The Sword and Laser discussion

If you consider yourself a geek, you NEED to read this book.
If you lived in the 80s, you HAVE TO read this book.
If you were ever an MMO addict, You REALLY OUGHT to read this book.

If you are a geeky MMO addict obsessed with the 80s, you ARE this book.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if T&V don't review this book for the show, then they kinda fail at their "job". Just sayin...

If it makes it any easier, Wil Wheaton narrates the Audible version.

I second this notion. I know very little of 80s pop culture, but really enjoyed this book. I started this book and ended up reading it straight though, neglecting everything I was supposed to do that day until I had finished it.

I dunno. I'm about halfway through and while I like the geeky nostalgia and enjoy the old-school game references, it's not really that inspiring. So far the pseudo-romance has been as insipid as Twilight. And there are a lot of things about how the world works, coincidences, etc that are really not explained well and seem (so far) like plot holes.
Don't get me wrong, the book's enjoyable, but I wouldn't say you NEED to read this book. Your life will not be enriched by doing so, but it is a fun diversion.

Also, Jenny's tip to listen to it at 2x speed is well worth it. At normal pace, Wheaton's narration feels slow/clunky.

terpkristin wrote: "Also, Jenny's tip to listen to it at 2x speed is well worth it. At normal pace, Wheaton's narration feels slow/clunky. "

He does have a slow gate doesn't he. Reminds me of someone presenting a speech and pausing for emphasis, or having done a toast masters course and been told to use it as a mechanism to ensure he doesn't speak too fast. Anyway I'm actually not minding him at normal speed, find it a relaxing pace.

Anyway I'm not far in, (view spoiler)[(romance!!?) (hide spoiler)] but I would echo that it is a 'fun' read if you have a fondness with the 80's. I don't know what it says about me that so far there has been very little named from that period that I didn't know (though I did somehow miss Ladyhawke).

Yeah 2x is just about right, and then it feels energetic!

As someone who might still waste a lot of time in a clunky virtual world, you might say I'm totally coveting this Oasis experience. But having to pay for each teleport? Poor Wade3. ;)

Jenny wrote: "Yeah 2x is just about right, and then it feels energetic!

As someone who might still waste a lot of time in a clunky virtual world, you might say I'm totally coveting this Oasis experience. But h..."

You play RuneScape? ;)

Generally side stepped the whole MMO(RPG)thing myself. Never trusted myself with the timesink I knew it to be.

Andrew wrote: "You play RuneScape? ;)

Generally side stepped the whole MMO(RPG)thing myself. Never trusted myself with the timesink I knew it to be. "

Worse. Not a game.

Jenny wrote: "Andrew wrote: "Worse. Not a game."

*curious* We talking oldskool.. PnP & dice RPG?.. or you a Secondlifer :)

Dice? Hahaha. You got it.

Really. Secondlife? what you do there? and more importantly has it changed at all since I last visited.. oh 5 years or so ago?

I personally know some people who use virtual worlds in education (for university and school level), but I don't think it quite took off as people thought it might - ala Ready Player One virtual world style.

I never wore leg warmers. Not sure I would enjoy the book.

Tamahome wrote: "I never wore leg warmers. Not sure I would enjoy the book."

I don't believe you.

Damn, I was gonna post this topic, but didn't have the free time. Yeah, I LOVED this book as well. I'm not an MMO geek or obsessed with the 80's, but there are still a lot of geeky stuff about it. I actually recently watched WarGames for the first time and got into Rush because of this book when it mentions their 2112 album.

!Ee yah!

I agree with terpkristin's criticism on the romance thread and the world. I would say that the romance thread is better than the one in Anathem, but that's not saying much. The world really didn't make a lot of sense. The author spent a decent amount of time describing it near the beginning of the book (quite well actually), but then it just came apart as the story progressed. For example: (view spoiler)[Wade takes a bus which needed armed protection to travel between cities. Later, his friend drives an apparently unprotected RV a long distance with no mention of concerns. (hide spoiler)]. The story within the MMO stays coherent, but the one outside it jumps over some big holes.

I don't want to sound hypercritical. I really enjoyed the book quite a bit (4/5 stars), and I even filled in some gaps in my 80s pop culture knowledge. I especially liked how the author did his best to explain some of the pop culture references within the context of the protagonist's pursuit of the Easter egg. I felt that this worked much better than more disruptive asides/interludes I've seen in other books. I also enjoyed how the author slipped in a few hidden references (view spoiler)[(like the reference to the 1985 film Brazil during the IOI escape scene) (hide spoiler)].

I think I need to say that I was born in 1981, and I remember quite a bit of the references from my childhood. I was a geeky male kid, into D&D, sci-fi, and video games at the time. I still enjoy 80s music. I'm not sure how much people with different backgrounds will enjoy this book, but I think the author did a pretty good job trying to keep it accessible. I'll find out when my wife reads it.

Yeah the romance.... not really very interesting for some reason.

Remember when alternative music used to be alternative? :)

Ok just finished this (as audiobook). As terpkristin said this book won't change your life, stretch your horizons, etc.. but it is just plain fun. The story arc isn't unpredictable, and the circumstances (or affordances of the characters) might seem a little far-fetched at times but the world is interesting, the homage to pop-culture (particularly 80's) is novel and the characters are enjoyable to spend time with. Overall thumbs up if you want a lighter, enjoyable read which I suspect most S&L members would probably like.

Actually if it hadn't been for this book being laden with 80's references I wouldn't have blinked if this had been slapped with the hard to pin down Young Adults tag much like The Hunger Games.

The hunger Games was way scarier.

Jenny wrote: "The hunger Games was way scarier."

Oh come now, (view spoiler)[ Robo-Godzilla (hide spoiler)] is pretty scary :)

This was a fun book. Like eating M&M's when you go to the movies. Sweet and filling but still not to diffcult to finish.

You guys have to see the concept art for the movie version. So cool!

Jenny wrote: "You guys have to see the concept art for the movie version. So cool!"

Nice. Though I thought he was ment to be larger (more overweight).. pimply etc. Didn't quite match my mental image.

Andrew wrote: "Nice. Though I thought he was ment to be larger (more overweight).. pimply etc. Didn't quite match my mental image."

Well, you know, this guy wouldn't exactly be a draw for that lucrative female audience. ;)

terpkristin wrote: "Andrew wrote: "Nice. Though I thought he was ment to be larger (more overweight).. pimply etc. Didn't quite match my mental image."

Well, you know, this guy wouldn't exactly be a draw for that luc..."

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips...

(Sorry if you can't view this world family)

terpkristin wrote: "Andrew wrote: "Nice. Though I thought he was ment to be larger (more overweight).. pimply etc. Didn't quite match my mental image."

Well, you know, this guy wouldn't exactly be a draw for that luc..."

ha! yes, true. Still he needs some scope for transformation later in story.

I wonder how they will be able to make this movie with so many licensed properties.

I'm going to agree that you owe it to yourself to read this book if you spent time the 80's. As someone who's first computer was an Atari 800XL, played Zork on a TRS-80 in eighth-grade, and rode my bike to the mall arcade to play Tempest whenever I could, this book put a smile on my face every page.

Loved it despite the flaws, thanks for the suggestion!

Andrew wrote: "Actually if it hadn't been for this book being laden with 80's references I wouldn't have blinked if this had been slapped with the hard to pin down Young Adults tag much like The Hunger Games."

it has been classified YA. and with good cause.

Count me as another '80s teen that loved this book. It definitely reads as YA, but I don't think that should keep anyone from picking it up. The author really does a good job of loading every page with nostalgia without overloading the reader (at least that was my reaction). In a lot of ways this book makes me want to re-read Snow Crash (or maybe Neal Stephenson's first book, The Big U, which came out in 1984 and was a little hit-and-miss itself). I have to agree with everyone's criticisms of the non-OASIS scenes from the book concerning the lack of consistency. And I'm trying to keep from getting too excited about the movie due to the entire plot hanging on IP owned by other people and corporations. It seems unlikely that enough of those groups will get on-board to keep from significantly changing major plot elements.

I just finished this book yesterday, and have to agree with most of the posts here. Growing up in the 80's makes this book a fun nostalgic trip thru my formative years. The plot holes are a bit distracting, but I get the feeling there were some parts edited out (such as the trip in the RV with Aech and Parzival) to save time and keep the story moving.

I really liked RP1, but yeah, I'm a child of the 80s. References aside, I thought the sci-fi was pretty good! Reminded me of snow crash (a little).

I did find it to be very much a reflection of the author's specific tastes...I would have preferred more Star Wars and less Japanese giant robots, but that's because of my own childhood. And the lack of any references to home consoles post-Atari seemed odd as well, considering how Nintendo dominated the second half of the 80s.

But still...good book. Really liked it.

Really enjoyed the book, one of my favorites of the year. I'm going recommend this to several friends, some are guys I used to play AD&D with and haven't talked to recently.

That said, yes there are big plot holes, lots of exposition at the beginning and one other thing that is a personal pet peeves in story's like this.

He is not the only author to do it but it annoys me each time I read it. It has to do with stories set in the near future, with references to the current time (or just a few decades back). That's that it seems many authors limit there references to things that have happened instead of mixing it up with things they created for the years between now and when the story takes place. In this particular story, that would have made sense if he had kept the references solely to the era he said (the 80's +/- a few years), but once he started using WoW and Firefly (greatest TV show ever) that took place in the 21st century I felt he should have thrown some creative properties from the 2010's and 2020's in there as well. It always feels so abrupt, like creativity just stopped or something.

Sorry for the rant, just something I had to get off my chest.

John

Just finished Ready Player One, and I loved it.

If you grow wistful at the mention of Infocom and Atari games, can quote lines from WarGames and Monty Python, or spent your high school years listening to Rush and playing D&D, then you'll find a lot to like here. It has heaping piles of 80s "nerdstalgia."

If you're an 8bit nerd this book won't change your world, but it just might rock it.

I wasn't a child of the 80s so much as the 90s, but I know enough about both eras to get a lot of enjoyment out of all the geeky little references here and there. I also can't help but notice that Halliday's life seems to draw quite heavily from the lives of other famous video game designers. How he releases his first game in a ziplock bag which then gets picked up and distributed is pretty much the same story as how Richard Garriott got into gaming, and his tendency to lock himself away then comes back having programmed some amazing new software is definitely a chapter taken out of John Carmack's own.

@John: I found that pretty glaring at first too, but what do you think of this as a (partial) explanation?

(view spoiler)[Cline makes some mention of the energy crisis and stagnation of society at large, possibly occurring early in the 21st century. With the advent of OASIS, so much of the creative and inventive talent seems to have moved into the totally virtual world, and only a few seem to be left to design items like Wade's gaming apartment, exercise machines and the like. Could it be possible that with the general population's apathy about the world around them, culture only progressed in the OASIS? If that is the case though, Cline doesn't seem to make a significant point in that direction in the text. For me, it felt as if humankind did what it does so well, and retreated entirely away from a difficult (real) world into the fantastic, idealized world. Also, with the competition so lucrative and dependent upon working within the mantle of the 80s, it makes sense to push society in that direction. Maybe a lot of my impression of that was from Wade's distorted view too. He went out of his way for so long to avoid spending any time away from OASIS that it also made the relationship side very hard for me to swallow. "Forever alone", to use reddit-speak doesn't easily translate to a functional relationship, particularly when the protagonist acts more like a stalker... (hide spoiler)]

Overall, the book worked for me. I burned through it in one (very) late night reading session, but with pauses to find gaming emulators, music videos, and film clips on YouTube. I'm a little young for most of my 80s recollections to have been from that period, and my upbringing was more about reading, music and study than about gaming & popular culture. However, as a bona-fide, card-carrying geek, the story tugged at me. The progression of the challenges, virtual treasure hunting and the details of Wade's life kept me dialed right in.

Besides: (view spoiler)[Give me a Monty Python or Douglas Adams reference in every book, and I'm a happy chap! Does anybody else really, really want to step into the virtual skin of a movie? I've been quoting most of these since I was a kid anyway, may as well give me a score and bonuses for it! (hide spoiler)]

Joel wrote: "it has been classified YA. and with good cause.

Didn't know that. Seems my gut was right then.

@Bean: I definitely sensed a homage to some of the gaming alum going on also.

I just downloaded from Amazon. I will join you as soon as I've finished these booker books, hopefully early next week.

I loved this book despite not caring about a lot of the stuff the author cared about. Although I really thought it would have made more sense if (view spoiler)[Art3mis had won (hide spoiler)]. Which I told Cline at a book signing and he was like, yeah.

I just finished listening to this book. I was a teen D&D playing geek in the 80's so I loved all the references. Its definitely the most fun book I've listened to in a long time.

totally loved this book. it gets me xD

And I loved it, for exactly the same reasons that guy hated it. Yes I lived through the 80s (was in my 20s), but American gamer culture was not exactly a big thing in this part of the world, or maybe I was too old, so I appreciated the explanations, yet enough of the influences had seeped down that I wasn't entirely at sea.

the linked review reminds me more of the classic "true geeks" vs. "fake geeks" argument. or "real gamer" vs. "wanna be gamer" etc. one side always has to raise themselves above the other and state they are the TRUE [insert whatever]. it's tiring, annoying, and simply immature. kinda like with sex. those who have it, don't talk it about and vice versa. you can talk about gaming and being a geek or you can simply play video games and be a geek. one who truly loves what they're doing doesn't feel the need to constantly convince the rest of the world of how much they love it and how this makes them a much better person. simple as that for me.

quoting Yoda: do or do not. there is no try.

Left me cold. I'm older than most of you though (60s, not 80s) and the book relies a lot on love/nostalgia for the 80s geeky things. It also relies too much on young love/coming of age stuff which bores the hell out of me in general (not just in SF) and the outcome was, well, predictable. I imagine if you were a older kid/preteen/teen in the 80s this was a blast to read. As someone who was in his early 20s when the 80s opened... /yawn

I know someone of your age and he loved that book, so I honestly doubt it's a generation thing. Some people love a book, others don't.

COuld have been the young love/coming of age thing too of course. Just saying that the stream of references to the 80s stuff didn't do anything for me whereas I can see how it could give a lift to what was a a fairly standard story with stock characters for someone for whom those references brought back cool memories.

He was a bit stalkerish, but he was really just the awkward, socially naive teen boy dealing with his first love.

This book and Dirty Streets were both gushed over by the same general set of people and I've learned that I need to dial down their enthusiasm to match what I'll likely think. Nothing bad about that - we always have to figure out how others' recommendations play in our world. For me, this was a pretty stock story with a pretty stock plot and a climax that was completely predictable. It feels influenced by movies a lot - while there's some drama, there's (view spoiler)[no real danger to the protagonist or most of his friends and it's utterly certain from the start that of course he will win the contest and will do so by defeating the head of the Bad Guys and then he will Get The Girl. (hide spoiler)] Note, btw, that the protagonist is the guy, not the girl who is every bit his equal.

I loved the book, but I tend to blast through the relationship drama. And I'm 57! BTW, my 13 y o daughter loved it too.

Was just posting about the Otherland series by Tad Williams while talking in the DSOH threads. I kind of wonder if Ready Player One was inspired by Otherland.

For those who haven't read the Otherland series its set about 50 years in the future and about 80% of the series takes place in computer generated alternate realities and fantastical worlds. There is even a character in Otherland who is not the gender everyone thinks he / she is, just like RP1. If you liked RP1 you might try this series. It doesn't have any of the 80's fascination but it does have a very wide plot that comes together fantastically at the end.