REVIEW: Ready Player One By Ernest Cline

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. 

   But 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.

A friend suggested i read Ready Player One. Knowing what a 

geek and lover of random information I am. They knew I would 

thoroughly enjoy this book.

Amazingly well written and for his first novel it was EPIC. I 

was hooked the second I started reading it.

Of course I immediately adored Wade's character. Antisocial, 

bad self image, and a love for all things nerdy and fun.I 

have to say i was not a big fan of Art3mis. She was so 

terrible to Wade.

A must read for any geeky gamer type. It will hook you in til 

you finish it. Its full of fun geeky movie reference. And old 

gaming references.

5 stars

QUESTIONS FOR ERNEST CLINE

Questions for Ernest Cline, Author of Ready Player One

Q) So it seems you’re a bit of a pop-culture buff. In your 

debut novel Ready Player One you incorporate literally 

hundreds of pop culture references, many of them in ways that 

are integral to the book’s plot. What’s the first thing you 

remember geeking out over?

A) Sesame Street and the Muppets. I thought Jim Henson ruled 

the universe. I even thought it was pretty cool that I shared 

my first name with a muppet. Until the first day of 

kindergarten, when I quickly learned that "Ernie" was not a 

cool name to have. That was about the time I segued into my 

next childhood obsession, Star Wars.

Q) Like the book’s hero, you possess a horrifyingly deep 

knowledge of a terrifyingly broad swathe of culture, ranging 

from John Hughes movies to super-obscure Japanese animation 

to 8-bit videogames to science-fiction and fantasy literature 

to role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. What the heck 

is wrong with you?! How do you have so much time on your 

hands?

A) Well, I’m raising a toddler now, so I don’t have as much 

time to geek out as I used to. I think I amassed a lot of 

that knowledge during my youth. Like most geeks, I was a 

sponge for all kinds of movies, TV shows, cartoons, and video 

games. Then as an adult, I worked at a long series of low 

paying tech support jobs that allowed me to surf the Internet 

all day, and I spent a lot of my cubicle time looking up 

obscure pop culture minutiae from my childhood while I waited 

for people to reboot their PCs. Of course, I spent most of my 

off hours geeking out, too. Luckily, all those hours can now 

be classified as "research" for my novel.

Q) You’re stranded on an island and you can only take one 

movie with you. What is it?

A) Easy! The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition. (Can I take 

all of the DVD Extras and Making of Documentaries, too?)

Q) You’re given free tickets and back stage passes to one 

concert (artist can be living or dead)- who is it and why?

A) Are we talking about time travel back to a specific 

concert in the past here? Because it would be pretty cool to 

stand on the roof of Apple Records and watch the Beatles jam 

up there. But my favorite rock band that’s still together is 

RUSH, and I just bought tickets to see them this June!

Q) Favorite book of all time.

A) That’s an impossible question! I could maybe give you 

three favorites: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, Galapagos by 

Kurt Vonnegut, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by 

Douglas Adams.

Q) Best failed TV show pilot available on Youtube?

A) The unaired Batgirl pilot starring Yvonne Craig.

Q) Favorite episode of Cowboy Bebop?

A) “Ganymede Elegy.” Or maybe “Boogie Woogie Feng Shui.”

Q) What’s the first arcade game you ever played? What’s your 

favorite?

A) I was deflowered by Space Invaders. My all time favorite 

coin-op game was probably Black Tiger.

Q) Your idea of the perfect day...

A) Play Black Tiger. Then go see Big Trouble in Little China 

at the Alamo Drafthouse with Kurt Russell and John Carpenter 

doing a live Q&A afterwards. When I get home that night, I 

accidentally invent a cheap abundant clean energy source that 

saves human civilization. I celebrate by staying up late to 

watch old Ultraman episodes with my daughter (who loves 

Ultraman even more than I do).

Q) True or False. We hear you own a DeLorean and that you 

plan on tricking it out to be a time-travelling, 

Ghostbusting, Knight-Rider car.

A) False. I actually plan on tricking it out to be a time-

traveling Ghostbusting Knight Riding Jet Car. It’s going to 

have both a Flux Capacitor and an Oscillation Overthruster in 

it, so that my Delorean can travel through time AND solid 

matter. My personalized plates are ECTO88, just like a 

DeLorean that appears in my book.

(I’m so glad that you asked this question, because now I can 

justify buying the car as a "promotional tool" for my book. 

Everyone reading this is a witness! My DeLorean is helping me 

promote my book! The fact that I’ve wanted one since I was 

ten years old is totally irrelevant!)

Q) Speaking of DeLoreans: biggest plot hole in the Back to 

The Future Films?

A) The Back to The Future Trilogy is perfect and contains no 

plot holes! Except for the plot hole inherent in nearly all 

time travel films: The planet Earth is moving through space 

at an immense speed at all times. So if you travel back in 

time, you are traveling to a time when the Earth was in a 

different location, and you and your time machine would 

appear somewhere out in deep space. For a time machine to be 

useful, it also needs to be able to teleport you to wherever 

the Earth was/is at your destination time.

Q) But there are two DeLoreans in 1885--why doesn’t Doc dig 

out the one he buried in a cave for Marty to find in 1955 and 

use the gasoline from it to get the other DeLorean up to 

88mph?

A) Doc would have drained the gas tank before he stored a car 

for 80 years, so there wouldn’t have been any gas. And 

tampering with the DeLorean in the cave at all could 

conceivably create a universe-ending paradox, because it has 

to be in the cave for Marty to get back to 1885 in the first 

place. Totally not a plot hole!

ERNEST CLINE has worked as a short-order cook, fish gutter, 

plasma donor, elitist video store clerk, and tech support 

drone. His primary occupation, however, has always been 

geeking out, and he eventually threw aside those other 

promising career paths to express his love of pop culture 

fulltime as a spoken word artist and screenwriter. His 2009 

film Fanboys, much to his surprise, became a cult phenomenon. 

These days Ernie lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, their 

daughter, and a large collection of classic video games. 

READY PLAYER ONE is his first novel.