Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) in Pick-a-Shelf

May 25, 2011 D.G. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, reviewed, awesome-narration, favorites, science-fiction, re-read

Re-Read: 7/2015: As always, teared up with the end. Sigh...
Re-Read: 11/2014: Enjoyed it as much the second time around.

This book was simply phenomenal.

Not being into video games at all, I would have never thought that I was going to enjoy this book as much as I did. But while listening to it, I laughed, cried and made random YES! gestures every time Parzival (aka Wade) cleared a hurdle in the hunt.

The plot is a curious mix of past and future, a sort of Willie Wonka but with video games. It’s abo ...more

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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

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Jan 20, 2018 Carrie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, dystopia, best-friends, pop-culture, adventure, ammp-fairytale, video-games, 2018-s-l-scifi

What a ride....

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Jul 30, 2012 Joanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bookclub, borrowed, 2013

I totally loved this. More soon....

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Oct 16, 2011 Micha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-2011, favorites, must-read-audiobooks, felicia-day-told-me-to

This review is for the Audiobook version of this novel as read by Wil Weaton.

Felicia Day and Flannery from the "readers advisory for all" group I belong to recommended it and it was FANTASTIC!

While I did have some complaints about certain minor details (see Joel & Karen 's reviews, as there is little reason to repeat them endlessly), the real result is that this book is FUN! Particularly when Wil Weaton is crooning in your ear. I highly recommend it to any of you who are the slightest bit ...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Sunflower rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-books, fiction-read-2012

My name is Sunflower and I once owned a Commodore 64. This is not something one would ordinarily admit outside of a support group, but in the context of this book, it doesn't seem so bad. I may have lived through the 80's, but I didn't resonate with many of the references in this book and it doesn't really affect the enjoyment of the story.
This book is a wild ride, which should come with a warning that once started, it is going to be difficult to put down until finished. In the year 2044 where ...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Joanna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rws-2011-winter, 2012-read, audiobooks, fantasy-sci-fi

Extremely entertaining trip through computer and video game history as well as some classic science fiction. The plot was fairly mundane, but the picture of a future reality where everyone spent a great deal of time logged into a Second Life like virtual reality was fun and sufficiently detailed to carry the novel. The reader for the unabridged audiobook did an excellent job narrating the story, handling the detailed descriptions of video game play, and recitations of the scoreboard in ways that ...more

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Apr 07, 2012 David rated it really liked it

Shelves: completed-2012

Ok, so i'm going to assume you've read the book if you're reading this. Heavy spoilers ahead.

So, all my friends who have read this love it. And, being an "80s baby" (well i'm that mid-decade split like most of my friends, but whatever), I HAVE to love this book. right?

Wrong. The book pissed me off from the very beginning, and I only felt otherwise for like the last 30% of the book (not counting the last 5%). For starters, the book feels like it is pandering to my childhood so much its painful. Y Ok, so i'm going to assume you've read the book if you're reading this. Heavy spoilers ahead.

So, all my friends who have read this love it. And, being an "80s baby" (well i'm that mid-decade split like most of my friends, but whatever), I HAVE to love this book. right?

Wrong. The book pissed me off from the very beginning, and I only felt otherwise for like the last 30% of the book (not counting the last 5%). For starters, the book feels like it is pandering to my childhood so much its painful. Yes, I understand, it's an 80s book, and it's supposed to be about references, but do we have to pick the most obvious? Of COURSE it's zork that gets him the key. Was anyone surprised it's wargames he plays through? or fucking Holy Grail? There felt like there was no originality in the book whatsoever (it ends with adventure? REALLY? at least give me maniac mansion or something, it's not like all of us aren't going to be like "oh yeah!" with that as well), and as such I feel like there is no influence by the author to express his favorite things from his childhood, rather the entire book feels like him standing up shouting at us "hey! look at me! I was born in the 80s! I know whats hip! I know what you like!.....it's star wars...right? and I heard atari was popular!"

I actually have other complaints, such as obvious plot twists (Aech, Art3mis NOT being a 350 pound girl, Sorrento's evilness) missed opportunities (jealousy between Aech and Art3mis, more interaction with Shoto/Daito instead of using them as Deus Ex Machina devices) and a completely underwhelming ending (from the moment he is done with holy grail the whole thing feels like "welp, need to wrap this here book up" instead of any form of actual summarization, completeness, or reward for having read your ridiculous pandering self-satisfying book), but honestly the pandering paragraph is my real complaint.

That being said, if you know 80s stuff you will recognize most of this book and, as one of my friends said, by the end you'll feel like you have so much nerd cred you'll either be proud or embarrassed. In addition, the guy isn't a half bad writer, and considering the scope of what he is trying to create he manages to write a realistic world with decent dialogue and "different enough" characters. I would be interested to see what else he has written (or will write if nothing else is out...haven't looked!)

PS - Went and looked at his goodreads page. Now I hate him on principle. A) the splash screens for his RPO characters are ridiculous (and wtf are Shoto/Daito? or AT LEAST Shoto) B) he has a book called "the importance of being Ernest (cline)" and while that would be bad enough in and of itself, all the people commenting on it are too stupid to realize it's not in fact the famous play by Wilde. C) he's posing in front of a god damn Delorean. this is what im saying folks. Yes, thats cool, but good lord, it might as well be the batmobile. Hell that might be MORE original. ...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Cora rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: american-author, kindle, science-fiction, audible, humor, adventure, quest, 1980s

When computer genius, James Halliday, dies he does not leave his fortune or control of the virtual reality universe, he created (called the Oasis) to an heir. Instead, he created a contest within the Oasis where the first to find the hidden egg wins all his money and his company. James Halliday loved the 1980s and those searching for the hidden egg immerse themselves in 80s pop culture in order to figure out the clues left by Halliday. Wade is a high school student who has devoted his life to th ...more

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Nov 22, 2011 emily rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-contemporary, young-adult, 2011-to-2015, dystopia-apocalyptic, peak-geek

i really liked this, but it made me sad that mark fabi's "wyrm" is out of print. very similar from the pop culture to the geek culture to the quest and the virtual reality mmorpg. but the characters here were more accessible and i appreciated the slight futuristic touch. ...more

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