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A review by vishnu_r1
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4.0
This isn't Neuromancer.
Now that that's out of the way, this is pure entertainment, a geek fantasy (a reviewer called it a 'nerd utopia' and I don't disagree). I enjoyed every page of the book right until the end (the last few scenes in the real world were more like a YA romance).
The references to 80's pop culture are everywhere - right from movies, music to video games. And video games are everywhere - literally. The setting for most of the book is a video game masquerading as a virtual world for people to 'live' in. The story arc is 'quest' that the hero needs to complete to get his reward at the end. It's a simple premise, but then it's quite interesting - the pace of the story is quick and an engrossing one at that. The villains are also classic - in the sense that the threat is coming from a corporate behemoth trying to ruin it for everyone and the hero and his group of pesky kids save the day for everyone.
The world building is good. His vision of how virtual reality can be is quite fun; especially now that VR is slowly coming into fruition, this is not too outlandish.
But then, character development was just OK. One doesn't read such books to get deep insight on humanity. One reads this to be entertained and entertained I was. People with any love for video games will find this a fun read - there are so many things that can remind a reader of something they'd played, and nostalgia is always good :)
Now that that's out of the way, this is pure entertainment, a geek fantasy (a reviewer called it a 'nerd utopia' and I don't disagree). I enjoyed every page of the book right until the end (the last few scenes in the real world were more like a YA romance).
The references to 80's pop culture are everywhere - right from movies, music to video games. And video games are everywhere - literally. The setting for most of the book is a video game masquerading as a virtual world for people to 'live' in. The story arc is 'quest' that the hero needs to complete to get his reward at the end. It's a simple premise, but then it's quite interesting - the pace of the story is quick and an engrossing one at that. The villains are also classic - in the sense that the threat is coming from a corporate behemoth trying to ruin it for everyone and the hero and his group of pesky kids save the day for everyone.
The world building is good. His vision of how virtual reality can be is quite fun; especially now that VR is slowly coming into fruition, this is not too outlandish.
But then, character development was just OK. One doesn't read such books to get deep insight on humanity. One reads this to be entertained and entertained I was. People with any love for video games will find this a fun read - there are so many things that can remind a reader of something they'd played, and nostalgia is always good :)