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Book Commentary: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2011-08-16
Number of Pages: 374
Summary: A teenager in the dark dystopian future fights against corporate drones in a VR MMO used by everyone in the world to win a fortune and control of the MMO.
Thoughts: Everyone in this book was exactly what they seemed pretty much from the first second you encountered them until the very end. There were some unexpected events, but really nothing happened that you couldn't have predicted at the beginning. If you love video games and 1980s trivia, you might like this book. I still found that it was quite a slog until about 2/3 of the way through, and then it got good enough to be fun. Personally, I did not find it a quick read, because it was hard to care about.
This section contains more detailed criticism that could be considered spoilers.
My first big complaint is that none of the places either in or out of the OASIS have much of a sense of place, except for the school planet (I think). Granted, lots of the places are grim and mind-numbingly boring, but there are no little details.
Obviously, I'm not impressed by how boring the characters are and the lack of character arcs. I'm also not happy with how obvious the plot was. However, the thing that really bothered me was how unrealistic the book was when it came to dealing with people who have spent their entire lives in VR. I don't believe for a second that any of these people would think that relationships are more real outside of VR. Honestly, I also wonder if they would really fashion their avatars after their meatspace bodies. I expect that going out of the house and interacting with other people in person would be more disturbing for them.
A lot of other books have done a better job of creating compelling in-book video games or VR spaces. Sure, everyone can get behind overthrowing our corporate overlords, but it isn't really original or clever.
Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2011-08-16
Number of Pages: 374
Summary: A teenager in the dark dystopian future fights against corporate drones in a VR MMO used by everyone in the world to win a fortune and control of the MMO.
Thoughts: Everyone in this book was exactly what they seemed pretty much from the first second you encountered them until the very end. There were some unexpected events, but really nothing happened that you couldn't have predicted at the beginning. If you love video games and 1980s trivia, you might like this book. I still found that it was quite a slog until about 2/3 of the way through, and then it got good enough to be fun. Personally, I did not find it a quick read, because it was hard to care about.
This section contains more detailed criticism that could be considered spoilers.
My first big complaint is that none of the places either in or out of the OASIS have much of a sense of place, except for the school planet (I think). Granted, lots of the places are grim and mind-numbingly boring, but there are no little details.
Obviously, I'm not impressed by how boring the characters are and the lack of character arcs. I'm also not happy with how obvious the plot was. However, the thing that really bothered me was how unrealistic the book was when it came to dealing with people who have spent their entire lives in VR. I don't believe for a second that any of these people would think that relationships are more real outside of VR. Honestly, I also wonder if they would really fashion their avatars after their meatspace bodies. I expect that going out of the house and interacting with other people in person would be more disturbing for them.
A lot of other books have done a better job of creating compelling in-book video games or VR spaces. Sure, everyone can get behind overthrowing our corporate overlords, but it isn't really original or clever.
Rating: 2 of 5 stars
