Book Review: Ready Player One

 

image from here

 

My friend Erika said part of what drew her in to this book was the cover. Well, I had to search the internet high and low (aka: "click on at least three links") to find the cover of the edition I read. As you can tell from above, mine was rather boring.

I didn't know about this book. Again, quoting Erika: "NOTHING about the summary/description of this book appealed (appeals) to me. Gamers (as in video gamers). Sci fi. 80s pop culture. Nope, nope, nope.... I broke into it and COULD. NOT. PUT. IT. DOWN. It is indeed chock full of video games (endless video games), sci fi, and 80s pop culture. And yet it's one of the most compelling stories I've read in a long time."

It is hard to explain, but this book really was un-put-down-able. I started it at 10:30 at night (you would think I'd learned my lesson but no, apparently I am unteachable) and all of a sudden it was 3am. I thought maybe a couple of hours had passed.

Yes, this book is set in the future. Yes, the future is bleak. Yes, it has a lot of video game references. Yes, it even has a lot of 80s references (most of which, being a child of the 80s, I LOVED!) But the story just sucked me in. It took about 50 pages and I was hooked. It is part science fiction, part apocalyptic (think Divergent/Hunger Games/etc) but it was so good. I was actually a little depressed when I finished the book because I wasn't still reading it.

I said to Dave, about eighty pages in, "You HAVE TO read this book." He is reading it now and I am seriously envious of the fact that he hasn't read it yet. He gets to experience its awesomeness and I just have to deal with the fact that I've already had that experience.

So all I can say is, even if the premise appeals to you NOT AT ALL, do yourself a favour and Read. This. Book. And then let me know when you are finished it so that we can be sad about it being done together. Also, so I can talk with you about how awesome and amazing it is.