I think I’ve been hearing about Ready Player One since I joined the bookstagram community, or almost. I heard time after time that this book was amazing, and never got around to reading it. But now that the movie is coming soon (it’s released in France at the end of March) I finally made up my mind to read it, and I don’t regret it one second.
Author: Ernest Cline
Release: 2011
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
My rating: ★★★★★
The story:
The plot takes place in 2045 and centers around Wade Wyatts, a teenager who lives in a trailer pile with his aunt and a bunch of strangers. The only time Wade ever feels free is once he logs into the OASIS, the virtual reality that is now used by everyone to escape their sad surroundings, attend schools, go to party, and win points while completing quests. When the creator died, he left behind a will, consisting of a quest: hidden in the game is a special egg, and the one who finds it will inherit his fortune, as well as control over the OASIS. However, no one seems to be able to crack the code, until one day, Wade – who travels the OASIS under the name Parzival – cracks the first clue, and things go crazy. The only way to save the OASIS seems to be for him to find the egg, but people want to get in his way, and it’s not as easy as it may have seen…
My opinion:
I honestly don’t know why I didn’t pick up this book sooner, because it was worth all the praise. It’s unlike anything else I have read, and the more I read, the more I realised how much virtual reality worlds and fictions about it are amazing and fascinating. This book is unique and brilliant, I would really recommend it to everyone, and I hope the movie won’t let me down.
While reading Ready Player One I thought a lot about why the main character is the one who finds the first clue, the one who is poor but incredibly smart, has a lot of culture and so on. This has a very simple answer: if the narrator or main character was a random character who barely found any clue, and didn’t solve the quest, why would anyone read the book, even if it would be easier to relate to? That makes some of the parts of the book slightly predictable, like, of cours Wade is going to find the first clue, but then again, he is not going to find everything first because in that case, it would be too obvious and predictable.
Then again, Wade/Parzival still has to do some incredibly reckless shit, and be a hero in the end. Then again, the book still managed to maintain great twists, which is something I really appreciated. It keeps some great suspense as to the identity of some of the characters secret until the very end, and I really loved the big revelations at the end. This book knows when to be funny or ruthless, knows when to make its reader wait, and when the wait has to end. It has a good pace, and a great writing style. I was worried that I would find it overrated, but I clearly did not and join my voice to the chorus that is praising Ready Player One.
Similar recommendations:
Warcross by Marie Lu (which I though I had reviewed, but apparently no)
Clemi's Bookish World 