Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

When it comes to Ready Player One by Ernest Cline I must confess to an unpopular opinion: I liked the movie better than the book… 

I saw this movie a few months ago and really loved it, so I assumed I was going to love the book too. (I mean, move adaptations are never ever as good as the book, right?!) The book was good, don’t get me wrong, but I actually felt that the movie was better. Or rather, that they were two different stories. Well yes, they were both based on VR and the OASIS and Wade was still the main character and his squad was there, but all the important scenes had been changed. Like how they entered the competition, how Wade found the first key, how he and Art3mis and the others met, even how they won the competition and the entire ending, everything was different!

I guess that if I had read the book first, I would have seen that story as the right one, but since I saw the movie first, I already had that version in my mind and when the book was so different it made it a bit too confusing to really enjoy the book as much as I would have otherwise.

A thing that bothered me in the movie adaption though was the way they changed the characters appearance. I think a really important message in the book was the inner beauty and that they fell in love with each others persons not the looks, so I really think that the characters, especially Art3mis, were too good looking in the movie. But almost most other things were better in the movie. For example, I liked Wade’s character so much better in the movie. In the book he and Aech’s friendship was not at all as strong and easy-going as in the movie. In fact, the way Wade and Aech talked in the book irritated me. And the part in the book where Wade was hiding out alone in his apartment and turning from chubby to super-fit just felt out of place for the story line, so I’m glad that was left out completely in the movie.

But overall, the book was really good, even though not as mind-blowingly great as I had expected. Both the movie and the book was a wonderful trip down memory lane. There were so many amazing details that went in to creating this story and the world building was so well done. And the characters were adorable.

Find out more about the book and the author here: Ernest Cline