Sci Fi Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline

Description:
It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty, and disease are widespread. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where 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 twentieth 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, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.


My review:
Fantastic book! Kind of a high tech Willy Wonka.

For me, the 80s pop culture and video game stuff was fun and interesting. It was funny how all these gunters (egg hunters) basically had to learn and master everything Halliday liked, no matter how obscure, all for a chance to find the unfindable easter egg in the Oasis.

I also liked that this wasn't just Wade against the world. He finds allies of a sort, and that not only adds some more interesting characters, but also makes him more likeable. The story does slow down in the middle as Wade gets stumped and then distracted from the hunt, but when it picks back up again, it just doesn't stop.

Particularly interesting is the description of the technology and the cleverly interspersed glimpses of the real world it was created to hide.

Overall, I loved this story. I'd strongly recommend this to people who enjoy 80s culture, video games, sci fi and dystopians. 

I bought this book for my son and borrowed it from him to read after he'd finished with it.


About the author:

ERNEST CLINE is a novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. His first novel, Ready Player One, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, appeared on numerous “best of the year” lists, and is set to be adapted into a motion picture by Warner Bros. and director Steven Spielberg. His second novel, ARMADA, debuted at #4 on the NYT Bestseller list and is being made into a film by Universal Pictures. Ernie lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-traveling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic video games.

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