Rating: 8
Dystopian fiction with its twists on the real world and human nature can either be flat out terrible or an entertaining read, and Ready Player One falls into the later.The author of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline also works as a screenwriter, and is working on the movie adaption of Ready Player One, and poetry slam artist,he was the Austin Poetry Slam winner in 1998 and 2001, was born in 1972 in Ashland, Ohio.
Ready Player One is set in the near future in 2045 in a place called the stacks, which are literally stacks of trailers. Most of the real world is ignore, people prefer to spend their time in OASIS. OASIS is a computer program m much like virtual reality. There are twenty seven sectors with great amounts of planets in each, at least a hundred. Some look like Middle Earth or other fictional worlds. Others are simple bland planets with everything the same, like Ludus. Ludus is the planet of schools were Wade, Parzival, is stuck. Wade wants to win the contest and easter that the creator of OASIS, Halliday, made. Wade like everyone else has been stuck for five years on how to find the copper key. When Wade finally does he discovers he is not the first. However he is the first to get the key and clear the first gate, there are three in total. This sets off a firestorm. Interest in the contest has been revived and the company, IOI that wishes to take over OASIS is keeping a deathly hold on the the people involved in the game.
Wade is your typical American teenage boy, do not let the difference in time fool you. He has acne all over his face and doesn’t really apply himself in school. Plus he has a crush on a girl he can never have. He starts off as a normal guy but becomes a legend. Wade is the first to make a real breakthrough in the competition for the egg. People glorify him and it goes to his head. As Wade gets more famous the less he talks to his best, and only, friend Aech. Wade had started to ignore his friend and this caused great friction between the two. Wade understands this when he meets up with Aech. He realizes that their “conversations were now stilted and reserved, as if [Aech and I] were both afraid of revealing some key piece of information the other might be able to use” (206). Everything created so much friction between Aech and Wade. Yet even with Wade destroying his life I could not bring myself to dislike him. There was always something to like about him, from his brains to his childish crush. Wade is a likeable guy no matter what. As a bonus you can see yourself reflected in Wade. Even if you are not trying to win the biggest competition of your lifetime there are issues ranging from just teenage problems to how others treat you badly that you can relate to.
I like to believe that Cline brought human nature from our world and used it to shape the people in his world. The one thing that was seen from page one to page three hundred seventy two was technology and the addiction people have to it. I see people on their phones twenty four/seven. In the very first pages of Ready Player One Wade is reflecting on the world around him and says, “it was a dawn of a new era, one where most of the human race now spent all of their free time inside a video game” (6). If that does not reinforce the idea that people are obsessed with technology I do not know what does. What happens to Wade also serves as a warning. He destroyed himself when he decided to remove himself from the world. Wade decides that he will not go outside till he has won the egg. This caused his health to take a downward spiral that could have killed him. Besides that people have lost the ability to communicate outside of OASIS. You see that in the real world, no matter what social media may want you to think. Ready Player One shows what happens when you rely on technology for everything.
Ready Player One has something for everyone to enjoy. There is a romance for the love fans out there, no love triangle though. For those people who seem to be obsessed with violence, I joined that guilty party after watching “Game of Thrones”, we have multiple deaths. Sports fan can appreciate the competitive nature of the book and the characters who dwell within it. For all those gamers out there this would be the perfect book for them. The majority of the book in set inside a video game. Lastly, for those older folk who say our generation is turning to rubbish get to relive their childhood with 80s references that pack the book. Quite a few go over my head, more than I would like to admit. This book is a must read for people of any age. Go pick it up and get lost in the dystopian society that likes to keep people guessing. Fans of the scifi genre should also check out his new book, Armada, coming out in 2015.
Dystopian fiction with its twists on the real world and human nature can either be flat out terrible or an entertaining read, and Ready Player One falls into the later.The author of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline also works as a screenwriter, and is working on the movie adaption of Ready Player One, and poetry slam artist,he was the Austin Poetry Slam winner in 1998 and 2001, was born in 1972 in Ashland, Ohio.
Ready Player One is set in the near future in 2045 in a place called the stacks, which are literally stacks of trailers. Most of the real world is ignore, people prefer to spend their time in OASIS. OASIS is a computer program m much like virtual reality. There are twenty seven sectors with great amounts of planets in each, at least a hundred. Some look like Middle Earth or other fictional worlds. Others are simple bland planets with everything the same, like Ludus. Ludus is the planet of schools were Wade, Parzival, is stuck. Wade wants to win the contest and easter that the creator of OASIS, Halliday, made. Wade like everyone else has been stuck for five years on how to find the copper key. When Wade finally does he discovers he is not the first. However he is the first to get the key and clear the first gate, there are three in total. This sets off a firestorm. Interest in the contest has been revived and the company, IOI that wishes to take over OASIS is keeping a deathly hold on the the people involved in the game.
Wade is your typical American teenage boy, do not let the difference in time fool you. He has acne all over his face and doesn’t really apply himself in school. Plus he has a crush on a girl he can never have. He starts off as a normal guy but becomes a legend. Wade is the first to make a real breakthrough in the competition for the egg. People glorify him and it goes to his head. As Wade gets more famous the less he talks to his best, and only, friend Aech. Wade had started to ignore his friend and this caused great friction between the two. Wade understands this when he meets up with Aech. He realizes that their “conversations were now stilted and reserved, as if [Aech and I] were both afraid of revealing some key piece of information the other might be able to use” (206). Everything created so much friction between Aech and Wade. Yet even with Wade destroying his life I could not bring myself to dislike him. There was always something to like about him, from his brains to his childish crush. Wade is a likeable guy no matter what. As a bonus you can see yourself reflected in Wade. Even if you are not trying to win the biggest competition of your lifetime there are issues ranging from just teenage problems to how others treat you badly that you can relate to.
I like to believe that Cline brought human nature from our world and used it to shape the people in his world. The one thing that was seen from page one to page three hundred seventy two was technology and the addiction people have to it. I see people on their phones twenty four/seven. In the very first pages of Ready Player One Wade is reflecting on the world around him and says, “it was a dawn of a new era, one where most of the human race now spent all of their free time inside a video game” (6). If that does not reinforce the idea that people are obsessed with technology I do not know what does. What happens to Wade also serves as a warning. He destroyed himself when he decided to remove himself from the world. Wade decides that he will not go outside till he has won the egg. This caused his health to take a downward spiral that could have killed him. Besides that people have lost the ability to communicate outside of OASIS. You see that in the real world, no matter what social media may want you to think. Ready Player One shows what happens when you rely on technology for everything.
Ready Player One has something for everyone to enjoy. There is a romance for the love fans out there, no love triangle though. For those people who seem to be obsessed with violence, I joined that guilty party after watching “Game of Thrones”, we have multiple deaths. Sports fan can appreciate the competitive nature of the book and the characters who dwell within it. For all those gamers out there this would be the perfect book for them. The majority of the book in set inside a video game. Lastly, for those older folk who say our generation is turning to rubbish get to relive their childhood with 80s references that pack the book. Quite a few go over my head, more than I would like to admit. This book is a must read for people of any age. Go pick it up and get lost in the dystopian society that likes to keep people guessing. Fans of the scifi genre should also check out his new book, Armada, coming out in 2015.