Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)

by Ernest Cline

[sstaley]

My 15 year old son and I have started listening to audio books together this past year. It's something fun we can do together. The last ones we listened to were the Reckoners Series: Steelheart, Firefight, and Calamity by Brandon Sanderson.

We both are so excited to see the movie Ready Player One, but in our family it's customary for us to read the book before seeing the movie, primarily because we all know that they will be so different from each other. One thing to say at the first, I wish I'd known before hand that there are some inappropriate sexual talk and swearing in this book. Some of it made it very uncomfortable to sit there and listen with my son, so we skipped a few tracks at times.

Now on to the great things: I loved listening to this book narrated by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. He does an amazing job reading this novel! I know some readers say they had a hard time getting into the first 100 pages, but this is not a problem when listening to the Audio version. Wheaton's reading is done in such a compelling way it's hard to stop listening. We dedicated a whole weekend to listening to Ready Player One and finished all 15 hours and 13 CD's.{Granted I was still getting things done correcting papers, cooking/baking, folding laundry, and writing blog posts while listening}

I loved the Geek 70 's & 80's culture that is the heart of this novel. This is when I grew up and I was laughing and loving so much of it when mentioned.{War Games was one of my favorite movies!} My son knew quite a bit of the references, but not as much as his mom. I also loved the world building and thought the main character was strong and likable. The second half of the novel was so exciting it was hard to just sit and listen without jumping around with excitement. Overall, this was a great read/listen and I'm glad that I finally was able to experience the adventure found in Ready Player One.

My 15 year old son said:
Epically awesome, but awkward listening to some scenes with my mom. My favorite part was when Parzival was in the final battle before getting into the third gate. I also liked when Parzival and Art3mis met in real life at the end.