By Ernest Cline
Continuing our jaunt into fiction, today’s book is Ready Player One a science fiction adventure which rose up the bestseller lists and is now being made into a film. I want to say up front that the style and pacing of this one may not be for everybody and will likely turn many of you off at the outset. As with all the books I read I made an effort to stick with the author through these initial challenges and after a short time was drawn into the story.
The book is set in a dystopian future, where the populous is connected to a vast online world called the oasis, through a futuristic VR simulation. The main arc of the story is that the creator of this simulation had, prior to his death, hidden his fortune at the end of an “Easter egg hunt” within the oasis. We follow a non-traditional hero, who eschewing the norms of this genre is overweight and suffers with teenage acne and angst.
The book details his struggles in working through the puzzles left by the designer of the oasis, his conflict with the large corporation also seeking the prize and of course his romance of the books other main character, Artemis. As mentioned earlier the pace is fast and reads in a manner similar at times to a graphic novel.
I like Cline’s work in general, however, I think at times this book suffers from a number of his typical issues (many of which were replicated in his subsequent book, Armada). The primary problem being his heavy reliance on 80’s trivia and video game culture. While I like this as a hook (as a child of the 80’s myself), the tropes really do grate after a while. Despite this, I very much enjoyed the book and will be picking up Cline’s future work.
Think Live Grow 