What I Think about “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One is the most entertaining book I’ve read in years.  You could read the first two chapters to understand why I would like it so much.  It’s packed full of so much trivia about the 1980’s, the time of my youth, and so many things that I can recall vividly.  The cartoons, the movies, the music, the roll-playing games, the attitudes, the rituals.  Ready Player One uses all of those snippets of nostalgia to make what is a very enjoyable read.  Add in banter and discussions that are almost exact transcripts from conversations with my friends, this book has just about everything that geeks like me could want.

As an adventure story, Ready Player One is most definitely Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory meets The Matrix, all the way to the final scene taking place in the office of the world’s creator.  Set a mere 30 years in the future, the Oasis and all within it is certainly within reach of our technology today.  I for one would love a virtual world that would allow me to pilot the starship Enterprise to the planet Arcade where I could play the old video games and perhaps get into a battle with another player using magic missles, laser blasters and mechs.  The Oasis is my old basement made manifest through technology. 

I find myself insanely jealous of Cline to have thought of such a creative story using the details of our youth.  Often in my own work I’ve included tidbits of moments from my past as subtle reminders of the best of times.  Cline has successfully merged so many things into the Oasis, it was fun to recall each and every reference from Monty Python to arcade games to cartoons to Brat Pack films.  Cline obviously knows a ton more about some of the real geeky things in the world, from the easter egg in the original Atari Adventure game to the bug in the 1980 arcade version of Tempest.  He definitely did his homework, in his youth and today, to mix so many things together. 

There’s little I didn’t like about this book, primarily because there’s so much in it that speaks directly to my own life.  I listened to the audio version of the book, read masterfully by Will Wheaton (honestly, could they have picked a better person to read it? … especially since he got a small nod in the book itself).  I couldn’t wait to hear what would happen next, although there were very few surprises.  But that’s not the point of the book.  The point is that our youth was packed so full of imagination, adventure and humor that the potential stories we can tell allow us to relive and enjoy those times all over again.  If technology allows us to re-experience those moments of wonder, why not write a book about it?  Why not, indeed.  I enjoyed spending some time back in my basement while listening to this book.  Thanks, Mr. Cline and Mr. Wheaton for taking me back.