“I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” - Unknown
Ready Player One, by Earnest Cline
I enjoyed this book with a big, dripping glass of iced sweet tea, because that's what I would drink as a kid in the 80's (when milk wasn't being forced on me.)
"It's tempting..." That's what would pop up in my mind throughout my reading of Cline's debut novel, Ready Player One, a science fiction and dystopian story of a future world in which lives both personal and professional are conducted in a simulated digital world while the real world falls apart from a decades-long energy crisis. Neighborhoods consist of stacks of trailer homes 9 to 10 units high, and travel between cities or states comes at a risk of being attacked by looters and thieves. But within the OASIS - Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation - you can look like anyone, go anywhere, be anything. Provided you have the money and have "leveled up" enough.
But it's tempting, this future of choosing the face you present to the world, where an education isn't limited by geography or funding or teacher availability. Where you can lose your "life" and just start over. And all you have to sacrifice to have this is human physical contact.
It's tempting because it's so possible.
You see us all bowed over our smart phones, we no longer talk to each other, conversations happen over text more than the phone. Lives are lived almost completely online where you can order your groceries and have them delivered to your door, buy clothes and games and movies and books and have them shipped to your door. You can communicate with someone in Russia or China without having to ever leave your recliner. And when life gets shitty, you can escape to the internet and become someone else, anyone else.
Immerse that not-so-future world in the nostalgia and seeming innocence of 80's pop culture and good guy vs. bad guy video game structure and you have Ready Player One where the heroes look little like their avatars, rarely see the sun, and are the closest of friends though they lives miles and miles apart.
I didn't read RP1, but rather listened to it, narrated by none other than sci-fi, 80s geek anti-hero, Whil Wheaton. Though not at all necessary to enjoy the book, I think it helped pull me into that world of Ladyhawke and Pac Man and shag carpeting. Despite the feeling of foreboding, a warning of "This road lay ahead!" RP1 is fun and exciting and pulls you into its multi-world mayhem until you are just as exciting and worked up as Parzival and Aeche and Art3mis, anticipating where the next gate will be, what the next challenge will be and who will be there to try to stop you.
That world of quests and grand prizes is a tempting one, but a fate I hope we humans never will know. I like the sun and sky too much.
Very nice, Kelly! You actually wrote a proper review!
ReplyDeleteI did not expect to love Ready Player One. If I had passed it in the bookstore and read the back cover, I wouldn't have purchased it. It's the kind of book that I would've casually thought, "hmmm, sounds kinda interesting" and then forgotten about the minute I left the aisle. However, I am extremely glad that I had to read it. It sucked me in almost immediately and I didn't want to stop reading. It was one of those books where I had to force myself to put it down at night because Mike had had a pillow covering his face, trying to block out the light of my lamp, for way too long.
The characters were interesting and flawed and, you're right, the story was frighteningly too close to home. I can see the perks of a virtual reality world so encompassing that you never have to really be a part of the real world (apart from basic human needs). The education and travel aspects, especially, would be pretty phenomenal. But I can't imagine a world where everything is fake... or, at least, in your head. And you know it. It isn't like the Matrix where you think you're properly living. You know this isn't the real world, but the real world is terrible and violent and you make the conscious decision to live your life in a game. I want to say that blows my mind, but with how inseparable we all are from our electronic devices, it doesn't really. It's just taken our current existence to an extreme.
I did read it, as opposed to listened, and I drank a homemade tea that my sisters gave me - stapled together and with a tail of twine to fish it out of the hot water. Wil Wheaton would be a good narrator for this kind of book, but I always prefer the way things sound in my head.
Now, for a slight subject change, you need to immediately read Station Eleven. It's also set in the future and also dystopian-feeling. But is the opposite spectrum. It's about people who have survived an apocalyptic flu virus and a very different kind of new world. It's beautiful and haunting and I couldn't put it down either. It also provided a nice counterpoint to Ready Player One.
Wow. Wow wow wow.
ReplyDeleteI don't even know where to begin. I really, really enjoyed Ready Player One. By the end I loved it. It was truly a classic adventure story. Gah.
Okay, past the fangirling, I agree with you guys. Frighteningly close to home, incredibly lovable characters (especially by the last 1/3, I just loved every one of the High Five - or Four, rather), very enthralling and exciting. The very end got a tad cheesy but I could feel the adolescent geek in Ernest Cline coming out, so it was mainly just endearing. Wade is the ultimate hero: humble, honorable, caring more for the sanctity of the quest than his own gain. It captivated me completely - the only reason it took me so long to finish was 'cause life got so crazy. I stayed up way too late on work nights reading, just too excited to go to sleep. You really do get as caught up as Parzival, Art3mis, Aech, & Shoto. Speaking of Shoto, he was beautifully charming, didn't you think? He just about broke my heart. And Aech! Did everyone else suspect suspect his real looks? And god - when the stack of comics fell over in the Basement! Did you guys know what was up? At that point I started to worry that Aech was a Sixer spy or something. Then I thought maybe Art3mis was. I was sure someone was not who they were supposed to be! But then when everything happened with Daito and then Parzival getting himself indentured, I was like, "well he can't have a betrayal TOO."
Goodness. So enthralling. Really excellent adventure.
I loved the twist with Aech! I didn't see it coming at all! And no, I didn't know what was up with the comics either - that was a nice edition. I didn't think Aech was a Sixer spy, but I did think they were being spied on. Its not like there would be wind in a virtual basement. I loved what Wade was willing to do to free his friends and bring down the Sixers - it was a great David and Goliath aspect to the story. I'm so glad you finally finished!!
DeleteYes! And Og & Jim! How much did you love their end scenes?
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DeleteI didn't trust ANYONE! I just cynically expected everyone, right down to Parzival to be a turncoat. I loved the adventure of it - the journey, riddle and reward. It's what makes video games so addictive, I suppose. But what I loved the most is that I can vaguely remember that time that this future tries so hard to relive. I remember watching these movies when they came out and I remember playing Atari for the first time, what an arcade was like - crazy and loud and full of people. It feels like the last stop before a world forever changed by technology and cynicism and out of nostalgia, we romanticize it as something innocent and pure. This book really stayed with me much more than I expected it to.
DeleteWow! I really didn't feel that way (the first bit of your comment), Kelly! I trusted them all! Except for Daito (and the sixers, of course), but I think that's just because he was so weird and almost mean to everyone else. I never, for a second, thought that Aech or Art3mis or Parzival could betray everyone. I was on the fence about Og because he was obviously not telling the whole truth and I knew Aech was hiding something, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't think he was a traitor though. Now, I agree with the second part of your comment. It does have that total nostalgia feel even though I was really young when a lot of that stuff was happening and I never really got into video games.
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