Player One Ready

Prologue

It is easier to write about someone else’s creations than create something of your own.

But writing about someone else’s creations is better than not writing at all.

Yesterday, I read Ready Player one again.

And today, I am doing a book review.

And So It Begins

Ready Player one is a nerd-culture fantasy book by Ernest Cline. By nerd culture fantasy I don’t refer to a book which involves fireballs and wizards (it, in fact does involve fireballs and wizards). It fantasizes about a time when nerd culture will take over the world. *maniacal laughter*

This is a book chock-full of 80’s culture references.

Which, mind you, I did NOT get the first time I read it

But I loved it anyway.

The Book

The book is set in the OASIS (it stands for Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation But if you ask Agent Grant Ward, he’d say:

“Someone really wanted their initials to spell OASIS”

The author builds the OASIS, and then builds a real world around it. He builds the real world in such a way that it sucks (or to be l33t, Suck7). And the OASIS literally has avatars named I-r0k.

The OASIS is a massively multiplayer online simulation which people experience as virtual reality using haptic gloves and ‘Oculus Rift’ style headsets. A reality where you can literally be anything. A cartoon character, a movie character, an Orc, a Troll, or a Replicant.

The OASIS is a nerd’s dream. Being a computer simulation, it is not limited by boring stuff like the puny laws of physics. The ‘world’ is a wasteland, set in the near future where there is no gasoline. (But high-speed internet works anyway) People instead lead their lives in the simulation.

Built by a socially-inept nerd James Halliday, it is full of planets which resemble places from sci-fi and fantasy universes. Star Wars. Lord of the Rings. And did I say Dungeons and Dragons ? This is exactly what made me fall in love with the book. What a universe! Sectors and planets galore. Magic Zones (where spells work, but *science* does not), Tech Zones (in which tech is sufficiently advanced, and therefore indistinguishable from magic) and Chaos Zones (which do not discriminate).

This is all fine for nerds like me. But why would unbelieving jocks want to spend their time in some stupid fantasy when they could play Footballoutside or Obtain six-pack abs ? James Halliday has built a multi-million dollar fortune, and a controlling share in the company which created the OASIS (where, by the way, most of the world’s commerce takes place) Halliday wants people to be nerds. (And may I add, Rightly So). So before dying of nerd-itis, he hides in his OASIS, by the means of his avatar, the all-powerful wizard Anorak three keys, which will lead to the Easter Egg. Then he live-streams his digital-funeral and announces (effectively) “He who shalt show the nerd-dom to find the egg shalt becomest a multi-millionaire”. Then he sends to everyone a personal journal called Anorack’s Almanac (which gets super weird at times), which will help them figure out what is geek-ass brain wants them to do. This of course, sends the world into a frenzy. Finding the easter egg will require supreme knowledge of what is in Anorak’s head. That means geeking out about his favourite movies, books, music and stuff of the 80’s-the decade that he grew up in.

Enter Wade Owen Watts- a fat, under-fed, orphaned nerd who has nothing better to do than study 80’s trivia, watch movies, and read books. (Naysayers will call him Marty Stu) His only problem is he does not have cash (real or virtual, with the boundary really thin). His avatar- Parzival (a l33ism for Percival, seeker of the Holy Grail.) Parzival seeks the grail of nerddom, and falls in love with Art3mis along the way. (Who is NOT a middle aged guy named Chuck who likes to chat up young guys online). He spouts pop-culture references periodically, and makes many jokes with his best friend, ‘Aech’ (for ‘H’)

But if everyone worth knowing on the OASIS is a Gandalf-loving nerd, who do we pwn? Driven with an urge to take over Halliday’s company, and turn the OASIS into an irritating Freemium game with lots of ads (Note: The OASIS has a one-time entry fee of 25 cents. It makes it’s money in virtual mall rentals, virtual fuel, ammo and teleportation costs. Which real nerds will be able to earn by going on adventures anyway) an Evil Internet Corporation fields an army of Stormtrooper-like avatars in uniforms, called Sux0r7 by the C001 egg-hunters (or Gunters)

Add to that a LOT of nerd references. And you have a fairy tale.

Critting the Critics

As is my usual (bad) practice, when I finished RP1, I went online to know others’ opinions about it (meaning Reddit).

And I was shocked by all the negativity about it’s plot-holes, underdeveloped characters and childlike world building, and show and tell references.

As I mentioned earlier, I did NOT understand all the references. But I enjoyed them anyway.

I did not, however like the elitist attitude the critics show in their reviews of the book. The whole point of fantasy is escape- escape to a world where anything is possible. And the OASIS is EXACTLY that.

Who cares if the book is riddled with more plot holes than an NPC who has been shot at by a trigger-happy maniac? Who cares if the main character is a Marty Stu?

The whole point of reading for me is that it gives me joy. It makes me laugh. It makes me (day)dream. And this book does just that. It gives me hours of bliss and leaves me wanting for more.

Why would I then care if it does not check the *character development* and *social issues* boxes which are required by *great literature*?

!^%@ great literature! That’s what I say. Player One is Ready to play.

Note: ‘!^%@’ means ‘Burn’. Don’t get any ideas.

Metanote: I do not support the burning of books, howsoever great they are.