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Ready Player One

Book 1 in the series:Ready Player One

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Ready Player One is a futuristic novel set in 2044 where humanity escapes the grim reality by immersing themselves in the virtual universe of OASIS. The story follows Wade Watts, a poor kid from Oklahoma, as he embarks on a quest to solve a series of challenges and riddles within the game to inherit the fortune left by the creator of OASIS. Filled with 1980s pop culture references, gaming elements, and a fast-paced plot, the book explores themes of nostalgia, virtual reality, and the value of human connections in a technology-driven world.

The writing style of Ready Player One is described as engaging, enjoyable, and straightforward. The author, Ernest Cline, is praised for his ability to create a conceivable future world without overly complicating the technology involved. The book is noted for its nostalgic tone, well-developed characters, and its cinematic quality that makes it a page-turner for readers of all backgrounds.

Characters:

The characters are relatable and well-drawn, particularly Wade, who grows throughout the story, while supporting characters add depth and complexity to the narrative.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is engaging and accessible, melding straightforward prose with nostalgic 1980s pop culture references, enhancing reader immersion.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot revolves around Wade Watts as he navigates a dystopian future to find an Easter Egg in the virtual world of OASIS, igniting competition among gunters and a greedy corporation.

Setting:

Set in a dystopian future where humanity lives in poverty, the story explores the vast virtual reality of OASIS, highlighting the stark contrast between real and virtual life.

Pacing:

Pacing is a mix of slower world-building at the start, evolving into rapid action and tension that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
Gunfire wasn’t uncommon in the stacks, but it still shook me up. I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, so I decided to kill the remaining hours until dawn by brushing up on a few coi...

Notes:

Ready Player One is set in a near-apocalyptic future where most people escape into a virtual reality called OASIS.
James Halliday, the creator of OASIS, dies and leaves his entire fortune to the first person who finds the Easter Egg he hidden within the game.
The search for the Egg requires knowledge of 1980s pop culture, including video games, movies, and music.
Wade Watts, the protagonist, becomes the first person to find the first key in the five years since Halliday's death.
The novel references many classic 80s pop culture artifacts, including characters from films and games like WarGames and Monty Python's Holy Grail.
Wade competes with a rival corporation, IOI, which seeks control over OASIS for commercial gain and will stop at nothing to find the Egg.
The story blends themes of friendship, love, and the dangers of living in a virtual reality.
The book has been praised for its engaging plot and nostalgic references, appealing to both gamers and those who grew up in the 80s.
Wil Wheaton narrates the audiobook, adding to its popularity among fans of the genre.

Has Romance?

There is a medium level of romance between Wade and Art3mis that evolves throughout the story.

From The Publisher:

It's the year 2044 and the real world has become an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia when you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late 20th century.

And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.

Suddenly he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, as chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed ...

'When I read Ready Player One, it was like the most amazing flash forward and flash back at the same time, to a decade I was very involved in, the 1980s, and to a future that's out there awaiting all of us, whether we like it or not.' Steven Spielberg

'Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.' USA Today

'Fresh and imaginative.' Entertainment Weekly

'Ridiculously fun.' NPR

'A geek fantasia.' Austin American-Statesman

'Part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance and all heart.' CNN

Ratings (667)

Incredible (133)
Loved It (253)
Liked It (162)
It Was OK (57)
Did Not Like (45)
Hated It (17)

Reader Stats (972):

Read It (683)
Currently Reading (2)
Want To Read (137)
Did Not Finish (16)
Not Interested (134)

29 comment(s)

Loved It
1 day

A fun book, but not necessarily a great one.

 
Loved It
5 days

I’m gonna say that I loved this book. As someone just getting back into reading in my late 40's, I’m thankful to find something that kept me engaged and caring about how the story would play out. What it did extremely well was have me anxious to read each page finding out what would happen next. I couldn't wait to resume reading it, so much so that I read it over 4 or 5 sittings in 7 days. I also never started to doze off as I do with 99.9% of books. I also found myself smiling and laughing as I read the final pages. To me, these are the signs of a good book, and if nothing else, a win for me as a new reader.

 
Loved It
1 week

Exciting book and story once you get sucked into it, but the writing is very simple with not many mind-expanding passages.

 
2 weeks

( watched

the movie 24 April 18 )

 
Incredible
2 weeks

It Is Done.

 
Incredible
1 month

I honestly loved this.

Sure, as a child of the 80s, the pop culture references hit me where I live. I'm also a gamer, so yeah, I'm sure I fit squarely into the perfect audience for this book.

But above and beyond all that, I just loved it. It was sad, and thrilling, and hopeful, and so many other things. It was also a bit frightening... this picture of the future, I feel like we're a teeny half-step away from that. I could see this being our world. I could see it happening within my lifetime.

It's a book I won't soon forget.

 
Did Not Like
1 month

Born too late to enjoy all the 80s references

Born too early to enjoy the teenage angst and the MMO-style of the book

Born just in time to be confused who this book actually is for...

 
Hated It
2 months

Ah, the cultural cesspool of the 80s. The decade that produced enough good movies to count on the fingers of one hand with digits left to spare; when human hair grew in prominence and volume; when we sat indoors and played video games with fewer pixels and dimensions than the most primitive imagination.

I'm amazed that after so many pages of intense circle-jerking Ernest Cline could actually summon the strength to finish writing this book.

Silly and shallow. Includes Über Godzilla.

 
It Was OK
2 months

My first thought on reading this book was, "this is a dumbed-down version of

Snow Crash." And while I still think that, I also think

Ready Player One is its own fun adventure ride, a page-turner with lots of great elements.

If you loved the eighties or grew up playing video games, this one is for you. In the near future, we have (of course) destroyed our world and allowed our government to become a corporatocracy. Most people escape this living hell by logging into the OASIS, an MMORPG that has morphed beyond a game and into a way of life. People earn a living there, go to school there, and have meaningful relationships there. And more than anything, they search for the Easter Egg left behind by the deceased co-creator of OASIS, James Halliday. Easter Egg hunters, or gunters, devour all available information about James Halliday's life in order to follow the first clue he left behind in his will. Whoever finds the egg inherits a controlling interest in GSS, the company that owns the OASIS, as well as 240 billion dollars.

Wade Watts, or Parzival as he is known online, is our hero, and also the first person to solve Halliday's first clue, setting off a chain of events that explodes the gunter world into frantic searching and infighting. Along the way he makes friends, learns lessons, alienates loved ones, and shaves off all his body hair (weird). The book is strongest in its adventure elements; I couldn't wait to see what the next twist would be, and who would leapfrog into first place on the Scoreboard. While Cline isn't half the writer Stephenson is, he still excels at writing a fun book.

 
Liked It
3 months

The criticisms of Ready Player One are definitely accurate, and I think the amount that it affects your reading experience depends on the following: how much you like video games and race-against-time adventure plot lines, how well you’d endure detailed descriptions of specific 80s media to the point of glorifying the era as the “good old days”, and whether you can tolerate first-person narrative from a teen boy main character who’s kind of a loser (who becomes a really big loser after he meets and then loses contact with Artemis, his dream girl who he starts to harass with messages every day on every platform—no, that is not an exaggeration).


That being said, even as a female reader - I liked the book! I don’t think I’d read it again, but as a video game enjoyer I’ve always loved the premise of racing to beat the bad guys through a virtual world. Being a 90s baby as well, I also wasn’t put off by the nerding out over the 1980s, as it felt like the author just celebrating his favorite personal interest and it was a fun way for me to explore an era I haven’t lived through. The exploration of the entire world’s population spending 90% of their waking time in a metaverse-type world like the OASIS was also very compelling as a sci-fi concept that may not be far off in our future. Maybe it’s in part because I’ve played several design-your-avatar MMORPGs as a kid, but the main characters’ journey through the OASIS was just really fun to tag along for!

 
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About the Author:

Ernest Cline is a bestselling novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. He is the author of the novels Ready Player One and Armada and co-screenwriter of the blockbuster film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. His books have been published in over fifty countries and have spent more than 150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-travelling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic video games.

 
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