Review: Ready Player One

This is a review of Ernest Cline’s novel, Ready Player One.

I was a teenager in the 80’s and lived pretty close to where many of the recreated environs are set. That was interesting. I’m also a big fan of VR. This book was jam packed with 80s cultural references which was interesting. It was also packed with geek references. As the first person with a computer at my school, it all brought back memories (48k). I liked that most of the references were plausibly explained, but some were not. For example the antagonist’s alias was 655321 which comes from A Clockwork Orange. Also Harry Tuttle, the protagonist’s perfect pseudonym, was from the movie Brazil. Besides being a festival of 80’s trivia (I never realized so much happened then!) the book was genuinely a good read. Very exciting and imaginative.