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A review by janeleng
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4.0
Okay, first let me say that I binged this book. I found Ready Player One to be highly addicting to read, with non-stop action and highly imaginative world building. But I think that the fast pace of the book prevented me from dwelling on any complaints I had about the plot. I didn't have the time to become irritated with them when they arose because there was already six new things happening on the next page. So now that there's time to reflect, here are my critiques.
Ready Player One relies heavily on "telling rather than showing." I would say that the first 70 pages of the edition I read were almost all synopsis. Which makes sense at the beginning because there's so much that Ernest Cline is trying to catch you up on--the state of the world in 20+ years, the fictional past of James Halliday, and the digital multiverse that is OASIS. But then after you learn all this, Cline keeps telling you thing. Some of the tangents are important pieces of information about video game lore, but sometimes its irrelevant flashbacks and, even worse, what could have been exciting action scenes. I didn't want Wade to tell me how he did X, Y, and Z retroactively, I wanted to actually watch him do it.
On a somewhat related note, another thing that I felt detracted from the plot was how much information Cline packed into the story. I get that the main character is a know-it-all geek and a main facet of the story is understanding everything about 80's culture, but at times it seemed as though Cline sacrificed cohesiveness of the story to insert yet another reference. Like I said above, there were tangential flashbacks or asides about various aspects of the world (both reality and OASIS) that weren't necessary for the reader to know. Cline clearly has an expansive idea of his dystopian future and tried to cram as much of it as possible into one book. But it came at the expense of crucial details of the plot being underdeveloped.
On a final note, although not much of a surprise given the genre and subject matter, the main female character Art3mis is also underdeveloped. As the story progresses, she begins to function more and more as an object of desire. I didn't really buy the romance between her and Wade--it came off as an easy trope used to motivate Wade's character.
But other than those things, Ready Player One is worth the read. It's inventive, action packed, and full of fun.
Ready Player One relies heavily on "telling rather than showing." I would say that the first 70 pages of the edition I read were almost all synopsis. Which makes sense at the beginning because there's so much that Ernest Cline is trying to catch you up on--the state of the world in 20+ years, the fictional past of James Halliday, and the digital multiverse that is OASIS. But then after you learn all this, Cline keeps telling you thing. Some of the tangents are important pieces of information about video game lore, but sometimes its irrelevant flashbacks and, even worse, what could have been exciting action scenes. I didn't want Wade to tell me how he did X, Y, and Z retroactively, I wanted to actually watch him do it.
On a somewhat related note, another thing that I felt detracted from the plot was how much information Cline packed into the story. I get that the main character is a know-it-all geek and a main facet of the story is understanding everything about 80's culture, but at times it seemed as though Cline sacrificed cohesiveness of the story to insert yet another reference. Like I said above, there were tangential flashbacks or asides about various aspects of the world (both reality and OASIS) that weren't necessary for the reader to know. Cline clearly has an expansive idea of his dystopian future and tried to cram as much of it as possible into one book. But it came at the expense of crucial details of the plot being underdeveloped.
On a final note, although not much of a surprise given the genre and subject matter, the main female character Art3mis is also underdeveloped. As the story progresses, she begins to function more and more as an object of desire. I didn't really buy the romance between her and Wade--it came off as an easy trope used to motivate Wade's character.
But other than those things, Ready Player One is worth the read. It's inventive, action packed, and full of fun.