READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline 2/5

READY PLAYER ONE

by Ernest Cline

2 out of 5 stars

I cannot tell you how much I was looking forward to reading this book. There was an overwhelming amount of gushing from many booktuber reviews (e.g. here, here, here). Could a book be that good? Well, I thought to myself as I waited for it to finish downloading to my phone/gaming console/reading tablet, let's see.

10% into the book and I was ready, so desperately ready, to "pull the plug". Like the main character, Wade/Parzival, I was determined to finish this damned book and get my reward. Thankfully, the book came to its end and I was so happy that I would not have to read this again. Because that is just torture.

SYNOPSIS

2044 - An energy crises had driven most the population into an obsession with the virtual world called the OASIS. In its wake, the world is left to neglect. It steadily continued to decay right before our very eyes. But don't you worry about the world and its inhabitants, because we will never have an opportunity to address this head-on. Ignoring the "real" world, we follow Wade Watts immerse himself into the OASIS. Wade is quite a special gamer in the OASIS. He is a gunter, who are highly skilled gamers whose sole purpose is to win J.D. Halliday's Easter Eggs. These eggs are in the form of keys to open rooms wherein, the last one, would get you managing interest in the OASIS. Since the world is poor, the multi-billion dollar prize of the Egg Hunt is more than highly attractive. 

CHARACTERS

Clearly, the readers should really want it too, right? Wrong! Not all readers are easily attracted to the money. What exactly could you do with the money? Money cannot solve a world-wide energy crisis or famine. There wasn't anything to buy because there was nothing. Yet, people's lifestyles didn't seem to change all that much even with the energy crisis. The only marked difference was the addition of the OASIS. This makes me believe that the problem was that Wade was poor and he wanted to be rich. That really doesn't endear me to him. He's shallow and uninteresting. He has no passion, except for the egg hunt. He hasn't given up anything, except maybe some unwanted relatives and a nice cat lady. OMG, Wade, wake-up get and smell the decay. You're a bum, Wade.

The supporting cast is stellar, however. We have the mysterious Aech, the lovely Art3mis, the IOI head Sixer (corporate-hired gunter) Sorrento, the brothers-at-arms Daito and Shoto, and the best character in this novel: James D. Halliday. It actually wouldn't be so bad if we were ready Halliday's story. At least, we would caught a glimpse of how the OASIS came into being. Instead, all Halliday references are of his more uninteresting hobbies like his 1980's obsession. Yes, it is nostalgic enough. His references to Japanese culture is wonderful. But really, the exposition makes me want to cry.

WRITING STYLE/POV

It's in a first person point of view (Wade, username: Parzival) over three sections. The first section happens before Wade's 18th birthday, and the 2nd happens a few months later. The third happens immediately after the third. The saving grace of this entire book is the third section, which is action packed and has a lot of Mission:Impossible bits. That was good and I breezed right through with no issues. Mind that you have to earn the good bits by going through pages upon pages of boring exposition. Some reviewers see this as Easter Eggs in itself, and it does tie in to some important scenes. But I didn't appreciate how long and drab and text-book like it was. If I wanted to really learn them, I would just read Wikipedia. 

INSPIRATIONS

I understand that this is probably something really new to a lot of readers. Sorry, it's not. Go see Sword Art Online, a Japanese anime set in the near future where a mad virtual game creator (like Halliday) enslaves his many gamers into playing his game right after he was murdered (like Ready Player One). Gamers would only be freed from the game if they were able to reach the top level (third key?) and kill the boss (Sorrento?). There's also a love story between the main character and a very capable female gamer (Parzival and Art3mis?). But this anime has more twist and turns. It's basically action-packed all the way. There were very minimal filler scenes/episodes and I really enjoyed the main character. Plus, their motivations are clear - if you don't win, you die.

Here's an Easter Egg for you... Where's Shaider (1984)? And, where's Dragon Ball Z (1989)? More importantly, where the heck is Hello Kitty (1974)? Oh HK is not an anime and is not sci-fi. Fuck off. Hello Kitty continues to represent Japan in her adorable way and deserves to be referenced in this book.

Shaider and Annie

DRAGONBALL Z

HELLO KITTY

OTHER THEMES

Corporate take-over was one of the major driving force in this story, because it has a lot to do with the real motivation: Greed. Wade and all his buddies are greedy. Halliday was the greediest person here. Halliday's greed and SELF-OBSESSION (he was so narcissistic! I do hope people like this do not exist.) overpowered any corporate greed. Yes, Halliday wanted people to be able to use the OASIS for free. No, it wasn't free. It's like when you download a game from Google Play store and you reach the third level, where the game tells you that you needed to pay for the rest of it. It was never free and had never been free. Even Wade said that he couldn't do much because he couldn't afford it. 

WHAT WAS REALLY WADE DOING?

Wade needed to escape his life. He thought that the game would be his ticket out of the dump. Not education. Not human virtues of compassion, goodness, etc. He had solely focused on the game. That is not a good message to send to highly impressionable teens.  

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TIME FOR SPOILERS

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Daito dies, leaving Shoto with a taste for revenge. This was one of the best used character death. It led Shoto to do his own exposition of his relationship with Daito. And, it was amazing. I was really rooting for Shoto, especially at the climactic battle in front of the castle. His reaction to "I have plan, it is this", to which Shoto just did that plan instead of debating it with Wade, is spectacular. This scene almost made me give it a 3 star rating, which I originally did. Then, I thought about the ending scene between Wade and Halliday, where Wade is presented with the kill switch. I prayed to my lucky stars that Wade does the right thing, which is push that damned button and end the OASIS. If he had done so, the world would have finally woken up to the idiocy of living their lives inside a simulation game. But, no, as a true gamer, Wade valued the OASIS more than the survival of the human race. This is where I, Robot scenarios originate from. If not, then worse, Terminator scenarios. If he pushed the button, I will happily give this a 4 star rating.

In the end, of course, Wade gets the prize with the help of his friends ala-Goonies. I have to say that I SAW THIS COMING FROM A MILE AWAY. Fanfiction had more adventure. 

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END OF SPOILERS

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Overall, the shallowness of the characters and the stupidity of their motivations did this book in. I play RPG and MMORPG and I have to say that it is addicting. But like what my parents taught me, they aren't as important as, say, the real world and real problems. It's okay to have a hobby and get obsessed with something. But the OASIS was no longer a hobby, it was a dangerous universal obsession. It was preventing people from taking care of their environment and themselves. It was not a beacon of hope. It is where hope goes to die.