Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) in Niners (io9)

May 20, 2015 Benjamin added it

Shelves: bedside-reading, economic-sf

I really want to put this on my 'yaish' bookshelf because so much of this book fits:

-dystopia, world falling apart
-focus on the love affair, with its tragic middle part where they get ripped apart
-teenage protagonist who has some real special skills

On the other hand, I also can't imagine anyone under 30 reading this book because almost every other sentence is a reference to something from the 80s. Is there such a category as YA-nostalgia--ya-like books for people who are primarily interested in I really want to put this on my 'yaish' bookshelf because so much of this book fits:

-dystopia, world falling apart
-focus on the love affair, with its tragic middle part where they get ripped apart
-teenage protagonist who has some real special skills

On the other hand, I also can't imagine anyone under 30 reading this book because almost every other sentence is a reference to something from the 80s. Is there such a category as YA-nostalgia--ya-like books for people who are primarily interested in their own experience of being young?

Which is maybe why this book gives me the heebie-jeebies a bit.

Let's back up:

Two guys invent this amazing computer simulation called the OASIS. One is a nerd, the other is outgoing (and a nerd). It's either Gygax and Arneson or Jobs and Wozniak. The world falls apart; and more people start spending all their days online. (Is being online cause for the dystopia or vice versa or a little bit of both?) One guy dedicates himself to helping the world, the other plans an elaborate Easter egg hunt with a distinct 80s nerd theme, the winner of which will inherit all his riches and his control of the OASIS.

Enter some poor nerd who is obsessed with the Easter egg hunt and knows all this trivia about the 80s. Cue quest, complete with unlikely band of friends and horrible dark lord (here played by a corporation that is very evil, not at all like the other corporations in this book). Can the good guys solve the riddles of the 80s before the evil corporation?

It's all good fun and I don't want to pooh-pooh this sort of escapism. (Although, since this book occasionally makes gestures towards the theme of "the dangers of escapism," I might as well arch an eyebrow.) Sure, if you wanted to, you could pick apart this sort of dystopia; or you could arch your eyebrows--really arch the hell out of them--over the way that a book about property and ownership never makes any sort of comment about the ownership of this 80s IP. (To be clear: I'm not saying Cline breaks copyright; I'm saying that the world he shows clearly seems to, as people are willy-nilly copying anything from the 80s that they can. Alternately, there's a fascinating backstory here about the IP deals going on in backrooms.)

And yet, the book never really investigates any of the deeper themes it gestures towards. Is the real world better than the virtual world? Can people know each other better in person or online?

Ultimately, the quest is treated as this righteous crusade, when really it feels like some troubled man forcing other people to relive his childhood. In a way, the dead man who sets up the quest is simply doing what the villains in so many 80s movies did: buying friends. Because ultimately, it's not a love of the 80s that drives everyone here--it's the promise of money. Which, okay, may seem like an 80s thing; but it basically means that most of this book is a dead rich (white?) guy making everyone continue to dance to his tune. And that gives me the heebie-jeebies. ...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Abby rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

fucking awesome!

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Aug 23, 2011 Karlo rated it liked it

Shelves: own, scifi

Overall a pretty amusing read (amusing in the way it draws upon both Gamer culture and the 80s decade). The plot is pretty by-the-numbers; I don't think I was really surprised at any point but neither was a irritated due to the characters' actions. This was a nice read and seemed almost to fit into the Teen Fiction category for me. ...more

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Jun 08, 2014 Bridget rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned-ship

I gave up after 3 chapters of the audiobook.
Between Will Wheaton's smug/smarmy narration, the r/atheism brand of 18 year old know-it-all-ness and the fact that literally nothing was happening plot-wise, I couldn't. ...more

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May 03, 2012 Dave rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Enjoyable, though there was an overload of exposition, especially in the first half. Ending was a little straightforward and preachy. Interesting to see if WB manages to secure the licenses to do a movie.

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