threeplusfire: (owl)
three ([personal profile] threeplusfire) wrote2011-10-25 03:55 pm

Ready Player One

I really didn't know anything about this book until I bought it earlier this month. But I just finished reading it in twenty four hours, sometimes almost physically shaking with excitement. I did actually exclaim "Holy shit holy shit!" at one point. I also did cry those tears of crazy fierce happiness and sadness. I could not wait to see the end and I never wanted it to end.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is phenomenal. I thought having already read several excellent books this month (Vaclav & Lena by Hayley Tanner, City of Thieves by David Benioff, After Dark by Haruki Murakami, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, The Magicians by Lev Grossman) that my run of luck might have ended and all books would seem sort of ordinary and flat. Especially given how magical Tanner's book felt. But this trumped all of it for sheer excitement. I haven't felt so moved by a fight a scene since I was reading fantasy novels when I was about eight years old. I haven't wanted to actually drop everything and become the protagonist of the story so much since the first time I saw Labyrinth or Sneakers or War Games.

I was born in 1980, so a lot of these references are to my early childhood and things I discovered later as an adult. But it is still absolutely enthralling and the story is so damn exciting that I abandoned all plans to do productive, grown up shit today in order to lay on my bed and read. Now I need to go do the laundry and chop some beets while I pine for a real OASIS.

[identity profile] alainn-sorcha.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
I've been hearing great things about Ready Player One. I'm glad it held up!

[identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
It is so exciting! It really is. The nerd power is strong!

[identity profile] maldeluxx.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 12:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Added it to my shopping list :)

[identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad! I want lots of people to read this.

[identity profile] kuoirad.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad to see someone talk about it - I've had it on my Amazon list for a while. I just got done reading Daemon, myself - not sure if it's quite up your alley, though it might be up [livejournal.com profile] colmmcsky's...

[identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I've seen here and there some mentions of it as being awesome. Apparently Wil Wheaton did an audio book version. It's like William Gibson's Neuromancer had a baby with John Hughes' filmography.

[identity profile] kuoirad.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh. Well, I've not read Neuromancer, and am not intimately familiar with Hughes's oeuvre of work.

That being said, I'm not sure I see any John Hughes in Daemon.

And yes, it was an awesome book.

[identity profile] degreeabsolute.livejournal.com 2011-10-27 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been meaning to track down RP1---Ernie Cline has been a favorite of mine from the first time I heard "Airwolf."

[identity profile] alteredhistory.livejournal.com 2011-10-28 04:53 am (UTC)(link)
I read it. Enjoyed it.