missing and then you enjoy the book because you get to have more. But in this case, I think I recommend reading the book before getting spoilers from the movie. Finding out things as they happen and trying to figure out some of the puzzles is part of the fun.
In a dystopian future, a high school student finds the first key in worldwide contest from the will of a guy who co-created a giant online interactive environment, and this is the student's version of what happened next. I like him, and I love his best friend, his crush, the company's living co-founder, and the online persona of the dead co-founder (not the real-life dead co-founder though--he had no social skills). There were many read-aloud bits. And many spots that made me laugh, cry, and/or cheer.
It starts off super depressing, like "Idiocracy," only worse because it's closer to our time and not a comedy. And the super-horrible bad guys are too much like many of today's horrible bad guys (unethical businessmen). But then we get sucked into the online world. A USA Today reviewer calls it "Willy Wonka meets The Matrix," and I get that, but it reminds me more of Jumper with all the student's strategizing to deal with the new situation.
The guy with the will loved video games, music, and movies from the 1980s, and anyone who wanted to win would need to learn about those things, too. It's true that I was around and cognizant during the 80s (I was age 17-27), so I definitely got some references that younger people might not get. But I didn't play video games and I mostly listened to music from the 1960s, so I really was not at an advantage in figuring out the mysteries. They explained plenty of things well enough for you to follow what was going on regardless.
One negative review: "What if the entire world revolved around me and the specific video games and movies I like? ... Ready Player One goes so far beyond a reasonable reference-to-plot ratio that it often feels more like binge-reading 1980s-related Wikipedia articles than reading a novel."
Yes, sometimes. It's way better in this regard than Moby Dick, though. (But then, what isn't?) Except I suppose whaling is more interesting than 80's trivia.
I suppose a movie could get around this difficulty. But I have low expectations for the movie. At best, I will like it as much as "Hunger Games," which was well done but left out a bunch of my favorite things. I already know that one of my favorite parts (the secret identity of one of the characters) is being ruined (by not being secret). I'll probably still watch the movie eventually.
Normally I recommend watching a movie before reading the book because the book is generally better and has more details. So you enjoy the movie because you don't know what you're missing and then you enjoy the book because you get to have more. But in this case, I think I recommend reading the book before getting spoilers from the movie. Finding out things as they happen and trying to figure out some of the puzzles is part of the fun.