Book Review: Ready Player One
I had to write a book review for school so I figured, why not post it here?
If you notice any mistakes or things I should write differently, let me know! :)
[Ready Player One]Ernest Cline ''Ready Player One'', ISBN: 978-0-09-956043-2, Price: € 7.95, 375 pages, Publishing house: Arrow Books (2011)
If I had to pick my favourite book of this year, I would choose the science fiction novel ''Ready Player One'' by Ernest Cline, published in 2011. Firstly, because it contains everything - literally everything - that young and old geeks love: Internet culture, video games, retro pop culture, you name it. And secondly, because the story itself is so creative and complex that it reminds the reader of movies like Inception or the Matrix sometimes. There are worlds within a world, a game within a game within a game.
The book starts out slowly, describing all aspects of the futuristic world in 2044. The Earth is dying and most humans are living, working and attending school in the virtual reality of the OASIS, a very realistic video game. So does Wade, the geeky protagonist of the novel, who loves to ramble about all the books, movies, video games and music that he is obsessed with. It becomes obvious that the author himself is very nerdy, too, and basically in love with this story. That's usually a good thing, but in this case, the very detailed descriptions and inner monologues of Wade become a bit dragging after a few chapters.
However, not before long, all hell breaks loose and the story speeds up considerably. The creator of the OASIS, a multibillionaire, has passed away. His entire fortune will go to the person who finds the so-called ''Easter Egg'' first: a treasure he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS. So when Wade finds the first clue as to where the Egg is hidden, he suddenly becomes famous - and the target of thousands of other treasure seakers, both in the virtual and the real world, who will stop at nothing to hunt him down.
One plot twist follows the next and the story builds up to a crescendo of epic proportions. I promise you - it'll give you the chills.
A very strong point of the book are its main characters, from the mysterious blogger Art3mis to the Dumbledore-ish old Ogden Marrow. And of course the socially anxious Wade, the typical anti-hero, who gradually transforms into a (you guessed it) hero. There aren't too many charactes to keep track of, but the handful that you have are unique, strong, three-dimensional and very real.
To wrap this all up, ''Ready Player One'' is definitely a great writing debut of Ernest Cline. And not just great but successful too: it received several awards, was translated into many other languages and will even be made into a movie by Warner Bros. Yes, it's Cline's first book, however, he has written many poetry slams and screen plays before and will publish his next novel - Armada - in 2015. Needless to say, most of his works are science fiction.
Buy it. That's all I have to say. Especially if you're a teenager, a young adult or grew up in the Eighties, or if you simply want to read something ''different'' and have a basic understanding of what a computer is. Buy it. Read it. Love it.
If you notice any mistakes or things I should write differently, let me know! :)
[Ready Player One]Ernest Cline ''Ready Player One'', ISBN: 978-0-09-956043-2, Price: € 7.95, 375 pages, Publishing house: Arrow Books (2011)
If I had to pick my favourite book of this year, I would choose the science fiction novel ''Ready Player One'' by Ernest Cline, published in 2011. Firstly, because it contains everything - literally everything - that young and old geeks love: Internet culture, video games, retro pop culture, you name it. And secondly, because the story itself is so creative and complex that it reminds the reader of movies like Inception or the Matrix sometimes. There are worlds within a world, a game within a game within a game.
The book starts out slowly, describing all aspects of the futuristic world in 2044. The Earth is dying and most humans are living, working and attending school in the virtual reality of the OASIS, a very realistic video game. So does Wade, the geeky protagonist of the novel, who loves to ramble about all the books, movies, video games and music that he is obsessed with. It becomes obvious that the author himself is very nerdy, too, and basically in love with this story. That's usually a good thing, but in this case, the very detailed descriptions and inner monologues of Wade become a bit dragging after a few chapters.
However, not before long, all hell breaks loose and the story speeds up considerably. The creator of the OASIS, a multibillionaire, has passed away. His entire fortune will go to the person who finds the so-called ''Easter Egg'' first: a treasure he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS. So when Wade finds the first clue as to where the Egg is hidden, he suddenly becomes famous - and the target of thousands of other treasure seakers, both in the virtual and the real world, who will stop at nothing to hunt him down.
One plot twist follows the next and the story builds up to a crescendo of epic proportions. I promise you - it'll give you the chills.
A very strong point of the book are its main characters, from the mysterious blogger Art3mis to the Dumbledore-ish old Ogden Marrow. And of course the socially anxious Wade, the typical anti-hero, who gradually transforms into a (you guessed it) hero. There aren't too many charactes to keep track of, but the handful that you have are unique, strong, three-dimensional and very real.
To wrap this all up, ''Ready Player One'' is definitely a great writing debut of Ernest Cline. And not just great but successful too: it received several awards, was translated into many other languages and will even be made into a movie by Warner Bros. Yes, it's Cline's first book, however, he has written many poetry slams and screen plays before and will publish his next novel - Armada - in 2015. Needless to say, most of his works are science fiction.
Buy it. That's all I have to say. Especially if you're a teenager, a young adult or grew up in the Eighties, or if you simply want to read something ''different'' and have a basic understanding of what a computer is. Buy it. Read it. Love it.