Towers of Books Come Tumbling Down!
I love all kinds of books! For all my friends, I am known on GR as Alicja. I don't stick with a genre, that's boring. Instead you'll get reviews from the most random assortment of fiction and non-fiction works. It's probably due to my interests being as eclectic as my book tastes.
I'm a girlfriend-loving bisexual, science fiction geek, PC gamer, historical fiction devourer, hiker, atheist, history buff, opera lover, vegetarian, kayaker, metal and hard rock concert goer, science nerd, politics debater, world traveler, M/M romance fan, and I have the ability to transform from an adult-like hard-working professional into a screaming fangirl in five seconds flat.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Wade's life is bleak and miserable, he escapes reality by logging into the OASIS, an MMORPG on a scale never imagined before. In his last will, Halliday, the creator of OASIS, leaves instructions for the whole world; find the hidden Easter eggs within OASIS and take over his position at the head of the company and inherit his vast millions. With no other hope, Wade sets off on a hunt, along with the rest of the world. Will he win or will it be GAME OVER?
Review: I am going to borrow another reviewer’s term to describe this book because there really isn’t one that’s better: nerdgasm. Despite the futuristic setting of this novel, I felt like I fell through time back into the 80s; from TV to movies to video games through music. I am still a bit too young to have appreciated the 80s like those who were teens during that decade but I've soaked up much of the 80s culture through War Games and the Breakfast Club during their re-runs in the 90s, fell in love with Back to the Future (and loved Universal's ride-sadly, no longer in existence-over and over and over again until my parents dragged me away from the Delorean kicking and screaming), play Duck Hunt and Pac Man, old school Nintendo, etc.
For someone like me, who regularly plays MMORPGs, the story within the videogame was interesting and very well done on the details. I longed for an OASIS of my own to play. However, the world outside the videogame was not well developed; it consisted of a variety of generic doom and gloom scenarios such as widespread poverty, global climate change, running out of fuel and other resources, etc. It suffered from “reality” being neglected for the videogame world (which is also interesting since that was one of the main themes). Additionally, the ending was predictable and generic (however, it again mirrored endings in many videogames).
I loved the entertaining ride through nerd culture that brought back nostalgia and fond memories, developing into an exciting page-turner of a novel.
2