Ready Player One: A Novel (Ready Player One, #1)

by Ernest Cline

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

“Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly

A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. 

Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club

“Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost

“An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN

“A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe

“Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR

“[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

• ISBN10: 0307887448
• ISBN13: 9780307887443
• Publish Date: 5 June 2012 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780307887443

Reviews

[alisoninbookland]

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Enjoyable enough story. Definitely glad I listened rather than read it.

Wade was bit too Gary Stu-ish for my taste.

The 80's details got to be overwhelming and a bit obnoxious. I don't need every single tiny detail about everything.

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!

I didn't really know what to expect when I plunged into this 80's themed hell of a ride. Ernest Cline managed to come up with a book that's both refreshingly unique and full of nostalgia.
His vision of the OASIS is fascinating but also a little disconcerting as it seems really plausible.
While I am too young to have experienced the 80's I have a fondness for films like E.T. or Back to the Future. Shows like Stranger Things that bring back that vibe are right down my alley, so this book hit the perfect spot for me.
The Easter Eggs/riddles Cline came up with are smart and interesting. I learned a great deal about 80's pop culture while reading this book! The hunt was fascinating and was rooting for our hero so hard. I couldn't put the book because I wanted to know badly whether he would win or not.
Being a bit of a geek myself, you can tell how much fondness Cline has for this area and how much fun he had creating his nerd-utopia. Maybe that's why I enjoyed his novel so much!

[gmcgregor]

When I was in college, nostalgia wasn't about the 90s. They were too recent. It was all about the 80s. So many 80s parties. I'll be honest: with a few notable exceptions, the pop culture of the 80s generally doesn't move me. That was not a good omen for my enjoyment of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One. In the near future, there has been widespread economic and ecological damage done to the world. Luckily, there's the OASIS, an immersive virtual reality where people can escape and exist through avatars. OASIS was created by a Steve Jobs-esque reclusive genius called James Halliday, who created a sensation when he died a few years before the novel begins by bequeathing his enormous fortune to whoever first can get to the "Easter Egg" he left behind...with clues rooted in the (you guessed it) 80s pop culture he loved.

Teenager Wade Watts (avatar: Parzival) has a comic book-worthy origin story: after the deaths of both of his parents when he was young, he went to live with an aunt in what are called the "stacks"...mobile homes outside of major cities literally stacked on top of each other. When he's not attending school via OASIS, he's doing what lots of people are doing: being an Easter Egg hunter, or "gunter" for short. When his obsessive devotion to Halliday's favorite video games, music, and movies pays off and he becomes the first person to discover one of three keys that will lead to the final prize, he's locked into a race for the finish. Parzival, his crush Art3mis, his best friend Aech and a team of two Japanese gamers are all competing...and also trying to ensure that an evil corporate conglomerate doesn't snag the prize, and control of OASIS, first.

If you really enjoy 80s pop culture, you'll love this. The idea of a world where our favorite trivia is literally the key to fame and fortune is delightful, and Cline's joy in writing it shines through. The plot moves along quickly, and it's not hard to see why this got made into a movie: it hits all the beats you'd expect it to, so it plays in your mind as you read. There's an emotional satisfaction to knowing the general track of things while waiting to see what little detours the specifics are going to take you on, and some sequences (like the climactic battle) are genuinely thrilling.

As a whole, though, the book fell terribly flat for me. As a non-80s devotee, it often felt like just constant lists of references to things that held absolutely no charm or emotional resonance. The storytelling was extremely basic, and the character development even more so. The issues the book is patting itself on the back for highlighting: that people might not be who they pretend to be for reasons both good and bad, that beauty comes from within, that it's your connection with a person that matters and not what they look like, are dealt with in a shallow, facile fashion that only emphasizes the simplicity of the narrative and the people who populate it. I've read a lot of books that didn't hook me, but few have been so boring as to be as difficult to read as this one. I do understand why it would appeal to people: it's a straightforward adventure story rooted in an era that many find nostalgically compelling. If that sounds fun to you, by all means, you'll likely enjoy this book like hundreds of thousands of people have. If not, though, this is one to avoid.

[lizarodz]

Review to come. This was awesome!!!

[brokentune]

This was interesting.

I'm not keen on arcade games and much of the 80s' obsession with them has passed me by. But, ... I do appreciate that Ernest Cline used them as a means to turn a nostalgic reference to them into a sci-fi story with a few good points about the possibilities and dangers of a society almost totally locked into a virtual reality.

There were parts of the book when I felt Cline was just listing references to games and music with little purpose to develop the plot. This did change at the end of the book, which I enjoyed immensely, but wasn't enough to make me love the book outright.

This was a fun read, but I'd prefer a re-visit of the film War Games the next time I'm in the mood for an 80s-themed geek-fest.

[clementine]

I will note that I am neither a gamer nor particularly into nerd culture. This undoubtedly influences my opinion on this book.

You know those people who use their extensive knowledge of pop culture as a substitute for a real personality? This is the literary equivalent of that. I'm not against a book whose primary function is spectacle over substance; sometimes you just want to be dazzled as a reader. It's like the cinema of attractions in book form. That's cool. It's just that this wasn't a spectacle that I particularly enjoyed.

First of all, the writing was clunky. Again, this book clearly isn't here to be a marvel of technical ability; the point isn't to immerse readers in beautiful prose but to entertain with a fast-paced story. But I want to be clear that the writing is far from spectacular. The dialogue was often stilted. The use of phrases like "L33t Hax0rz Warezhaus" was beyond cringey - that reads as dated in 2018; there's no way l33t sp34k will survive to 2045. I also got the idea that the author thought his readers were quite slow - surely nobody needs to be told that the abbreviation IOI is pronounced "eye-oh-eye". Sure, explanations of the more esoteric aspects of gaming culture are welcome - but I know how to read, you know? I'm an adult human. I can pronounce the letters of the alphabet.

But lack of incredible writing chops does not necessarily deter me from enjoying a book. A formulaic, predictable plot does, though. Watery social commentary that any half-sentient sixteen-year-old could come up with does. A novel that is packed full of pop culture references but completely lacking in any indication that the author has heard of a single woman in his life does. For the majority of the novel (barring a surprise reveal which I will get to in a moment), there is a singular female character who is not functionally differentiated from the male characters at all except for through some primitive stabs at feminist consciousness when she admits that she isn't taken seriously as a woman. (Oh really? Female gamers aren't taken seriously? That's some classified information!) Art3mis is afforded the wonderful plot of "Is she hot in real life and will she sleep with our protagonist?" She's a blatant male fantasy: chock full of all the requisite masculine nerd culture references but a curvy, pretty woman instead of a basement-dwelling man. Wonderful! Emailing Art3mis to warn of imminent danger, Wade charmingly adds "PS - I think you look even more beautiful in real life," because every intelligent, accomplished woman wants unsolicited, condescending affirmations about her appearance when she's being hunted down by an evil corporation.

As for the character of Aech, who turns out to be "a heavyset African American girl" - and a lesbian no less - I can't help but find the revelation of her true self underwhelming. The author almost gets at a sad truth when he writes that the OASIS "was the best thing that had ever happened to both women and people of color" because they could pretend to be white men in the world of VR. Of course, having to assimilate to the dominant culture to get ahead is not a good thing at all; it is a marker of our lack of progress. I want to give Cline the benefit of the doubt and say that he realizes this, that his future has purposefully stunted social progress. Maybe this is so. But then it's so easy for him to have Wade decide that race, gender, and sexuality don't matter at all when one is in the company of a true friend. This colourblind attitude is bizarre and at odds with what could otherwise be incisive social critique about the homogenizing dominance of white supremacist patriarchy. In the end, Cline can't get credit for one of his characters being a fat Black lesbian if she's presented as a white man for literally 85% of the novel, and when little regard is paid to the differences in her life experience as compared to our white male protagonist.

Ready Player One depicts a bleak future, but it doesn't draw any attention to one of its most disturbing elements: the lack of female influence on the cultural, social, and political landscape. This book is a celebration of a male-dominated nerd canon disguised as an adventure novel slash social critique. If you're into the male-dominated nerd canon, you might enjoy its spectacle. Clearly, I did not.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Idk. I have such mixed feelings about this book. I’d say 3.5 stars. It’s also Dystopian and Utopian at the same time based upon, respectively, the real world and the virtual reality world where you can be whoever you want, OASIS.

Story and characters were fascinating, but the writing could have been so much better; some of it was just painful/ cringe worthy. But besides that, it was pretty darn great.

Any Anime or Manga fans out there that were reminded of Sword Art Online? It did for me, and I liked that a lot.

So yeah, average read IMO. It’s your choice to read or not!

[sstaley]

My 15 year old son and I have started listening to audio books together this past year. It's something fun we can do together. The last ones we listened to were the Reckoners Series: Steelheart, Firefight, and Calamity by Brandon Sanderson.

We both are so excited to see the movie Ready Player One, but in our family it's customary for us to read the book before seeing the movie, primarily because we all know that they will be so different from each other. One thing to say at the first, I wish I'd known before hand that there are some inappropriate sexual talk and swearing in this book. Some of it made it very uncomfortable to sit there and listen with my son, so we skipped a few tracks at times.

Now on to the great things: I loved listening to this book narrated by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. He does an amazing job reading this novel! I know some readers say they had a hard time getting into the first 100 pages, but this is not a problem when listening to the Audio version. Wheaton's reading is done in such a compelling way it's hard to stop listening. We dedicated a whole weekend to listening to Ready Player One and finished all 15 hours and 13 CD's.{Granted I was still getting things done correcting papers, cooking/baking, folding laundry, and writing blog posts while listening}

I loved the Geek 70 's & 80's culture that is the heart of this novel. This is when I grew up and I was laughing and loving so much of it when mentioned.{War Games was one of my favorite movies!} My son knew quite a bit of the references, but not as much as his mom. I also loved the world building and thought the main character was strong and likable. The second half of the novel was so exciting it was hard to just sit and listen without jumping around with excitement. Overall, this was a great read/listen and I'm glad that I finally was able to experience the adventure found in Ready Player One.

My 15 year old son said:
Epically awesome, but awkward listening to some scenes with my mom. My favorite part was when Parzival was in the final battle before getting into the third gate. I also liked when Parzival and Art3mis met in real life at the end.

[EBookObsessed]

DNF -

In this dystopian society where resources are scare, most people have learned to hide in a virtual reality world of the Oasis. Even is a dystopian society, consumerism runs strong. In the Oasis, you buy things for your avatar to make it more successful that you are. Your avatar can be more beautiful than you are, a different sex, it can even be a creature out of one of your favorite video games or movies. When the creator of the Oasis dies, his Last Will and Testament indicates that whoever finds his hidden Easter egg, wins all his money and control over the Oasis.

For seven years, no one has found anything until a 17 year old boy (our narrator) finds the first key.

I was four hours into the audiobook and I just couldn't anymore. I am sure I ended it too early, but it was just blah, blah, blah, list of everything 80's the fictional programmer of the Oasis loved about the 1980; books, movies music. Explaing how life deteriorated due to the energy crisis. Explaining how the Oasis came to be.

One of GSS's biggest competitors has hired people just to find this easter egg so that it would start charging for the Oasis (currently free). I could see how the company GSS, might also be working against our main character since someone is making money controlling the Estate for the last seven years.

There is a movie coming out shortly, and hopefully Spielberg does a better job grabbing the audience's interest because the world building in the novel was taking way too long.

As a child of the 80’s I thoroughly enjoyed all the 80’s references. It was predictable but nonetheless an original and fun read. I stayed up past my bedtime reading the last 100 pages.