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A review by opheliapo
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4.0
Most of the reviews i’ve heard about this book are either about praising or condemning the 1980’s nostalgia goggle ridden fetishisation of everything geeky from that time. Which isn’t wrong, but it does feel like concentrating on that alone really cheapens the book as a whole.
Even though I was born over 6 years after the end of the 80’s, I still experienced a nostalgia ripple effect as a child, having a father who was fully invested in cult classic movies and anything related to computing. So I did appreciate the whirlwind tour of that era, which Cline so kindly took me on.
More than that, though, I appreciated the character development, the puzzles, and the world-building. For a spectacularly fast-paced book that barely paused for breath, I still felt that each of these elements were rich and well handled. And not to mention, the whole atmosphere had flare. I got to experience my favourite paradox of feelings - both wanting to read on because it’s just too good, and wanting to take a break because I didn’t want it to end.
Although it frustrated me a little at first, I appreciated Cline making his characters authentic teens: boastful, socially clumsy, cringey idiots (consider Parzival’s: ’I studied Monty Python. And NOT JUST Holy Grail, either.’ p.62. Oh boy. Or Art3mis’ referring to herself as an ‘obsessive-compulsive geek’ (p.351)). This included Wade’s ‘fetish’ over ‘cute, geeky girls playing 80’s cover tunes on ukuleles’ (p.63) and Halliday’s personal thoughts on the importance of ‘slapping the salami’ and ‘[discovering] the little man in the canoe.’ (p.194), both of which made me laugh out loud.
His use of text-chat was also well handled, to the point where I was reading messages between Aech and Parzival that I had actually sent to my own friends in the past.
In fact, by the end, I was a big fan of all of the characters, in and out of the OASIS. But i’ll get to that in the spoilers section.
With that being said, this wasn’t a perfect book.
There were a few parts that WERE just straight up cringey. Like the character of I-r0k, who I wish Cline had abandoned entirely, and even Daito and Shoto. I know the point was that they were meant to be acting as champions of their culture through the lens of 80’s samurai movies, but most of the time it just felt like every Japanese stereotype mashed into one. There were only so many times I could read the word ‘honour’ without wondering if he was taking the piss.
There were also a few... holes here and there that broke my immersion, as it were. Like when Wade is able to log into a new OASIS account for work, even though it’s mentioned earlier that each person is allowed only one account each. Or when we find out that Wade just happens to be able to shred on the guitar AND carries a guitar pick everywhere he goes, even though this wasn’t mentioned even once in the previous 263 pages.
With that being said, for most of the story I was quite easily able to suspend my disbelief.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Right. Lets talk about Aech. When I first learned that both Aech’s race and gender were different from their character’s I was disappointed. I can admit that. I don’t know what kind of platonic white boy fantasy I had cooked up in my head, but Aech turning out to be a girl felt wrong. Then I did a full 180. As soon as it became apparent that the dynamic of their friendship wasn’t going to change at all, I realised that the only reason I had originally been upset over the idea was because I had my own preconceptions about the way gender affects relationships. I had even made an annotation earlier in the book that read ‘really positive platonic male friendship’. Well NOW it was a really positive platonic MALE/FEMALE friendship. Cline made me question my own unconscious reactions to gender, and I really appreciated that.
I thought that Art3mis was a badass. Her relationship with Wade was a little juvenile, but totally healthy, and it’s unusual to find a pairing who are actually shown to be well matched. I made my fair share of excited noises every time she got a chance to prove herself, which she did on several occasions. And the birth mark? Loved it. Though I hear that they underplayed it in the movie, which is a shame (reminds me of Emma Roberts’ barely visible ‘scars’ in the It’s Kind of a Funny Story adaptation).
I’ve already mentioned that I wasn’t a fan of Daito and Shoto’s portrayals, although I ended up appreciating Shoto a lot more as the novel went on. I did feel a little bit like Shoto’s eventual in-game self-sacrifice was a little bit obvious. I saw that shit coming as soon as they mentioned that they only needed three keys to open the final gate. Convenient.
Through it all, however, I really loved this novel, and I will almost certainly read it again. Through the epic battles and the often painfully obvious but nonetheless charming references (my favourite was Parzival’s dance software being called ‘Travoltra’) I grew genuinely attached to the characters, the world, and not least, the game.
Even though I was born over 6 years after the end of the 80’s, I still experienced a nostalgia ripple effect as a child, having a father who was fully invested in cult classic movies and anything related to computing. So I did appreciate the whirlwind tour of that era, which Cline so kindly took me on.
More than that, though, I appreciated the character development, the puzzles, and the world-building. For a spectacularly fast-paced book that barely paused for breath, I still felt that each of these elements were rich and well handled. And not to mention, the whole atmosphere had flare. I got to experience my favourite paradox of feelings - both wanting to read on because it’s just too good, and wanting to take a break because I didn’t want it to end.
Although it frustrated me a little at first, I appreciated Cline making his characters authentic teens: boastful, socially clumsy, cringey idiots (consider Parzival’s: ’I studied Monty Python. And NOT JUST Holy Grail, either.’ p.62. Oh boy. Or Art3mis’ referring to herself as an ‘obsessive-compulsive geek’ (p.351)). This included Wade’s ‘fetish’ over ‘cute, geeky girls playing 80’s cover tunes on ukuleles’ (p.63) and Halliday’s personal thoughts on the importance of ‘slapping the salami’ and ‘[discovering] the little man in the canoe.’ (p.194), both of which made me laugh out loud.
His use of text-chat was also well handled, to the point where I was reading messages between Aech and Parzival that I had actually sent to my own friends in the past.
In fact, by the end, I was a big fan of all of the characters, in and out of the OASIS. But i’ll get to that in the spoilers section.
With that being said, this wasn’t a perfect book.
There were a few parts that WERE just straight up cringey. Like the character of I-r0k, who I wish Cline had abandoned entirely, and even Daito and Shoto. I know the point was that they were meant to be acting as champions of their culture through the lens of 80’s samurai movies, but most of the time it just felt like every Japanese stereotype mashed into one. There were only so many times I could read the word ‘honour’ without wondering if he was taking the piss.
There were also a few... holes here and there that broke my immersion, as it were. Like when Wade is able to log into a new OASIS account for work, even though it’s mentioned earlier that each person is allowed only one account each. Or when we find out that Wade just happens to be able to shred on the guitar AND carries a guitar pick everywhere he goes, even though this wasn’t mentioned even once in the previous 263 pages.
With that being said, for most of the story I was quite easily able to suspend my disbelief.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Right. Lets talk about Aech. When I first learned that both Aech’s race and gender were different from their character’s I was disappointed. I can admit that. I don’t know what kind of platonic white boy fantasy I had cooked up in my head, but Aech turning out to be a girl felt wrong. Then I did a full 180. As soon as it became apparent that the dynamic of their friendship wasn’t going to change at all, I realised that the only reason I had originally been upset over the idea was because I had my own preconceptions about the way gender affects relationships. I had even made an annotation earlier in the book that read ‘really positive platonic male friendship’. Well NOW it was a really positive platonic MALE/FEMALE friendship. Cline made me question my own unconscious reactions to gender, and I really appreciated that.
I thought that Art3mis was a badass. Her relationship with Wade was a little juvenile, but totally healthy, and it’s unusual to find a pairing who are actually shown to be well matched. I made my fair share of excited noises every time she got a chance to prove herself, which she did on several occasions. And the birth mark? Loved it. Though I hear that they underplayed it in the movie, which is a shame (reminds me of Emma Roberts’ barely visible ‘scars’ in the It’s Kind of a Funny Story adaptation).
I’ve already mentioned that I wasn’t a fan of Daito and Shoto’s portrayals, although I ended up appreciating Shoto a lot more as the novel went on. I did feel a little bit like Shoto’s eventual in-game self-sacrifice was a little bit obvious. I saw that shit coming as soon as they mentioned that they only needed three keys to open the final gate. Convenient.
Through it all, however, I really loved this novel, and I will almost certainly read it again. Through the epic battles and the often painfully obvious but nonetheless charming references (my favourite was Parzival’s dance software being called ‘Travoltra’) I grew genuinely attached to the characters, the world, and not least, the game.