Senryu : book review ready player one

ready player one
nostalgic eighties era
music, movies, games

senryu by M. Nakazato LaFreniere

A few months ago I read a blog review of “Ready player one”.  Their friend had recommended it and they’d put off reading it. It is over 500 pages. But now that they had, they loved the book.  So I put the book on reserve at the library — unfortunately 90 people were ahead of me so it took awhile to land in my grubby little hands.

I loved the novel.   It revolves around a game created by a person devoted to the 80’s pop culture.  The book is rife with 1970s-1980s video games, music, books, tv shows and movies wrapped in a Second Life-like virtual reality with a healthy splash of D&D.  Since those were my teen years and twenties, I felt a great deal of nostalgia to see familiar titles popping out at me.

The book is set in the not so faroff future where human’s unhealthy ecological choices have come home to roost — plants and animals are dying in epic numbers, cars and trucks are left where they ran out of gas because there is no more, food is scarce and overcrowded shanty towns with trailers stacked upon each have sprung up around cities.  People escape this grim reality through drugs or virtual reality.

A multi-billionaire game designer dies with no kids or heirs.  He leaves behind a game.  Whoever finishes the game first wins his company and all his worldly goods.  And the best part is, it’s free to play — of course it does help if you have money to level up, can pay to travel places, and buy cool weapons on cash auctions from smarter gamers who found them in the first place.

On the one hand we have a poor kid and his friends that he’s never met: a college girl, two Japanese boys and his bestfriend .  On the other, we have the evil corporation, of course, which only cares for the money and will subvert the game to maximize profits so only rich people will be able to play. And we have the gunters, the other gamers also hunting the prize.

It ended up being a Hollywood movie by Spielberg so I bet you can guess the ending.  Still it’s a fun, nostalgic ride and I enjoyed it.

on Amazon

Ready Player One: A Novel by Ernest Cline Ready Player One (BD) [Blu-ray] Ultimate Collection 100 Hits: Eighties

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