My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One is not a literary masterpiece by any means, but it’s been a long time since I had this much fun reading a novel.
Ready Player One takes place in a near future in which human society is on the verge of collapse (sounds fun already!), and everyone has taken refuge in a massive online simulation known as the OASIS. The OASIS’ creator, James Halliday, dies an old man, leaving a will that initiates a contest inside the simulation, the winner of which will inherit all of his vast wealth, as well as control over the OASIS. The “Easter Egg,” as the ultimate goal of the contest is known, can only be found by locating – inside the OASIS – three keys that open three gates, each of which opens to an unknown challenge. Halliday, a child of the ‘80s, leaves no clue to the whereabouts of the keys except for his journal, which contains his musings on his life, the human condition, and – most importantly – the pop culture of the age of excess.
In the beginning, the contest seems to captivate the entire population of the globe, but over time interest wanes. Only a relatively small group of people known as “gunters” – short for “egg hunters” – continue the quest, immersing themselves in all the things that Halliday loved in the hopes that this will direct them to the location of the first key. Finally, years after Halliday’s death, an OASIS avatar named Parzival (his name is Wade in the real world) – our hero – finds it, setting the story in motion.
Let me put this right out there – for those of you who don’t already know. I’m a geek. I grew up in the ‘80s. Cline wrote this book for me people like me. It’s overflowing with random movie lines (“Dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”), references to comic books, video games, sci-fi and fantasy novels. And the highest geekery of all, Dungeons & Dragons plays a major role in the plot early on. (To be fair to myself, I was never THAT into D&D, though I have played my share of RPGs*.) These little nuggets often made me laugh out loud, which I rarely do when reading.
Apart from this, the story moves along at a lightning pace, making Cline’s too-frequent forays into long-winded exposition bearable. (Though, perhaps this was purposeful. I’ve read many a science fiction novel, and I’ve never met a sci-fi author who didn’t LOVE exposition!) The primary line of the plot follows the adventures of Parzival and his friends inside the OASIS, but chilling and compelling events take place in the real world as well. And these serve to get the reader truly invested.
The narrator’s voice is a little weak. There’s too much telling instead of showing. The characters aren’t terribly developed, though there is a little to hang on to. But I’m willing to bet Cline had an absolute blast writing this because that’s what comes across on the page.
For my Christian readers out there who may be concerned about these things, there is some profanity and a somewhat prolonged discussion of a particular sexual activity that is pretty crass, which is to be expected with these characters in this world. Overall, it was bearable in my opinion. If it were a movie, it would probably garner a PG-13 rating.
Ready Player One is a really good story set in a vivid world and told with imagination and childlike joy. This is escapist fare in the best sense of the term.
*Role Playing Games, for the uninitiated.
