Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It isn't very often I re-read a book at all,  but it is even less common that I re-read a book in the same year.  But that is what happened this time. It wasn't of my own choosing.  My sons wanted to listen to it on a family road trip and my wife and I finally relented.  I love this story for the imagery,  the concept, and the nostalgia,  but the language and some of the content is a little much for us,  even though our teenagers probably hear worse every day in the halls of their high school (and now college for the oldest one...) So we relented on our family ban and tried to do some editing. The story was as great as I remembered, and the theme was positive.  Get out and live life.  Try to improve your community,  not just live selfishly. I do wish the language had been toned down a bit, and that he had skipped the "intimate" part with his haptic rig, but I can't have everything...

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a great book. It was full of action, retro pop culture references that added to the plot rather than just distracting, a dystopian setting that brought its own drama, and a satisfying conclusion.

One of the things I really liked about this was book was the good old fashioned happy ending. Some might criticize it for being predictable, but I found it refreshing. None of Wade's friends betrayed him. The bad guys didn't have to completely win to provide an impressive come back by the protagonist. Wade was not without challenges, but when it was time to fight he won, and I appreciated that.

For examples, the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix is the poster child for contemporary novels where the protagonist has to lose to win. In the Beyonders (Brandon Mull), Jason has the same issue. And The Hunger Games. And on and on... I understand the writing advice to put your character in the worst possible situation, so the vistory is sweeter when you get them out of it, but the problem is that what used to be the unexpected failure scene is now predictable. I'm waiting for the world to explode on the protagonist, so I can see what excuse the author has for somehow rebuilding it.

Anyway, that is a bit of a tangent, but it is something I like about RPO. While I'd like to recommend this book to everyone I know, including my sons, the language and few choice scenes make me hesitate. So I give it a cautious recommendation and thus 4 stars. If you can stomach some adult language and situations this book is worth the read.