Ready Player One discussion

Just got finished reading RPO and a few items that I could suggest that are similar (and a few have already been mentioned here a few times) would be:

Tad Williams: Otherland (series)
William Gibson: Neuromancer

and a great new Anime that just came out called "Sword Art Online" kindof follows the arc of the MMO and a group of characters that become stuck in an MMO and have to finish the game. (You can watch it on Crunchyroll.com right now because its brand new).

I found that reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore felt a lot like reading Ready Player One. Not quite as good a book, and slightly different theme, but similar characters and similar quest to crack a secret through knowledge and technology.

I would recommend "Unincorporated Man" by Dani Kollin because it involves an evil corporation, a man from our time who wakes up in the distant furture and the world was nearly destroyed by Virtual Reality addiction.

A co-worker who read Ready Player One, loved it, then read Upload and loved it, too, compared them this way:

"I got my fun nostalgia in Ready Player One. When I started reading Upload, I felt like I'd moved on to a book for grown-ups."

Try Otherland by Tad Williams. It is the first in a series, but it is well written cyberpunk, I really recommend it!

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson and Mr Penumbra's 24 hr bookstore by Robin Sloan. Alif is about a computer hacker during the Arab spring who gets mixed up with Genies and so forth. And Penumbra's like books and computer mash up. There similar style to Ready Player One but completely different ideas to it.

It has a lot, well, some, with Piers Anthony's .

I liked the book a lot, but I can't help thinking that people of the future will have trouble with compression sores, since they'll be sitting around using the internet so much.

Sofa_king wrote: "... but I can't help thinking that people of the future will have trouble with compression sores, since they'll be sitting around using the internet so much."

What a funny and wonderfully down-to-earth response. In Upload, I address this by having people lead their virtual lives while suspended in nano-mist, in their v-chambers. The effect is kind of like a three-dimensional full-body treadmill.

I should shout out David Louis Edelman's Infoquake trilogy. Quite a bit more sophisticated rendering of a VR world.

I know this thread is pretty old at this point but I'd recommend Lev Grossman's Magicians series. It's different in that it is not sci-fi at all but it does have the whole "real world person put in a fantasy environment" and...like Ready Player One...has quest elements that make it addicting. You want to find out what happens next.

That being said, both books are much sadder and more emotional than Ready Player One. They are both also more dark. The characters are all kind of terrible people (though I think the lead goes through enough that he becomes a better and less selfish person as it goes.)

Absolutely loved RPO. If anyone still looks at this thread, then they should definitely check out Mogworld - Yahtzee Croshaw.

David wrote: "Absolutely loved RPO. If anyone still looks at this thread, then they should definitely check out Mogworld - Yahtzee Croshaw."
Already Read it...liked it but not sure it really is similar to RPO it closer to Scalzi's Redshirts than RPO.

Check out this book: Supercenter

It involves a multiplayer online game (though in a very different way than RP1). The author is also a really nice guy!

I just finished reading rpo and i had to find more books like it. Thank you everyone who posted all these wonderful suggestions, I will try to read as many as possible over the summer. Please keep the recommendations coming as I cannot wait to read nonstop this summer. Please also let me know if other sites exist where i can find a larger range of book recommendations.

Mary wrote: "I am in the middle of reading Charles Stross' Halting State which has turned out to be surprisingly pretty good cyberpunk. It takes place in slightly future, former Great Britain (now split up into..."
I agree. Pleasantly surprised by both Halting State and Ready Player One.

Sorry, late to the party here, but right after finishing Ready Player One, I read Ender's Game for the first time, and there are several parallels between the two (the blurred lines between the "game" and reality, a young prodigy, interaction with a virtual world). It was interesting comparing and contrasting the two stories and their themes.

Paul - thanks for the suggestion of Redshirts, enjoyed it very much!

Craig wrote: "If you liked this book, I think you'll love Ender's Game."

I second that! Reading this felt a lot like taking part in Ender's Battle School simulations.

William Gibson's "Johnny Mneumonic," which features a protagonist who must use virtual reality to escape the clutches of an evil corporation in a post-apocalyptic world seems like a good analogue for Ready Player One. Then again, many of Gibson's novels (Neuromancer, Idoru,Virtual Light, etc.) feature VR and explore themes of corporate greed, celebrity worship, and the epistemological limits of 'the real world.'

Heros Die has some of the same attributes, but the characters are actors in this world that they are beamed too by the "networks". The real world is based in a future not unlike the hunger games while the "tv" world is based in a fantasy setting. Lots of blood and guts. No eighties references though.

Absolutely fantastic thread -- thanks for starting it. I recently finished For the Win and, while it has some of the same elements as RPO, it's not really in the same vein. For the Win concentrates a lot more on real world activities and characters; most of the action takes place out of the games, and the plot is centered around economics and workers rights. Same with Snow Crash, to an extent. I enjoyed the read, but it didn't really have the same "feel" as RPO -- it was written in 3rd person with multiple viewpoints, and focused much more heavily on ancient religion than on pop culture references.

I'll second (or third) the recommendation for Ender's Game, however. It's not a virtual game, but it also features a smart protagonist going through a coming-of-age arc in a dystopian future. And Killobyte may be a little dated now, but it has the same interweaving of in-game and real-world stakes.

Willow. It has been awhile since I read either novel but I did recommend For the Win as a good book similar to Ready Player One. Doctorow's books are always fun and insightful and use technology in the plot. In another book - Little brother the main character sets up a network of PlayStations to send coded messages about privacy because the US government in the book was spying on everyone's email - Little did Doctorow know when he wrote that book ..... I'd say that was why he moved to the UK but they are just as bad.

I have two copies of RPO and Little Brother in my 8th grade classroom. (I just pretend not to know anything about the naughty bits).

I have trouble getting students to read Ender's Game. I consider it the best sci-fi book of the 21 Century. For all all time though he must contend with Asimov, Heinlein, and Mr. Scientology - though after that horrible movie a couple years back I bet no one tries to read Battlefield Earth anymore. Shame on you Travolta.

Card's books can sometimes get a little dry though. The characters regardless of their age come off as 50 year old physics professors debating the nature of the universe.

The Rook - Daniel O'Malley
RedShirts - John Skalzi
John Dies at the End - David Wong

All fantastic, similar writing style but different subject matter

The Circle by Dave Eggers.

I haven't read it yet--it's being released October 8th I believe, but it's being hailed by some as our generation's 1984. It looks promising.

Here's a Daily Beast article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...

Chris wrote: "I had read Metagame by Sam Landstrom before RPO, and had enjoyed that as well. The similarity is that Metagame's world is where video games have been overlayed reality. It gives experience points f..."

Holy hell I have been looking for the title of this book for two years. I downloaded it on my kindle but it was incorrectly titled "Player 1" (which I thought was weird, since I'd previously read Ready Player One). I deleted it once I finished, and have made it my life's mission to find out the title. All my keyword searches led to nothing and then I stumbled upon this post.
TL;DR: thanks for the recommendation.

+1 for Metagame by Sam Landstrom. At the time I read it, it was only available on Kindle (very cheaply). Heavy doses of MMO overlaid reality. Not very well known, but I enjoyed it.

I have been looking for the equal of RPO also, and found a couple I haven't heard of before. Snow Crash is the most like it...so far...excellent book! Also love anything by Wm Gibson...classic cyberpunk. Tried to read Diamond Age 3 times...moves way too slow. More steampunk from what I remember. I can't agree with Ender's Game; there are battle simulations, but the book drags out the political speculation. I didn't care for the book, but the movie is great!!

The Mither Mages trilogy is very similar in a lot of ways. Not first person, but it closely follows one young boy growing up with extraordinary powers. Easy fun read like Ready player one. Is it AS good? Probably not, but RPO was amazing. No 80s references, but it has that same contemporary feel.

No book 3 yet though :(

Not trying to be at all tacky with self-promotion, but you may want to check out my novel Armchair Safari.

I loved Ready Player One and would be lying if I said it didn't influence some of the direction I took in writing.

Constellation Games, by Leonard Richardson.

I'll double what others have said, All books that deal with game worlds that I recommend:

REAMDE by Neil Stephenson
Deamon & Freedom (TM) by Daniel Saurez
Snowcrash by Neil Stephenson
The Atopia Chronicles by Matthew Mather

The Atopia Chronicles deals with augmented reality and VR spaces, in a semi-dystopian future where tech based libertarian micronations are formed, specifically Atopia. There's a full gamut of exploration of the impacts of an augmented reality based society, and a dose of cynicism towards the technocratic elite, a moderately dystopian future. Its very much akin to Ready Player One, but without the thick layer of 80s references (while impressed by Ernest Cline's 1980s cultural literacy, I found myself occasionally tuning them out).

I didn't personally enjoy Neuromancer, but it is the foundation of the books above. Also, keep in mind Snowcrash is partly a parody of cyberpunk, it functions at the antithesis of Neuromancer.

Also for non-fiction:
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner
Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick

Idlewild Reading this one now, and it's surprisingly similar to Ready Player One. The protagonist is a young man with the VR codename "Halloween" who attends a VR school (much like the one described in RPO). The novel begins with Halloween waking up in his VR world with amnesia, but is convinced that someone is trying to kill him. Idlewild is more philosophical than Ready Player One, though. Replace all the 80s and video game references with philosophy and Lovecraft references and you almost have the same book (so far. I'm only a third of the way through).

Just starting a book called Game Slaves. Don't know of it is any good yet.

awesome books

Added to my above post Ghost in the Wires to the non-fiction. :)

Neither book is a perfect analogy to Ready Player One, but the late 80s and early 90s thematic backdrop of Masters of Doom (with pop culture references to boot), with long discussions of early 80s gaming certainly gives background. Its an entertaining read, as the main game designer seems loosely based off of John Camrack.

Ghost in the Wires is the real life story of the hacker, Kevin Mitnick, again mostly set in the late 70s to early 90s, and the exploits of Kevin Mitnick. Again, its hardly a direct analogy to a virtual game world but Kevin's exploits even if marginally true are incredible. There's quite a bit of messing with virtual space, (usually by way of social engineering than computers). Its a digital "Catch me if you can".

There are some great GR lists you could delve into, as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

As a book that references the early arcade/Atari games, Lucky Wander Boy by D.B. Weiss fits the bill. (you might recognize his name in conjunction with GRRM's HBO series...he's one of the directors.)

Vince wrote: "Ready Player One is at its core a classic quest story set in both a dystopian future and a virtual world. The story deals with coming-of-age issues surrounding finding one's place in society, secon..."

I also found that I really enjoyed Neal Stephenson's SNOW CRASH after I had read RP1, and his REAMDE was what made me read RP1 in the first place. I'm going to dig in on Cory Doctorow's FOR THE WIN, soon, too.

I see this thread isn't too active and I'm only halfway through RPO right now (so maybe things will change quite a bit) but I don't find it to be "sci-fi" in the way that some of the recommended books here are. If I had to recommend "read-alikes" I'd go with these:
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
and maybe The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Redshirts

Supercenter is much like this, there is a state-of-the-art video game system, young adult heros, dystopian/corporate backdrop, high stakes 1st person shooter VR gaming, even an epic virtual combat scene.

READ EREBOS by Ursula Polanski, EYE OF MINDS by James Dashner and Brain Jack by Brian Falkner. I've read all of these books and I guarantee you'll love it.

I am the son of Ernest Cline, the author, and he is pleased with the commets he has read.

I'm surprised that nobody else mentioned the book Epic for Connor Korstick (and its sequel, Saga).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Using Vince's excellent demarcation, Epic has the following:
1) Quest stories. Yep, definitely
2) Set in both a dystopian future and virtual world (possible emphasis on the virtual world resembling current MMO/RPG games)
90% true. In the book Epic, the game Epic is the most important part of their society. Their entire governing system and economy runs on it. Dystopia is more debatable. The book explores drawbacks of such a governing system, but arguably their society is better well-run than our own.(Not to give anything away, but the sequel, Saga, is set in a more clearly dystopic society).
3) Deal with coming-of-age issues. Yep. Book for teenagers. Pretty well-done actually.
4) Make heavy reference to 80's pop-culture. Unfortunately, NOPE. This is the only point of difference between Epic and RPO by Vince's demarcation.
5) Make heavy reference to MMO/online gamer culture
This is debatable. On the one hand, it's set in a computer game, and gamers have changed only so much(like, powergaming and minmaxing is *such* a big deal in Epic. On the other hand, the dnd references are relatively sparse.

Still, Epic is a wonderful coming-of-age yarn that, while less snarky and Pulp Fictiony than RPO, is definitely worth a read.

agreed - Gibson and Stephenson, good stuff.

Mary wrote: "Another relatively new cyberpunk novel out is Lauren Beukes' Moxyland. I enjoyed it even more than Ready Player One which I thought was good but a bit predictable. And, you can't go ..."

What do y'all think of Half the Day is Night by McHugh. Written before MMOGs and features them... a bit darker than Ready Player One, but I think solid.

I'd suggest New Model Army by Adam Roberts. I liked it for many of the same reasons I liked Ready Player One, but it is a very different book.

New Model Army

Lucky Wander Boy has a similar feel. Also consider some of the books by Douglas Coupland, like JPod or Microserfs.

I agree with Lucky Wander Boy. It involves a lot of 1980s video games and a quest to solve the final level of the game.

I think this book went out of print though, so it may be hard to find outside of the library.