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grumbeld

Ready Player One

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I haven't found this book mentioned in the forums, and I think it's worth sharing. For those of you don't know, Ready Player One is a book set in the future where the majority of people come together in an MMORPG. The creator of this world binding piece of software has passed, and his financial empire is left to whomever solves the riddle that he has put forth. Five years of passed, and no one has solved the first riddle yet. People have studied the designer's life for a clue to the riddle, and they become obsessed with 70's, 80's, and 90's culture. Video games, movies, and music are all hit upon in this novel.

It's fairly campy, but it's great to read a book that references the childhood of those in their 30s.

Also, if you get the book, you can work on solving a riddle that the author has announced. The winner get a Delorean.

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I read this recently. It's enjoyable enough, but pretty "light" material. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think there was the potential for something more complex given that the basic territory has been tread before in things like Tad Williams' Otherland series and .hack

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I read it and liked it but, honestly, I enjoyed the world and the culture of it (due to my own pop-culture tastes) more than any of the actual characters. Even though the author tried to make the main character(s) sympathetic and the villains dastardly, they all still felt - to me - fairly bland. And even though the author tried to raise the stakes several times throughout the novel, I still didn't care much, since I was still in it for the fun video game nerd-fest 80s pop-culture romp. Plus, I guess it's kind of hard to make someone playing a video game within another video game seem incredibly thrilling... (e.g. "I was playing Pac-Man for awhile and then I played it some more and then I thought I wasn't going to get a perfect score ... but then I did get a perfect score! Boy, was I glad I didn't blow it!")

I guess I'm bagging on this book, but I really did enjoy reading it. I just also recognize that if this was a book with the same characters and story beats, but it was about a golf-nut who was obsessed with famous golfers and obscure golf trivia and had a big golf challenge that people all over the world competed in, I probably would have given up after a few chapters.

Also: That contest thing is pretty great. Kudos to Ernest Cline for that.

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I read it during my commute to work a few months ago.

A fun romp, no doubt, but there really isn't much to it than "spot the reference" and cheap thrills.

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I finished this recently, and enjoyed it quite a bit. It _feels_ like the sort of book you should apologize for: no deep themes, no profound statements about the future, etc, but it was eminently readable, which is more than I can say for many of the books I've slogged through recently.

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I love entertainment for pure entertainment sake.

This was a great read, it's a book your devour. It was written like it was a friend talking to me, infinitely familiar and comfortable, with all the little exciting bits about game culture and the 80's. I slammed on a few Rush albums (when the situation called for it) and charged through it in one sitting. Oddly enough, I found myself much more affectionate than I had expected. The details still swim around in my little dino brain, it stayed with me... Must mean I liked it a lot.

Something doesn't have to be life-changing for it to be good, and I think this book is downright awesome.

Oh, plus Ernie is a super rad individual, nicest dude. I got to hang out in the DeLorean they gave away. What. WHAT!

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I very much enjoyed it as a fun-to-read bit of light entertainment, but there were definitely parts where I could almost hear the author's voice shouting "See, Mom and Dad? All that TV and gaming wasn't a waste of time, because now I put it all in a book!"

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I listened to the aduio book, read by Wil Wheaton, so it was basically like readong the book, but with one more layer of what the book was all about.

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