Ready Player One

I just read it its really good. Scifi and lots of wondering what was going to happen next. Very immersive. So if you read it, talk about it. Or read it then talk about it. Ready Player One.

This one's on my to-read list. There's not enough video game-centric fiction out there.

I just started it on Saturday, and I really like it so far. I normally don't read a lot of Sci-Fi, but I'm enjoying this one. The characters, especially Wade and Halliday, are the best part.

Yeah, all of the game and pop culture references are great.

edited 3rd Oct '11 10:28:07 AM by BetsyandtheFiveAvengers

Oh, I've had my eye on this one! I'm so glad it's good.

~brushes off the altar~
~Begins ritual for dark arts of thread necromancy~
...


IT'S ALIVE!


Just finished reading Ready Player One.
Plowed through it in about three days.
(Would've taken longer, but couldn't put it down last night. Stayed up waaay too late.) -_-


I loved it.
Got it from the library, but I'm definitely hitting the bookstore on payday. It's worth owning.

The entire thing is a giant love letter to my generation.

If you grew up in, or just born in, the '80s, then I can't recommend this novel enough. Nearly every page is filled with an amazing mix of nostalgia and post-cyberpunk atmosphere.

I checked it out last year and started reading it but couldn't really get into it- probably in part because I'm not a huge video game fan or fan of 1980s culture.

It also struck me as being something of a rip-off of 'Snow Crash'', but with more linear plot and storytelling.

That being said, I would like to give it another shot, as it is a book that I'd like to like.

I really need to read more cyberpunk stuff.
Never got around to Snow Crash.
I love Neuromancer, need to get through the sequels.

Necro-ing this thread to give RPO fans an important message.

Warner Bros. is making the movie adaptation.

It's coming soon.

And it's directed by Steven Spielberg.

That is all.

I liked it, but I have to say I didn't care so much about the 80s pop culture probably because I don't care that much about 80s pop culture. Still a fun read.

I read it on Saturday. It's one of my favorite books, and I do not say that lightly, having read an incredible amount of books. I felt nostalgic for a time period that I've never been in! The film has a lot of potential, but it could be very easy to mess up.

I cannot possibly love this book more. I know to a certain extent I am supposed to mentally slot ourselves into the position of the protagonist of the novel, but this is one of the few books where I could and did imagine that I could take the place of the main character.

I remember when I finished reading it, I just sunk into this wierd, post book funk that I get only after reading all time favorite books for the first time, because I DON'T WANT THE REAL WORLD, I WANT MORE OF THE BOOK'S WORLD!!!

In fact, this book was so good, that the post reading funk I got from it screwed up a job interview. This book was so good it ruined my life...for one day at least

This book is a wonderful thing. Everyone should read it. Especially 80s nerds.

I enjoyed it, listened to it as an audiobook. Wil Wheaton makes a good narrator, but I occasionally had to zone out when yet another scoreboard listing was being provided.

I liked it quite a lot

I gave the book a proper review on the Booknest.EU website.

Which is, "This is a remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for 30-40 something males. YA marketed for older dudes who remember the Eighties."

Willy Wonka? Not really seeing the parallels there. Willy Wonka is basically an Author Tract against things that Ronald Dahl didn't like (like watching TV and chewing gum), where the incarnation of his pet peeves get their "just deserts" for their flaws, while the one perfect child is rewarded for his perfectness in the end.

Honestly, there's been a lot of hate for this book coming out of the woodwork since the trailer for the movie dropped, which sort of astonishes me. Was it always this divisive and I just missed it until now? I didn't read the book until a while after it came out, so I wasn't really part of the conversation about it at that point. Personally, I wouldn't call it high literature or anything, but it's a fun YA-ish adventure story with a bunch of pop culture references thrown in for flavor. It's the novel equivalent of cotton candy, which isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but the sheer amount of "LOOK HOW TERRIBLE THIS BOOK IS" I've seen in the last few days honestly bewilders me.

The book just ages really, REALLY poorly,; a mishmash of Author Tracts from a smug writer coupled with references that are the literary equivalent of jingling keys in front of a child. The main aesop is also massively hypocritical, where the only thing that moves the plot forward is rote memorization of references sans deeper meaning.

In an age where nerd references are quickly growing tiresome, this monument to them is badly written. There’s no deeper meaning and that’s the problem. It’s the South Park Member Berries in book form. (Apparently Matt and Trey Parker agree, there’s a video of them calling the book and film pure Member Berries to the point they retired the bit.)

edited 12th Dec '17 2:32:54 PM by Beatman1

Well, thanks for demonstrating exactly the sort of contempt for the novel that I just said confuses the hell out of me. What author tracts? What smugness? What aesop? I seriously don't see any of that, which is exactly what I find confusing about that kind of rant.

Ready Player One is basically the novel equivalent of The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (the song, not the trope). Yeah, it's basically nothing but a long series of pop culture references held together by a generic-if-functional plot about a loser kid becoming a hero and saving the world. But it never pretends to be anything else. It doesn't profess to reveal deep truths about the world or the human condition. It's dumb fun where you enjoy it for what it is and then move on with your life.

If you want to call it So Okay, It's Average, I can see that. If you want to call it a Guilty Pleasure (you like it for "bad" reason), I won't disagree. But this attitude that's it's offensively terrible I just don't get at all.

Willy Wonka is a story about a kid who wins a contest by a magical eccentric millionaire who is looking for the heir to his fortune.

Ready Player One...the same.

Well, fair enough. I can't really disagree with that. It's a really superficial comparison, though.

I also felt it was a bit notable given it's mentioned on the cover of the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/0307887448/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1513277170&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=Ready+Player+One&psc=1#reader_0307887448

And they use the song "World of Imagination" in the first trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtwpjnuaVTE

1:00

edited 14th Dec '17 10:46:28 AM by CharlesPhipps

I recommend this podcast, ''372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back'' where Conor Lastowka and Michael J. Nelson from Rifftrax review the book. It is hilarious and they really get to the heart of my issues with the book: Stilted dialog, an Author Tract our of nowhere every few chapters, and the use of references to replace any sort of proper descriptions or narrative.

edited 16th Dec '17 8:38:23 AM by Beatman1

Thanks for that. I just started it and it's already hilarious.

I, too, thank you.

This is hilarious.

Every single thing about these books sets these two dudes off and....they're not wrong.

Yeah, as someone that enjoyed the book, it's really fun to listen to them and think "well, they're not wrong." The issues with Art3mis in particular are pleasant since it's putting my own thoughts into words.

Plus, I will say that the Beige Prose of the book in my case worked in its favor. Yes, descriptions were clearly lacking in many places. For me, it allowed me to vividly make my own visualization. It didn't paint a terribly specific picture, but it did that consistently enough that it never contradicted the picture I painted for myself.

I must admit that unlike, say, Stranger Things (which I find works even if you're not used to the genre) if I weren't already familiar with most of the references, I am pretty sure that for that reason I would find this mediocre at best. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, because, gee whiz, I am in that target audience. Wild, that.

edited 17th Jan '18 2:00:17 PM by Larkmarn