Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4/5 cats
let me get the gripes out of the way first, because despite overall being a fun, escapist book, there are things that rankle.
i have a crush on the 80’s (not an obsession, mind you), but a crush. when i was little i wanted to make out with jon cryer and molly ringwald simultaneously, and to this day depeche mode’s album black celebration soothes many sorrows.
so a book that revolves around 80’s pop culture sounded like my kind of thing, even if a lot of the references are video game related, and the minutiae, while impressive, could have been made up for all i knew because i enjoyed the atari back in the day, but i wasn’t a serious video game geek. (although i did take my atari 2600 to college in 1995 – i was the original ironic hipster – recognize!)
i am getting to the gripes now after one more brief personal anecdote. i used to go to a lot of new wave dance nights. (if i am being honest, most of them were “dark” new wave, bordering on goth: camouflage, wolfsheim, anything box, the normal, soft cell) and towards the end of my going to this one particular club, they used to frequently slip sit down by james in there. and i used to get so irate. because 1) you cannot dance to that song. 2) you cannot go from the sun always shines on TV to jaunty britpop and 3) (but i just consulted queen wikipedia and learned i was absolutely wrong) it is not an 80’s song. as it turns out, it is. 1989. and this undermines my entire argument so let’s pretend my initial misconception was correct and i am not just wrong in everything i do.
but that was my problem with this book. if we take as fact that james halliday’s obsession was the eighties, than how is quentin tarantino among his favorite directors?? or neal stephenson among his favorite writers?? and unless he really loves the meaning of life, what the hell is monty python doing in there? there is a long pivotal scene involving the acting-out of scenes from the holy grail. i don’t even need queen wikipedia to know that that movie came out in 1975. and don’t give me attitude about geek culture and how integral that movie is to geeks everywhere because trust me, i am aware. and “well, the seventies were really the eighties…” no. this is a novel. the character has built an entire life around being obsessed with the pop culture of the 80’s. commit to your premise!! you wrote this – stick to it! it’s not like there is a dearth of source material, that’s kind of what the 80’s were for.it was ALL pop culture.
but that aside – this is definitely a lot of fun. if there was such a thing, i would call this a popcorn book. it is fun and fast-paced, and if you are old enough, you will chuckle, and if you are younger, you will probably be baffled and miss a lot of the slyly inserted references, but that’s okay because you have your whole life ahead of you, so it’s a trade off for those of us in our dotage. he gets points for having an oingo boingo reference on page two – that pretty much cemented my engagement in the book, so smart move there. and i loved all the swordquest references. because i know i have gone off about this in another review somewhere, but seriously, doubleyoo tee eff??
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i am also glad that he realized he was just writing a tech version of charlie and the chocolate factory. that’s all i was thinking of at the beginning, and when he finally references it, it is just to say “nooooo this is different.” but it is pretty much the same premise. but he is wise to distance himself from c.a.t.c.f., because, hello?? 1964. not 1984.
dunno – this is going to be a huge hit when it comes out, mark my words. and i expect it will eventually be adapted into a movie. and i will buy the soundtrack to that movie.
