From the Bookshelf of YA and Beyond…

Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)

Ernest Cline

Start date: April 1, 2013

Finish date: April 30, 2013

Discussion: MONTHLY BOOK READS

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 15 topics — 3,124 comments total

MONTHLY BOOK READS

* Monthly Book Reads 2017
By *b*l*u*e*m*o*… · 139 posts · 91 views

last updated Nov 04, 2017 07:29AM

* Monthly Book Reads 2016
By Heidi · 183 posts · 111 views

last updated Nov 15, 2016 01:30PM

showing 9 of 9 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 02, 2013 Brigid ✩ rated it really liked it

Shelves: on-my-kindle, sci-fi, adventure, young-adult, futuristic

Ready Player One was a pleasant surprise for me. I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own, and it's not the kind of thing I typically read … but fortunately, it was a book club read for one of my Goodreads groups, and because of that I picked it up and ultimately really enjoyed it.

The story is about a future society in which everyone is dependent upon a virtual reality world called the OASIS. People spend immense amounts of time in this virtual reality, using it for various purposes––from ...more

25 likes · Like · see review

Sep 26, 2011 Harold Ogle rated it really liked it

Shelves: humor, science-fantasy, pop-culture

One of my favorite comedy films is "Free Enterprise," which is about a number of guys who are dealing with the fact that they are adults and yet are emotionally still twelve-year-old boys obsessed with science fiction fandom. For someone like me, who peppers his conversation with obscure quotes from science fiction TV shows, novels, films and video games, "Free Enterprise" is both identification and validation. Ready Player One is a novel for the same crowd. Like "Free Enterprise," the plot is a One of my favorite comedy films is "Free Enterprise," which is about a number of guys who are dealing with the fact that they are adults and yet are emotionally still twelve-year-old boys obsessed with science fiction fandom. For someone like me, who peppers his conversation with obscure quotes from science fiction TV shows, novels, films and video games, "Free Enterprise" is both identification and validation. Ready Player One is a novel for the same crowd. Like "Free Enterprise," the plot is a simple contrivance to set up a breathtaking chain of pop culture references that mostly resonated with me quite strongly (I have never understood the appeal of Rush). Rather than being put off by the cavalcade of pop culture, I often found myself hoping that a favorite video game, song, TV commercial, or feature film would also have a cameo appearance in the book. For instance, I would have had a section each on Phantasie II and FTL's Dungeon Master games. But the book is still quite fun without my "obvious" choices.

The premise is rooted in the idea that our current behavior - spending our lives and our paychecks to play games and watch streaming movies online incessantly - is extrapolated into a future in which everyone spends all of their time in a virtual game world: not just the ten millions World of Warcraft players we have today, but everyone who can afford it. Then the lead designer of the game dies, leaving a will to the whole planet Earth that his entire fortune will be imparted to the first person to "finish the game" of classic video game challenges, interspersed with detailed knowledge of pop culture from the 80s and 90s. After a brief introduction, we meet our protagonist after he and everyone else on the planet have spent ten years trying to find the first challenge: ten grueling years spent learning everything they can about the 80s.

But, as I say, the plot is far less engaging than the references liberally peppered throughout the book. One of the challenges involves Dungeons of Daggorath, a game I spent many hours playing in my youth (strangely, the author makes no reference to the bizarrely unique control scheme for the game) and to which I make occasional reference even to this day. On top of that, there is a fight between kaiju mecha, quotes from "Schoolhouse Rock," sections of "Zork"...essentially, if you are not either someone who came of age in the 80s or someone who obsessively studied the 80s like one of the characters in the book, Ready Player One will entertain you but may seem overly long with all the pop culture references. For those of us who do know the 80s, the book is a comforting blanket of nostalgia. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 21, 2011 Cassi aka Snow White Haggard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, audio-books

Ready Player One takes place almost entirely within a video game. It's the type of concept that's either going to be AMAZING or fail. I just can't imagine any middle ground. The whole premise is a big gamble, but it pays off majorly. This book is awesomely unique and completely memorable.

Your initial reaction might be "Will this book appeal to non-gamers?" Personally, I don't game. But somehow I tend to enjoy gaming themed entertainment (particularly The Guild, oh how I love that show). I feel l Ready Player One takes place almost entirely within a video game. It's the type of concept that's either going to be AMAZING or fail. I just can't imagine any middle ground. The whole premise is a big gamble, but it pays off majorly. This book is awesomely unique and completely memorable.

Your initial reaction might be "Will this book appeal to non-gamers?" Personally, I don't game. But somehow I tend to enjoy gaming themed entertainment (particularly The Guild, oh how I love that show). I feel like this story will appeal to a variety of nerds. Yes, it takes place in a game, but there's a lot that'll remind you of other internet communities that you might hang around (for me I saw a lot of my YouTube experience in this book and the Gunters reminded me of olden days of puzzle solving for lonelygirl15. Most of which I just watched smarter people figure out).

It's a nerdtastic search throughout the Oasis (the video game) for an easter egg hidden by the games recently deceased creator. His entire fortune (and it's HUGE) will go to whichever player can find the egg first. The main character Wade is competing with the evil Sixers, a corporation trying to find the egg so they can take ownership of the game, Gunter clans (groups of allied egg hunters) as well as his best friends.

The book takes place is a believably dystopian future, a world where trailers are stacked for maximum real estate, only the rich can afford cards and people escape to a happier world inside the Oasis. Even though the characters spend most of their time in-game, there's actually no problem connecting or relating to them. They are real. Sometimes I feel like I've met them around the internet.

I feel like a lot of my friends liked this book more than me. Don't get me wrong I REALLY liked this book. But at times I found myself zoning out when it went into Halliday history dump mode. Yes the players needed to know a lot about Halliday's life, but at times it had a tendency to ramble on longer than I thought was necessary. As the reader, I'm not sure I need to know nearly as much information as I was given. I would mentally check out then when I checked back in normally I hadn't missed much.

I also had a little bit of trouble buying into the depths of the romantic relationship. Yes I know people flirt via the internet. I have flirting tendencies myself sometimes. But this book actually said that people had met, dated and got married in the Oasis without ever meeting. That I had trouble believing. I can't imagine many men going into a marriage without you know...previous physical contact. That of course wasn't our two main characters because they are teenagers, but that line hung in the back of my mind as I watch their relationship progressed and planted a seed of doubt.

Yes I know I sound picky. But here's the thing about really good books--they give you room to be picky. Saying "This book had 2 flaws that stuck out to me" tells you how good the rest of this book was. The hunt for the egg really captivated me, which is why I wanted to get past some of the long drawn out history sections. There was a fortune up for grabs and the main character is making moon eyes at someone's avatar, giving us history lessons and THERES A FORTUNE UP FOR GRABS.

This book has everything you want. An evil corporation out to ruin the game (wait, didn't that just happen on The Guild too?), life and death stakes in the real world as well as the game, first love, 80s nostalgia and the internet. I listened to the audiobook and Wil Wheaton was AMAZING as the narrator. This led to more than one LOL moment (especially when Wil Wheaton playing Wade had to mention Wil Wheaton the old geezer) and gave this book even more nerd street cred.

For the peoples of the internets, people who like video games and people who like unique Sci-fi this book is highly recommended. For everyone else, you should give it a try too. It's something different and thats really rare.

A lot of my friends do musical pairings. I don't. BUT I had "Do You Want to Date My Avatar" running through my head way too much during this book not to post a link to the video. And since I reference The Guild numerous time's & Wil Wheaton is in parts of The Guild it's fitting anyways.
http://youtu.be/urNyg1ftMIU
...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2012 Jen Halligan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, audiobook

Originally posted on A Book and a Latte:

READY PLAYER ONE absolutely blew me away, and took me by complete surprise. I was pretty sure that I would like it, but I wasn’t expecting to LOVE it so much. It’s easily one of my favorite reads/listens of 2012, and is now on my favorites bookshelf. This book is full of fantastic nerdy-ness, and Cline’s world building is incredible! If you’re a fan of late 20th century pop culture, then this is THE book for you. I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic while li Originally posted on A Book and a Latte:

READY PLAYER ONE absolutely blew me away, and took me by complete surprise. I was pretty sure that I would like it, but I wasn’t expecting to LOVE it so much. It’s easily one of my favorite reads/listens of 2012, and is now on my favorites bookshelf. This book is full of fantastic nerdy-ness, and Cline’s world building is incredible! If you’re a fan of late 20th century pop culture, then this is THE book for you. I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic while listening to this audiobook, and loved every minute of it!

READY PLAYER ONE takes place in a dystopian future where essentially human kind has sucked the planet dry of natural resources. Their escape is the OASIS, a virtual world where as avatars they can work, play, go to school, socialize, and hunt for the “egg” in the game to win Halliday’s fortune – all while being completely anonymous.

It wasn’t much of a jump for me to think that our society could end up plugged into a virtual world in the not-so-distant future. I liked how there was emphasis on facing the world, meeting people in real life, and focusing on what is real. I love how Wade’s character started off as being completely isolated, then established true friendships, and even fell in love along his quest.

Whil Wheaton as the narrator was fantastic! I don’t think there could have been a more perfect narrator chosen for this book! I was a little surprised that Books on Tape didn’t use sound bytes for classic noises (Pac-Man, game over, etc.) but Wheaton did a pretty good job at making the sounds himself. It was probably safer to not include the actual sound, as it may have sounded cheesy or over the top.

READY PLAYER ONE is most definitely an adult/YA crossover title; though I’m not sure teens will be able to appreciate all the references. If you’re a fan of the 80s, dig pop culture from the mid-70s to present day, and enjoy a good quest, I think you’ll LOVE this book! I highly recommend READY PLAYER ONE, in print, and most definitely the audio version!
...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2017 Renuka rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, young-adult, science-fiction, adventure, romance, action, thriller, suspense, 2017-favorites, stand-alone

I cannot believe I waited so long to read this. I thought I was bored of all the dystopia novels out there, but this was incredible.

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 29, 2011 Heidi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-you-must-must-listen-to, get-it-read-it-love-it, ya-that-rocks

Ok. Now this is some YA sci fi action I can wrap my head around. After my like, but not love, run in with the most beloved Ender's Game I was starting to think my love for sci fi was merely in visual form and did not not translate to print; however, this book (even though I listened to the audio) proved this theory wrong. I enjoyed almost every minute of it. To be fair to Ender the majority of this book is a tribute to the beloved 80's, for which I actually lived through and am old enough to rem ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 07, 2015 Brittany (finally graduated and can once again read for fun) rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-my-first-love, 2015

There was so much hyper surrounding this book that I just had to read it. I can see the appeal of this book, especially for those who grew up in the 80's. I however am not that person, and while I can enjoy Monty Python and Indiana Jones references with the best of them, I was born in the 80s, which means I really don't remember them. I'm also not a gamer. And while I enjoyed the scifi in this book, and I enjoyed the journey and even the message at the end, I really don't know that it was worthy ...more

Like · see review

Nov 17, 2017 birar rose rated it it was amazing

oh my god I want this online world like in the book to real it would be so cool. I love this book and now understand why so many other people love it. I'm so happy read/listen too. if you want a good gamer love story give this book a read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 31, 2012 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, dystopia, sci-fi, 2013, fiction, awesome-books

If you are any of the following, read this book:

*A geek
*A nerd
*An 80's nostalgia buff
*A human being

I promise you will not be disappointed.

Ready Player One? (ah, ah, see what I did there? Now go read it.I'll wait) ...more

Like · see review

Apr 17, 2018 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian

Wil Wheaton did an awesome job reading this book. Lots of technical terms and 80s references, but the premise is interesting and the plot is engaging. Reminds me of Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

Like · see review