• Author: Ernest Cline
• ISBN: 9780307887436
• Genre: Science Fiction

The above ISBN is for the hardcover edition, but I purchased the audiobook.

Ready Player One is the kind of book that has a lot of hype around it, and once again, because it’s classified as YA, I passed it over.  I wrongly assumed that it was another Ender’s Game.  I had also read somewhere that it was Dystopian.  As much as I love The Hunger Games and a couple of other Dystopian stories, I feel like it has become a bit overdone lately.  However, one of my professors recommended it to me, and there was no way I wasn’t going to check this book out.

Yes, technically this a Dystopian novel, but it’s also a whole lot more.  It’s a tribute to my ’80s childhood and involves much of my favorite music, movies, and video games.  At the same time, it shows the reader the horrible ways life as we know it can go to pot, and there doesn’t need to be a super bug or nuclear war for that to happen.  It also doesn’t necessarily have to be far into the future or involve the complete loss of knowledge about how things used to be.

The reason I chose the audiobook over any other edition is because it’s narrated by Wil Wheaton.  All around, Ready Player One is a geek’s Science Fiction dream.  There is a ridiculous number of geek and ’80s culture references throughout the book, but you don’t have to be a geek or have lived during the ’80s to enjoy it.  However, if you are a geek or gamer or you grew up during the ’80s, you’ll probably enjoy this book even more than the intended young adult audience.  At some point, I’m going to buy the ebook and re-read it while listening to all my favorite ’80s tunes.

#COYER Scavenger Hunt #71: Read a book that prominently includes gaming in some way (Book cover is linked to Goodreads synopsis).