Ready Player One

I really liked this. It appealed to my gamer side, while showering me in that sweet 80s nostalgia. If you want to get sucked away into an interesting sci-fi world, you should give this a go.

Leído del tirón. Este libro es pura diversión especialmente para aquellos que nacieron en el setenta y tantos.

Ready Player One est un magnifique hommage aux années 80, un autel dédié à l'apport de cette décennie, à ses jeux vidéos, ses films, sa musique, ... Même si je les aies ratées de peu (allez quoi, j'y ai passé deux ans, c'est bon quoi !), j'avoue que j'ai une énorme affection pour cette période et que ses films ont quand même bercés mon enfance et adolescence. C'était donc un bonheur de se plonger dans ce livre et de rejoindre son personnage principal pendant ces quelques centaines de pages.



Le livre présente un futur qui n'est pas beau à voir, où l'être humain s'est enfermé dans une simulation virtuelle plutôt que de faire face aux problèmes du monde réel, une idée que j'ai tendance à trouver aussi terrifiante que plausible. Mais le livre arrive à faire la jonction entre la culture « geek » et une mise en garde. Loin de condamner les jeux-vidéos et consorts, il s'en sert comme tremplin pour une prise de conscience écologique.

Le personnage de Wade est attachant, un peu maladroit, complètement geek, avec une connaissance encyclopédique de tout ce qui touche aux années 80, mais coincé dans un corps d'adolescent avec les problèmes que l'on connait à cette période on s'y attache extrêmement facilement, on saute de joie quand il réussit une action, on se gratte la tête avec, on en devient dingue !

Si au début j'ai mis du temps à rentrer dans l'histoire, je me suis retrouvé à littéralement dévorer ce livre à toute vitesse, mettant en pause toute autre activité juste pour réussir à voir l'histoire se dérouler. J'ai ri, pleuré, ajouté un nombre incalculable de musiques dans mes playlists, de films à voir, mais ** que j'ai aimé cette histoire !

Bref, si les années 80 vous obsèdent, si vous y êtes nés, si vous adorez les jeux vidéos ou la science fiction, dévorez ce livre à toute vitesse !

Wonderful read. Slow in some sections but more or less kept me entertained the entire time.

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Let me start by saying that I really wanted to like this book. I'd heard mixed things prior to reading it so I went in with an open mind. It sounded like it was gonna be a lot of fun.

It wasn't.

The premise of the book is really neat and I think it could have been done a lot better had it not been mostly filler.

The story is about a kid named Wade who spends all of his time in this VR world called OASIS. I get it, VR is super rad. There are essentially a bunch of Easter Eggs and whoever follows all the clues and reaches the end of the hunt first get massive power and fortune. Basically Willy Wonka, which is fine, I'm not against retellings. 

My problem with Ready Player One is that it just force feeds you 80's references over and over again until you can't take anymore and you want to die, most aren't even relevant to the story. It's like he purposely went over the book and squeezed in extra ones to up the word count and nostalgia but it's just way too much and just pulls you out of the story. It's essentially made me permanently weary of anything 80's themed.

I have no idea how it's rated as highly as it is. I'll give it an extra star for being a good concept, but I still hate it. Unpopular opinion I guess.

This book wins the award for most 80's references in any book I've ever read. Makes me wanna go out and buy up all the old arcade games and play them in a mega video game marathon! My geeky girl gamer side is completely won over by Ernest Cline.

Very fun book, I love the premise of the plot. The absolutely massive amount of 80s references was a little bit much for me, though!

This was an insanely good book. Even if you're not very knowledgeable about video games or “geeky” shows, it still keeps you entertained. I could hardly put it down.

This started out fun, cyberpunk mixed with reference after references of 80ies pop culture. An adventureland quest to hunt down the most important inheritance of this dystopian future. But then you quickly realize that the writing is somehow lacking, that the story is not doing more than simply cueing more and more 80ies game trivia, and then you suddenly realize that this might be a YA novel. If you are a gamer you probably have a fun time reading this, if not, it's still quite entertaining but nothing more.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I have too many thoughts so I'm gonna use bullet points:

-I adored all the 80s references. They made me nostalgic even though I was born in the 90s. They made me: A. Want to read/watch/play all the things B. Realize that if they make a movie out of this properly they'd have to pay like 9 billion dollars to get the rights to things.

-Wil Wheaton did an excellent job reading and it was pretty hilarious to hear him read about himself in Wade's voice

-Awesome use of the “real self” trope you see in MMORPG stories. Interesting commentary on sexism and racism. Loved the reveals for everyone's real self and loved that Wade was mature about said reveals.

-I, of course, wish The Oasis was real. Loved how it was not just an RPG thing but a world kinda like Second Life that even non-geeks participated in. Found the idea of the accessories that allowed you to smell and feel you surroundings super cool and creative.

-The HUGE access to every pop culture thing ever Wade had made me extremely jealous

-I was surprised to hear stuff about masturbation and simulated sex in a book for younger readers but approved of the author not talking down to his readers

-Good to see it wasn't “YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE FOR REAL” but rather real life murder (which was aptly disturbing).

-Though it was hard to hear (lol I'm an escapist) the “real world is the only place you can find happiness” bit was an important message and the last sentence of the book was the perfect ending

-I liked the Japanese character but found them to be a little stereotypical, always talking about what is “honorable.” Maybe the fact that they're nerds justifies it but I've got mixed feelings.

-LGBT AND black character automatically makes this book awesome. Also enjoyed the port wine stain thing.

I'm off to look into all the allusions mentioned in this book!

Yer yer 80'ler göndermelerinden öah dedirtse ve aşırı detaydan temposunu çooooooook çok düşürse de genel olarak eğlenceli. Blizz'in virtual reality wow yapması için sabırsızlanıyorum.

If you are not into “Geek Culture,” this book may be an above-average read at best. But if you are a fan of 80's pop culture, comics, sci-fi, and most of all, video games, you MUST read this book.

The world Cline creates is truly amazing. But as fantastical as it is, this book is a harbinger of where we are headed technologically, and as a culture.

I look forward to the author's next book.

Enjoyable, quick read. Finished in 2 days (between work shifts). Liked the concept a lot, but some of the 80s references felt like they had been tacked on just for the author to say “hey, look, another obscure 80s reference!” ... but I didn't feel like that detracted from the story too much. Would make a cool movie, that much I can say for sure.

I loved this book, it was a unique take on the goonies-esque adventure with some great geek references. If you're a child of the 80's I couldn't recommend this highly enough.

I have to mark this book read even though I barely started. The '80s references reach a masturbatory level very early on. And I'm in the same demographic as Mr. Cline. I don't need to be told how to pronounce Art3mis and Sux0rz. That just insulted my intelligence.

Wikipedia lists this as science fiction, while Goodreads at least also classifies it as young adult. It certainly reads like I imagine a YA novel would.

I'm not sure why this is such a favorite. I get the whole 80s thing, but the writing is so overwrought that I found myself skimming the last half of the book.

Ready Player One is like a geek version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory drenched in 80's nostalgia. I read a review that said something about the book being ‘sprinkled' with 80's references, but I really feel that no, it was drenched. You cannot find a page in the book that does not bash you over the head with it.

Now, I love my 80's stuff and geek culture is where my heart is. This book would have been lovely, but it was sooooooooo ‘let me explain every reference to you'. There was a part where two characters are looking at a scene and one says, ‘It looks like Rivendell.' to which the other character responds, ‘It looks like Rivendell, from Lord of the Rings.' Oh, I'm sorry, was the first character talking about a Rivendell from another book?

It was stuff like that that began to get on my nerves. I listened to the book because it was read by Wil Wheaton, and hello! Wil Wheaton. But even he couldn't make me not want to scream out loud when 2 and a half hours into the book I've listened to listings of nearly every movie, tv show, band and book that existed in the 1980's. I almost gave up on the book, but friends assured me that there was a story yet to come.

Once things did get going it was somewhat better. I don't think I really got into the book until near the end at the final hunt and the epic battle that hopefully will translate to screen very well. I think that this is one of those books that could possibly make a better movie than a book because it will be forced to edit down quite a bit and this book needed editing.

AWESOME BOOK! It's a love letter to the 80s and full of awesome, geeky references. I loved every minute of this novel and I never wanted it to end. SO GOOD!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline had me hooked from the very beginning. The atmosphere of the book, world, and characters were overwhelming and had me on the edge of my seat most of the time. The history of Oasis and the creators brought light to the virtual reality world. The hunt for the Easter Egg brought excitement to the book but the real purpose behind the story was to stop the organization IOI from taking over Oasis.

I really enjoyed this book and it kept me interested constantly with all of the different pop culture references. I loved that I knew a good amount of them but the others gave me a reason to look them up and learn about new movies, songs, and games to be interested in.

The characters were very well done and interesting to read about. I really enjoyed the main character, Wade, because he was very believable and seemed like the type of stereotype that would be obsessed with video games and virtual reality worlds. Art3mis was badass and I really enjoyed reading about her character because she brought a new spunk to the table. Aech was the funny friend that everyone has and looked out for Wade a lot. All of the main characters were very smart and knew a lot about Halliday.

I liked that there was a villain aspect in this book and that it wasn't completely revolved around getting the Easter egg. There was another purpose to finding the egg first for the characters. It was a nice addition and helped keep the book/game balanced.

Overall, this book had a good balance of humor, knowledge, references, and video game aspects to please even the smallest portion of a geek/nerd. I geeked out during this entire book and the ending had me screaming about foreshadowing I noticed and things I knew would happen. It kept me entertained and that is something I haven't had from a book in a while.

I would recommend this book to so many people and I already have! Anyone that is even remotely interested by the synopsis should pick up this book. If anything, you will get a fast read that will keep you entertained. The best will get an experience that they can live through the eyes of Wade.

Book discussion video where I discuss the whole book! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESbHFsRyqo8

Tres llaves, tres puertas, un huevo de pascua y hacerte con la herencia de James Donovan Halliday alias Anorak, fundador de Oasis.

Oasis es un programa de realidad virtual, que sirve como juego, pero que para muchos es el lugar donde pasan su vida: un escape donde pueden ser lo que deseen. Pero cuando Halliday muere sin familia, amigos o algún heredero, lanza el mayor juego en la historia, y quien llegue al final se quedará con toda su fortuna y será dueño de Oasis. ¿Quién no entraría a ese juego? Yo seguro que sí. Aunque me tomaría más de 20 años para encontrar la primera llave.

Así nuestro protagonista Wade alias Perzival, se lanzará en la búsqueda de este huevo de pascua. Pisándole los talones tenemos a otros personajes como: Art3mis, Hache, Daito y Shoto. Pero las cosas no serán tan fáciles, porque como en todo, habrá alguien que se aproveche de un error en las reglas del juego. Aquí entra la compañía GSS, con su líder Sorrento y un ejército de gente dispuesta a impedir que cualquiera llegue a ganar el preciado premio.

Libro bastante entretenido, para pasar un buen rato. Con mucho de nostalgia para aquellos que vivieron en la década de los 80´s, principalmente. Aunque no es totalmente de mi época y al principio tuve mi celular en mano para ir a buscar alguna referencia, ya avanzado el libro sabía de que estaban hablando: películas, series, cantantes, personajes...Si bien los videojuegos no son totalmente lo mío, aquí casi me dan ganas de empezar a jugar.

Siento que en algunos momentos si se hacen demasiadas referencias y casi todo tiene que estar sacado de algo ochentoso. Entiendo la obsesión de Halliday y que se ponga de moda y todos tengan que hacer investigación. Pero fuera de eso no sé porque no se ve alguna otra cosa, algún otro interés de los otros personajes, aunque sea uno. También me hace gracia cuando un personaje dice algo como: es como Rivendel, del señor de los anillos. Si, creo que los que están en el juego saben eso (y los que estamos leyendo seguro que también).

Pero al final no importa, me entretuvo y mantuvo interesada hasta llegar a saber quien se queda con el dichoso huevo. Emocionante en varias partes del juego. Con su historia de amor, aún sin haberse visto en la vida real. Y amistad también.

Me puedo imaginar a gente a la que recomendar su lectura.

Y por último dos cosas:

1.El programa que si no has hecho tu rutina de ejercicio no te deja hacer nada: ni trabajar, entrar al juego, hacer tu vida, para acabar pronto. Y aparte si te pasas de comida te regula el ejercicio. Necesito eso ¿Dónde lo consigo?

2.Yo sí voto.

Great idea, excellent middle and a bit of a meh ending.

Pretty fun. Listened to most of it on audio. Something about the cover, and the way it had been presented, had led me to believe that this book was as bit more, I don't know, literary? It's not. It's a fun science fiction adventure, and that's about it. The language is plain, the characters are secondary to the adventure. It's a nerd fantasy in the extreme, and sometimes that sort of takes you out of it a bit. But I am still a pretty big nerd. So I mostly enjoyed it, and now I'm moving on with my day.

Only gets the second star because I felt compelled to finish it, but this book is very not good.

I think the last video game I played all the way through was Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders on the Commodore 64, so I wasn't up on all the video game nerdery, but mostly this was right up my alley. It was a very quick, very light read, but fun.

Wow! What an absolute ride that was. Well done and thank you to Ernest Cline for a great journey into some of the highlights of my youth. The setting is also so brilliantly crafted that you wish that such a simulation existed in our world or that technology takes us to this frontier soon. OASIS is an awesome creation and while many a book have done Virtual reality this one just makes it a fun ride without really getting into the technical aspects of how its done i.e the writer takes some significant leaps and you don't really care. In the end this book is more about living in the 80s than about Sci-fi and I dare you as a child of those years to not like this book. Highly recommended!