Paperback, 374 pages
English language
Published July 9, 2011 by Crown Publishers.
Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune. Cline sold the rights to publish the novel in June 2010, in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group (a division of Random House). The book was published on August 16, 2011. An audiobook was released the same day; it was narrated by Wil Wheaton, who was mentioned briefly in one of the chapters.Ch. 20 In 2012, the book received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association and won the 2011 Prometheus Award. A film adaptation, screenwritten by Cline and Zak Penn and directed …
Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune. Cline sold the rights to publish the novel in June 2010, in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group (a division of Random House). The book was published on August 16, 2011. An audiobook was released the same day; it was narrated by Wil Wheaton, who was mentioned briefly in one of the chapters.Ch. 20 In 2012, the book received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association and won the 2011 Prometheus Award. A film adaptation, screenwritten by Cline and Zak Penn and directed by Steven Spielberg, was released on March 29, 2018. A sequel novel, Ready Player Two, was released on November 24, 2020.
Even though I didn't much like it, I did actually finish it, which is worth an extra star.
//read in 2012
An enjoyable and quick read. Nostalgia is bound together by a fairly predictable plot line. I wanted to go back and create a playlist of all the music mentioned, but I borrowed the book from a co-worker and needed to return it.
To be honest it's been a while since I read the book so don't expect a full in depht review. Sorry.
I liked it, quite a lot indeed. I also enjoy playing video games and 90% of the action occours on a video game. I think that, as always, the book is quite superior compared to the movie.
In conclussion: I recomend it if you like cifi stuff.
This book is so awesome and full of win that I didn't want it to be over.
I didn't find this book as objectionable as some reviewers seem to have, but I will say that the author really can go on and on with descriptions in some places. That happens especially heavy-handedly towards the first part of the book, which kept me from finishing it as quickly as I might normally. The stacks on stacks on stacks of 80s cultural references really, really started to wear on me, though, and that's speaking as someone who graduated high school in the 80s. It felt so much like an endless "wink wink nudge nudge" name drop that after a while, nothing stood out and my mind started to numb out in a haze of Duran Duran, Family Ties, Atari, and John Hughes films.
The second half flew by a bit faster, with more action, though I felt like the ending fell flat for me, like a quick wrap-up and …
I didn't find this book as objectionable as some reviewers seem to have, but I will say that the author really can go on and on with descriptions in some places. That happens especially heavy-handedly towards the first part of the book, which kept me from finishing it as quickly as I might normally. The stacks on stacks on stacks of 80s cultural references really, really started to wear on me, though, and that's speaking as someone who graduated high school in the 80s. It felt so much like an endless "wink wink nudge nudge" name drop that after a while, nothing stood out and my mind started to numb out in a haze of Duran Duran, Family Ties, Atari, and John Hughes films.
The second half flew by a bit faster, with more action, though I felt like the ending fell flat for me, like a quick wrap-up and get the hell out sort of ending. I would have liked to have seen more time given to the brief mentions of what was happening in the world outside of the OASIS; the story really glosses over all these potential plot points/driving forces.
Also, so much deus ex machina... so so much.
One thing I'll say about the movie vs the book - they plumped up the main villain a bit more. Because I was expecting SO MUCH MORE from the main IOI guy and it was like... okay?
Anyway. Yeah. It was about what I expected, the second half is better than the first, and the ending was a letdown. Do I regret reading it? No, but I did get that itchy, annoying feeling that I get whenever I'm around gatekeeper types who want to suck the fun out of my geek obsessions - which is a bummer when I'm just looking for light fun in my read.
Absolutely great book about the 80s, video games, movies, music and more. You will love it, even if you weren't part of that time.
Mostly harmless.
This book was so stupid.
The Japanese stereotypes and deus ex machina made me cringe. Exciting premise but could've used more development/detail.
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 …
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 !
A love letter to the eighties. This is a Dan Brown novel set in the future looking back with love to the 1980's.
GRIPPING. Absolutely gripping. I couldn't put it down. This is not a book for young adults, but if you have any interest in video game culture and history at all, you should read this.
Also, it's thrilling. The review on my copy said "Willy Wonka meets Harry Potter," and it's true. They're protecting the world they love and bringing others to justice. They're chasing clues and scavenging items. They're marching through a nearly-real manifestation of the 1980s and commenting on its effects on the modern world.
Read this book.
Ready Player One is a celever romp through 80's geek culture, set in a moderately interesting world. While I was moved to finish it, I'm not sure how it will stand the test of time. In tone, it reminded me of Redshirts by Scalzi, which I think did a better job of integrating the nostalgic material into the story.
This was a very enjoyable and fast read. It had the same vibe as Little Brother (although LB has more political/ philosophical weight) with a protagonist who is uber-smart, geeky and struggling against social inequity and 'forces of darkness'. The adventures and puzzles he faces and the solutions he comes up with are all very satisfying and I didn't mind that it side-stepped the problem of how to fix up the real world portrayed in the book. Oh and for a person like me 'of a certain age' I loved all the Eighties references, in fact I'm digging out my DVD of War Games right now...
I was really looking forward to this. A lot of reviewers gave this really high marks, but I'm terribly unimpressed. The writing style is similar to much of the YA stuff out there, which isn't a good thing. Why would a YA book be written with cultural references which are from the decade before YAs were even born? I'm only halfway through, though, and I'm really hoping that it gets better. It seems like a quickly thrown together story with a lot of retro name dropping, but none of the 80s references are clever. Usually, it's just listing authors, movies or songs. It is impossible to suspend disbelief enough to get past the sloppy parts. How could the hero read every book by every author, see every episode of every TV show, watch every movie - multiple times, in many cases. Some throwaway comments like personal computer storage that holds …
I was really looking forward to this. A lot of reviewers gave this really high marks, but I'm terribly unimpressed. The writing style is similar to much of the YA stuff out there, which isn't a good thing. Why would a YA book be written with cultural references which are from the decade before YAs were even born? I'm only halfway through, though, and I'm really hoping that it gets better. It seems like a quickly thrown together story with a lot of retro name dropping, but none of the 80s references are clever. Usually, it's just listing authors, movies or songs. It is impossible to suspend disbelief enough to get past the sloppy parts. How could the hero read every book by every author, see every episode of every TV show, watch every movie - multiple times, in many cases. Some throwaway comments like personal computer storage that holds "3 digital copies of everything in existence" are just.... Gaaaah! I just don't have words for it. Oh well, to each his own, right? I'm glad that so many people enjoyed the book, I just wish I could be a part of it!
Edit: I'm done. I can't change my score... It just wasn't a very good book. It really didn't seem like the book was planned. A lot of things appeared as afterthoughts. For example, the main character got into a scrape with the police. All of a sudden, he explains how the police were about to break down the door, but he didn't mention that he installed a metal cage around his apartment just in case the police would try to break in. No mention of it until this point. He needed to jump or fly to get to a high spot and asked his friends if they had any items to help. His friend had some shoes that could make the wearer fly - but they were never mentioned before or after. The whole book was like this. It Really came off as amateurish. If it wasn't for the retro 80s references, this book would not be popular.
