Ernest Cline's Ready Player One

In 2012, a critical review was written by a man who goes by Chicago Ex-Patriate. He is currently studying for MFA in Creative Writing after removing himself from an English Degree for three years. He wrote a review on Ernest Cline’s first novel Ready Player One. Before reading this novel, he had previous knowledge of two different opinions. One was from an old co-worker who gave the book praise. The other was from his former Border manager, Terrance Terick, who gave it a detailed critique. After giving a short summary of the novel’s plot he began to give his opinion and critique as well. His first and main point was Halliday’s obsession with the pop culture of the 1980s. Although it was the driving force of the novel, he believed that it was references too often it was not far from a detailed list of Cline’s favorite pop culture items. It made it seem less and less like a novel. “Cline’s eye for details and emotions feel juvenile, and sometimes comes across as embarrassing.” This was said because
of the intense detail used for his references to the 1980s. He also thought that Wade Watts was unbalanced. The intelligence of Wade and his hormonal teenage tendencies did not seem to fit. Cline’s description abilities also seemed limited because although it was detailed, it was “banal and repetitive.” In addition, it had an abundance of clichés and overused metaphors. For instance, “I might never escape from this place. I felt buried under an avalanche of self-doubt/ Had my dual obsessions with the egg and Art3mis finally driven me insane? Why would I take such an idiotic risk to win over someone I’d never actually met? … I continued to mentally torture myself like that until I finally drifted off to sleep” (Cline 296). Because of clichés and easy to predict plot, he felt as though he was spoiling the novel for himself. Twists and turns were not present often and if it was it was not as impactful because his gut instinct knew the denouement. One last critique given was the tired dialogue in the novel.
He felt that it becomes grating almost right away. Evidence he gives if of Wade and Aech conversation about Ladyhawke. The two boys were debating whether or not it was an eighties classic or not. Wade believed it was a classic and Aech believed it was “fucking lame” (Cline 48). He was annoyed with Cline’s dialogue, transitions, and reliance on easy plot devices to carry the story along. Chicago Ex-Patriate said Cline should have presented this story in another form instead. Currently, he does not see Cline as a novelist and would rather divulge in his non-fiction. The easy transitions, chapter cliffhanger endings, and screenplay treatment was not the type of story Chicago Ex-Patriate enjoyed in the eye for literary criticism. However, since I did not read the novel with literary criticism in mind, my opinion on the novel is contrasting compared to his. Although, there is a point of his that I do agree
with. I partially agree with his reason with the novel becoming more like Cline’s list. There were so many references and allusions to the 1980s. Yet, I did not necessarily have a problem with it. Those references made me more interested and sometimes I would have the urge to look it up. His opinion on the easy transition and screenplay treatment was one that I could not agree with because I am on a different reading level from him. He does not completely welcome those easy transitions while I do. Having those slightly easy changeovers made the novel more enjoyable for me. This is because it makes it easier for me to savor the novel for what is worth instead of having to think so deeply beyond the text. “So I wanted to set the record straight, once and for all. … I was jolted awake by the sound of gunfire in one of the neighboring stacks” (Cline 9-14). I thought that the movement from the prologue to the first chapter was the right choice. This is because if Cline had started it from the present rather than the past it would confuse the reader more. He gave the background and laying the foundation for the novel from the past and told the reader what Wade had accomplished. He then back tracks to before Wade had even made his achievement. Ready Player One was a great novel nonetheless that received a large amount of recognition from other authors and from readers around the world.