Sunday, January 10, 2016

Book Review: Ready Player One

     I just finished the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  I bought it awhile ago and kept putting off reading it because even though I found it on several book lists, the description on the back of the book didn't catch my attention all that much.  I kept having other books come up that sounded more interesting.  So I finally got to reading it several months after I bought it and thank goodness I did.  This book is so much fun!  The characters are relatable and interesting, even the side characters.  And the world in which the book takes place (the real world, for this moment), is a scary picture of what society could become.  But the book doesn't focus on this in a way that makes it overbearing or preachy.  It just sets up the world and then creates the virtual world inside it, which is where the majority of the book takes place.
     I was nervous that the setting of the virtual world would make me feel left out (I know or care very little about computer games, programming, etc.) or make the characters feel distant or removed, but Cline managed to bring the characters to life in both worlds and really make the world feel real.  The danger he puts the characters in had me turning to the last page, real or virtual.
     The best part of this book, hands down, however, were the references.  Eighties culture galore!  It was fun to read about music and movies that I have enjoyed, and learn about new music and movies and facts that I want to check into more.
     I will admit it took me a minute to get into, and there were some parts that made me impatient to get to the main story again, but I would gladly read this book again.