The Mary Sue Books and More Club discussion

Discussion thread for Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Chapters 31 through 39/End. Discussions will run through January.

I read this book a year and a half ago so I don't feel like re-reading it again so soon, but I loved it! It was a lot of fun, although sometimes I got frustrated by his detailed descriptions of elementary nerdy concepts. I'm just saying, don't you think the people reading this book would understand most of the basic references without needing an explanation? Isn't that the point of references?

I appreciated his effort at including non-white characters, even though it felt a little heavy-handed. I can only assume that he'll get better at writing people of colour?

Has anyone read Armada? I was excited for it to come out but when it got mediocre reviews calling it a less successful version of a similar story, I bumped it back in priority on my TBR list.

I too have read this book in the past, although I am planning to reread it this month. I've read Armada, I did like Ready Player One more, and I feel like he dropped the ball in regards to the main female character in Armada, she wasn't a bad character but she was kind of underused. Most of the comparisons I've seen aren't really fair comparisons and don't take into account the actual events of Armada, specifically the last fourth or so of the book. So if you enjoyed Ready Player One you should check out Armada, just try to keep an open mind while reading it.

This was really fun to read. As an 80s geek I also found the references enjoyable and the explanation a bit over the top. I wish Wade was a more interesting character. He felt a bit too generic to me and I liked all the other characters better. I'd recommend this book to fellow geeks, but probably not to everyone I meet.

Brittany wrote: "I too have read this book in the past, although I am planning to reread it this month. I've read Armada, I did like Ready Player One more, and I feel like he dropped the ball in regards to the main..."

I loved this book so much, I was excited to read Armada. I was kind of disappointed that it was not nearly as good as RPO. It's still worth a read, but I thought the story was just not as inventive or as fun. RPO was full of homages to our geeky pop culture while still feeling fresh. Armada was trying to be ironic or something with it's treatment of old tropes and it fell a little flat for me.

I read this over the summer, so I'm probably not going to read it again quite so soon, but I will eventually. I really really enjoyed all the nerdy references (They had me at the Tyrell Corp building, I <3 Blade Runner), and the plot was interesting. I agree that Wade was a slightly basic character, and many of the others were more interesting. In a way, it reminded me ever so slightly of the Guild, just because VR vs RL. I definitely have people in my life who would be both bookish and nerdy enough to recommend this to, but I think anyone would be able to get most of the references enough to enjoy it, especially with the above-mentioned over explanation of a lot of them. :)

I'd never read this book but got it in my Loot Crate and have had it on my to read list for a long time and man did I fall in love. I was so enthusiastic about it that this afternoon my fiancee started reading it while I started my new book! I thought the descriptions were great for someone who was learning about 80's culture from a distant decade, like if we were obsessing over the 20's and it had a very Westing Game kind of feel to it for me (and I've read that book over 20 times!).

I'm a little disappointed that Cline didn't take the time to make Art3mis different than her avatar. I understand why someone with the port wine stain type of skin would be embarrassed to be seen, but Cline could have given her more. Additionally, the fact that Wade was skinny and therefore much more attractive by the end (while totally the kind of way I'd learn how to exercise every day!) also made the romance feel a lot less real and more "made for the movies" if that makes any sense. I liked that Aech ended up being a POC woman, but by the time that was revealed it seemed like it hadn't been planned all along. Also, how convenient that out of all the gunters who had been searching for years and years, these kids who are all close in age end up being the ones who are in the top 5. It definitely didn't feel as realistic.

Also, why wouldn't he have friends in Oasis? It felt way more like self imposed isolation than that he was bullied incessantly.

Again, I LOVE this book, but after thinking about it critically it feels more like it was written by a guy who thinks about nerd culture and bullying and all of that without actually having lived it.

Nice nod to Wil Wheaton in the book though. I laughed out loud when I saw that. And I loved that everything was built around D&D. And man do I want to play Oasis. No Man's Sky is video games heading in that direction but Oasis seems super fun. I'd like more character slots like in WoW though.

I read this a little while back (the Wheaton audio, natch) and liked it a lot. For me the book really picks up in the last half. I've observed that most people tend to focus so much on the pop culture aspects of it that they completely ignore the absolutely brutal dystopian nightmare of the real world presented here, which is really just our world plus a few decades. Which is the whole point - people so caught up in consuming nostalgia that they don't realize the greater trap that they're in. It's a pretty solid cyberpunk novel without people realizing that that's what it is.

That's a great point Alexander. I loved learning about the protagonist's real life situation in the beginning, and this escapism rather than working to fix the real world is worth paying attention to. I guess I've just seen/read too many dystopian stories lately that I glossed over that theme.

Alexander wrote: "I read this a little while back (the Wheaton audio, natch) and liked it a lot. For me the book really picks up in the last half. I've observed that most people tend to focus so much on the pop cult..."

I finished last night, and I have to say the middle of the book was the best. I was really pumped up when the pop culture references died down a little and the story of Wade in the real world picked up. It had some pretty great corporate ogilarchy, cyberpunk dystopian themes going on. I did kind of think a few things worked out just a little too well; like Wade was such a prodigy of a hacker, but whatevs, I'm not knocking.

In the last half of the book, I got completely caught up in this happy internal jumping and clapping as things just started to come together so well. I'll admit it, I loved his many references to extreme fandom; like fangirling over Og and geeking out over Halliday. It was all in good fun and I got caught up in the euphoria. The story just seemed to take off at some point. I really appreciated what he did with Aech, but can also agree that it was just kind of shoved in there; but it was there and I liked reading it. It could definitely have been fleshed out a little more.

I also think that just by presenting the Big Red Button at the end, Cline was slightly commenting on gaming culture. I do think that he managed to touch on a lot of different topics that are present in the gaming world without getting political or preachy, but also without possibly stepping on any toes. He managed to present us with some things and just leave them there for us to take what we might from it.

One of the things I wonder is if anything in this book would've been different had it come out post Gamergate instead of before it. I don't know specifically what would be different, maybe doxxing would've been involved? Idk but the stuff with Aech I do think would've been explored more had this been written post Gamergate, or maybe we would've seen some backlash against Art3mis for being a girl Gunter. Or maybe it would've all been the same, it's just interesting to think about.

I also enjoyed this book. The beginning was a little much for me with the constant 80's nerd culture references. Although maybe I'd enjoy them more if I was more familiar with it. I appreciate the author's attempt at diversity but agree with a previous response in that I'd find it more interesting if the other top 5 gunters were different ages, instead of all of them being within the same age group.

The middle, later middle part of the book was my favorite part. I didn't mind reaing about them being in the OASIS, however reading about Wade infiltrating into the indentured worker camp was more interesting. I was sad to not learn more about the bleak world that they lived in.

Oh yeah, I look forward to see what Spielberg makes of it!

Seems like it would be a gigantic mess of licensing issues. I imagine there won't be more than a handful of references that make it to the movie intact.

Look at what Pixels managed, I wouldn't be so quick to say that.

I just finished the book yesterday. It was really great. I kept wondering where the quarter would play in and it didn't disappoint.

A few questions:
Did anyone want more about Sorrento? I kept hoping that he would change sides or turn out to be the one who was selling secrets on the black market. I really thought he would have a change of heart after the company turned on him and agreed with Wade's conditions to have Sorrento fired. I was disappointed that he pretty much turned out to be just an evil executive working for an evil company that had actual slaves.

And about those slaves: wtf? The government had really gone so far downhill that they were actually allowing this? It actually made me angry at Wade that he didn't vote in the real world elections considering that crap was going on.

I also wondered about any competition that IOI or even Oasis had. You would think there would be competing products, even if they were inferior.

Anyone else find the portrayal of Shoto and Daito to be a little bit...problematic?

My friend who also read this book told me that I would like the ending because of the Holy Grail sequence. I did enjoy that but a small part of me thought: "Hey! That's not 80s! Keep with the theme Cline."

I was really surprised with Aech's backstory. I totally thought he was an A.I. created by Halliday.

If anyone is interested, Middletown, OH is a real place and I grew up there but this book's Middletown, OH bares very little resemblance to the real one.

Okay. Enough random musings. I'm glad everyone enjoyed this book.

About the corporate slavery, it's terrible but I can kind of see something like that happening in real life. Plus look at the terrible world Wade lives in, the corporate slavery is actually a better option for most people, it's a roof over their head, three square meals a day, and job security. I'm not advocating for it of course but it's easy to see how it's been accepted in his world.

I agree with what most people are saying. I like the book, it's a fun love letter to geek fandom. I hope the movie can do it justice (although the failure of Pixels makes me worried the license holders won't allow their properties to be used). Supposedly there's going to be a sequel and I've got a really bad feeling about that Big Red Button...

Oh, and this was the first time I read the book since becoming more heavily involved with an online community and developing online friendships, so the scene where Wade and Helen met for the first time was so much more moving than during my previous reads.

There have been sequel rumors since it came out so who knows