I hate hype, especially when it comes in the form of a recommendation. My friends told me, begged me even, to watch the show CHUCK. I ignored them, waiting until after it had been off the air for over a year before I started. Why am I so stubborn? It’s just how I am. Sadly, I was just as stubborn with the book Ready Player One.
Every time I turned around, the book was being reviewed and heartily endorsed. I gave in, got a copy, and never got around to reading it…until now! So, one year later, here we go.
Synopsis
Wade Watts lives in incredible world of intergalactic space travel, physics-defying magic, and unlimited potential and power. The only problem is that none of it is real. It’s all part of a highly advanced, immersive, and highly addictive virtual reality MMORPG known as the OASIS. Using the OASIS allows Wade and billions of others across the world to escape from the horrors of living in a dystopian world that combines the worst elements of every post-apocalyptic nightmare ever imagined—lawlessness, pollution, economic turmoil, and a ever-present energy crisis.
OASIS was built by reclusive video game designer James Halliday, a multi-billionaire with an above average affinity for 1980’s pop culture, whose death launches Wade, better known in OASIS as “Parzival,” and a billion other OASIS users on an epic quest to find an “Easter egg” hidden within the virtual world. The prize for being the first to complete this amazing quest? Complete control of OASIS and one of the largest fortunes in the world.
Theology & Philosophy
I can’t speak for Cline himself, but the philosophy presented in this book is highly atheistic. Within the first chapter, the protagonist refers to religion as bull excrement—twice, actually, if I remember correctly. It’s very common for futuristic, sci-fi books to present the future as a nightmare. This was not always the case. H.G. Wells was on of the first authors I am aware of who depicted the future negatively. This change in seeing the future as utopia to dystopia is important, by the way. It reveals a belief that life isn’t what it should be and that its not on a progress trajectory. We’re getting worse. I find it very odd that as our society becomes more atheistic, more secular that our entertainment (movies, TV, books, etc.) take on darker tones, offer bleaker outlooks on life, and strip away even the thinnest pretense of hope. I would have assumed that secular creatives would have seen this trend as a positive, as leading to a second enlightenment. Perhaps what they thought would improve society has helped like they’d imagined.
I assumed that this book would include an appeal to technicism or transhumanism, which presupposes that humanity should and will evolve beyond flesh and blood to become digital or cybernetic beings. Essentially, it’s the belief that we should abandon biology for technology. With that assumption guiding me, I was pleasantly surprised that as cool as OASIS was it was never shown to offer its users a sufficient, long-term replacement for real life.
Concerns and Recommendation
Some content in this book that is questionable. The language is what you’d expect from your average eighteen year-old, since that’s who old the narrator is, and there is some sexual material discussed in the book. Masturbation is praised by the reclusive genius Halliday in his memoirs, and our narrator finds this viewpoint freeing. However, as Wade tries to avail himself of some of the hi-tech perversions that OASIS offers, he finds it unfulfilling, even emptying. If I were to tie this into the movie rating scale, I think it would be rated R for the language, the sexual material—not because it’s graphically described (it isn’t) but because of the attitude with which it’s presented—and also the increasingly dark tone that this book takes on as the “real” world invades the “virtual” and vice versa.
If you’re not bothered by language or by a decidedly non-Christian view of sex, there’s a lot to enjoy in Ready Player One. It’s packed full of video game, sci-fi, and 80’s pop culture references. I honestly really enjoyed reading it and would heartily recommend it as an entertaining read, given that the aforementioned concerns are taken into consideration.
You can purchase Ready Player One by Ernest Cline from Amazon, or you can go to the public library, like me.
Adam shields says
Great book. The audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton and is also excellent.
Phil Schneider says
Ooh, that’s right! I loved the Wil Wheaton/OASIS election throwaway line. A hilarious hat tip to a current sci-fi icon.
Thanks for the comment, Adam.
Eric Dye says
That’s awesome!
Dr colt says
I just started and heard 3-4 anti religious references. IE They Figured out region is fake and creation is real, if this is a theme referenced many times please let me know.
Phil Schneider says
It doesn’t get mentioned much at all after the story gets going. He’s setting the scene. However, the book does contain material that would earn it an R-rating, so if you have a check in your conscience, I’d stop now.
Eric Dye says
I need to finish my current book, so I can start this!?!?! 😀
Phil Schneider says
You really do. I want to read it again, but I’ve got too many books that HAVE to be read.
Shaun Brodie says
Thanks for your review – had just started the book was getting into it until all the anti-God rhetoric started plus I was also amused by the author’s exhortation that there’s tons of evidence for spontaneous evolution which is absurd. I was going to stop reading but I wanted to see if other Christians read the book and clarify if it carries this anti-God theme throughout the book; a friend at work recommend it to me knowing my enjoyment for Sci-fi but this friend is not a Christian so I’m trying to decide if I should keep reading and hopefully use it as a tool for witness afterwards.
Phil Schneider says
Hey, Shaun, glad you didn’t just give in. The explicit anti-God stuff does drop off, but the materialistic worldview continues. In fact, as the anti-God stuff fades, sex and violence increase. That said, I’m pretty sensitive to both of those things, so I think you’ll be ok.
On the other hand, the way this book approaches some of these things in the end and they way it discusses friendship and such may provide you a chance to present a Christian perspective when you discuss the book with your friend.
In the end and in all things, be sensitive to what the Spirit says to you. If He says it’s too much for you, listen.
Thanks for the comment!
Jonathan says
I bought the audio book on audible and listened to roughly 1.5 hours. At first, I liked it, then the character started talking derogatorily about God. Typical worldly teenager. They think they know so much, but know nothing at all.
It is obvious that the writer is expressing his own views through the character, and for the record, Wil Wheaton reads it like he agrees vehemently with every word. This is exactly the type of person I hate being around. Bottom line is, I hate being around the world. It grates on my spirit. I will be returning the audiobook.
Phil Schneider says
Hey, Jonathan, I totally understand how you feel. I pressed on a bit and found that this explicit denunciation of God doesn’t carry on throughout the book, though there is a some explicit sexual material. If it bothers your spirit, by all means, return the book.
I would, however, concern your hatred of being around the world. That is precisely what God has asked us to do: to be around people who do not know Him, who might be actively denouncing or even profaning His name, and show them Christ’s love.
I’m sure you know that, but I would have had a check in my spirit if I didn’t say it.