Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Series: –
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 374
Published: 2011, Crown Publishers
My Grade: 4 out of 5 simulations

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

MY REVIEW

During the first chapter or two, I didn’t believe that I would see the charm that everyone 10 year older than me does with this book. Then I realized that it probably wouldn’t have mattered even if it was about the geek-culture of the 90’s. I don’t think I would have recognized as much anyway. Or maybe I would have. But the fact that I was born in the early 90’s didn’t make me understand any less. I have the geek within, even if it is not on such a detailed level and I think that was what made me understand anyway. I know how all of that works, I lived through a decade of incredible technological developments and understand why Halliday (the deceased creator of OASIS) had such an obsession with the 80’s, which was even more extreme than the 90’s. The author is also very good at describing everything, so even if you might not get the exact image in your head while reading, you still clearly see it all in front of you. The part about the book being about geek culture in the 80’s doesn’t take over the main story, even if it is present all the time.

I think of myself as a technology-loving person and of course wonder how this whole virtual reality world works. Like do they talk out loud while talking to people in the game? Wouldn’t that be very annoying for everyone around on that bus for example? Do they have earplugs to snuff out the sounds from the real world? How much do they actually have to move in real life order to move in the OASIS? I wonder if the author had anything to say about the movie that will be out in 11 days.

The plot was kind of predictable and took the usual turns where we first meet the main character who falls in love, screws it up while everything else around him turns bad as well just to work everything out and give the book a happy ending and not a surprising one at all.

It was a very good book and the predictabilities doesn’t lower the grade, but the fact that I don’t understand the 80’s does unfortunately. So it gets a 4!