Ready Player One — Book Review
For nerds, by a nerd…
My experience
Back in January, I read Ready Player One. It had been quite a while since I read a fictional book, and it was definitely my first science fiction. That’s pretty bad considering Sci-fi is my favorite genre when it comes to movies.
Ready Player One was on my wish list. I got to know about it after Casey Neistat recommended it on his Book Club video, and when I realized that Spielberg making a movie based on it, I knew I had to read it.
I usually read an hour a day, or at least I try to. But this book had me hooked! I was reading for four hours, for the three days that it took me to finish the book.
About the book
RP1 is about Wade Watts, a guy in his late teens, who lives in a world which is not a great place to live in. It’s on the verge of collapse due to war, global warming, poverty, etc. The people meanwhile, spend time in a virtual reality. Created by James Halliday, OASIS is a VR world where you can do absolutely anything. Climb mountains, explore locations, play games, and if you wish, go to the gym. Yes, gym, in VR. Halliday then passes away, and that kicks of a game, to find an easter egg. The winner of the game, will inherit everything Halliday owned, from money to the ownership of the company. The story goes on about how Wade, and his group of friends fight the evil corporation IOI from winning the game, and acquiring all of Halliday’s assets.
The book is full of references from geek culture. Games, gaming consoles, books, movies, TV series, music, you name it. It’s these references that make the book great. For example, the protagonist ends every email with MTFBWYA, i.e. May the force be with you always/all, a Star Wars reference. He drives a Delorean, from Back to the Future, has a X-Wing, again, from Star Wars, and the list goes on.
Ernest Cline does a brilliant job in bringing out your inner nerd and celebrate geek culture. The beauty of fiction is that you can create your own version of the world that’s been described, based on how you perceive it. Cline accurately describes each element very well, making it a really enjoyable read.
Ignoring the reality, literally
RP1 takes place in a world on the brink of collapse. The people, instead of dealing with them, decide to lose themselves in a virtual reality. One might call it the drug of the future, where you wear a suit and VR headset, that make you feel every moment in the game, in real life, and forget about your real life problems.
It’s sad. But the author has given it such little importance, and glorified everything in the OASIS so well, that you, like rest of the people in game, forget about what’s happening in the world. You get lost in all the references, the future of VR technology, and tech in general.
Should you read it?
I realized why people are so crazy about novels, and fiction as a whole. Being a geek/nerd myself I was in my own version of the OASIS(the virtual world, in the book). Reading the book while listening to music became like this new escape. I just got lost in it, the references, or easter eggs. It’s too good! I’ll be honest, I probably got only 10% of all the references, because I’m not a 80s kid from the States. But even getting the 10% references made me really happy and excited.
It’s the best sci-fi book I’ve ever read. And I mean it. Since then I’ve read 4 other sci-fi, and none have made me feel so excited and happy, while reading a book (Dark Matter, may be an exception). If you’re a nerd/geek, if your into gaming, if you’re into anime, or science fiction, you must read it. It’s literally all of 80s nerd culture, packed into a book (or at least most of it).
Rating (out of 5) : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I’ll be comparing the book to the movie soon, in a post dedicated to compare book-to-movie and book-to-TV adaptations. Stay tuned…
Thanks for reading :D
