Avengers Scribe Zack Penn tapped to adapt the novel Ready Player One

Ready Player One was written written by Ernest Cline and released in 2011.  Cline is best known for writing Fanboys, a film I found to be very disappointing.  He also wrote Ready Player One set to be adapted for the Screen by Zack Penn.  Penn worked on the screen play for The Avengers as well as other Marvel Universe films.  While I’m not sure this film could be pulled off the book was one I would strongly recommend.

Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One is a book that you will either relate to immediately, or look at in wide eyed disbelief and confusion.  The novel centers around Wade Watts (already you should be in on Cline’s gag) an orphaned boy, who spends his days in the Oasis.  The Oasis is a simulated world that provides an alternative experience to the crushing poverty and urban decay that is Wade’s reality.  Think of it as the matrix, except you know you’re taking the red pill.  The Oasis itself is an entire universe with planets created thematically around such nerd culture icons as Blade Runner and D&D.

Public schools also now function through this simulated reality and though Wade is a high school student he is predominantly defined as a gunter.  Gunters are those who are searching for Haladay’s Easter eggs.(Get it) James Haladay  is the man who created this virtual world and upon his death willed ownership of the Oasis to whoever discovered the game’s hidden Easter eggs.  Wade scours this simulated reality using the handle of Parceval, studying pop/nerd culture of the 80’s and 90’s looking for clues to the Easter eggs.  When speaking to other Gunters especially his best friend H the two use so many references that it is understandable if some readers are just too confused to follow what the hell is going on.  Again this is a book targeted at a very specific audience. 

Of course just finding the three eggs in the endless virtual reality of the Oasis would be too simple.  An evil corporation, ISI is also searching for the eggs intent to turn the free access to the Oasis to a costly for profit model.

ISI and the sixers as they are know is really the only area where the novel falters.  While Cline clearly needs a good antagonist, the tone of the some of the sections with the Sixers is just too dark for the overall feel of the novel.

Ready Player One’s greatest strength is in its creation of Wade Watts and his fellow Gunters.  I’m a pretty jaded and cynical person, and I identified more with Wade than most characters and was sincerely rooting for him, becoming very invested in his triumphs and failures.  This is a very great achievement as I generally hate high school aged protagonists.  Even when I was in high school myself I never really related to these characters because I had enough foresight to put high school into perspective.  It’s four years out of a life that could easily be 80 years.   Five percent isn’t all that much.  I also had no illusions that these would be the friends I had forever.  Though I am still close to two,(Hi Pat, Hi Mike).

It’s also important to note that you don’t need to enjoy all of Cline’s references and tastes to enjoy Ready Player One.  I hate John Hughes and Rush, two well referenced cultural touchstones that play pivotal plot roles in the novel.

There really isn’t anything else I can really compare Ready Player One to.  It is truly unique, but feels oddly familiar.  If you’re intrigued at all by this review I’d say you should give it a try.