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Jessica - Where the Book Ends (15 KP) rated Ready Player One in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry

8.9

(161 Ratings)

Book Rating

Honestly, I’m not really sure where to start with this review. I guess I need to preface by saying that I wanted to like this book. I mean REALLY wanted to like it. I love video games, I love the 80’s and the idea of living almost exclusively in virtual reality sounds like an amazing combination for a story. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me… at all. I totally respect that there is a HUGE following for this book, and I am sooooooooooooo glad that so many people loved this book. I think that’s great. I really wanted to like it.
The author’s writing style was the biggest problem for me. The book started off strong for the first couple of chapters, but then became a huge info-dump for about 6 chapters. Then it would get interesting again, and then another mega epic info-dump was upon us, until about the last 6-8 chapters. It was great that the author wanted to give detail to world build and help you become part of the book/game, but at times it was just too much for me.
I also found that the author did a poor job of explaining what life was like outside of the major cities, it was almost as if we were supposed to just know that it was a wasteland. The author also was not consistent with their acronyms (GSS, PVP, MMO, etc). He would use the acronym and provide no explanation, and then the next page he would spell it out with the acronym, and then the page after that it would be spelled out with no acronym… It was all over the place.
The other glaring issue for me was the fact that Wade was fighting the sixers and their huge corporation but then was trying to find the egg and in the end became the head of a super-mega-corporation. It didn’t jive for me at all.