The Mary Sue Books and More Club discussion

Discussion thread for Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Chapters 0 through 10. Discussions will run through January.

The opening felt kind of slow but as soon as the hunt begun this book turns into a real page turner.

Also, I wish Wade had more character flaws. It seems that being over-weight is put down to his socio-economic status and acne to being a teen. Otherwise he's a bit too perfect. It takes me out of the story sometimes.

I had forgotten how info dump-y the beginning of this book is. At least the world is really cool, otherwise the info dump would be hard to get past.

So far, I am enjoying the book and the video game/ sci-fi/ 80s references are pretty rad, although I will freely admit I get a bit lost with all the Atari references because I didn't play anything released before the original Nintendo. It was a slow start, but it is starting to pick up since less time is spent on world building and more time on the story now.

I'm number 82 on the library hold list for the audiobook so I probably won't get started until February. Doh!

It made me uncomfortable to read how he described Art3mis. Her "hysterical interpretations" and people doubting of her really being a girl.

Fabio- Yeah, I got that too. There were times when I'm like "is the narrator kind of an ass or is the author" moments.

There is so much 80's pop culture in here, it's just crazy. I thought this book had to be written in the 80's. I can see that Ernest Cline has a huge love of this decade; and it shows. I'm thinking that Wade is his total Gary Stu (which is on my mind because of the Mary Sue's 2016 reading challenge. I'm always thinking of good candidates for upcoming challenge reads). Anorak (I can't think of the character's real name off the top of my head) makes me think of some tech people he may idolize himself, like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

Wade's description of Art3mis was totally spot on from what I've seen of MMO players. They never know if a person is male or female, at least not right away, and for female avatars they always go back and forth between, "you're a fat old dude in your mom's basement," and, "you're the hottest chick in the world." Although, I think he meant hysterical as in hilarious interpretations.

So far I really like the book, and although I'm a little weirded out by the implications of an online existence that is better than real life for an entire world, I also kind of like the implications towards social commentary. That could also just be me reading too much into things...

It's definitely a slow burn through the first couple of chapters. For me once he got into the part about high school & explained the history it started to really pick up. I remember so many of those things he's talking about even though I didn't play most of them. I absolutely love Ladyhawke & the fact that tied into it made me so happy. He's right about the ewok movies, they're not very good.

I like the introduction of Atr3mis. Who doesn't have a log or website they go to a lot because they writing style is so funny? I want more from her as this progresses.

I've all but the latest novel & progression novel of Sword Art Online & I keep being reminded of it a little. The way they describe player etiquette & how it's an immersive world. While SAO is basically just gaming, you can move your avatar from game to game & it's similar to going world hopping (just immediate). The dungeon trolling & waiting for things to respawn really were similar even though there's no way either author knew what the other was doing at the time.

My love of Ready Player One is actually what inspired me to get into Sword Art Online, I love that their stories are similar enough that if you like one you'll like the other, but not so similar they feel like copies.

Brittany wait until you get to the Gun Gale arc. It's so good.

I haven't read the Gun Gale manga or novels but I've watched the anime that covers it! It's good :)

I watched the Sword Art Online anime and season 2 was an outright disaster imo. (Locking up the main character for constant rape threats, and weird forced incest love triangle? No thanks.) Is the manga better? Brittany and Terpsgrl32 make it sound like a worthwhile read! I loved the first season of SAO so maybe I should check out the manga?

The Gun Gale & Mother's Rosario arc are my favorite of the SAO series. Personally I prefer the light novels. The second part of the GGO arc just came out & the Mother's Rosario comes out in the spring.

I've been meaning to check out the light novels, the manga is honestly a little pointless if you watch the anime because it's an exact adaptation. Mother's Rosario was really great, I cried at the end.

I finally got to start listening today! The info dumps are a bit much sometimes but Wil Wheaton usually makes them work. It really is like listening to those obsessive nerds from high school or college clubs. He's a total Mary Sue but it doesn't come off as obnoxious.

I feel like I'm earning nerd points whenever I figure out bits of the puzzle ahead of Wade.

I've read this book two or three times already, but I enjoy it enough I'm glad to have an excuses for another re-read. (Though I'd forgotten how much of an obnoxious, whiny teenager Wade is in the beginning...) I first read it for the real-life Easter egg hunt contest the the author had. (You can read about here: www.ernestcline.com/blog/2012/09/02/t... ) This was soon after Steve Jobs died, so Halliday became analogous to Jobs in my mind. But he was also born the same year as the author and there are a lot of similarities there as well.

I actually live in the Ernest Cline's hometown (Cline is a very common name around here) and there are plenty of local references: Wade and Halliday both took Latin, and the local high school is one of the few that still offers Latin classes. (The woman who teaches the class is actually in the same church small group as me, but when I asked she said she wasn't there in the '80s and didn't know if a Mrs. Rank taught back then.) Halliday is from "Middletown" Ohio, a nicely generic name that, combined with the description and the detail that his house was on Cleveland Avenue, seems to be an analog for our hometown. (Cline did a similar thing in his movie Fanboys where the characters are from a city that's an anagram of where he grew up.) I even thought I maybe found a reference to the local cable company's slogan, though that might have been a coincidence.

ETA: Apparently Middletown is a real city north of Cincinnati. Still, the description of Halliday's childhood home feels to me like a nostalgia-goggles version of the author's.

WheelchairNinja wrote: "I've read this book two or three times already, but I enjoy it enough I'm glad to have an excuses for another re-read. (Though I'd forgotten how much of an obnoxious, whiny teenager Wade is in the ..."

I'm actually from Middletown, OH. So, thinking about my hometown as a planet is really funny. However, there isn't a Cleveland Avenue here and I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that Cline looked up towns in the Midwest and thought "well, this one sounds generic enough." I grew up in Middletown in the early 90s and still live close-by, so if I notice any landmarks that seem legit, I'll comment on it.

Other than that, I agree with everyone else's comments: Wade being a bit of a Marty Stu and a little bit of an asshole; a lot of info dump until the quest finally gets going; feeling a little bit uncomfortable about the way he talks about Art3mis, etc. Otherwise I'm enjoying it and looking forward to how it is all going to play out. I'm so late to getting into this book because it was checked out at the library for the longest time.

Theory: Does anyone else think his friend Aech might be Halliday (either that Halliday didn't die or that he uploaded his consciousness into the AI?) He says his name starts with "H." He even played the game that Wade ends up playing to get the first key. I dunno. It's just my theory. No spoilers from people that already read the book please!

"Theory: Does anyone else think his friend Aech might be Halliday (either that Halliday didn't die or that he uploaded his consciousness into the AI?"

This brings me to that SAO thing again (if you've read it or seen the anime, you know what I mean). I don't think he is. I think he's just like someone else you become good online friends with, but that would be a really good twist.

Alisha wrote: "I'm actually from Middletown, OH. So, thinking about my hometown as a planet is really funny. However, there isn't a Cleveland Avenue here and I wouldn't be too surprised to find out..."

Ha! What are the odds of that? There is a Cleveland Avenue where I live, which is another reason I suspect Halliday is kind of a Gary Stu for Cline as an adult vs. Wade being a reflection of his teenage self. I've read the author complain about how much he disliked growing up here, but he keeps alluding to it somewhat fondly in his works--just like Halliday said his childhood sucked yet built an entire planet to recreate his nostalgia.