Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

It's the year 2044, and nobody can stop talking about the 1980s. Fossil fuels have run dry and the population has exploded. Reality is a depressing ordeal for almost everyone, and so they have all turned to a virtual one. The OASIS is the largest virtual reality role playing game in existence, and most of society is plugged in almost 24/7. You can attend school, go shopping, play games, and more all from the convenience of a pair of gloves and virtual reality glasses. 

Eccentric billionaire James Halliday created this haven, and later revealed he had planted and Easter egg in the game for a special player to find and win all of Halliday's fortune. As soon as Halliday dies, the hunt began, and five years later nobody has gotten any closer to finding the first key. Halliday was obsessed with the 1980s, so the entire population has become obsessed to, hoping to find any clue to get them closer to the 240 billion dollars. Wade Watts is one of the obsessed "gunters" (egg hunters), and he's also the first one to make any progress in the game. As soon as he does, the whole world gets thrown on its head and the race to the egg really takes off.

This was and incredibly fun read! I loved reading about the game, and it was written in a way that you feel as if you're playing along with them. A big portion of the book is trying to solve a very elaborate puzzle, which is interesting and keeps you reading the book. It was one of those that is tough to put down, because you just want to know what's going to happen. It was also a fairly easy read, so the almost 400 pages went very quickly.

Wade grew up without his parents, and in a household that didn't really care much for him. He's socially awkward and a little on the heavy side. The OASIS provided a place for him to be anyone he wants. He can make his avatar more handsome, and it's easier to talk to people through a computer than face to face. Understandably, his whole life in consumed by the OASIS, and he spends every waking hour trying to solve the mystery and continue the game. While the nostalgia for the '80s is fun to read about, the fact that this one decade has taken over all of society is a pretty depressing concept. Nothing new seems to be happening. Everybody watches old movies, and plays old games, and listens to old music. Is anybody even making movies anymore? Is anybody trying to improve this dire world they live in? Or have they all just given up, and chosen to look to the past, and live only in the virtual present.

Ready Player One is a quintessential "nerdy" read. I give it 4.5 out of 5 chaos emeralds.

Find this book in the adult fiction section at the library!