# Ready Player One was not that good a book... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400 "2018-01-24T19:34:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/21 "2018-01-25T17:27:20Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I should note that I didn’t read the book, rather it was read to me by Wil Wheaton during my work commute Did he speak any differently when he had to read his own name in the book? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/22 "2018-01-25T17:30:05Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Did he speak any differently when he had to read his own name in the book? No, but the moment did amuse me a little. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/23 "2018-01-25T18:26:53Z")
I’d just like to note, for the record, that Michael Crichton’s _Jurassic Park_ was not that good a book, either. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/24 "2018-01-25T18:27:24Z")
I’d just like to hop on the “I’m glad I’m not the only one” bus. Too many current sci-fi novels, especially those trying for humor, rely on the pop culture crutch and most (maybe all) of the writers are pretty clumsy in their crutch-use. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/25 "2018-01-25T18:57:09Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > but \*RPO \*was fun. Just fun. > [@Jophiel](#): > > I thought it was fun and I enjoyed it. Although I’m right in the target demo, I wasn’t like “OMG they’re talking about Zork and War Games! This is the best!” but I was amused by the story and stayed interested to see how it would pan out. Having said that, I doubt it holds up to repeated readings and will likely never delve into it again although I’ll see the movie at some point just out of curiosity. Yeah, pretty much this. > [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > The part that bugged me the most about the book was the absolute Mary Sue-ness of the character. > [@epbrown01](#): > > some of the criticisms in this thread are off. Wade’s not a Mary Sue - he and the other Gunters are experts on old games and films because they’ve spent years studying nothing else. Yeah, I didn’t get the sense of Mary Sue-ness from the character, but I did get a sense of wish-fulfillment fantasy (of the target reader) in the scenario: “Wouldn’t it be great if I could be a hero/get the girl/get rich and famous by doing things I already like to do, like playing video games and memorizing nerdy movies?” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/26 "2018-01-25T19:12:03Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I liked it as well, enough that I searched for a copy after reading it at the library. Want to share a popcorn bucket? You ever hear of a group called [Geek Girl Brunch](http://geekgirlbrunch.com/)? It’s a national (US) group with local chapters all over the country. And a handful in other countries. We don’t just brunch, we do group movie outings and other get-togethers. And of course we do a lot of geek girl related sharing on Facebook. If you’re currently in the US you should check it out! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/27 "2018-01-25T19:56:09Z")
I think the movie will be a lot of hit and miss since the book was this way and I’ve seen plenty of Speilberg’s lighter fare from this century to know he’s not into giving his all for 120 minutes. He’s so busy and in demand these days that he can picture how to do a handful of scenes brilliantly for a fantasy film, makes them brilliantly, and then sort of loses interest and phones it in for the rest of the movie. War of The Worlds had some terrific stuff that you can see Speilberg thought of ahead of time, but then the rest of the movie was a lot of filler. See also Minority Report, A.I., the BFG. I think RPO will have a lot of fun moments, just not 120 minutes of them. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/28 "2018-01-26T13:48:00Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > That said, some of the criticisms in this thread are off. Wade’s not a Mary Sue - he and the other Gunters are experts on old games and films because they’ve spent years studying nothing else. This is established in the first scene in the book with Aetch, where he and Wade bounce obscure game and movie trivia off each other in the Basement. I understand that knowing all of these obscure facts is part of the world-building, but it’s precisely how much he knows that makes him a Mary Sue to me. Regardless as to how much time you dedicate to it, I don’t believe a high-schooler can have encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much everything D&D AND know multiple 80s movies perfectly line-by-line AND have enough video game skill to perfect Joust AND be skilled enough to play a perfect game of Pac Man AND still go to school and live a regular life. His perfect knowledge and skill at everything needed is too, well, perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/29 "2018-01-26T14:03:49Z")
Well, he didn’t “go to school and live a regular life”. He barely passed school and was at risk of expulsion for missing classes (to do Gunter stuff). He only stayed in school because his OASIS console was issued by the government for school and he’d lose it if he was expelled. While he was in school, he was studying Holliday’s journal. When he wasn’t in school he did literally nothing but sit on his ass eating junk food and being in the OASIS with the exception of time he spent brushing up on his 80s trivia and games. For that matter, he didn’t have a perfect knowledge of D&D but rather had the module map up in the corner of his OASIS screen during his walk through. I thought he pulled up a script of War Games as well for the first key but I might be remembering wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/30 "2018-01-26T14:07:01Z")
I listened on Audible so I can’t just look back, but I think he used a reference book to study the Pac Man boards prior to making his perfect run. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/31 "2018-01-26T14:18:40Z")
It’s worth mentioning that the D&D module in question was _Tomb of Horrors_ because it’s (a) a famous module (probably the most famous module) so it’d be an obvious thing to study, be familiar with and have a handy PDF of and (b) is almost all traps with very few monster encounters. So even a low level punk like Wade could navigate it if you had a book telling you how to defeat each room. Had it been nearly any other module, even a low-level one like _Keep on the Borderlands_ (also famous), he likely would have been killed by one of the monsters with his cheap sword and buckler. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/32 "2018-01-26T14:21:50Z")
It was a popcorn book. It was fun. I didn’t expect more than that, and I was more than satisfied. I expect the movie will be fun as well. Not everything I read has to enlighten me. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/33 "2018-01-26T14:40:30Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > It was a popcorn book. It was fun. I didn’t expect more than that, and I was more than satisfied. I expect the movie will be fun as well. > > Not everything I read has to enlighten me. I didn’t want it to be enlightened. I wanted it to be a better story than it was and more than just a Wikipedia page on my childhood. That doesn’t mean heavy and ponderous. You can expect a movie or book to be light and fun and still want it to be well made/written/told. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/34 "2018-01-26T15:57:07Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Well, he didn’t “go to school and live a regular life”. He barely passed school and was at risk of expulsion for missing classes (to do Gunter stuff). He only stayed in school because his OASIS console was issued by the government for school and he’d lose it if he was expelled. While he was in school, he was studying Holliday’s journal. When he wasn’t in school he did literally nothing but sit on his ass eating junk food and being in the OASIS with the exception of time he spent brushing up on his 80s trivia and games. > > For that matter, he didn’t have a perfect knowledge of D&D but rather had the module map up in the corner of his OASIS screen during his walk through. I thought he pulled up a script of War Games as well for the first key but I might be remembering wrong. It had been a while since I read the book, but I believe you’re right that he had a lot of those references handy and written down in some form or fashion to I take back my complaint. But now I have a new one What’s with having all the references handy at just the perfect time? Total cop out. ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/35 "2018-01-26T16:12:21Z")
It was a fun silly book. But he was a Gary Sue. I want to point out the study time doesn’t work. Given his age, it’s almost impossible for him to watch all the shows/movies he did, (and he claimed he watched some of them multiple times). And read/study all the guides and video games. Unless everything was fast forward or magically downloaded into his head. But they don’t have that in this Sci-fi universe. Given his knowledge, it would make more sense if he was 40 years old and RPG as a teenager in the net. Which is true in the meta sense. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/36 "2018-01-26T16:15:23Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > What’s with having all the references handy at just the perfect time? Total cop out. He’s on the Super-Internet. It would take me under thirty seconds right now to locate a PDF of _Tomb of Horrors_ and a script to War Games. Edit: I also recall that he used a [walk-through](http://www.eristic.net/games/infocom/zork1.html) for Zork. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/37 "2018-01-26T17:04:35Z")
Agreed: the book is dreck. But it’s fun. Not everything written has to be literature. I’m going to reserve judgment on the movie until I see it. I’ve seen some good movies made from books I dislike, and plenty of bad movies made from great books. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/38 "2018-01-26T17:22:33Z")
My biggest concern about the movie is that it’s going to have way too much modern pop culture in it. I’m pretty sure I saw Overwatch’s Tracer in the trailer. I understand the thinking - add a broader range of nerd stuff to appeal to younger nerds, but diluting the nostalgia factor could potentially ruin the movie. Nostalgia is the only thing RP1 has going for it. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/39 "2018-01-26T17:29:35Z")
You know what opinion are like. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400/40 "2018-01-26T17:31:08Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I’m pretty sure I saw Overwatch’s Tracer in the trailer. Yeah, she was. To me it felt very anachronistic and like blatant advertising but most people in the RP1 Trailer thread seemed cool with it so I guess we’re the minority opinion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ready-player-one-was-not-that-good-a-book/807400.md?page=3)