Reviews with content warning for Death - Jogador Nº 1

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Jogador Nº 1 by Ernest Cline

82 reviews

angelicathebookworm's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After having spent most of the last three years reading set texts as part of my degree, I was itching to pick out my next read based solely on the fact that I was interested in reading it and to actually like it. Luckily the first novel I had my eye on was Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, as it has since been added to my list of bookish favourites.

Cline’s debut novel is a heavily detailed adventure story, interspersed with some fast-paced scenes, that takes place in a virtual utopia that becomes most people’s escape from the real dystopian world they choose to ignore. The quest to find the creator’s hidden Easter egg is experienced through the eyes of Wade Owen Watts, an unattractive and overweight teenager whose life is filled with more absence than abundance.

Since I have already mentioned that Ready Player One has become a recent favourite of mine, it’s not surprising that there are many aspects of the novel that I enjoyed. Cline’s narrative involves the construction of two distinct worlds: a utopian fallacy and the dystopian reality. The novel is quite world-building heavy, and although I loved those parts of the narrative I know that not every reader does. That is one thing to consider if you are interested in reading this novel. What I thought was done well was the descriptions of both worlds as they were shown in different yet equal ways. While the Oasis is beautifully depicted through detailed exposition, the reality is portrayed as the decaying future that could be evitable for the readers in their own reality. This is partly shown in the novel being set during a time where society has not yet reached its final days—unlike some dystopian narratives that I also enjoy reading—but still has time to save itself should it choose to.

Alongside the use of setting, characterisation is the other significant aspect of Cline’s novel. What I liked most about the narrator, Wade, is that I didn’t like him… at least not entirely. I related to his opinions of society; I admired the feelings he has towards his parents, and I could understand some of his actions when it came to his relationships with other characters. What I didn’t like about Wade’s character was his infatuation with Art3mis, a female avatar he discovers and obsessed over—but doesn’t meet until much later on in the story—in the Oasis. Despite not liking this aspect of Wade, I admired Cline’s inclusion of it because it made Wade a flawed and realistic character. The flaw also serves as a cautionary commentary on online relationships that should be noted in the minds of all readers. Something I did genuinely like about Wade as a character is that he became obsessed with the 80s in the same way as Halladay was. It made me think that, despite his flaws and the fact that he wasn’t constantly the best player, Wade was worthy of the prize.

Despite my enjoyment of the novel as a whole, there are a few aspects that I did not enjoy as much as others, but it didn’t much affect my overall opinion of the book. There are many significant characters that I thought were well developed—one my favourites is Aech in both reality and avatar form—I felt that the antagonist, Nolan Sorrento, was not as well developed in comparison. The reason I felt that way is because Sorrento is the head of operations at a corporation that plans to take over and monetize the Oasis, and has mindless drones that work for him called Sixers. Since the Sixers are stripped of their personalities and are forced on the endless quest for the egg, I would have liked to see Sorrento with a bigger personality for more of a contrast between the leader and the corporate slaves. Sorrento wasn’t the only character that I found to be a little flat in comparison to other characters. In a novel that is mostly based in a virtual world where people can create any type of persona they could ever imagine, I would have preferred to have read about more clashes of strong personalities throughout.

Like many novels I’ve read, Cline’s debut does split the opinion of readers. One of the most heavily debated aspects of Cline’s novel is the many references to video games and the 80s. While there is much more to this novel than the allusions, like the emphasis on detail and the addition of moral messages, if you’re not looking forward to them then this may not be the book for you. Some readers have argued that their inclusion adds nothing but I loved the feeling it sparked every time I read a reference I understood. It’s only recently that the topics of the novel—such as science fiction and gaming—have become more mainstream, and so I found the novel to be a celebration of those interests and the people who love them. The novel may not be perfect (tell me which novels are!), but the feelings I was left with after reading the final page was more than enough reason to give it a five-star rating.

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Content Warnings

paracosim's review against another edition

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This was the most cringey, wish-fulfillment jammed novel I’ve ever had the misfortune to pick up. I was (very) hesitantly willing to read on even after reading the line, “and everybody clapped,” without any irony...and then it suddenly became very racist and transphobic. I am most certainly not interested in finishing this novel, watching the movie, or looking up any of the author’s other books. 0/10 read for me.

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