Ready Player One Review

A while back I stumbled across a Youtube account called 'ItsWayPastMyBedtime' run by Carrie Hope Fletcher. It was blatant from the get go that she has a passion for books and reading stories, and she suggests some fantastic reads. 

I watched a video named 'Carrie's Book Haul' where she recommended a book called 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline amongst others like The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I decided, at the next given opportunity to purchase this book as it sounded like something that I needed to read immediately. 

The three progressions of the books front cover.

Short Synopsis

I'm not going to spoil too much of this book for you, as I think it definitely is one of my favourite reads of all time, pushing me to recommend it to you. 

The world, exactly 30 years from now, is falling to pieces and everyone is escaping the harsh truths of reality by congregating in a huge online gaming platform known as the OASIS where they can go to school, hang out with friends, or ever since the creator of the platform's demise, they can hunt around for clues to a hidden Easter egg. If they can be the first of millions to find this Easter egg (after progressing through three well hidden gates and completing some tough challenges) they will win the fortune of James Halliday, the creator of OASIS.

Wade Watts is a likeable protagonist. He has everything going for him, apart from his wrecked home life, being severely bullied as a child, and inability to get a girl without meeting her through a computer first. I suppose this novel was the best thing that could have ever happened to him. 

The novel is packed full with game, and sci-fi film references, 80's trivia and long, funny sounding names of distant OASIS planets. A certainly resilient and certainly nerdy Wade Watts is determined to uncover the Easter egg, much aided by his need to get away from his particularly uninviting reality. But when friendship, two Japanese players, a girl he has a crush on and an army of millions known as the 'Sixers' are out to kill him and everyone else close to the winnings, will he make it?

My Thoughts

If I'm honest, once I started reading this novel, I could only make it about three chapters through before calling it a failed attempt and putting it down. To say the start of the book was slow would be an under-exaggeration...try worse than a tortoise trying to read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. It wasn't until a six-hour stuffy car journey down to the coast that I decided to give the novel another chance. And aren't I glad I did. 

Much to my annoyance, after about a third of the book, you can't put it down. You can't sleep without 'just reading one more chapter', and put all eating, drinking, work and toilet breaks to a side just so you can procrastinate your day away whilst fully indulged in a great read. I wouldn't go as far to say this is literary magic, but a completely gripping and thrilling novel all the same.

This read is an absolute must for 80's kids, dystopian lovers, sci-fi nerds, and anyone with the ability to understand and appreciate a good book when they see one. Just remember who to blame when you are physically frightened for all of the characters, and have severe arm cramps from holding the novel for too long. 

Aftermath

Ten months after the novel's publishing, Cline revealed that there was an elaborately hidden Easter egg in the book itself, and would lead fans through a similar style hunt to find it. The grand prize was a DeLorean (and for those of you like myself who don't have any clue what this is, it is a pretty cool car)

There have also been talks of a film adaptation of the book. 

Fingers Crossed.

Question Time

Have you ever given up on a slow-starting book and then revisited it, realising it is amazing?!