REVIEW: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline




Monday, April 20, 2015



My rating: 



In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.  

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.





FACEBOOK CONVERSATION WITH BOYFIE AFTER FINISHING THE BOOK

P: I thought it would be better. No seriously, I was looking forward to putting it down a few chapters before the end because I already knew exactly how the book would end. I could have reproduced the last few chapters verbatim.

Me: I a
gree actually. I thought this book was super over-hyped up. The virtual reality concept of it was pretty genius though. I loved the world building and all that. Aside from the predictable plot, I also didn't like Wade at all.

P: READY PLAYER ONE

- a nice premise
- no innovation, same story
- cliche
- references, references, references
- no way he got Perzival
- interesting situations, no substance
- generic main character
- fun semi-dystopia
- xps?
- well paced
- does not abide to the limitations of the internet (its supposed to be in the real world)
- someone who knows how to write but doesn't know what to write about
- company employee could easily win the contest
- warrior/mage = battle mage
- childish environmentalist message
- Columbus was a good choice

These were my notes
I hated the fucking references.

Me: Haha. Great notes. I should do that. Wait.

P: Even though I'm one of the few people who got them, I hated every single time he said something like "Akalabeth"

Me: I thought the pace was uneven though. There were fast ones but during the second task he was all googly eyes with "whatshername"

P: The end was poorly paced.


MY THOUGHTS IN MORE DETAIL

Okay. Well I was kind of thinking we'd do a more... organised review for this book, but didn't happen because we were both too busy. He did summarise his thoughts pretty well on his notes though. And mine was pretty much all over the place so here's my more details thoughts and opinion about this book.

Overhyped

This book is definitely one of the more over-hyped books. I get why people are talking about it. It showed you what the future of gaming could be and would possibly be in the future. But I guess that's about it. The plot was boring and predictable. The main character was so cliched and was sort of a douche. The ending was such a big let down.. I couldn't believe that was how he decided to end this book. WTF.

I really liked the virtual reality concept. It actually reminded me of an anime my sisters and I watch Soul Art Online which was actually originated from a manga published on 2009. I think Ready Player One came out a few years or maybe a year after this, I can't exactly be sure but... Maybe Ernest Cline got some inspiration from it or something I don't know, but it does remind me a lot of it.

I'm not saying this book was super bad. I would just like to point out that it was nothing special. I highly believe that there are better books, and in this case, a better manga version of this. The manga doesn't have any popculture references though, but if you're just looking for a good virtual reality fiction, then I recommend Soul Art Online.

Over use of references

This was one thing my boyfie and I agree with. There were too many fucking references, it was so annoying. I mean I get that you know whole lot of shit about those pop culture stuff, but sometimes he just throws them around without any purpose.Of there was purpose but no real substance. The references were all there to impress, but in my case, it didn't. It was overly done. It was like very line had a reference. Okay I was exaggerating, but there were a lot of references that were completely unnecessary but I guess was there to fill in for the lack of story.

Cliche main hero

When I say cliched hero, you'll probably already know what I meant by that. He was this poor hero who had nothing, but suddenly was given something and then went out to save the world because of how smart and unbelievably talented he was. Yep. He was that kind of hero. But there were moments where I thought he was a pompous asshole. And what even pissed me off was how he was willing to give up everything he ever worked hard for... for a freakin girl!!!!

Final Thoughts

After finally writing my review, I finally realised that I need to lower down my rating from 2 to 3 stars. I realised there wasn't really much about the book that really redeemed itself for me, especially the ending. There were a lot of good points like with the whole treasure hunt thing. I really liked that concept, but unfortunately was poorly constructed in my opinion. The entire thing was all over the place. There were nicely paced events here, then slower useless events here, then goes fast up again, and then enter a stupid lovers qualm here... I just don't get why most of the stuff are on there. I was looking forward to the puzzle solving, the team work possibly, but I didn't get most of them really because of having too much information being thrown to you all at once. THIS BOOK WAS A MASSIVE INFODUMP.

This book is going to be a movie by the way and based on what I heard, Steven Spielberg was going to direct it. Awesome isn't it? I may not have liked the book too much, but hopefully the movie cuts out the things I didn't like about this book.

Have you guys read this book? If you have, what are your thoughts about it?

4 comments:

  1. I couldn't stand all the stupid references, maybe if i was around then maybe i would like them, but i still doubt that i would!

    The pace was crazy for me too, fast in the parts i wanted slow, and wayyy too slow in the parts i wish would hurry up!

    Great review!

    brooke @ booklife4life

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you didn't love it. I thought this book is really good like.. well you know the hype. I'll read this one soon and we'll see if I will love it.:D

    Great review Sandee!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh wow! I have this one on my to-read list but I'm not sure if I'll pick it up now. Sounds like a really annoying book - I mean he gave up everything for a girl? Just like that? Ugh. Yeah never mind, I'm completely removing this from my TBR. But great review!

    ~Cari @ myaddictionbooks.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have this on my TBR, but reading your review I will leave it there for awhile or until I get to it. I was going to read it asap, but seems like this is a book I shouldn't be hyped about much. Thanks for sharing your review.

    ReplyDelete

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