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Speed reading 'Ready Player One' ahead of the new film

| March 30, 2018 1:00 AM

I’m probably not the best audience for “Ready Player One,” the nostalgia-infused VR adventure written by Ernest Cline. While I have a certain fondness for many films and pop culture of the 1980s and 1990s, I’ve never been much of a video game enthusiast (outside of shooting turtle shells from a go-cart), and the novel regards classic video games as a Holy Grail (at least alongside “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”).

Steven Spielberg’s frenetic movie adaptation of the 2011 novel arrives this weekend … all the opportunity needed for a swift catch-up on the 385-page book. While Spielberg’s work doesn’t seem to get general moviegoers excited anymore (admit it, you still haven’t seen “The BFG”), I treat his movies as the gifts that they are — Spielberg remains at the top of his game, minus a “Hook” or “The Lost World” fumble here and there.

“Ready Player One” has an interesting history. It was a runaway hit on initial release, garnering raves from literary critics and casual readers alike. In just a few short years though, some of the same publications that praised it have now compared the book unfavorably to fan fiction. The compelling story of a poor teenager who wins the (virtual) life of his dreams gradually became a tale of shallow wish-fulfillment that represented nerd culture’s darkest edges.

For more on the backlash surrounding “Ready Player One,” check out this recent piece by Constance Grady at Vox — www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/ 26/17148350/ready-player-one-book-backlash-controversy-gamergate-explained

Knowing only a little about the backlash prior to reading, I dove into “Ready Player One” a few days ago and finished it in a couple of late-night sittings. It’s a breezy read — a first-person narrative from the perspective of a nostalgia-obsessed teenager — and the book moves frequently between “levels” like a video game. This is all a nice way of saying that “Ready Player One” isn’t a particularly challenging piece of literature.

For the uninitiated, “Ready Player One” follows Wade, a poor teen living in a polluted and overpopulated future where most people spend their days living life inside the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe containing thousands upon thousands of worlds, quests and customizable gear. When the creator of OASIS dies, a spectacularly complex contest begins that will award the winner sole possession of the company and its fortune.

The contest requires an insane knowledge of ’80s pop culture, particularly the creator’s favorite video games, movies and cartoons. Much of “Ready Player One” focuses on Wade recalling that knowledge and speculating on clues, and so much detail goes into documenting the minutia of Wade’s problem-solving process, to the point where I found myself constantly glossing over paragraphs in search of the actual narrative.

You would think Cline’s attention to detail would carry into character development, but every one of Wade’s friends, allies and enemies are written as poorly-constructed types, not unlike the kind of characters you encounter in the cut scenes of an average first-person shooter. The love interest, a fellow contest player nicknamed Art3mis, is super cool, super cute, and, oooh spoiler, a little insecure about her looks. She’s nowhere near the first Manic Pixie Dream Girl in pop culture, but she’s definitely one of the lazier depictions of it since the inception of the term.

I spent most of “Ready Player One” not liking it. The references to “War Games” and “Back to the Future” weren’t enough for me to overcome the sense I was reading an adventure told in bullet points, albeit bullet points full of details about old Atari game strategies.

And yet, I couldn’t put the book down. Occasionally I would come across a clever detail I could see Spielberg being able to expand on the big screen. A story like “Ready Player One” needs an experienced hand to rein in the nonsense. In all his biggest and best set pieces (and there are too many to list here), Spielberg adds a clean sense of effortlessness to what are often the most complicated sequences ever committed to film.

More required reading: The AV Club’s expansive “25 best set pieces of Steven Spielberg’s career” from earlier this week — Film.avclub.com/the-25-best-set-pieces-of-steven-spielberg-s-career-1824118529

Reviews for “Ready Player One” the movie so far indicate he has indeed managed to improve the material. It won’t be the first time in his career — as his movie versions of “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park” have endured more than their respective source material (it didn’t really work out that way for “The Color Purple”).

Stay tuned next week for thoughts on Spielberg’s “Ready Player One.”

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com