Some of you may know that I originally had my own blog, Beauty but a Funny Girl, prior to joining Bookish (now Bookish Lifestyle). I was thinking the other day about all those reviews I left behind when I transferred and thought they should get some love too - no matter how badly written and newbie they come off! So I present to you: Throwback Thursday Reviews! Every once in a while I'll post an old review from Beauty but a Funny Girl, unedited in terms of content, with the exception of any spelling or grammatical mistakes. It's definitely going to be fun and interesting to see how my tastes and writing style have changed over the years!
Series: Genre: Publication.Date: August 16, 2011 Pages: 374 (hardcover) Published By: Random House NY Website: Ernest Cline Ready Player One on Goodreads My review copy:
Where to get:
In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
(Goodreads)
(Goodreads)
Originally posted April 16, 2012 on Beauty but a Funny Girl
I was intrigued by Cline's vision of the future - a world where our escape (complete and total escape) is into a video game where we can completely recreate who we are. People in 2044 live and work in the OASIS and for some (like Wade) it is their world, especially considering the turmoil the world itself is in. It's very art intimating life, in a way.
I think I would have enjoyed it more had I lived in the 1980s (and understood the more obscure references) and not been born in 1987 (allowing me to only catch the big/well-known ones). Also, Cline would lose me when he went into extreme detail about the technology of they day. Necessary since we have no idea what these machines do, but after a while, it got tedious. However, these two things were not big enough issues for me to stop reading.
I really got caught up in Wade's attempt to beat the evil corporation (IOI) and find Halliday's egg and gain is fortune in effort to keep OASIS from commercialized. IOI is one of those true evil corporations that will stop at nothing to get what they want, which include murder. I really like the other characters and their interactions with one another, even if we only knew them through their avatars in the OASIS - up until the climax of the novel anyway.
In the end, this is a highly entertaining book, especially if you get 80s pop culture. One of the best aspects is that you do NOT have to be a gamer to appreciate the adventure and storytelling.
I think I would have enjoyed it more had I lived in the 1980s (and understood the more obscure references) and not been born in 1987 (allowing me to only catch the big/well-known ones). Also, Cline would lose me when he went into extreme detail about the technology of they day. Necessary since we have no idea what these machines do, but after a while, it got tedious. However, these two things were not big enough issues for me to stop reading.
I really got caught up in Wade's attempt to beat the evil corporation (IOI) and find Halliday's egg and gain is fortune in effort to keep OASIS from commercialized. IOI is one of those true evil corporations that will stop at nothing to get what they want, which include murder. I really like the other characters and their interactions with one another, even if we only knew them through their avatars in the OASIS - up until the climax of the novel anyway.
In the end, this is a highly entertaining book, especially if you get 80s pop culture. One of the best aspects is that you do NOT have to be a gamer to appreciate the adventure and storytelling.
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