There's an abandoned copy of Ready Player One at work. Is it worth pinching?

[dead-ced-dead]

We recently moved into a new office and on my desk is an abandoned copy of Ready Player One. It's been here for weeks and at this point, it's obvious no one's coming back for it.

Should I take that as an omen? Is it any good or worth a thumb through?

[ASFTSN]

It's easily one of the worst books I've ever read in my life. Ultimate member-berries zed tier shit for self-professed 'nerds', just endless pop-culture references strung together on a moldy cheesestring. Do not be arsed.

[13 schoolyards]

I always reckon those massive pop culture hits are worth a look just to see what makes something "a hit". But I remember when it was big a mate showed me his copy (which he was hate-reading) and there was something like a page and a half just listing nerd pop culture from the 80s, and not in an interesting American Psycho way either.

[bgmnts]

My friend recommended it and I think she's ace but I know that I usually don't like the same type of genre fiction she does. I heard an hour of the audiobook and wasn't into it at all.

Would pass.

[dead-ced-dead]

I'm starting to see why it was abandoned.

I did see the movie, and the consensus from friends who read (and didn't like) the book is that Spielberg removed a lot of dead wood and waffle to turn it into 3/5 film.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

No. Absolutely not.

[Glebe]

There's an abandoned copy of Ready Player One at work. Is it worth pinching?

How Spielberg came to direct video game movie.

[samadriel]

I'm starting to see why it was abandoned.

I did see the movie, and the consensus from friends who read (and didn't like) the book is that Spielberg removed a lot of dead wood and waffle to turn it into 3/5 film.

Pretty much.  Cline is concocting decent images,  but he can't express them in book form,  it's just '"Remember Nintendo???" she asked me, dressed as Ally Sheedy in War Games.' etc. The chore of having to tell the reader "he was riding Kandda's motorcycle" is transformed into something quickly-absorbed and enjoyable on the screen. The comic book format would've worked too; it's a shame Cline didn't try to find an artist to render his ideas back when he first came up with the story. Hey,  maybe he did, and just didn't want to pay a collaborator or something.

Another good thing about the comics format would be that you don't have to sell out to the Hollywood machine and have a character written to be a heavily-birthmarked ugly duckling played by a gorgeous babe with a smudge on her face.

[madhair60]

ready player cum

[dead-ced-dead]

ready player cum

You're a cheeky little scamp, aren't you?

[madhair60]

hey I'm just a little guy.

[Pink Gregory]

is that an order to ready the cum of the player, or asking the player known as 'cum' to prepare?

[madhair60]

try not to cum

[Catalogue Trousers]

The second one is even worse. Cline is rich as Croesus for the rest of his days for this shite. Now there's a dystopian thought. 'Member 1984?

[Oh, Nobody]

Guy at work LOVED Ready Player One, book and movie. Bought the Funko pops, he was all in.

Then Ready Player Two came out. "I started reading it but it's just a load of pop culture references"

[13 schoolyards]

Guy at work LOVED Ready Player One, book and movie. Bought the Funko pops, he was all in.

Then Ready Player Two came out. "I started reading it but it's just a load of pop culture references"

It's weird how often that kind of thing happens with blockbusters (especially shite ones) - it's like there's a moment where everyone gets caught up in the hype and is fully on board, and then once the moment passes they're like "hang on, this thing I thought was great is actually crap".

[Registering to lurk]

I managed to misread Ready Player One as a satire of the end of culture.

There's a horrible dystopian world well into climate collapse and culture has stopped. There's nothing new and everyone just spends their time looking backwards in a haze of nostalgia because the present is so awful.

I thought the book was really clever right up to the point I realized it's not a satire, it's aspirational.

[dead-ced-dead]

It's weird how often that kind of thing happens with blockbusters (especially shite ones) - it's like there's a moment where everyone gets caught up in the hype and is fully on board, and then once the moment passes they're like "hang on, this thing I thought was great is actually crap".

I had this a bit about 30 pages into the first Dragon Tattoo sequel. I like the first one still overall, even if the author writes his lead as a self insert hero and gives himself a goth fuckdoll girlfriend. The sequel I just thought, "This is shite, actually, isn't it?"

[pierre boo-lez]

This is the author's car, that he is happy to let other human beings see him driving:



Avoid at all costs

[dead-ced-dead]

This is the author's car, that he is happy to let other human beings see him driving:

Avoid at all costs

That's clinched it. Not only will I not read it, I will sacrifice the abandoned copy to the literature gods!

[13 schoolyards]

Bring in a second copy and leave it next to the first

[samadriel]

This is the author's car, that he is happy to let other human beings see him driving:



Avoid at all costs

Even that isn't the floor for Ernest Cline.

[madhair60]

the car is cool and i'm tired of people pretending it's not

[QDRPHNC]

Man steps out of his Delorean that's been improved immeasurably with the addition of a Ghostbusters decal. "Sure, I'm an author," you hear him saying to his passenger, "but that's not really who I am. I consider myself more of a slam poet, if anything."

[Famous Mortimer]

I read it in 2017 and thought it was fine. It helped, probably, that I had largely similar childhood references to Cline (he's four years older than me). 

I managed to misread Ready Player One as a satire of the end of culture.

There's a horrible dystopian world well into climate collapse and culture has stopped. There's nothing new and everyone just spends their time looking backwards in a haze of nostalgia because the present is so awful.

I thought the book was really clever right up to the point I realized it's not a satire, it's aspirational.

This is the crux, really. It's not one or the other - there's lots that can only be read as a dystopia, but I just don't think Cline is a good enough author to square that circle.

Oh, and the sequel is absolute shite. It was like Cline read the worst reviews of the first one and decided to write a book which proved his harshest critics right, for some reason.

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

I don't mind Mr Cline, he knows what he likes, and he's secure enough in the knowledge that he likes it to not care what anyone else thinks. Much like a coprophile.

[Catalogue Trousers]

the car is cool and i'm tired of people pretending it's not

Sorry, no: it's shite.

[madhair60]

Sorry, no: it's shite.

i bet he has to beat the pussy off him with a shitty stick mate.

[FeederFan500]

I actually really liked it, and perversely have had no inclination to read the second book. I wouldn't try and claim it is objectively really impressive as it was just some escapism, oh dear the rich baddies have all the resources but here's a lad with some smarts and a couple of friends taking them on. In its favour, even though you are just following a nerd playing an 80s themed MMORPG, I did find myself getting brought along with the journey as it were, rather than being told about it.

I had the same experience with the poster above about the Stieg Larsson books, I think in the first book of a series you can get away with introducing a new world or dynamic in place of telling a story. Every woman in book 1 wants to fuck the author surrogate hero which is a bit grating, when you have it again in book 2 and one of the same married women has to keep seeing him to be sexually satisfied it's farcical. And the major plot is just worse in book 2.

[pierre boo-lez]

i bet he has to beat the pussy off him with a shitty stick mate.

The perils of carrying around catnip.