Tag Archives: Ernest Cline

Amy Caudill’s Reviews : Ready Player One

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) by  Ernest Cline (Goodreads Author)

Amy Caudill‘s review

This story is a modern-day epic quest featuring a hero’s journey, most of which is accomplished online.  What follows is a tale that contains action, violence, romance, subterfuge, and puzzles wrapped in a package that will, depending on the age of the reader either fill them with nostalgia or mystification of the trivia and culture of the 1980s.

Despite the fact that I had watched and enjoyed the movie based on this novel, twice, I had to psych myself up a bit before I sat down and read the 579 page book.  I admit that I was a little daunted by the length of the story, but I was glad in the end that I did. 

Ready Player One by author Ernest Cline details a semi-apocalyptic world of the not-so distant future where the economy, the environment, and overcrowding have pushed the population at large to seek relief from their mundane existence in an online community called the Oasis.  One of the two creators of the Oasis, James Halliday, left as his will and legacy a contest that would grant the winner his fortune and control of this virtual universe.  The main character of the story, Wade Watts, is a teenage “Easter Egg Hunter,” or gunter for short, determined to win this prize.

At this point the movie begins to deviate from the book.  While the major premises and most of the characters remain the same; the quests for the ultimate prize and the nature of the virtual world are quite different.  The world of the novel is in some ways darker, while the challenges to find the clues are both more cerebral and less flashy, and speak of the full-time commitment many have made in pursuit of the reward.

Wade Watts lives mostly in the Oasis, barely existing in reality, which his interactions in both ably demonstrate.  His only friends are those in the Oasis, none of whom he had ever met in real life, at least in the beginning.  When they do meet, Wade must decide if the differences they present in real life mean they are not the same people he has come to depend on online.

The quest to find Halliday’s Easter egg is the focus of not just Wade’s life, but also a huge group of dedicated gunters, and a rival internet company, IOI, that wants control, no matter the cost.  Headed by Sorrento, an unscrupulous businessman and gamer, IOI is not afraid to use every dirty trick online and in real life to achieve their goal-domination and commercialization of the Oasis.

I award this book five stars for originality in plot, as well as a story filled with memorable characters and nail-biting action.

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Amy Caudill’s Reviews: Armada

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Armada by Ernest Cline

Armada by Ernest Cline (Goodreads Author)
Amy Caudill‘s review

When my son gifted me with several of the works of Ernest Cline for Christmas last year, I was definitely pleased and interested.  After all, I had seen the movie based on Cline’s bestseller, Ready Player One, twice, so I was curious about the story behind the story.

I chose to start with his lesser-known novel, Armada, and was quickly captivated.  The basic plot is that of a high school senior, Zach Lightman, who thinks he’s losing his mind because he just happened to see an alien fighter straight out of his favorite videogame flying outside the window of his classroom.

However, from this amusing but inauspicious beginning is a story that combines a coming of age with a classic science fiction/adventure and a sprinkling of romance.  Zach discovers quickly that he is not crazy, his boss at Starbase Ace, a videogame store, is actually a field agent for the “fictional” Earth Defense Alliance, also from the game, and here’s the big one, (spoilers!) video games are training tools developed by world governments to prepare citizens to fight against real aliens.

I was quickly reminded of both Tron and Ender’s Game, as true to nature Cline peppers his text with pop cultural references, though this particular book limits those somewhat to science fiction movies and video games, and classic seventies music, more so than in his other works.

As Zach swiftly finds himself recruited to serve in the EDA due to his record high scores on the game boards, he learns of government cover-ups, conspiracies, and even the mystery of his father’s death when Zach was just a baby.  He will have to decide for himself just who is right and who is of the wrong opinion, and to what extent he’s willing to go to prove his father’s theories.  The fate of the whole world literally hangs in the balance.

I enjoyed the bulk of this book very much.  The pacing was good, the action drove the story but there was plenty of bi-play between the various characters to help further the plot.  The story only really faltered for me near the end; I thought the resolution contained too much of a science fiction cliché.  I think such a good story deserved a more original ending.  Still, overall, I think this novel deserves four stars for creativity and humor, as well as all those references that are like a trivia goldmine to science fiction fans.