The first type are the ones that directly drive the story or the development/actions of the cast. Now, there are two basic types of references in Ready Player One. I get that it makes sense for the references to center around the 80’s per the story’s main premise but that doesn’t excuse or explain this obvious vacuum. No new movies, music, games, etc that have influenced people in anyway. Despite the events in RPO taking place in 2044 there’s nothing of cultural relevance to the story in the past 40 years of the universe.

It’s painfully obvious how the nerd/geek pop-culture references come to a complete halt correlating to when the novel was written. It’s filled with all kinds references, the easy and the obscure, from the 1980’s alongside plenty from the decade and a half that follows. RPO is constantly referred to as an 80’s love letter. The game’s creator grew up in the 1980’s and, for inexplicable reasons, is just obsessed with all things of the era. The treasure, an easter egg left behind by the games wealthy and deceased creator, is his vast wealth and ownership de facto ownership of OASIS.

Ready Player One follows the story of Wade Watts, your average highschool student who becomes involved in a treasure hunt centered around a massive online video game/life simulation called the OASIS. Ready Player One is to Uptown Funk as The Great Gatsby is to Hey Jude. Yet, it is a highly entertaining work through most of it. It’s not a ground breaking book, it won’t leave you walking around in a daze, and it probably (hopefully) won’t be remembered as a classic. If you haven’t read Ready Player One, I suggest you do so. Though I couldn’t fault you for skipping Armada all together. While neither book really has any crazy breathtaking revelations I suggest folks looking to read either from a clean slate return to this review later.

Warning! This review contains minor Ready Player One spoilers and major Armada spoilers. While I primarily want to talk about Armada is this review, it helps to review Ready Player One as it makes for a good comparison point. I worry that Armada will be received the same way. Ready Player One ( RPO) is such a well received work that more often than not the true nature of the piece gets lost behind the glare of blind appreciation. I’ve never been one to write lengthy book reviews but this is a special situation. Ernest Cline is repeating himself, this time with with his new novel, Armada.

Armada by Ernest Cline