Astranoir

Ernest Cline recently put out a novel called Ready Player One. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to share it with everyone via a review and giveaway!

Synopsis (only includes spoilers from the first couple pages of the book)

Ready Player One takes place in 2044. In this near future, many of our current fears and issues have reached fruition. The world economy has never recovered. The environment has taken a turn for the worse. Unemployment has reached such an extreme that it can take years to get a fast food job. On the bright side, there is a free Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG) through which you can escape this horrible reality. This MMORPG, called the OASIS, has become so prevalent, it is most people’s portal to the internet at large, and has even replaced most public grade schools.

Early on in the story, the creator of the OASIS (James Halliday) dies, leaving a startling provision in his will. The person who is the first to find a series of Easter eggs planted by the creator prior to his death will inherit his fortune, as well as full ownership of the OASIS. Wade Watts is one of the many young people caught up in this Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-esque fantasy. He becomes an egg hunter, or “gunter,” dedicating all his spare time to following the sparse trail left by James Halliday.

It is obvious that James Halliday is a bit eccentric merely based on the fact that the contents of his estate were left to the winner of a post-mortem treasure hunt. The eccentricity of the bequest is magnified by Halliday’s obsession with the 1980s. Growing up as a social pariah in the 1980s, James Halliday immersed himself in the popular culture of the day. He became obsessed enough with the culture that he wanted everyone to share in his interest and obsession. The intricacies of the Halliday Easter egg hunt are absolutely saturated with 1980s pop culture, causing a revival of the fashion and music in 2044 when his will was revealed on the international media.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I feel this book was really well done. I enjoyed reading it a lot. In fact, I read the whole book on release day. While something about the tone and word-choice made the book feel like a “first novel” to me, I do not feel like it significantly detracted from the experience.

If you enjoy 80s popular culture and/or near-future dystopian science fiction, I would highly recommend this book to you.

Rating

If I had to give the book a numerical rating, I would give it 90% out of 100%, or 9 out of 10 stars.

 

 

GIVEAWAY

I enjoyed Ready Player One so much, I wanted to share that enjoyment with other people. I am giving away 1 hard cover copy. To enter this giveaway, please comment on this blog post describing your favorite memory from the 1980s, or from your experience with 1980s pop culture. I will choose number the comments, and choose the winner via random number generator Monday, September 12. Multiple comments from the same person will count as one entry. Please include in your comment a way for me to contact you so if you win, I will be able to communicate with you regarding shipping details.

The Spoiler-Filled Section of My Review…

What I Enjoyed (few to no spoilers)

80s References
While I was not born until the tail-end of the 80s, I am still fairly familiar with 80s pop culture. Recognizing songs, games and movies from that era was fun, and the exuberance that is obvious in the characters sharing these 80s culture-related experiences is wonderful to read. I am sure others will get more of the pop culture references than I did, and will therefore get more out of it. I do not think being familiar with 80s popular culture is imperative to enjoying the book, however. If you explore the culture of the 1980s along with Wade, I think it would be a really rewarding experience.

Viewing Video Games in A Positive Light
Too often in popular culture today, it seems that video games and other digital media are scorned, and sometimes even seen as unhealthy. It is refreshing to see video games and other media (not all digital) being portrayed positively, and even venerated. The downsides of using a virtual world as an escape are definitely mentioned, but the benefits of a virtual world are highlighted as well.

The Setting
The novel is set barely more than 30 years in the future. That is easily within my projected lifetime. Reading about a dystopian possibility for my future is both horrifying, and oddly pleasing. It is interesting to see the current status quo brought to one of its more negative outcomes. People have turned to renewable energy, but it is too late, and our children are paying the price for our parents’ stubbornness. We get a few glimpses into the experiences of people who grew up during the 1980s and 1990s with wealth and plenty in the first world, only to see that deteriorate before their eyes in 20-30 years. I do not see a logical way for Ernest Cline to set another book in this setting, but I would definitely be interested to see the setting developed further if he do so.

Audio Book Narration
One of my favorite actors and authors, Wil Wheaton, narrates the audio version of Ready Player One. I have only been able to listen to the sample clip, available here, but it is obvious that Wil does a fantastic job, and has a lot of fun. At some point I definitely plan to pick up an audio version. At $22.50, it’s about the same price as the hardcover, which is a steal.

What I Would Like Changed (spoilers abound)

Over-Explanation
One of the things that bothered me while reading, particularly during the first few chapters, is that Ernest Cline almost over-explains a lot of things, making the novel’s flow stutter. He goes into some depth describing the significance of some of the earlier 80s references, as well as acronyms/abbreviations like MMORPG. I am not sure how he could avoid a lot of this, however. It seems clear that the in-depth explanations of things that may already be familiar to many readers are intended for those who are not as familiar with 1980s popular culture, or with video game and computer abbreviations. Including these explanations (hopefully) allows greater accessibility to a wider audience. I just wish there were a way for it to feel less awkward.

Teen Romance
While it includes high school age characters, Ready Player One generally avoids fulfilling the negative stereotype of a young adult (YA) novel. By this I mean that it concentrates on the characters’ motivations and actions without dwelling on their youth overmuch. What I see as a negative stereotype of YA novels is that they can focus too much on what it means to be a teenager or young adult, sometimes even making the characters seem younger than they actually are, as well as alienating people who do not feel a part of the young adult group. I feel like Ready Player One begins to cleave to the negative YA stereotype whenever it explores the romance between Parzival, Wade’s online persona, and Art3mis, the online persona on whom he as a crush. Wade, who is portrayed as intelligent and driven, becomes obsessed with Art3mis, and nearly completely disengages from his previous goals. Maybe I am unfamiliar with the motivations of the young adult male, or perhaps the transition into Parzival’s feelings for Art3mis was too abrupt, but it seemed out of character for Wade, and I did not feel like the romance added a whole lot to the book.

Aech’s Reveal
Aech is probably my favorite character. Successful in the OASIS as a tournament fighter, and thus monetarily successful in the real world, Aech is a great friend and rival for Wade. I love their banter, and watching their relationship change and grow. Close to the end of the novel, Aech is revealed to be an African American female, rather than the Caucasian male her avatar implies. The back story about her mother not accepting her sexuality, her hacking into the system to fraudulently portray her school avatar, and her ability to constantly travel the country are not as fleshed-out as I would like. In fact, the end of the book feels fairly rushed, as though there had been a lot more story that somehow had to be boiled down for the sake of time. I would have liked for her true identity to be revealed a little earlier so we could learn more about her, and so we could see how her and Wade’s relationship grew and changed in this new light. In the rush to the end of the novel, Aech’s story seemed tragically abbreviated.

I got my Chrome notebook December 16, 2010. It’s taken me a couple months to figure out what I want to say about it. I try to be as fair and informative as possible in the review, but I’m always excited about new gadgets, and getting a surprise computer in the mail for free is incredibly awesome. Just a note on what may color my thoughts on the Cr-48. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

General Look and Feel
I love the matte black look, and the soft feel of the outside of the Cr-48. The keyboard and individually spaced keys feel really good. The tactile feedback is nearly perfect to what I would want. It’s kind of annoying using other keyboards when I’m not using my Chrome notebook because they just don’t feel as good. I don’t find the track pad to be as frustrating as a lot of other people seem to find it, but I would say that it’s the most obvious weakness of the exterior hardware.

Keyboard
I like having the screen brightness buttons (I also like the degree to which the screen can dim; my Acer Aspire One seems to have a very small range of screen brightnesses, all of which seem really bright to me. Comparatively, the Chrome notebook is much more customizable. Not having function keys is a little weird. I’ve had to relearn a couple keyboard shortcuts (for example, I usually use ctrl+F4 to close tabs, but now I use ctrl+W). I don’t have an issue with the CAPS LOCK key being removed, but I sometimes accidentally hit the search key, which opens a new tab, interrupting whatever I was doing. I don’t really use the back and forward buttons much, but I think they make sense on a web-centric computer. I miss having a page up, page down, home and end buttons. I never really use the trackpad to scroll through anything, so not having buttons that ease my webpage scrolling is a little frustrating. I know there are some key combinations I can use instead (alt+up, ctrl+alt+up, etc.), but it doesn’t feel nearly as intuitive or straight forward as I’d like. Having the power button essentially integrated into the keyboard is a bit confusing. I find myself hitting it when I’m meaning to hit backspace or delete (I usually use both backspace and delete, and since this keyboard only has a backspace button, sometimes I’ll hit the power button instead). Fortunately, I usually only just tap it, so I haven’t ever accidentally shut down my computer or logged out unintentionally.

Capabilities
The Chrome notebook seems to process video just fine. I often use it to watch Hulu and Amazon Video on Demand, with no issues other than connection ones that seem more closely tied to my internet speed than anything else.

I’ve only tried using the built in SD card slot once. I was disappointed it wasn’t a universal card slot (or at least, I couldn’t stick an old XD card in there successfully), but SD seems to be the main standard at this point anyway. I couldn’t get the computer to automatically notice I’d plugged anything in when I put in the SD card, or when I put a flash drive in the USB port. I’m not sure what the SD slot would be used for if the computer doesn’t notice anything is in there, so I’m not sure if that was an issue with my computer specifically, or if the hardware just isn’t being fully utilized right now (or I’m failing to understand how to use it).

The only other thing I used the USB slot for was to plug in a mouse. It worked as expected. It bothers me that there’s only one USB slot, but I honestly haven’t even used it other than experimentally, so I’ll have to assess my feelings over the long term.

The headphones port works adequately. It gives an alternative to the built-in speakers (which aren’t bad, but are still on par with built in speakers on other laptops). The high-pitched squealing noise issue when playing sound is an issue with both the built-in speakers and when using headphones. Though this issue supposedly stems from changing the volume, I’ve experienced it additionally when not changing the volume at all.

The built in microphone is serviceable. You don’t have to lean in close to use it, you can just speak from wherever you’re sitting. There seem to be some feedback issues with it (odd, sonar-like sounds, even when echo reduction is turned on).

The camera is exactly what I’d expect from a webcam built into a laptop. It seems to be better than the webcam on my Acer Aspire One, but it’s not particularly noteworthy.

I haven’t messed with the video-out at all. I would be interested to see other people’s experiences with it.

I’m pretty much exclusively on wi-fi for my internet access. There have been intermittent connectivity issues, but no different than I’ve experienced on other laptops. The only issue is that everything I use on this computer is web-based, so even a small blip in connectivity is frustrating (leading me to have to restart video calls, for example). I’ve had limited experience with the Verizon 3G. I tried setting it up on multiple occasions (on the highway in Kentucky, in a hotel in Oklahoma City, and at home in Arkansas), and only succeeded on my 6th attempt. Once it was set up, it seemed to work fine. I think it’s awesome that a small amount of free 3G is bundled with the computer for 2 years.

Software

Built in
The built in software feels exactly like Chrome on any other computer, but lacks a traditional “desktop.” Depending on what add-ons and theme you employ, they will automatically import, which contributes to a seamless experience. Last Pass, for example, will automatically load in when you first use your Google account with the notebook if you normally have it on your Chrome browser (such was the case for my dad, at least).

Web apps

I don’t use many of the apps from the Chrome store, though I’ve downloaded several. Most of the apps seem to be shortcuts to other things rather than apps (particularly the Google ‘software’ ones), but I suppose it helps some people feel they have a corollary to a more traditional “desktop.” It’s cool you can get little browser games, but those types of games generally don’t appeal to me personally. There are some light programming/compiling tools available, which is nice, but there weren’t really any web apps that stood out to me as being excellent. Generally I use gmail as my anchor point, anyway, so I generally access the other Google web apps through there rather than through the new tab page.

Frustrations
I find it frustrating that there’s no java support in Chrome OS. It means I can’t play Minecraft, among other things. Additionally, I am unable to watch my Netflix streaming shows/movies (I believe because of lack of Silverlight). These two things draw me away from my Chrome notebook because I can only access them elsewhere.

Education

This seems like a computer that would be useful for students and teachers alike. If it worked well with an external monitor or projector, I can see it becoming a classroom staple. (With accounts not being tied to hardware, this seems even more ideal for an educational setting where the students/teachers may not actually be able to own the hardware, but only be able to borrow it from the school.)

Another great trait that would serve students well is the long battery life. I’ve had my battery last upwards of 8 hours with light internet usage. Even when constantly watching videos, the battery lasted around 6 hours for me. Having such great battery life would make this an ideal note-taking computer in college. I would certainly have loved to have a computer like this when I was still in school.

Other Strengths and Weaknesses

The Cloud
Obviously, the main strengths and weaknesses of the Chrome notebook are tied to the cloud. I’ve already mentioned the positive implications for education and educators using a device like the Chrome notebook. Having one’s digital identity and documents not tied to the hardware being used can be both good and bad. It’s great because if something bad happens to the hardware (corruption, destruction, theft, etc.), it is far more simple to recover everything you need. However, the downsides shouldn’t be ignored either.

If the hardware is less important, I fear it encourages the current mindset of the disposability of technology. Already cell phones, computers and other e-waste are filling our landfills and poisoning our groundwater. Devaluing the hardware further seems like it would encourage people to continue to not only dispose of electronics improperly, but also to dispose of them even more often.

An additional downside is the need to trust in both the cloud host provider and in the internet service provider(s). Because I’m already using Google’s web services such as Google docs, I’ve already put my trust in them. As we depend more on the cloud, they’ll need to not only be reliable with privacy, but also with server maintenance and lack of data loss. Regarding internet service providers, if none of my information is physically stored on my computer and the ISP denies me access for whatever reason (perhaps they want to throttle traffic to Google, or perhaps they were shut down by the government like in Cairo), I’ve completely lost access to all my information. In this latter case, I feel like a hybridized model would work better. If I had a local copy of everything as well as a copy in the cloud (think something like synced video game saves on Steam), I would feel much more comfortable.

Solid State Drive
In the Chrome notebook, I see all the positives of a solid state drive. The machine boots unbelievably quickly. It runs very quietly, and rarely needs to run a fan (though I’ve heard its fan running when I have the notebook in bed and it gets a little warm due to the blanket restricting airflow or something).

Wrap-up
Overall, I find the Cr-48 Chrome Notebook to be a fantastic device, with particular appeal to students and educators. I’m loving my experience with it so far, and am excited to see what changes and improvements Google makes in the future.

Stickers
One silly complaint I have is, because I was in the first wave of recipients, I did not receive any stickers for my Chrome notebook. Apparently recent recipients have gotten colorful stickers. Eric of Erratic Gamer (also known as Ravenlock of Colony of Gamers) was kind enough to allow me to share his picture of his Cr-48, generously laden with stickers: