Review: Ready Player One
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A tribute to geeks everywhere. If you are a gaming geek, you need to read this. It’s right up the alley of the movies Wreck-it Ralph and Pixels. Though this book is less funny than those movies, it is more in-depth in plot and references to gaming culture.
After a billionaire game designer dies, his will launches a modern worldwide quest to retrieve a million dollar treasure he left behind. This quest takes place, you guessed it, in the humongous virtual simulation world created by said game designer.
The plot is engaging and creative. It’s every gamer’s dream, a world where the icons of gaming mesh together and anything is possible. With an epic quest lingering in the background, beckoning everyone who thinks they are worthy of the prize.
Cline truly made a unique book with this one.
The plot is an obvious use of the Hero’s Journey. The climax and plot twist of something I could see coming from a long way off. However, the telling of it, and the imagination put into the scenes made me want to read to the end.
Nothing spectacularly new in storytelling here. But like I said, if you are a gamer, you need to read this. Or at least watch it when the movie comes out.