Book Review of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is like a post-apocalyptic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but with much of the action taking place inside an online simulated reality. No, it isn't as good as it sounds. ...it is better. The contents of the book more than make up for any disappointment the cover design might provoke, which was significant, on my end.

I've labeled this book simply as "fiction," because to try and define its genre is to dismiss many of the ingredients that make it so original (especially for a project with a definite purpose of paying loving tribute to fandoms close to the author's heart). It feels like dozens of things I've loved, the best parts of which have all been reassembled to create something simultaneously charming and baffling.

Suffice it to say, the protagonist is empathetic and the side characters are well-developed and endearing. The real-world 2044 setting is a terrifyingly bleak, but probably downplayed, look at what our planet will be like if we don't get a handle on this whole global warming thing. And the Inception-like settings within that world--the battleground on which Wade and countless others fight their way through obstacles and reason their way through puzzles--are diverse, detailed, and derivative in the best way possible. Chances are, if you have loved videogames, songs, or movies from the '80s, reading Ready Player One will give you the distinct pleasure of getting to watch Wade Watts navigate his way through some of them as part of his epic quest.

*Spoiler alert.* The thing I loved most about this book is actually its biggest surprise, so if you haven't read it and you like surprises, stop reading now! It is the true identity of the character Aech. If you read like a detective (like I do), you'll realize that Wade's assumptions that Aech is a straight male like himself just don't jive. From there on, you'll spend their dialogue picking up on little clues here and there and you will put together that Wade is surely wrong. I, for example, thought I had surely "deduced" that Aech was a gay male who had feelings for Wade. Um, oops. Nope! Surprise: Aech is actually a Black lesbian female, who has chosen (with some guidance from her mother) to assume a white male identity online after her mom's own personal experiences showed her firsthand that posing as such would get Aech more opportunities and respect. (Sound familiar? ...and some people say Sci Fi isn't relevant to real life. Oh, please.) Cline saves the big reveal for Aech's offscreen identity until the perfect time in the narrative, when readers are so stressed out about how everything else will turn out that they aren't even recalling all of the little suspicions they've been toying with throughout the narrative. This is done perfectly, and it was the most satisfying aspect of the story for me, because it really put a hilariously lovable character's face on one light-handed tale of discrimination. In a modern society where Black females (and anyone else of a visible minority or Diverse identity) doesn't always have the option to pose as a white male, this should be a powerful takeaway for readers who haven't personally confronted the harsh truth of discrimination.

Ready Player One is a love letter to geekdom, and anyone who ascribes to that label will want to read it, and also make note of the movie (based upon the book) which is slated for release later this year.