My third audiobook made it a lot easier to go back to the gym on those bitterly cold Northeast Ohio winter mornings. READY PLAYER ONE varies in some noticeable ways from the movie, but the differences don't detract from either one. I can see why the screenwriters made the story changes they did. There's a lot going on in our hero Wade's head that just doesn't translate to the screen.
If you think I'm going to give any spoilers, think again. Nope, not going to tell you what changed, what Wade did in the book that happened to someone else in the movie. Just trust me on this. You'll enjoy BOTH the book and the movie.
What's it about, for those of you who have been either facing writing deadlines or thought that a book and movie about a virtual reality gaming world where an enormous fortune is up for grabs would be a boring movie (wrong-o!)?
Well ... yeah, there's this huge online world called the Oasis where you can visit thousands of worlds and become anyone, and compete in every kind of contest and game and war possible. The guy who created it has died and left his fortune and controlling share in the company that runs the Oasis as a prize in the biggest competition ever. It's gotten pretty tense, because this huge, soul-sucking corporation that wants to take over and monetize the Oasis is pretty much cheating to win. To the point they're threatening people's lives outside the Oasis, in the real world, not just slaughtering avatars.
Along comes our high school senior hero, Wade, the penniless kid who has everything stacked against him. But he's got the brains and the guts and he's willing to take the big risks. Whether the movie or the book, it's worth the time. Lots of fun, if only for the pop culture references, such as War Games and Monty Python and Ladyhawke and hundreds more. And the geek giggle, hearing the narrator, Will Wheaton, reading about a certain old geezer of an actor named ... Will Wheaton.
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