Reviews As a geek, a mother of 2 Gen-xers, and Trivia buff, Ready Player One was a rollicking good read. For me, it was as good as Hunger Games but with more fun factor. And gosh, I remember far too many of those games, systems, and 80's entertainment references than is probably healthy for one person. Nice tight little plot, believable geeks and online culture, requisite Big Bad...even 'The DeLorean' for good measure. I'm going to have to go back and re-read it slower this time to catch more references.
eady Player One by Ernest Cline is a story of Wade Watts, a teenager with the unfortunate problem of having grown up in the year 2045, a dystopian future where conditions in the United States have deteriorated to the point where most of its society seeks escapism in the form of the online world of The Oasis. Developed behind the masterful mind of the now deceased, James Halladay (an amalgamation of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs), The Oasis is what World of Warcraft and Second Skin could be is they had one billion users, decades of development, zero bugs, and completely immersible haptic feedback to the point where it becomes difficult to differentiate reality from virtual reality. Halladay, having grown up in the 80's, has decided to will his fortunate (in the hundreds of billions), to one lucky individual who can solve his contest and discover the ultimate easter egg hidden somewhere in his game. Wade has spent his life determined to be that winner. But with millions of other contestants, and billions of dollars at stake, he soon finds out that many contestants will stop at nothing to see that the top prize goes to them. If the title alone isn't enough, it will only take the first chapter for the reader to discover that this book is loaded with 80's pop culture references. Literally hundreds throughout the book on almost every page you turn. Having grown up in the 80s on Nintendo, comic books, and tv, this book was a huge nostalgia-fest for me. I can remember spending hours trying to get past the grue in Zork I and feeding quarter after quarter into the 1982 game "Joust." Seeing those elements incorporated directly into the story brought back a lot of fond memories, and unfortunately, I'm not sure if all of those references will be caught or appreciated by anyone under the age of 30. Additionally, the plot of this story is so entrenched in geekness, that I think it may be difficult for a "non-geek" to be entertained by it. There is some traditional action, but the overwhelming majority of events take place inside The Oasis. Someone who has never played an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) before might have trouble understanding the seriousness of spending hours trying to obtain an item that only exists in a virtual world, or how online currency can translate to the "real world." I've spent 10 straight hours camping a single spawn in Everquest before, so it's easy for me to understand the concept of extremism as it relates to gaming, but Cline takes this to an entirely new level when he puts billions of dollars at stake. Even though Cline's book is targeted toward a niche market, it is done so exceptionally well. Anyone who has spent time in a virtual world, especially one that provides a Player vs Player environment, should have an appreciation for Wade's quest. Wade Watts is what our society would currently call an "extreme gamer," only in "Ready Player One," the game is life itself, and the outside world has become so bleak and hopeless that winning this game is sometimes the only hope.