The Book Tea

I’ll preface this review by stating that I am not a gamer in any sense of the word. Many people have tried for years to get me to like video games and no one has been successful yet. That being said, Ready Player One is a gamer geek’s wet dream. I picked up the book thanks to the recommendation of a friend and the hype surrounding the new movie. I wanted to love this book but alas I’ll call the book decent at best.

Ready Player One tells the story of Wade Watts, a teenager in a dystopian future. The world has exhausted it’s resources and people have given up trying to save it. Their only escape is inside a virtual reality world known as the OASIS. As the economic center of this world, the OASIS provides both livelihoods and entertainment. The stage is set after the game’s creator, James Halliday, dies and leaves a hidden Easter egg inside the OASIS. The first person to find the egg inherits Halliday’s entire fortune and a controlling interest in his company, Gregarious Gaming Systems (GGS). Wade and other ‘gunters’ are pitted against the Innovative Online Industries (IOI) corporation, who seek to win the egg and take control over Halliday’s company.

The book is filled with a plethora of (mostly 80s) pop culture references. These references are the soul of the book. To find the hidden egg, Wade must sort through Halliday’s obsession with the pop culture of his childhood. The references point to three hidden keys and gates that will unlock the egg. Characters constantly make off hand references to all things pop culture. You’ll find everything from Monty Python to 80s music and old arcade games. As more of a literary nerd myself, a lot of the references flew over my head while still managing to be a bit too in your face. It felt a bit like a pop culture test that I was failing. The heavy handed use of pop culture could inspire interest in readers to do some research. Research is necessary because it is unlikely anyone below the age of forty knows most of this stuff. But it feels more like the author tries to show how vast his knowledge of the 80s is rather than inspire others. It may have come across a little better if the references were fewer and better integrated. Often it felt like the references were thrown in for fun with no actual benefit to the storyline. The references did inspire me to find a YouTube playlist with every song mentioned in the book. I listened to the music while reading and it set the mood and I got a better idea of the scene the book was setting.

As for the storyline itself, it falls a little flat if you remove the pop culture references. The idea of people living inside a game has promise, but the execution leaves something to be desired. Wade (gamer tag Parzival) is struggling to find the egg and prevent IOI from taking control of the OASIS. IOI seeks control of GGS because to them the OASIS is chiefly a moneymaking operation. They believe the OASIS is wasting its’ potential by offering free access. Payment is still required within the game so the OASIS isn’t exactly an egalitarian haven either. IOI isn’t actually explained enough to be anything other than a big bad. This storyline has interesting parallels with the current debate over net neutrality but the story never fleshes it out. IOI is only one example of a novel whose characterization isn’t as complete as it needs to be. I never actually cared enough about any of the characters to be invested in the story.

The story tries to leave with the takeaway that “reality is the only place you can find real happiness”. Unfortunately, the entire book shows the exact opposite. The romance plot thrown in to illustrate this point rang hollow to me. The main character getting the girl at the end exists as the sole evidence of a better reality. The female character exists solely as a trophy for Wade to win at the end (a myriad of problems with this, but I digress). It felt contrived. The entire book exists inside the OASIS. Then the reader must believe reality is better when at the end of the book, the world is still in shambles. For me, the struggle for the OASIS against IOI had the most potential. It is wasted in favor of a romance that fails to prove its point. In the end, Ready Player One is a fun read with promise, but falls short of the sci-fi novels it often references.