Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline
The day
James Halliday died a video was released to the world media and to every Oasis
user. James Halliday had created the OASIS, the globally networked virtual
reality that had begun as a massively multiplayer online game. He was worth two
hundred forty billion dollars and this video was his last will and testament.
Whoever found Halliday’s Easter egg hidden within the OASIS would get not only
his fortune but his controlling stake in the company. Wade will never forget
where he was when he first heard the video. He became one of the many people
known as “gunters” obsessed with finding the three keys that would lead you to
the prize. But it wasn’t just the other gunters Wade was worried about. The
Innovative Online Industries, IOI, was hunting for the keys too. They planned
on changing the OASIS making people pay a monthly fee and plastering
advertisements everywhere. It would change everything. But years passed and no
one had found a single key. Until Wade found the Copper Key.
I am
pleased. This was a high octane, fun read, full of suspense that had my
undivided attention. Halliday dies in 2041 and the situation is dire and many,
including Wade, have turned away from the real world and live in the OASIS.
Most people are destitute, broke and living on top of one another. And here is
the opportunity to amass a huge amount of wealth and power. And we’re off.
World development in this story was amazing. Keep in mind that Cline had to
create two different worlds: the real world of the 2040’s and the virtual
reality that is the OASIS. He did an amazing job with both. Cline was so
detailed and he had great references for all of the worlds found inside the
OASIS. My imagination took off while picturing the many places/planets/worlds
that Wade went to. Wade was well imagined and full of depth. He was
intelligent, full of a young man’s angst and bravado but fun and self-aware. I
was pleased with his character and that was true of all of Cline’s character. I
didn’t have to try and understand or decipher any of them because they all
jumped off the pages. If I was basing my opinion off of just character and
world development this would already be a hit.
Judging
a book is never that easy though. The plot has to be taken into consideration.
Luckily the premise behind this story and the mystery behind Halliday’s Easter
Egg made this story amazing. The intensity never wavered, especially once it
became obvious that people’s lives were in danger over this game and obtaining
the prize. It wasn’t at all predictable which I appreciated. There were plenty
of moments where I suspected that something may be happening and I wasn’t
right. Plenty of twist and turns to keep readers on their toes. I will say that
this book does reference a lot of old school video games. The amount of
knowledge Cline drops on these older systems and game is impressive. Having
some kind of background knowledge about massively multiplayer online games may
help when understanding some of the jargon early on. If you aren’t aware it
isn’t a deal breaker. You can get used to the terms pretty quickly.
I had
so much fun reading this book. I will admit that I shunned it for a while
thinking it may only be meant for hardcore gamers based on some of the reviews
I saw. I was wrong, very very wrong. This book was great. The humor was great.
The plot kept moving. The level of intensity never wavered and I really enjoyed
reading this book. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. Hat’s off to Cline for
something so fun and original. I am a fan.
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