The following is a book review by regular Multiplaying forum user, Cavallina. We normally don't do book reviews, but the subject matter of this particular book is steeped in the same culture that we all know and love, and many of us grew up in. Enjoy!

I struggled with writing this book review for Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. I haven’t written a book review/book report since high school in the 80’s. This is actually fitting since the majority if this book is based on 80’s pop culture and video games. I wanted to write a review that will make you compelled to read this book without giving away too much of the story. Hopefully I have succeeded. Actually, if you are reading this blog then this book is a must read, stop reading this post and go order the book, now.

Within the first two pages there were references to 80’s movies and music: Ghost Busters (1984 film with no opening credits) quotes and the song “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo (1985, also in the 1986 movie Back to School)*. Throughout the book there were references to a huge part of my past. I don’t deny the fact that I am a product of the 80’s. That scene from Billy Madison where he shows up at High School in a Firebird wearing his jean jacket, REO Speedwagon concert Tee-shirt and white high top sneakers, oh yeah, that was me without a doubt . (To clarify that last sentence for people new to the blog/forums, while my avatar has a female name I am male in real life, another topic brought up in this book).

The story takes place in the year 2044 where the world poverty and hunger have increased to extreme levels due to the lack of oil as an energy source. To escape this bleak world the population has turned to a “virtual” world, OASIS. Imagine the worlds of all of your favorite games, movies and books all in one place where you could travel between them and explore, level up or PvP. Additionally, people go to school and have jobs all within OASIS. Upon his death, the creator of OASIS left behind three hidden keys all leading up to an easter egg located somewhere in this virtual world. The creator, James Halliday was born about the same time as me and grew up during the 80′s, when video games hit the scene, when Star Wars was originally a phenomenon and bands like Duran Duran ruled the airwaves. The protagonist of the story, Wade Watts, is obsessed with the 80′s all in an effort to find the keys left behind.

I read this book on a trip to Arizona for a friend’s wedding. I read on the plane, I read sitting by the pool, I read in the hotel room and when I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about the story. I kept finding my mind distractedly going back to the story, mulling over the last chapter and what happened and seeing if I could figure out clues on my own (only one did I get right away, but I can’t tell you that as I am trying not to give anything away you wouldn’t find in the liner notes.**) I laughed out loud many times, I couldn’t help it and this would elicit strange looks from my wife on the plane and I would say, “look, it’s a HoJo quote” and a couple of times she actually got it. The story kept me on the edge of my seat; I wanted to see how it would end but never wanted it to be finished.

It was a book I related to and knew almost all the references as someone who grew up in the 80′s; however, I would recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for video games and overall geekiness. Video games, Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons all grabbed hold of the 80′s and are still household names now. If you are from a younger generation this book will entertain you and give you insight to origins of many of the things we enjoy today.

This book will remain a fixture on my shelf, only to be loaned out my closest of friends and to be re-read many times. It will sit next to my Indiana Jones Trilogy, the Highlander, Depeche Mode CD’s and my Memory, Sorrow and Thorn hardcovers, all to be enjoyed many more times. It brought me back to my youth, where as a kid I would ride my old huffy 10 speed to Pizza Palace in town to play Space Invaders or Donkey Kong with my paper route money. The convenient store down the street from the pizza place had Defender and Galaxian. I had an Atari 2600 and a TI-99/4a that I spent countless hours in front of as a geeky pimple face kid. We would stay up until 3 a.m. playing Dungeons and Dragons with paper and dice. My book reports for English class were for books like Alan Dean Fosters “Spellsinger” or Steven Boyett’s “Ariel (still a favorite). Never did I imagine some 24 years after high school I would be writing a book report on the global system of interconnected computer networks (the internet), to people all around the globe, about a book referencing the geeky days of my youth.

*The album Dead Man’s Party includes the song Weird Science included in the 1985 John Hughes movie with the same name.

**Speaking of liner notes… I read this book in hardcover form with Star Wars cars No. 4 “Space pirate Han Solo” as my bookmark, somehow this all seemed fitting. Yeah, I could have read it in an iPad or Kindle, but my bookmark would never have been as cool!)

Cav

Gamer, guitar player, music fan, mountain biker, part-time blogger, just an all around Buckaroo Banzai. Proud member of Delusions of Grandeur.