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This is the discussion topic for our chosen July, 2013, Contemporary SF/F Novel read and discussion:


Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Game on.

I enjoyed the book on the whole. I'm 48 and was never a gamer, other than the occasional video arcade game, but still had enough pop culture awareness to know a bit about many of the references made in the book. I even remember the part about the cereal box whistle from when I was a teen. One thing, I will add is that my younger co-workers (30s) enjoyed the book more than I, since they were much more familiar with many of the first home gaming systems and several other pop-culture references in the book. Point is: I think the appeal of the book is somewhat limited to those who came of age in the 1980s/1990s. My only real drawback is that I felt the book could have easily been 75, or so, pages shorter, to make it a faster paced read.

I read this a while back and very much enjoyed it. I think it's some very solid material for a film, which they plan on making according to all reports.

I enjoyed it, I agree with Bart in that there are a couple of places where the pace lags a bit although this never bothered me when reading it. Overall I think it is a great, light summer read but there is not much to me that is discussion worthy from it.

Cline came up with a good idea and executed it quite well to create a very satisfying story that I think will appeal to a wide range of readers.

I read this a while ago and found that while I enjoyed the book I came away wishing that it had undergone another draft or at least a more forceful editor. The characterisation of the central character was bland: he's too earnest and lacks depth. The villains are likewise very one dimensional. I agree with Ben and Bart that the pacing was also off in places.

That said, I adored the pop-culture references, especially the gaming ones (ToH brings back fond memories - mostly of characters dying =).

If you're an avid 80's-era gamer, like myself, then it's definitely worth a read.

I listened to this a month or so ago. I agree with the extra pages. The first time I started it, I couldn't get passed the info dump. The next time, I was. I do feel like, as slow and (sorry) boring as they are, they are necessary. I just wish he had found a less 'info dump' way of passing it on. After that stage, though, the book really takes off. I really enjoyed it. And, Wil Wheaton's narration is absolutely superb.

Jonathan wrote: "I think it's some very solid material for a film, which they plan on making according to all reports."

It's "in development" which is Hollywood for "maybe, maybe not."

I believe Cline, like World War Z's Brooks, is at heart a screenwriter, and I suspect this book, like WWZ, was mostly written as a movie pitch (the Michael Crichton school of sci-fi novels.)

Good to hear from you again, Jonathan!

Snarktastic Sonja wrote: "I listened to this a month or so ago...."

I'm told the Wheaton narration is pretty good. I read the print copy, so I don't miss the geekiness of names like I-r0k and Art3mis.

G33z3r wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "I think it's some very solid material for a film, which they plan on making according to all reports."

It's "in development" which is Hollywood for "maybe, maybe not."

I believe ..."

Yes, I've been a tad busy with university and travels but this was something I could comment on again. From all accounts it's actually progressing past the typical Hollywood 'maybe' stage so we'll see...

I listened to this narrated by Will Wheaton. It was excellent.

I was never a D&D player, but had friends who were. I was an adult (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) with 3 kids born in the 80's, so didn't have a lot of time for the games, but listened to most of the music & loved most of the films mentioned. I had a couple of Atari computers, too. Most of the fun in this book were the memories recaptured for me. It's a fun, fast adventure, but pretty simplistic overall.

Jim wrote: "I was never a D&D player, but had friends who were. I was an adult (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) with 3 kids born in the 80's..."

I had some experience with the early edition of AD&D through the kids (I wrote some software for them on the old Apple ][+ so they could create a character in less than a week of table lookups :) At various times I also had a Atari 800 and the notorious TRS-80 (Trash-80).

By the 80's I was already in my thirties, but I was still in the tech industry and definitely still a geek, So I know the movies and TV shows and computers and most other 80's references, loved the movies and most of the TV shows, and much of the Japanese anime/sentai/mecha. Not so much in the video games. (I got to play Zork & Colossal Cave text games, and there was a Pac-Man in a table model at the after-work watering hole where we imbibed margaritas. But Joust is definitely out of my "double weapon specialization" zone.)

I was wondering how this would play with the younger members of the group. The whole thing is definitely a nostalgia trip for me, which would seem to make it a memory trip for aging geeks. I noticed Jonathan gave it 4 stars, even though that's before his time (though I assume he is had some contact with most of the movies and some of the TV shows); I guess that means that translates reasonably.

It's definitely a thin plot without all the nostalgia, straight out of the "triumph of the underdog" screenwriters template. But yes, I rather liked it for the memories.

Pac-Man was fun, but Joust might have been my favorite. In my review of this book, I even put a link to an online version of it.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I find it amusing that despite most of us agreeing that the book had issues we all gave it four stars =)

Trash-80s....i had a roomie once who "rescued" one from a dumpster...said he was going to "refub" it...it blew up in his face when he opened the case, made a nice light display in the process...lol...Asimov use to be a spokesman for it...

in the 80s i was a master of the game Stargate...i got so good i could walk into the arcade at 10am, pony up one quarter, and still be playing on the same quarter come midnight, at which point they would kick me out....i averaged 1,000,000 points an hour with the difficulty level pumped all the way up...for me that game was pure zen...thing was, i was tought the game one summer by a guy that was better than me

skribe wrote: "I find it amusing that despite most of us agreeing that the book had issues we all gave it four stars =)"

Yeah, it was pure fun, but not great literature. There's a place for that in the world, though.

Jim wrote: "Pac-Man was fun, but Joust might have been my favorite. In my review of this book, I even put a link to an online version of it.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."

It was the familiarity with the idea of cyberspace, arcades and the particular whole video games that appealed to me. I liked the way the story was told as entertainment. Clearly there were flaws but it was a good fun read and there is no reason to be obnoxious or patronising over that kind of thing really so I liked it despite the flaws.

skribe wrote: "I find it amusing that despite most of us agreeing that the book had issues we all gave it four stars =)"

I gave it a five star - mostly for nostalgia. I was in my teens in the 80's so this book really brought me back to the fun times (you know, before work and bills). I'm sure there were lots of issues in this book but I overlooked them all because I just had so much fun reading it.

Jonathan wrote: "...Clearly there were flaws but it was a good fun read and there is no reason to be obnoxious or patronising over that kind of thing really so I liked it despite the flaws...."

Hmmm... That could be read as the tone of my review was 'obnoxious or patronising'. I certainly hope it didn't come off that way.

One thing that is interesting to me is that everyone who has reviewed it and commented on the book has given it at least 4 stars. It is that type of book, a book that you can buy for a wide range of people, confident that it will give them hours of pleasure. Many of the books from which there is perhaps more scope for debate would probably not have as universally positive scores. For instance if we were looking at Gormenghast many people would actively hate it, yet it is a fantasy classic that some people prize as one of their all time favorite series'.

Jim wrote: "skribe wrote: "I find it amusing that despite most of us agreeing that the book had issues we all gave it four stars =)"

Yeah, it was pure fun, but not great literature. There's a place for that ..."

I absolutely agree!! It was great summer fluff reading, although literarily devoid of any real content... :) It was a fun homage to my D&D/Galaga/PacMan generation. But I had nowhere near the skill level of these characters -- the only arcade game I ever turned over was Hogan's Alley!

Jim wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "...Clearly there were flaws but it was a good fun read and there is no reason to be obnoxious or patronising over that kind of thing really so I liked it despite the flaws...."

Hm..."

No, no!!! I mean that there are some people who will be patronising when it comes to entertainment and it not having a place in literature where basically I disagree. I believe so long as some work of literature takes a person out of the place they are at then it's art in its own way and no reason to frown upon it.

Oh, good. I thought we were on the same page. I read enough techy stuff for work & occasionally read 'good' books because I'm interested, but reading is primarily a way for me to take mini vacations from reality. I read during lunch every day & it helps me keep my sanity.

I nominated this one because when I read it the first time, I thought it was pretty unique. I have never read a book that links to pop culture so much. I also really liked the arcade/old video game theme. In my experience with books about characters entering digital or artificial worlds, the environments described are generic or not all that interesting. In this book, with Wade having to enter actual movies and arcade games at some points, I thought the OASIS was one of the story's most appealing parts. The thing that kept me reading until the end was wanting to see what would be discovered every time Wade started on a new step in this quest.

I've had several people come into the library where I work and say that they enjoyed the story. If anyone has any book recommendations for people who liked this book, I'd be happy to pass them along!

In terms of books referencing geek culture The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao manages even more references I think. These references include Watchmen, Dune, LoTR but really far, far to many to list. It isnt SF though and is a totally different type of book.

One of the things that struck me as odd about "Ready Player One" is that for a book about geek culture it pretty much ignores books. There are lots of geeky/sci-fi TV, movies, video games, anime, computers, and comics, but no books. There is one spot where Wade mentions reading all of the books by Halliday's favorite authors and he lists about a dozen authors. Unlike most of the rest of the references, the authors come from anywhere from the 50's to the 00's. (It's not unusual for someone to have read a lot of older books, but then it's not unusual for someone to have seen a lot of older movies, too.) Despite that one sentence about those books, they never figure into the treasure hunt at any point. Rather disappointing. But then I suppose books aren't very cinematic.

G33z3r wrote: "One of the things that struck me as odd about "Ready Player One" is that for a book about geek culture it pretty much ignores books."

I didn't notice that until you mentioned it! It seems like including more fantasy/sci-fi book references would have been a natural fit.

G33z3r wrote: "One of the things that struck me as odd about "Ready Player One" is that for a book about geek culture it pretty much ignores books. There are lots of geeky/sci-fi TV, movies, video games, anime, c..."

Perhaps, and I'm going out on a limb here, but maybe books weren't mentioned because of Halliday's age at the time. According to the book, I'm six months older than Halliday. I know that it was a pretty exciting decade with so many new things to do. Personally, I can only remember reading one book that wasn't required for school. However, there were arcade games in every corner store, the Walkman came out making music easy to carry around, everyone had an Atari and we were all getting our drivers licenses. Books just weren't "fun" at the time compared to everything else.

Jim wrote: "Oh, good. I thought we were on the same page. I read enough techy stuff for work & occasionally read 'good' books because I'm interested, but reading is primarily a way for me to take mini vacatio..."

I read enough literary work for uni so for me it's relaxing to have a book I can pick up (or a graphic novel) that's just about a purely thrilling story rather than about something deep and meaningful from time to time.

G33z3r wrote: "One of the things that struck me as odd about "Ready Player One" is that for a book about geek culture it pretty much ignores books. There are lots of geeky/sci-fi TV, movies, video games, anime, c..."

Wasn't Lord of the Rings (which came to prominence in that era) referenced? I believe I remember some kind of 'Rings reference...

Jonathan wrote: "Wasn't Lord of the Rings (which came to prominence in that era) referenced? I believe I remember some kind of 'Rings reference......"

If there was a Rings clue in the hunt, I don't recall it. But it has been a full year since I've read the book.

Tolkien is among the authors listed by Wade in that paragraph on the gunter reading list I mentioned earlier (but so, oddly, are Morgan, whose first book was in 2003, and Scalzi, who didn't publish until 2005. It's an odd list that spans half a century, unlike everything else in the book which is focused on the 80's)

Tolkien was prominent in the 60's - I used to have "Frodo lives!" poster in my 60's college days, and Bakshi made that terrible animated movie version in '78. (and if that didn't kill Lord of the Rings, It's immortal.) I don't think there's any special 80's connection there.

Drew wrote: "I didn't notice that until you mentioned it! It seems like including more fantasy/sci-fi book references would have been a natural fit. "

Yes. Now that would have made the book more enjoyable to me. I was more a reader than a gamer in the 80s. Here is wiki's list of sci-fi books published in the 80s:


I think a reference to Gibson's 1984 Neuromancerwould have been especially appropriate and a bit ironic (in that there has been some debate whether Cline's book can be classified a cyberpunk or not).

I just started, but I was immediately reminded of "The Westing Game" which I read as a child. Obviously there are huge differences, but the idea of a game or contest to determine who inherits a large sum of money is what brought back memories of the other book.

I am a gamer and a child of the 80s (well, I graduated high school in 1989), so this should be fun.

Here is wiki's list of sci-fi books published in the 80s:
...

Yes, I agree that references to some of these books on this list would have been nice, particularly to Douglas Adams. I was surprised by how many of these novels I'd read in the 80's! But I was more of a reader than a gamer.

Larry Niven: Footfall, The Integral Trees
Arthur C. Clarke: 2010: Odyssey Two
L Ron Hubbard: Battlefield Earth
Douglas Adams: Life, the Universe and Everything, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul
Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game
Carl Sagan: Contact
Frederick Pohl: Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, Heechee Rendezvous, Annals of the Heechee

I thought this book was amazing! I completely agree with the lack of literary genius but I greatly enjoyed the pop culture references and the thrilling plot. It really kept me captivated so much! Now I wonder if I am perhaps the target group, for even though I grew up in the 90s, I knew most of the gaming references growing up with the games. on the other hand I was quite happy with the info I got on the references I didnt understand and did not perceive them as info dump.

Lord of the Rings was mentioned a few times by the way. I think it was mentioned when describing the different player races, then one planet in OASIS was a Middleearth simulation and at the the end the villa looked like Rivendale. Anyway great book, thanks for nominating it!

Well, that didn't disappoint.

I loved some of the obscure references that he didn't bother to explain. The name Bryce Lynch, for example, is taken right out of the TV show Max Headroom. Bryce was the nerd/computer hacker/boy-genius character.

But I'm confused by the complete lack of TRON references.

No, it's not great literature. But it's like the movie Avatar. The story may have been done a thousand times but that didn't dampen my enjoyment a bit.

Oh, and Wade's initials, WOW, also happen to be the common moniker for World of Warcraft, the largest MMORPG out there. But that was an obvious one.

Sue wrote: "But I'm confused by the complete lack of TRON references...."

That would have been a pretty obvious movie to reference, given the whole VR world. "Tron" was pretty geeky in its day, both for the story, jargon and the use of computers as well as hand-drawn backlit animation to provide in-movie effects. Not as specific to hacker culture as Wargames, but certainly dead on point.

Tron was a pretty popular arcade game, too.

Does anyone recall the name of the one that had a cartoon hero trying to get to a dragon or something? It was different than the regular games, not first person, but with better figures than most of the rest. It was really hard. I think the hero was Dirk, maybe Dirk the Daring (or Dork, he was kind of a klutzy looking guy in chain mail) & he was trying to rescue a princess who's name began with a D, too.

I think it came out about the time my youngest boy was born, so early 80's. Hard as hell since you only got 3 tries & had to spend a lot of money to figure out how to move him, but a lot of folks did because the graphics were so cool.

Never mind. My memory FINALLY kicked into gear. Dragon's Lair. Found a flash game recreation here:


Write up here:

Jim wrote: "Does anyone recall the name of the one that had a cartoon hero trying to get to a dragon or something? ... Dragon's Lair."

Yeah, I remember that. It was one of those "you've got to see this" type games at the time, before computers were capable of generating animation more sophisticated than Pac-Man or Missile Command. The animation was by Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH, American Tail, Anastasia), and it was like a choose-your-own-adventure story with a bunch of animated clips taken from a laserdisc according to which way you went.

Jim wrote: "Never mind. My memory FINALLY kicked into gear. Dragon's Lair.

That's a classic. I had a poster on my door, right next to a lengthy Pac Man poem that I had memorized.

This is the book that got me back into reading a few months ago. I was browsing a book store with a friend of mine when he mentioned this book. I haven't read for a while and it wasn't that much so I said heck lets do it. I couldnt put this book down after I started reading it. Its probably the best novel that I have read in a long time and probably my favorite novel written to this day. Not everyone will feel the same but hey it hit every aspect of what I like so its like it was written for me.

I'm a latecomer to this party but enjoyed reading your thoughts in the discussion above.

I did notice a TRON reference early in the book - the main character is playing Tron: Deadly Discs (page 40 of my copy) while hanging out in the Basement.

I also noticed, as mentioned above, that the 1980s references seem to avoid the Science Fiction books of the era. I didn't think I had read many books from that era until I checked out the Wikipedia page referenced above. I've read:
- 2010: Odyssey Two
- 2061: Odyssey Three
- Battlefield Earth
- Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
- Congo (not sure if I would call this sci-fi)
- Count Zero
- Ender's Game
- Footfall (can't remember if I finished this one or not)
- Heechee Rendezvous
- Job: A Comedy of Justice
- The Merchant's War
- Mission Earth (yes, all 10 volumes)
- Mona Lisa Overdrive
- Neuromancer
- Songmaster
- Songs of Distant Earth
- Speaker for the Dead
- Sphere
- The Worthing Chronicle

Not to mention the Fantasy books from the 1980s:
- The Colour of Magic
- The Damnation Game
- Jhereg
- Prentice Alvin
- Red Prophet
- Seventh Son
- Tailchaser's Song
- Taltos
- Teckla
- Trumps of Doom
- Yendi

And I have a lot more 1980s sci-fi/fantasy on my shelf, ranging from Anubis Gates to Zodiac. Turns out it was a pretty good decade for sci-fi/fantasy!

Randy wrote: "I'm a latecomer to this party but enjoyed reading your thoughts in the discussion above...."

I, also, thought it was odd to have a book of 80s nostalgia that didn't mention many actual books.

There is a "gunter reading list" described at one point, but it had authors on it from all over the place, from Tolkien (50s) to Scalzi (2000s). Go figure.

If you're interested in a book that's full of nostalgia for classic sci-fi/fantasy, you might take a look at Jo Walton's Among Others, which is a fantasy set in Wales in the 70's narrated by a big SF&F fan.

If you haven't already, you may want to start a new thread (release is slotted for March 2018), but there is going to be a film adaptation for this book directed by Steven Spielberg. They had a nationwide casting call for the role of Wade, and the slides they gave out for actors auditioning for the role to read were a great representation of his painful awkwardness and fervent passion.

They cast Tye Sheridan in the end, but besides Olivia Cooke who has (I think) been cast as Art3mis, I'm not sure who else we get to look forward to playing these characters on the silver screen.

G33z3r wrote: "If you're interested in a book that's full of nostalgia for classic sci-fi/fantasy, you might take a look at Jo Walton's Among Others, which is a fantasy set in Wales in the 70's narrated by a big SF&F fan."

Added to wish list. Thanks!

I recently read this book. I enjoyed it a lot, it's a pretty fun, light read that plays a lot with nostalgia.
I gave it 3 stars (or more accurately, 3.4) because it does have some problems.

First, the info-dumps are really excessive. There's no need for a 3-page essay on Max Headroom, people who know him would enjoy a simple reference, and people who don't are probably not in the target demo.

The all-things-geek name-dropping was in some places a little brutal but I can live with it.

There's nothing to make me root for the hero except the fact that he's the hero, he's fighting the Evil Corporation, and he has to win the prize and the girl. The scene where he childishly calls another guy "poser" because he didn't know there had been sequels to a 60-year-old video game was especiall cringe-worthy.
Which leads me to my last point.

Most importantly, while these people dedicate their entire lives to the 80s because of a game, there is absolutely nothing to let us know what they think about this decade; it doesn't seem to mean anything to them except as a way to get rich. The hero "marathons" 80s TV shows, he "masters" 80s videogames, he learns the lyrics to 80s songs, but does he enjoy any of it? It just seems like work he has to do. Everything he does, he does because of some old guy who loved the 80s, and that's pretty sad I think.

Bryan wrote: "The hero "marathons" 80s TV shows, he "masters" 80s videogames, he learns the lyrics to 80s songs, but does he enjoy any of it? It just seems like work he has to do. Everything he does, he does because of some old guy who loved the 80s, and that's pretty sad I think.,..."

Well, some people make hobbies out of studying "history", whether it's old TV shows, the history of 19th century stamps, reenacting old civil war battles, or collecting original editions of old science fiction books, or cosplay.

Personal hobbies are interesting in that much of what an enthusiast puts into a hobby seems like work to those not vested in the hobby.

G33z3r wrote: "Well, some people make hobbies out of studying "history", whether it's old TV shows, the history of 19th century stamps, reenacting old civil war battles, or collecting original editions of old science fiction books, or cosplay...."

Odd coincidence, but I was just reading about a true account of one such person in The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession. The foremost authority on Sherlock Holmes is found dead. Was it murder or suicide? Grann traces the eerie parallels between 's life & that of in their obsession with . Both were haunted by the fictional character. No one is really sure if Green was murdered or committed suicide in such a way as to baffle the investigators & everyone else.

G33z3r wrote: "Personal hobbies are interesting in that much of what an enthusiast puts into a hobby seems like work to those not vested in the hobby."

But whatever their hobbies are, people presumably enjoy them. I didn't get the feeling that Wade enjoyed any of the subjects of his research; he doesn't give his opinion on any of the tv shows he mentions, he never says he likes playing this particular game or that one, etc. Actually, the closest thing there is to a reaction to the mentioned material is characters giggling when Wade re-enacts Monty Python's Holy Grail, and I believe Wade isn't even one of them.
It just bothered me.